Executive Assessment (EA) Overview

The exam takes 90 minutes with no breaks. There are three static 30-minute sections. The three sections, Integrated reasoning, Verbal reasoning, and Quantitative Reasoning sections always follow each other in that exact order. You cannot change the order of these sections.

Integrated Reasoning

You will have 12 questions to complete in 30 minutes. Your first half target will be 12 minutes with a 15 minutes maximum time allowed. This means you are going to spend 2-2.5 minutes on average per question. Remember, it is possible to miss up to two questions and still get a 10+ score on the Integrated Reasoning section. So if possible, look for opportunities to guess, but do so strategically.

If you don’t have a Multi-Source Reasoning set in any section, you are in, pace up and leave more time. The Multi-Source Reasoning set is like reading comprehension in integrated reasoning. It has two to three tabs of information, might have a table or a figure, and has three questions attached to it. It has a lot of information and will take some time. So if you have your  Multi-Source Reasoning set on the first half of your Integrated Reasoning section, be prepared to spend more time, closer to 15 minutes, on that first half. However, if you don’t see the  Multi-Source Reasoning set in the first half, your target will need to be closer to 12 minutes since you know you will need to spend more time on the second half because the  Multi-Source Reasoning set will be there.

The second half should take 15-18 minutes in total. Each question should take 2-3 minutes on average. Work through the full half completing your easier questions first. So if you see a question you are not ready to answer, just guess, skip, and return to it at the end.

Verbal Reasoning

This section comes up immediately without a break. It has 14 questions you must complete in 30 minutes. It is a little bit more fast-paced than the IR, but you will have roughly the same section targets.

For the first half, the target is to spend 12 minutes, allowing a maximum of 15 minutes. You will be spending an average of  2-2.5 minutes on each question, but this depends on the type of question. Sentence corrections will likely take the least time for all the question types in this section.

It is possible to miss up to two questions and still be in the 10+ scale score for this section. Again, remember to leave more time for the second half of this section. Usually, there is reading comprehension in both halves of this section, but that doesn’t always have to be the case. So if there is no reading comprehension passage in the first half, leave more time for the second half because there most definitely will be one there. Generally, if there is no reading comprehension passage on any half of the section, recognize that you will need to go pretty fast through that section.

You will have 15-18 minutes in total for the second half. You will have roughly 2-3 minutes on average for each question. If you happen to be behind pace, seek longer critical reasoning questions to sacrifice. Critical reasoning questions are longer questions, usually, arguments or there may be inferences to be made. But unlike reading comprehension questions, they usually affect only one question. So you cannot sacrifice reading comprehension, which usually has two, three, four, and on rare occasions even five questions, but you want to seek longer long critical reasoning questions that you can guess, skip and move forward to ensure that you finish your verbal reasoning section.

Quantitative Reasoning

Much like the verbal reasoning section, you have 30 minutes to complete 14 questions in this section.

For the first half, the target is to spend 12 minutes, allowing a maximum of 15 minutes. You will be spending an average of 2-2.5 minutes on each question. Similar to the first two sections, it is possible to miss up to two questions in this half and still get the 10+ scale score for this section, which is usually the target for most candidates. So if you get stuck on something, don’t spend more valuable time on it at the expense of other questions that you might be able to complete more easily.

Seek out opportunities for logical estimation and alternative tactics. This will allow you to save some time to spend on the harder questions of the second half.

You will have 15-18 minutes in total for the second half. You will have roughly 2-3 minutes on average for each question. Work through the full half completing “easier” questions first. “Easier” is a relative term, simply answer the questions you are better at first, then come back to the “harder” questions in the section.

Remember to always ask, “Am I making progress toward a solution?” If not, immediately move to the next question because otherwise, you are wasting time, which is a very important factor in this test. Do however allow a calm reread, recalculation, or a tactical reset before you guess and move on. Often, you may just have made a technical math error or misread something. So if you are confident in your approach and your solution is not in the answer choices, allow a single reread just to ensure you get all the questions you are confident about before you return to the harder questions.

Always consider logical estimation before completely guessing. Try to eliminate answer choices that you know to be wrong before guessing and moving on. On every question in the quantitative section, you should be able to eliminate at least a couple of options before you have to guess.