How to Prepare for GMAT Focus Quant: Topics, Practice Questions and an 8-Week Plan

GMAT Quant used to mean geometry, Data Sufficiency and 31 questions. The GMAT Focus Edition, the only version of the GMAT since the earlier exam was retired on January 31, 2024, cut all three. Quantitative Reasoning is now 21 problem-solving questions in 45 minutes on arithmetic and algebra, with no calculator. GMAC's own pages now mostly call it simply the GMAT exam; the content is the same.

This guide is built from GMAC's material: the exam details overview, the Focus Edition launch announcement, the score scale announcement, GMAC's section score page and mba.com's note on what changed for test prep.

The Exam at a Glance

You choose the order of the three sections before you start. All Quant questions are multiple-choice Problem Solving: a question, answer choices, one correct answer. There is no essay any more.

At 45 minutes for 21 questions you have about 2 minutes 8 seconds per question. That sounds generous until a word problem takes four.

What Quant Tests Now

GMAC describes the section as measuring algebraic and arithmetic foundational knowledge and how it is applied to solve problems. Two things left: questions that require geometry, and Data Sufficiency, which moved to Data Insights. What remains:

Because there is no calculator, questions use numbers that work out by hand, and the fastest route is often to simplify before computing. Percents are the most common thread; if they feel shaky, understanding percentages intuitively rebuilds them from scratch.

Four Worked GMAT Practice Questions

Successive percent change. A price rises 20% and then falls 20%. Multiply the factors: 1.2 × 0.8 = 0.96, so the price ends 4% lower, not unchanged. Successive changes always multiply; they never add.

Work rates. Pipe A fills a tank in 6 hours and pipe B in 3 hours. Add rates, not times: A fills 1/6 of the tank per hour and B fills 1/3, together 1/6 + 2/6 = 1/2, so the tank is full in 2 hours.

Mixtures. How many liters of a 50% solution must be added to 10 liters of a 20% solution to get a 30% solution? Track the pure substance: 0.5x + 0.2 × 10 = 0.3(x + 10), so 0.5x + 2 = 0.3x + 3, 0.2x = 1 and x = 5 liters.

Number properties. If n is an integer, which must be even: n² + n, n² + 1 or 2n + 1? Factor the first: n² + n = n(n + 1), the product of two consecutive integers, one of which is always even. So n² + n is always even, while the other two are odd for some n. When a question says "must be," a single counterexample rules an option out; when it asks what "could be" true, a single example rules one in.

Word problems are where most GMAT math practice time goes, because the math is easy once the equation is right. How to solve math word problems has a step-by-step method for the setup.

How the GMAT Is Scored

Each section is scored from 60 to 90, and the three section scores count equally toward a Total Score from 205 to 805. Every total ends in 5, so a 655 is a Focus score and a 650 is from the old scale. GMAC says the section score depends on the number of questions answered, whether they are correct, and the difficulty of the questions answered. Scores are valid for five years.

Two practical consequences follow. Quant is exactly one third of your total, no more, so a strong Verbal or Data Insights score can carry a weaker Quant one. And since the number of questions answered counts, leaving questions unanswered at the end of the section costs you: guess on the last ones rather than run out of time.

Question Review and Edit

The Focus Edition lets you bookmark questions, review as many as you like while the section clock runs, and change up to three answers per section. Use it on purpose. Bookmark a question when you pick an answer but suspect a slip, not every question you feel unsure about. Save two or three minutes at the end of the section, go to the bookmarks, and change an answer only when you find an actual error, since the three edits are all you get.

Mental Math Without a Calculator

Without a calculator, speed comes from a few habits:

• Keep fractions as fractions. 3/8 of 64 is 64 ÷ 8 × 3 = 24, faster than any decimal.
• Cancel before you multiply. In (36 × 15) ÷ (45 × 4), cancel 36 with 4 and 15 with 45 to get 9 ÷ 3 = 3.
• Estimate when the choices are far apart. If the options are 12, 48 and 200, a rough product decides it.
• Know the common equivalents. 1/8 = 12.5%, 1/6 ≈ 16.7%, 3/8 = 37.5%, the squares to 20² and the powers of 2 to 2¹⁰.

Mental math tricks that actually work covers more of these.

Diagnose Before You Plan

Start with an official practice exam from GMAC, or at least one full Quant section in 45 minutes, without a calculator. Sort every miss two ways. By topic: arithmetic, algebra, word problems, statistics and probability. By cause: a concept you did not know, a slip, a misread question (often a "must be" read as "could be"), or time. Concepts need review; slips need the same problems done slower and checked; misreads need the habit of underlining what is asked; time losses need timed sets.

An 8-Week GMAT Quant Plan

Plan about an hour on most days, all of it by hand. Close every session with ten minutes of mixed questions from earlier weeks.

Weeks 1 and 2: number skills. Fractions, decimals and percents, successive percent changes, ratios and proportions, exponents and roots, divisibility, remainders, primes, odd and even.

Weeks 3 and 4: algebra. Simplifying and factoring, linear equations in one and two unknowns, quadratics, inequalities, absolute value, functions and composition, arithmetic, geometric and recursive sequences.

Weeks 5 and 6: word problems and data. Rates and average speed, work, mixtures, simple and compound interest, discount, markup and profit. Then mean, median, standard deviation as a measure of spread, overlapping sets, counting and probability.

Week 7: number properties with variables. Must-be-true and could-be-true questions on odd and even, positive and negative, and divisibility; mixed sets at increasing difficulty.

Week 8: timed rehearsal. A second official practice exam and several 45-minute Quant sections. Use bookmarks and the edits as you would on the day, then redo every miss a day later from a blank page.

Pacing on Test Day

At about 2 minutes 8 seconds a question, aim to be past question 10 at the 22-minute mark. A question that has taken three minutes without a clear path is a guess-and-bookmark: pick the most likely answer, flag it, move on. Keep the last two or three minutes for your bookmarks. Do not leave the final questions unanswered.

Where Math Zen Fits

Math Zen's GMAT Focus Quant path, described on the GMAT Quant exam page, has 32 subtopics on arithmetic, algebra, statistics and probability, and it leaves geometry out, as the exam does. It includes rate, work, mixture, interest and profit word problems, number properties, percents in context, sequences including recursive ones, and overlapping sets. Adaptive difficulty brings back what you miss. The arithmetic topic and the algebra topic are good places to start.

The app is solid fundamentals practice, not a GMAT simulator: its problems sit below the hardest adaptive GMAT questions, it has no Data Insights or Data Sufficiency practice, and it does not reproduce the GMAT's answer layout. Use it for daily practice and the official GMAC practice exams for timing and difficulty.

The Bottom Line

GMAT Focus Quant is 21 questions in 45 minutes on arithmetic, algebra and word problems, with no calculator and no geometry, and it counts for one third of a 205 to 805 total. Make numbers and fractions fast by hand, learn to turn every word problem into an equation, treat "must be" questions as a hunt for counterexamples, and finish with timed sections where you use the three edits on purpose. If you are still choosing a test, the GRE Quant guide covers the alternative many business schools also accept, which keeps geometry and gives you a calculator.