There are no GMAT "previous year papers" to practise from. The exam runs on demand all year, so there is no single paper everyone sat, and the current Focus Edition only replaced the old 10th Edition on 1 February 2024 — so anything older practises sections, such as Sentence Correction and the essay, that no longer exist. What you can practise is each kind of question in the three current sections. The eleven questions below are drawn from the Myndaq practice bank and are not reproductions of any official item. They are grouped by section with worked answers, alongside the Myndaq GMAT course.
The pattern you are practising for
- Three sections, 45 minutes each: Quantitative Reasoning, Verbal Reasoning and Data Insights — 64 questions in total.
- 2 hours 15 minutes, plus one optional 10-minute break. You choose the section order.
- Review and edit: at the end of each section you may review any question and change up to three answers, if time remains. Mark doubtful questions as you go.
- Scores: each section 60–90, weighted equally into a total of 205–805, with a percentile.
The question-type labels below are the Myndaq bank's. GMAC's own exam-content page describes each section's question types; it could not be re-read for this article, so check it for the official list.
Quantitative Reasoning
Question 1. For how many integer values of x does the inequality |x − 5| + |x + 2| ≤ 11 hold?
- A. 10
- B. 11
- C. 12
- D. 13
- E. 14
Answer: C, 12. Read |x − 5| + |x + 2| as the distance from x to 5 plus the distance from x to −2. Anywhere between −2 and 5 that sum is 7. Each step outside that interval adds 2, so the sum reaches 11 two steps beyond each end: x = −4 and x = 7. The integers from −4 to 7 inclusive number 12. The wrong options are the classic off-by-one errors.
Question 2. Two positive integers have a greatest common divisor of 12 and a least common multiple of 720. If one of the integers is 48, what is the other?
- A. 60
- B. 144
- C. 180
- D. 240
- E. 8,640
Answer: C, 180. For any two positive integers, GCD × LCM = the product of the numbers. So the product is 12 × 720 = 8,640, and the other number is 8,640 ÷ 48 = 180. Check: 180 = 12 × 15 and 48 = 12 × 4, and 4 and 15 share no factor, so the GCD is 12 and the LCM is 12 × 4 × 15 = 720. E is the product itself — a trap for anyone who stops one step early.
Question 3. A tank can be filled by an inlet pipe in 5 hours; a second inlet pipe can fill it in 20 hours. Both are opened together, but after 2 hours the second is closed and only the first continues. How many hours in total does it take to fill the tank from empty?
- A. 2.5
- B. 3.5
- C. 4
- D. 4.5
- E. 5
Answer: B, 3.5. Together the pipes fill 1/5 + 1/20 = 1/4 of the tank per hour, so in 2 hours they fill half. The first pipe alone fills the other half at 1/5 per hour, in 2.5 hours. Total 2 + 2.5 = 3.5. C is the time if both ran throughout; D fills the second half at the combined rate.
Verbal Reasoning: Critical Reasoning
Passage. The director of a public library reports that after the library extended its weekday hours until 9 p.m., the total number of visitors per week rose by 15 percent. She concludes that the extended evening hours are attracting people who were previously unable to visit during the day, and she recommends extending weekend hours as well to attract even more new visitors.
Question 4. The director's conclusion depends on assuming which of the following?
- A. Weekend visitors would behave the same way as weekday visitors.
- B. The cost of staffing evening hours is offset by increased visits.
- C. The library's collection is large enough to serve additional visitors.
- D. The new evening visitors did not simply shift their visits from daytime to evening hours.
- E. Most towns of similar size keep their libraries open in the evening.
Answer: D. The conclusion is about new people — those previously unable to come. If existing patrons merely moved their visits to the evening, the rise would not show new visitors at all. Test it by negation: if the evening visitors did simply shift from daytime, the conclusion collapses — the mark of a necessary assumption. A concerns the recommendation, not the conclusion; B and C are about cost and capacity; E is irrelevant.
Passage. The city of Meridian recently installed dedicated bicycle lanes on Harbor Avenue, its busiest commercial corridor. In the six months following installation, the total number of traffic accidents on Harbor Avenue fell by 22 percent compared with the same six-month period a year earlier. The transportation commissioner concluded that the new bicycle lanes had made Harbor Avenue safer for all road users and announced plans to install similar lanes on twelve other major streets. Critics of the plan note that the bicycle lanes reduced the number of vehicle travel lanes from three to two in each direction, and that many drivers have complained about increased congestion since the change. The commissioner responded that congestion complaints are not a measure of safety and that the accident statistics speak for themselves.
Question 5. Which of the following, if true, most weakens the commissioner's conclusion that the bicycle lanes made Harbor Avenue safer?
- A. Cyclists surveyed after the installation reported feeling considerably safer on Harbor Avenue.
- B. Several business owners reported that the lanes reduced on-street parking for customers.
- C. In the six months after installation, overall vehicle traffic on Harbor Avenue fell by 35 percent because a nearby highway ramp reopened, diverting most through traffic.
- D. Accidents on Harbor Avenue had already been declining slowly for several years before the lanes were installed.
- E. The twelve streets selected for future lanes carry more daily traffic, on average, than Harbor Avenue.
Answer: C. The argument credits the lanes for a 22% fall in accidents. C offers a different cause for the same fall — a 35% drop in traffic at the same time. D is the tempting runner-up, but a slow earlier decline does not explain a sharp 22% drop. A tends to support the conclusion; B and E are off the point.
