Posted by Clear Admit on August 24, 2011, at 8:00 pm
Posted in: GMAT - Verbal , GMAT Tips
Today’s GMAT Tip comes from our friends at Knewton. In this article, they explain a helpful strategy for answering assumption questions on the Critical Reasoning section of the GMAT. Read on to see what they have to say!
In my last post, I covered the theory behind the Denial Test for Critical Reasoning Assumption questions and demonstrated how to do negations properly. If you’re not sure what the Denial Test is or want a refresher on negations, be sure to check out that post before you read on.
All set? Let’s now take a look at an actual GMAT Assumption question and see how the Denial Test can be very helpful. Try the question out for yourself first if you’d like, then read on for the explanation.
Diabetes is a disease in which the body does not produce or properly use insulin, a hormone that is needed to convert glucose into energy needed for daily life. Because ice cream commonly contains glucose in the form of sucrose, diabetics generally experience discomfort after consuming even a small serving of ice cream. However, since there are several ice cream companies who add sucrose to none of the ice cream they produce, diabetics are able to eat ice cream without experiencing discomfort due to glucose intolerance afterward.
Which of the following is an assumption on which the argument depends?
(A)These ice cream companies have been able to duplicate the taste of sucrose derived from glucose by means that do not involve adding any potential substances that may be of discomfort to diabetics.
(B) Not all forms of glucose are equally likely to result in this discomfort.
(C) Ice cream is not the only food to which glucose is commonly added.
(D)Apart from glucose, there are no substances commonly present in ice cream that would cause discomfort to diabetics.
(E) Glucose is not naturally present in the ice cream produced by these ice cream companies in amounts large enough to cause discomfort to diabetics who eat this ice cream. » Continue reading
Posted by Clear Admit on August 13, 2011, at 9:00 am
Posted in: GMAT - Verbal , GMAT Tips
Today’s GMAT tip comes from test prep firm ManhattanGMAT. In this article, they provide helpful tips for how to answer sentence correction questions involving partial underlines on the GMAT. Read on to see what they have to say!
It has been a while since we’ve done grammar, so let’s try out this GMATPrep Sentence Correction question. Set your timer for 1 minute and 15 seconds and go!
“When the temperature of a gas is increased, it is either accompanied by an increase in pressure if the gas is enclosed in a container, or an increase in volume if the gas is able to expand.
“(A) When the temperature of a gas is increased, it is either accompanied by an increase in pressure if the gas is enclosed in a container, or
“(B) When the temperature of a gas is increased, it is accompanied either by an increase in pressure if it is enclosed in a container or
“(C) When the temperature of a gas is increased, the increase is either accompanied by an increase in pressure if the gas is enclosed in a container or by
“(D) Any increase in the temperature of a gas is either accompanied by an increase in pressure if it is enclosed in a container, or by
“(E) Any increase in the temperature of a gas is accompanied either by an increase in pressure if the gas is enclosed in a container or by”
Posted by Clear Admit on August 10, 2011, at 8:00 pm
Posted in: GMAT - Verbal , GMAT Tips
Today’s GMAT Tip comes from our friends at Knewton. In this article, they explain a strategy for tackling challenging assumptions questions in the Verbal section. Read on to see what they have to say!
Critical Reasoning Assumption questions ask you to identify an unspoken assumption made by the argument’s author. On these types of questions, one of the most powerful techniques you have at your disposal is the denial test. Before we go into the details of the test, let’s take a look at some sample Assumption question stems:
“The commentator’s argument relies on which of the following assumptions?”
“The official’s conclusion logically depends on which of the following assumptions?”
“Which of the following is an assumption made in drawing the conclusion above?”
Again, all of these questions are asking you to find an answer choice that contains a missing assumption of the argument.
The denial test allows you to confirm that you’ve chosen the right answer choice. The test is very simple: just negate the answer choice you’ve chosen. The negation of the correct answer must weaken the argument. While it certainly isn’t efficient to negate every answer choice, the denial test can be extremely useful when debating between two tempting answer choices.
Posted by Clear Admit on August 6, 2011, at 9:00 am
Posted in: GMAT - Verbal , GMAT Tips
Today’s GMAT tip comes to us from Veritas Prep. In this article, they provide helpful strategies for answering critical reasoning questions on the GMAT. Read on to see what they have to say!
There may not be a more aptly named question type on the GMAT than “Critical Reasoning,” a question type that rewards critical thinking in a major way. Students are successful by reading critically and economically. Those who buy into the critical way of processing arguments can “click” with critical reasoning quite readily, quickly organizing information into actionable components and anticipating correct answers before even reading them.
