Data Insights is a third of the GMAT Focus score and the section least like an Indian engineering or commerce degree. It is also the only section with an on-screen calculator. Two of its item types have answer mechanics you should meet before test day rather than during it.
Graphics interpretation. A chart, and one or two sentences with dropdown menus to complete so that the statement is accurate.
- Read the axes, the units and the legend before the sentence. As with all chart questions, most errors are label errors, not reading errors.
- Read the WHOLE sentence before opening the first dropdown: the second blank often constrains the first.
- Scatterplots ask about trend and correlation, not individual points. A single outlier is usually a distractor.
- If a trend line or a line of best fit is drawn, the question is about the line, not the dots.
Two-part analysis. A table with two columns and one answer to select in each — typically two related quantities, or a cause and an effect.
- The two columns are usually NOT independent. Solve the one that is more constrained first and it narrows the other.
- Read the column headers precisely. Swapping the two columns is the most common way to lose an item you had actually solved.
- Where the pair must satisfy an equation, test options in pairs rather than evaluating a single column.
- There is no partial credit. Both halves must be right, so a minute spent checking the pair together is well spent.
Use the calculator sparingly even though it is there. It is a simple on-screen one and it is slower than you expect. Estimation still eliminates faster; reach for it to confirm, not to explore.