Verbal Reasoning: Reading Comprehension
Passage. The waggle dance of the honeybee is one of the most studied forms of animal communication. When a foraging bee returns to the hive after finding a rich source of nectar, it performs a series of movements on the vertical surface of the comb. The dance traces a figure-eight pattern, and the straight run through the center conveys two kinds of information. The angle of this run relative to vertical indicates the direction of the food source in relation to the sun. The duration of the run signals distance: the longer the bee waggles, the farther away the source lies. Remarkably, other bees crowd around the dancer in the darkness of the hive, sensing these movements through touch and vibration rather than sight. Researchers have documented that recruits who attend the dance then fly out and locate the source with considerable accuracy. This system allows a colony to allocate its foragers efficiently, directing effort toward the most rewarding sites without any individual bee needing to survey the entire landscape.
Question 6. The passage indicates that the direction of a food source is communicated by which feature of the dance?
- A. The angle of the straight run relative to vertical
- B. The duration of the straight run
- C. The brightness of the surface of the comb
- D. The number of figure-eight patterns performed
- E. The vibrations sensed by nearby bees
Answer: A. Stated directly. B is the trap: duration is in the next sentence, and it signals distance.
Question 7. It can be inferred that bees attending a dance rely on senses other than sight because
- A. the recruits are positioned behind the dancer
- B. vision is not developed in worker bees
- C. the dancing bee moves too quickly to be observed
- D. the food source is too far away to be seen
- E. the interior of the hive is dark
Answer: E. "In the darkness of the hive ... through touch and vibration rather than sight." The inference is one step from the text. B goes beyond it — the passage says nothing about bee eyesight in general.
Data Insights
Question 8 — Data Sufficiency. What is the value of the integer n? (1) n is a prime number between 20 and 30. (2) n is odd.
- A. Statement (1) alone is sufficient, but statement (2) alone is not.
- B. Statement (2) alone is sufficient, but statement (1) alone is not.
- C. Both statements together are sufficient, but neither alone is.
- D. Each statement alone is sufficient.
- E. Statements (1) and (2) together are not sufficient.
Answer: E. The primes between 20 and 30 are 23 and 29 — two values, so (1) is not enough. (2) allows infinitely many. Together, both 23 and 29 are odd, so two values remain. Method: Data Sufficiency asks whether you could find one value, not what it is; the moment two values survive, stop.
Question 9 — table analysis. Quarterly units shipped (thousands) by two suppliers:
- Supplier X: Q1 40, Q2 60, Q3 50, Q4 30
- Supplier Y: Q1 30, Q2 40, Q3 30, Q4 30
Judge each statement true or false. (1) In every quarter Supplier X shipped at least as many units as Supplier Y. (2) Supplier Y's largest single-quarter total was in Q2. (3) Combined Q1 shipments equalled combined Q4 shipments plus 10 thousand units.
Answer: true, true, true. (1) 40 ≥ 30, 60 ≥ 40, 50 ≥ 30, 30 ≥ 30 — "at least as many" includes the tie in Q4. (2) Y's quarters are 30, 40, 30, 30. (3) Q1 = 70, Q4 = 60, and 60 + 10 = 70. The Q4 tie is the detail designed to catch anyone who reads "at least" as "more than".
Question 10 — multi-source reasoning. Source 1 gives the Q2 market share of four smartphone brands, with Brand P at 25%. Source 2 gives the total market size for Q2 as 60 million units. How many million units did Brand P sell in Q2?
- A. 12
- B. 15
- C. 18
- D. 24
Answer: B, 15. 25% of 60 million. The skill tested is noticing that neither source answers alone — one has the share, the other the total.
Question 11 — two-part analysis. A regional planner argues that expanding a city's light-rail network will reduce downtown traffic congestion. From the list, select one statement that functions as an argument for the expansion and one that functions as an argument against it.
- A. In comparable cities, each new rail line was followed by a measurable drop in car trips into the central district.
- B. Construction of the new lines would close major downtown streets for several years, worsening congestion during that period.
- C. The current rail network was first built several decades ago.
- D. The expansion would be financed partly by a bond that must be repaid over 20 years.
- E. Light-rail cars are painted in the city's official colours.
- F. Downtown parking rates have remained unchanged for five years.
Answer: for — A; against — B. Both speak directly to congestion, the planner's actual claim. D is the tempting distractor for "against", but cost is not congestion; the question is about the argument made, not about whether the project is a good idea.
How to use practice like this
The Focus Edition gives you 45 minutes per section, so pace sits between about 2 and 2.5 minutes a question — and the three-edit review at the end is only worth anything if you marked questions as you went. Practise each type until the method is automatic, then practise full sections under time. For the full format and scoring, see the GMAT format guide; for fees and retake rules, see GMAT fees and registration.
Quick answers
Are there GMAT previous year papers?
No. The exam runs on demand, not as a single dated paper, and the current Focus Edition only began on 1 February 2024, so older material covers sections that no longer exist.
How many questions are on the GMAT?
64, across three 45-minute sections: Quantitative Reasoning, Verbal Reasoning and Data Insights.
Can I change answers on the GMAT?
At the end of each section you can review any question and change up to three answers, if time remains.
Is Sentence Correction still on the GMAT?
No. The Focus Edition dropped Sentence Correction and the essay; material that includes them describes the retired 10th Edition.
What is a good GMAT score?
GMAC does not set one. The total runs 205–805 with a percentile; compare against your target programmes' class profiles.
