GMAT Tips
Test tips from leading prep firms for applicants studying for the GMAT. If you know your strengths and weaknesses, browse by test section: AWA, Quant and Verbal.
GMAT Tip: The Top 5 Strategies for GMAT Critical Reasoning (Part 2)
Here is the second part of the Critical Reasoning tip from Manhattan Review UK, a provider of GMAT tutoring in London. In this post, they reveal Manhattan Review’s best 5 strategies how to tackle GMAT Critical Reasoning questions. If you have missed the first part of this post, you can find it here.
Let’s continue with our strategies for GMAT Critical Reasoning with the remaining two strategies and a comprehensive example:
4. Find the flaw in the assumption
In Weaken arguments the conclusions are not warranted because the assumptions are flawed. There are many examples of flawed assumptions. Here are just a few of them: Continue reading…
GMAT Tip: The Top 5 Strategies for GMAT Critical Reasoning (Part 1)
Today’s GMAT tip comes from Manhattan Review UK, a provider of GMAT Prep courses in London. In this article, Manhattan Review reveals 5 strategies for successfully tackling GMAT Critical Reasoning questions. In fact, the tip has so much detail that we had to split it into two parts.
More than any other part of the GMAT, Critical Reasoning needs to be approached strategically. Each of the four Critical Reasoning question types—Assumption, Inference, Explanation/Paradox and Method of Reasoning—has its own corresponding strategy. Four question types—four strategies.
Let us deal first with Assumption questions, because they account for something like 70% of all of the Critical Reasoning questions. Moreover, something like 60% of the Assumption questions consist of so-called Weaken questions; that is, questions that require you to weaken/undermine/challenge the argument’s conclusion. Here are five tips on how to attack Weaken questions: Continue reading…
GMAT Tip: The Top 5 Strategies for GMAT Sentence Correction
Today’s GMAT tip comes from Professor Joern Meissner, PhD, founder and chairman of Manhattan Review GMAT Prep. In this article, he provides Manhattan Review’s five best strategies for GMAT Sentence Correction questions. Read on to see what he has to say!
Here are Manhattan Review’s five top strategies for attacking Sentence Correction questions:
- Don’t expect the right answer to read like a sentence crafted by Henry James or Gustave Flaubert. The best sentence is often the best of a bad bunch—it’s the one with the least number of egregious errors. Therefore, don’t be put off if the sentence you choose sounds awkward. If the worst thing about it is that it sounds like something your boss might dash off in an office memo, don’t worry.
- More than half of the Sentence Correction exercises will involve at least one Subject-Verb agreement issue. Therefore, always make sure you’ve got all of your ducks in a row and that all of the subjects are properly aligned with their verbs. Remember, a subject has to agree with a verb, as a matter of number and as a matter of logic.
- Make sure your pronouns are lined up properly with their antecedents. If the antecedent is plural, the pronoun replacing it must be plural. This is a particularly important issue in long, convoluted sentences in which it is easy to forget a pronoun’s antecedent.
- Get your comparatives sorted out. “As” goes with “as”; “more,” “less” and “fewer” go with “than.” Never combine the two. Sentences such as “The girls fared as well or better than the boys.” It has to be one or the other: “The girls fared as well as the boys.” Or “The girls fared better than the boys.”
- Make life easy for yourself and narrow your choices down as quickly as possible. Spot the critical issue and eliminate the answer choices that obviously come down on the wrong side of it.
Take a look at the following sentence from Manhattan Review’s course material as an example: Continue reading…
Exclusive GMAT Insights and Advice for MBA Hopefuls From Top GMAT Community Leaders
Each year thousands of individuals begin journeys that they hope will ultimately lead to an acceptance offer from top-tier business schools around the world, and for the majority of these applicants one of the first steps on the b-school path is studying for and taking the GMAT exam. With the 2012-2013 application season wrapping up, a whole new cohort of aspiring MBA students are beginning to get serious about their own school choices and application materials. Most schools won’t be releasing their updated application requirements until later in the summer, so one concrete element of their application that they can start working on now is properly preparing themselves for taking the exam. We sat down with the founders of the major online GMAT communities (Beat The GMAT and GMAT Club) as well as the Director of Academic Programs at leading GMAT test prep firm, Veritas Prep. These individuals have a combined wealth of experience to draw upon when providing helpful tips and insights to share with anyone contemplating an application to business school in 2013-14. In the article that follows, readers will have the opportunity to learn about common misconceptions many test takers have about the exam, successful approaches to creating a study schedule, specific tips that can help those who struggle with either the verbal or the quant sections, and valuable insights on how to approach retaking the test. We additionally have checked in with the official information provided by GMAC, the organization that creates and administers the GMAT exam.
