Which GMAT section order should you choose on exam day?

As of July 2017, students were free to choose the order in which they took their GMAT examinations. Here are the three orders in which the questions will appear, which includes the previous order and two new possible orders: 

1: Analytical Writing, Integrated Reasoning, Quantitative, Verbal

2: Verbal, Quantitative, Integrated Reasoning, Analytical Writing 

3: Quantitative, Verbal, Integrated Reasoning, Analytical Writing 

You can now choose the section that they want to begin with first when you are proceeding with your GMAT preparation online. The choice you make will not be reflected on your score sheet, and prospective business companies will not get to know what section you chose first. You don’t need to choose a section first in order to impress the authorities. Instead, your choice should depend solely on what you are most confident with in the paper. 

How to decide which section to choose first in the GMAT paper

Again, this depends on the mindset you are undertaking the exam with. If you are not comfortable with quantitative analysis and want to get it out of the way right off the bat, then you can begin with it. But the downside of doing this is that you may find it challenging to move from question to question in the section, which will eat up your time and cause you to perform poorly even in the areas you know you can do well. 

You can start with the sections that are the easiest for you; that way, you’ll be doing two important things- securing a certain amount of marks in the paper as well as getting a good confidence boost in the process. The easy section can act as a warm-up session for the more difficult ones that are to come later. 

If you aren’t a native English speaker and find the verbal section challenging, you can choose the first or the third order which places the verbal section at a later position.

In all honesty, there is no unanimous consensus on this topic, except for the fact that the choice you make should depend on your weaknesses and strengths. Plus, it is also important for you to decide on the section order the day before the exams so that you can be completely prepared for what is to come and how you are going to tackle it. 

How does this affect your GMAT breaks? 

The optional breaks that you get in the middle of the exams depend upon the order of the exam you have chosen. Here is a table that may help you to locate your optional breaks according to the order you choose:

Will the changes be visible in the new GMAT preparation material? 

The prep material that has been published after 2017 has incorporated the changes and the order selection. For those who have already purchased earlier editions, a free software upgrade will be provided to them which will contain all the necessary changes. Using the new GMAT prep material will help you acclimatize yourself to the new changes that have been implemented.