GMAT Arithmetic
Integers and their properties, factors and multiples, divisibility and remainders, percentages, ratios, exponents and roots. Without a calculator, the properties matter more than the computation — most questions are built to be reasoned rather than ground out.
Properties that answer questions on sight
- Odd and even — odd + odd = even; any number × even = even.
- Zero — even, neither positive nor negative, and the source of many trick answers.
- Fractions between 0 and 1 — squaring shrinks them, rooting grows them.
- Primes — 2 is the only even prime; 1 is not prime.
- Remainders — a number leaving remainder r on division by n can be written as nk + r, which turns most remainder questions into one line.
Percentages
| Phrase | Means |
|---|---|
| X percent of Y | (X/100) × Y |
| X is what percent of Y | (X/Y) × 100 |
| Percent increase | (new − old) / old × 100 |
| Successive changes | Multiply the factors, never add the percentages |
A 25% rise followed by a 20% fall is ×1.25×0.8 = 1, back where you started. The GMAT asks this shape often enough to be worth knowing as a fact.
Arithmetic — FAQs
2 questions
Knowing the primes below 50 saves time on factorisation questions.
Enough to handle clean two-digit work. Questions are built so that correct setups produce manageable numbers.
More quantitative question types
Sources
Written from the test board's own published material and checked on 1 October 2026.