Admissions Tip: Planning for the GMAT
For all you “early birds” who are planning to apply to business school this fall, we wanted to offer a few tips on managing your time as it relates to the GMAT exam. Because this is an important element for many applicants in determining at which schools they will be competitive, it’s best to prep intensively and get this out of the way early in the process.
You should ideally be finished with the GMAT by mid-summer. The reason for this is that you will want to reserve the months of August, September and October for essay writing, school visits, managing your recommenders and other miscellaneous application-related tasks. The last thing you want to be doing in September is juggling the demands of GMAT prep alongside your MBA applications, your responsibilities at work, your extracurricular involvements, etc. Continue reading…
GMAT Tips: But I Should Know How to Do This
Today’s GMAT tip comes from test prep firm ManhattanGMAT. In this article, they provide some tips on how to avoid getting stuck on problems when taking the GMAT. Read on to see what they have to say!
But I studied this – I should know how to do it!
When was the last time you thought that? For me, it was sometime within the past week. I knew that this problem was not beyond my reach! Meanwhile, the clock was ticking away and all I could focus on was the fact that I couldn’t remember something that I should have been able to remember.
That horrible, sinking feeling is universal: we’ve all felt it before and – unfortunately – we’re all going to feel it again. How can we deal with this?
Recognize the “But!” feeling
You almost certainly already know what this feels like, but here’s a longer list of the ways in which this manifests. When was the last time you thought any of these things?
- But I studied this…
- But I should know how to do this…
- If I just had a little more time, I’m sure I could figure it out…
- I’ve already invested so much time, I don’t want to give up now…
- I’ve been struggling with this for 2 minutes but I really did finally figure out now what I need to do; it’s just going to take me another 1.5 minutes…
Then, of course, I’m sitting there staring at the problem and stressing over it – which makes it even harder to think clearly. Continue reading…
GMAT Tips: My Timing Is Killing Me
Today’s GMAT tip comes from test prep firm ManhattanGMAT. In this article, they provide some tips on how to improve your time management when taking the GMAT. Read on to see what they have to say!
I’ve written a lot – and you’ve read a lot – about timing already, but I want to address something that I’ve been hearing lately from students… particularly those who have been studying for a while and are really struggling to make progress on practice tests.
My best timing was on my very first practice test
I’ve spoken with a few students lately who’ve told me that they felt more comfortable with the timing before they started studying all of this stuff. How is that possible?
Actually, it’s fairly common. Here’s what happens: on your first practice test (before or shortly after you started studying), you know what you don’t know and so it’s much easier to let go of the too-hard questions. Once you start studying, you’ll see something and think, “Oh, I studied that! I can get this one!” But it turns out that one is still too hard… only, this time, you won’t let go when you should. Do that a few times and the whole situation snowballs: you realize you’re behind on time, you start to panic and rush, that causes careless mistakes. Then you get stuck on another because you feel like you’re getting a bunch wrong so you don’t want to get this one wrong too… now you’re wasting even more time, and then the section ends with a bunch of guesses or even blank questions. Continue reading…
GMAT Tips: Fundamentals of GMAT Sentence Correction
Today’s GMAT Tip comes to us from Kaplan. In this article, Kaplan GMAT instructor Bret Ruber explains how to approach sentence correction questions on the GMAT:
Because the GMAT is a standardized test, understanding the structure of certain questions types can give you an advantage on test day. Specifically, by understanding how the test maker is setting up a type of problem, you can move through the problem more quickly, giving yourself time for more advanced problems.