We offer these three critical strategies for critical reasoning questions:
1) Know Your Role
Each CR question contains a stimulus (usually one paragraph of 3-5 sentences), a question stem, and five answer choices (four incorrect, one correct). For most questions, it is natural for the student to read by starting at the beginning. But the trick is this — each stimulus, necessarily, is about “something,” and that “something” tends to frame that you read about it. The human brain processes information by building links between known information and new information, so as you read, say, a stimulus about a mining excavation project, your mind will involuntarily try to link it to something you know — the Chilean miners and their underground plight; the city of Pittsburgh and its turnaround through healthcare and education; the fact that you hated your college geology class… » Continue reading
Today’s GMAT Tip comes to us from Kaplan. In this article, Kaplan GMAT instructor Bret Ruber provides tips for answering 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
Today’s GMAT Tip comes from our friends at Knewton. In this article, they identify five grammar tips that are helpful to memorize before you take the GMAT. Read on to see what they have to say!
While GMAT grammar isn’t easy, there are certain concepts that the test loves to target. Here are a list of five more rules to memorize that will help you master even the trickiest grammar situations.
Rule 1. –Ing phrases must describe a logical noun.
–Ing phrases can appear three ways in a sentence on the GMAT.
(1) Within or at the end of a sentence and set off by a comma, –ing phrases can describe the subject of the previous clause or the noun immediately before the comma. “Bridget left the party, rushing to catch her plane” logically describes the subject Bridget as “rushing to catch her plane.” “Bridget left the party, dying down because most of the guests fell asleep” logically describes the noun before the comma, the party, as “dying down because most of the guests fell asleep. As long as only one noun is logically described, the –ing phrase can describe either noun. However, “Bridget went to the mall with Sally, loudly screaming” is unclear, because it is unknown whether Bridget or Sally is “loudly screaming.” » Continue reading
Today’s GMAT Tip comes from our friends at Knewton. In this article, they provide helpful tips for answering Reading Comprehension questions on the GMAT. Read on to see what they have to say!
Sometimes, even as a GMAT teacher, it can be easy to be cynical about Reading Comprehension. “Why bother spending much time teaching Reading Comprehension?” I ask myself in those moments of despair. After all, it’s just reading and answering questions about a passage. It doesn’t have the diverse question types of Critical Reasoning or the grammar rules and “tells” of Sentence Correction. Compared to CR and SC, it sometimes seems that there’s little a GMAT teacher can do to improve his students’ performance on RC.
Of course, this isn’t actually true. The vast majority of my students do improve on Reading Comprehension, thanks in large part to strategies like making passage M.A.P.S. — that is, sketching out the the Main idea, Attitude of the author, Purpose of the passage, and Structure of the passage (try it if you haven’t!). » Continue reading
Today’s GMAT tip comes from test prep firm ManhattanGMAT. In this article, they provide helpful tips for how to identify and answer “explain a discrepancy” questions in the Critical Reasoning section of the GMAT. Read on to see what they have to say!
This week, we’re going to tackle a harder GMATPrep critical reasoning question from the Explain A Discrepancy category.
Let’s start with the problem. Set your timer for 2 minutes!
* “According to a review of 61 studies of patients suffering from severely debilitating depression, a large majority of the patients reported that missing a night’s sleep immediately lifted their depression. Yet sleep-deprivation is not used to treat depression even though the conventional treatments, which use drugs and electric shocks, often have serious side effects.
“Which of the following, if true, best explains the fact that sleep-deprivation is not used as a treatment for depression?
“(A) For a small percentage of depressed patients, missing a night’s sleep induces a temporary sense of euphoria.
“(B) Keeping depressed patients awake is more difficult than keeping awake people who are not depressed.
“(C) Prolonged loss of sleep can lead to temporary impairment of judgment comparable to that induced by consuming several ounces of alcohol.
“(D) The dramatic shifts in mood connected with sleep and wakefulness have not been traced to particular changes in brain chemistry.
“(E) Depression returns in full force as soon as the patient sleeps for even a few minutes.”
Today’s GMAT tip comes to us from Veritas Prep. In this article, they provide helpful advice on how to study for the Sentence Correction section of the GMAT. Read on to see what they have to say!
You know that the GMAT tests Modifiers in Sentence Correction. But the unasked question that you may want to ask is: Why? Why Modifiers and not the fact that you’re not supposed to end a sentence with a preposition? Why Modifiers and not something more obscure like “when assigning a possessive to someone whose name ends in ‘s,’ what is the rule for when you just put the apostrophe right after the ‘s’ (Russ’) and when you put another ‘s’ after the apostrophe (Russ’s)?”
