GMAT Quant Topics: What the Focus Edition Tests
GMAT Quant on the Focus Edition tests arithmetic, algebra, and the word problems built on them, and nothing else. Geometry was removed in the 2024 redesign, and Data Sufficiency now lives in the Data Insights section rather than in Quant. What remains is 21 Problem Solving questions in 45 minutes, scored 60 to 90 (mba.com, 2026). That short list is the entire syllabus, which makes a complete topic inventory both possible and worth pinning above your desk.
What topics does GMAT Quant cover?
GMAC builds the section on two content pillars, arithmetic and algebra, delivered through a single question format, Problem Solving, as described on the official exam structure page. Problem Solving is a standard multiple choice format: a question, five answer choices, one correct. There are no quantitative comparisons, no grid-ins, and no Data Sufficiency. The table below breaks the two pillars into the four working topic areas most study plans use, with the concepts to expect inside each.
| Topic area | Example concepts | How it tends to appear |
|---|---|---|
| Arithmetic and number properties | Factors, multiples, primes, divisibility and remainders, odd and even, fractions, decimals, exponents and roots, estimation | Both as direct computation and as the hidden engine inside almost every other question |
| Equations and inequalities | Linear and quadratic equations, systems of equations, inequalities, absolute value, functions, sequences, simplifying expressions | Pure algebra questions, plus the solving step of most word problems |
| Rates, ratios, and percents | Speed and distance, work rates, ratio and proportion, percent change, profit and discount, interest, mixtures | Word problems that describe a real situation and ask you to model it |
| Counting, probability, and statistics | Permutations and combinations, probability of single and combined events, averages and weighted averages, median and range, overlapping sets | Self-contained questions with their own small toolkit of rules |
Two notes on reading the table. First, the areas overlap constantly: a rate question may hinge on a ratio, which resolves through an equation, which simplifies through a number property. The exam rarely labels its questions for you. Second, word problems are not a separate body of knowledge. They are arithmetic and algebra wearing a story, and the testable skill is translation, turning three sentences of English into one clean equation.
Why is there no geometry on GMAT Quant?
Because GMAC removed it when the Focus Edition replaced the Classic exam in 2024 (mba.com, 2026). Triangles, circles, angle relationships, and coordinate geometry are no longer part of the Quant syllabus, and no substitute topic was added in their place. The redesign narrowed the section to the reasoning skills schools said they cared about, which in practice means numbers, variables, and applied problem solving.
The practical consequence is a materials audit. Any book or question bank published before 2024 devotes long chapters to content that can no longer earn you a point. Skip those chapters rather than working them for reassurance, and put the reclaimed hours into the four areas above. Our guide to the Focus Edition changes walks through the full audit, including what happened to the essay and Sentence Correction.
Where did Data Sufficiency go?
Data Sufficiency moved to Data Insights, the exam's third section, where it sits alongside charts, tables, and multi-source prompts (mba.com, 2026). Data Sufficiency is a question format that asks whether the information given is enough to answer a question, not what the answer is. It used to live inside Classic Quant, and many older syllabi still file it there, so the confusion is understandable.
For planning purposes, keep two things straight. The Quant section itself contains only Problem Solving, so a timed Quant set should contain no sufficiency questions at all. But the math underneath Data Sufficiency is the same arithmetic and algebra listed above, which means every hour spent on this topic inventory also feeds your Data Insights score. The format still demands its own tactics, and our two minute rule for Data Sufficiency covers the pacing side.
How should you prioritize the topic list?
Not by chasing frequency percentages. GMAC does not publish a topic-by-topic breakdown of the question pool, so any precise percentage you see attached to this list is someone's estimate from a limited sample. A sturdier approach is to prioritize by structure: which skills the other skills depend on.
- Arithmetic fluency first. Number properties, fractions, percents, and clean mental computation sit underneath everything else in the section. Weakness here taxes every single question, so it is the highest leverage repair regardless of what the mix on your test day turns out to be.
- Equations and inequalities second. Algebra is the machinery that finishes most problems. Being able to set up and solve linear and quadratic equations quickly, and to manipulate inequalities without sign errors, converts understanding into answers.
- Translation as a running habit. Word problems reward a repeatable routine: define variables, write the relationship, solve, check units. This is a skill you build through mixed practice over weeks, not a chapter you finish in a weekend.
- Counting, probability, and statistics as a defined block. These topics are relatively self-contained, with a small set of rules that can be learned late in a plan without destabilizing anything else. They are worth real attention, and statistics reasoning pays a second dividend in Data Insights, but they should not displace the foundations.
One more qualitative observation: the harder questions in this section are rarely hard because they use exotic content. They are hard because they stack simple ideas, a percent inside a ratio inside an inequality. Depth in the basics beats breadth in the obscure.
What do 21 questions in 45 minutes mean for practice?
The arithmetic of the section gives you a little over two minutes per question, and the format gives you a review tool: you can bookmark questions and change up to 3 answers before the section ends (mba.com, 2026). Together these argue for a specific practice style.
- Practice in mixed sets, not by chapter. The exam interleaves topics, so drilling twenty rate problems in a row trains recognition you will not get on test day. After learning a topic, fold it into shuffled sets.
- Rehearse full 45 minute blocks. Pacing errors are invisible in untimed study. At least some practice each week should be a complete 21 question section against the clock.
- Use the bookmark deliberately. Flag a doubtful answer, move on, and spend the final minutes on your marked questions. Deciding in advance which kinds of questions you will flag, for example any counting problem that stalls past the two minute mark, keeps the tool from becoming a source of churn.
The Focus Edition Quant syllabus is short, stable, and public: arithmetic, algebra, and the word problems that dress them up, delivered in 21 questions over 45 minutes. That is a finite list, and finite lists can be finished. Inventory your weak areas against the table above, fix them in dependency order, and let the topics the exam dropped stay dropped.