On GMAT sentence correction questions, you will be given a sentence, part of which is underlined. In order to answer correctly, you must choose the answer that makes the underlined portion grammatically correct.
The first pattern to keep in mind in these questions involves answer choice (A). The first answer in sentence correction problems will always be the same as the original sentence. Thus, the first way test takers can save time is by not reading this answer choice, as it mirrors the underlined portion in the problem. Continue reading…
GMAT Tips: The Unburdening of Proof
Today’s GMAT tip comes to us from Veritas Prep. In today’s blog post, they explain how to succeed on the quantitative section of the GMAT by teaching yourself to prove mathematical rules and formulas. Read on to see what they have to say!
As you study for the GMAT, you’re likely to begin by noticing all of those things that you used to know. Algebra rules, geometry formulas, calculation methods – at first glance the GMAT looks like a test of every math class you took before you turned 16. And when you were learning those things as an adolescent, you typically learned 2-3 formulas at a time, studied and practiced them Thursday night, took the test on Friday, then started over again. So your inclination when you see that the GMAT will require you to again use those rules/formulas/methods is likely to be that you should memorize them all again and drill some repetition.
But the GMAT isn’t like those other tests. So simply memorizing those formulas and rules might actually be counterproductive, for two reasons:
1) Memorization is prone to failure
2) The GMAT rewards conceptual ability, not factual knowledge
Note that, in education-speak, “remember” is the lowest tier of Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives, below apply/create/analyze. The GMAT is not particularly interested in testing just your knowledge base!
Because of these, if you don’t currently know a rule or formula, you shouldn’t burden yourself with trying to memorize it, but instead you should focus on teaching yourself the ability to prove it. In that way, you’ll make the concepts easier to remember; you’ll have much more flexible knowledge that you can apply to a variety of situations; and you’ll be studying in a way that better approaches the GMAT’s objectives. Continue reading…
GMAT Tips: My Deadline is Approaching and I Don’t Have the Score I Want!
Today’s GMAT tip comes from test prep firm ManhattanGMAT. In this article, they provide some tips for what to do if you plan on applying to b-school soon but haven’t achieved the GMAT score you want. Read on to see what they have to say!
I’ve been speaking with a lot of students in this position recently – welcome to December. Most second round deadlines are rapidly approaching and some students, unfortunately, don’t yet have the score they want in order to apply. What to do?
What you CAN’T do
There are some things you can do – but we can’t expect miracles either. If you tell me that your test is in less than 2 weeks and you need to improve your score by 100 or more points, I’m going to (gently) tell you that such a goal is unrealistic. I’m not going to discourage you from going for it (it doesn’t hurt to try), but you should also start examining your other options are. These could include accepting your lower score, changing the schools to which you apply, or postponing your candidacy to a later round or a later year. Some people, thinking through this, actually end up deciding that they’d rather wait a year anyway and take their time with the whole application process. Continue reading…
GMAT Tips: The Reasoning is in the Details
Today’s GMAT tip comes from test prep firm ManhattanGMAT. In this article, they provide helpful tips for approaching Reading Comprehension questions on the GMAT. Read on to see what they have to say!
Which type of RC passage is your favorite – social science, business, hard science? Just kidding! I know that most people don’t have a favorite type (though most of us have a least favorite type).
Let’s try one out. Because of space constraints, I’m not going to give you the full passage, but I promise I’ll give you everything you need to know in order to answer the question. This problem is from the free set of questions that comes with GMATPrep. Give yourself up to 1.5 minutes to read the passage excerpt and approximately another 1.5 minutes to answer the question.
* ” The modern multinational corporation is described as having originated when the owner-managers of nineteenth-century British firms carrying on international trade were replaced by teams of salaried managers organized into hierarchies. Increases in the volume of transactions in such firms are commonly believed to have necessitated this structural change. Nineteenth-century inventions like the steamship and the telegraph, by facilitating coordination of managerial activities, are described as key factors. Sixteenth- and seventeenth-century chartered trading companies, despite the international scope of their activities, are usually considered irrelevant to this discussion: the volume of their transactions is assumed to have been too low and the communications and transport of their day too primitive to make comparisons with modern multinationals interesting. Continue reading…
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