Ultimately, Modifiers have one massive advantage to GMAT administrators and the business schools who use GMAT scores in admissions: Modifiers are either logical or illogical. It is patently illogical to say that “like Bob Dylan, the music of Talib Kweli…”. Music just won’t be like Bob Dylan; one is an art or a sound, while the other is a human being. It’s not a logical comparison or description. Instead, you’d have to say “Like that of Bob Dylan, the music of Talib Kweli…” or “Like Bob Dylan, Talib Kweli makes music that…”. Those are logical — Dylan’s music can be like Kweli’s music, or Dylan can be like Kweli. They’re at least in the same realm. » Continue reading
Today’s GMAT Tip comes from our friends at Knewton. In this post, they point out business and logic vocabulary terms that are helpful to know when taking the GMAT. Read on to see what they have to say!
You’ve probably heard that the GMAT doesn’t require math or verbal skills beyond the high-school level and that it tests your analytical ability as opposed to your knowledge of a particular subject. All this, while true, may lead you to think you don’t have to memorize anything for the test. But this isn’t true, particularly with the verbal section.
This series of posts will focus on areas where you can’t necessarily rely on your reasoning skills or intuition. Yes, memorization can be a pain, but the good news is once you know this stuff, you know it, and you can check it off your list of things to master before the big day.
First, up: business and logic vocabulary.
Unlike the GRE or SAT, the GMAT does not contain a sentence completion or analogies section; memorizing large amounts of vocabulary, as a result, is not an efficient way to study. You certainly shouldn’t be poring over your old SAT flashcards in preparation for the test.
Today’s GMAT tip comes from test prep firm ManhattanGMAT. In this article, they provide helpful tips for how to identify and answer “strengthen” questions in the Critical Reasoning section of the GMAT. Read on to see what they have to say!
This week, we’re going to tackle a harder GMATPrep critical reasoning question from the Strengthen category.
Let’s start with the problem. Set your timer for 2 minutes!
* “Sales of telephones have increased dramatically over the last year. In order to take advantage of this increase, Mammoth Industries plans to expand production of its own model of telephone, while continuing its already very extensive advertising of this product.
“Which of the following, if true, provides most support for the view that Mammoth Industries cannot increase its sales of telephones by adopting the plan outlined above?
“(A) Although it sells all of the telephones that it produces, Mammoth Industries’ share of all telephone sales has declined over the last year.
“(B) Mammoth Industries’ average inventory of telephones awaiting shipment to retailers has declined slightly over the last year.
“(C) Advertising has made the brand name of Mammoth Industries’ telephones widely known, but few customers know that Mammoth Industries owns this brand.
“(D) Mammoth Industries’ telephone is one of three brands of telephone that have together accounted for the bulk of the last year’s increase in sales.
“(E) Despite a slight decline in the retail price, sales of Mammoth Industries’ telephones have fallen in the last year.”
Today’s GMAT tip comes to us from Veritas Prep. In this article, they provide helpful tips on how to answer Critical Reasoning questions on the GMAT. Read on to see what they have to say!
Admit it: you are a critical person. When you’re in a long line at a store or DMV, you criticize the way the establishment runs things. When you drive, you criticize the others on the road. Like anything, being critical is a matter of interpretation as to whether it’s a good or bad thing. Critical person? Bad. Critical thinker? Harvard material. And on the GMAT, it pays to embrace your inner critic.
One of the least-used but most-useful ways of doing so takes place on Critical Reasoning questions that ask you to identify an assumption that an author makes when constructing an argument. True, the correct answer will strengthen, and not weaken, the author’s conclusion, but we’re much better at criticizing than we are at defending, and when given the option we should probably choose the former.
Consider this argument and question:
When it rains for more than an hour immediately before or during a baseball game, the game is canceled. Therefore, tomorrow’s game is sure to be canceled.
The author of the argument above assumes which of the following?
(A) The manager of the home team has already begun planning his pitching rotation around the impending cancellation.
(B) The ticket office has issued a statement to ticketholders regarding the rain check policy.
(C) It will rain for an extended period of time leading up to tomorrow’s scheduled game time. » Continue reading
Posted by Clear Admit on April 13, 2011, at 8:00 pm
Posted in: GMAT - Verbal , GMAT Tips
Today’s GMAT Tip comes from our friends at Knewton. In this video post, they provide helpful advice on how to answer questions containing idioms in the GMAT Sentence Correction section. Click play to see what they have to say!
For more information on Knewton, download Clear Admit’s independent guide to the leading test preparation companies here. This FREE guide includes coupons for discounts on test prep services at ten different firms!
Today’s GMAT Tip comes from our friends at Knewton. In this video post, they provide helpful hints on how to spot pronoun errors on the GMAT Sentence Correction section. Click play to see what they have to say!
For more information on Knewton, download Clear Admit’s independent guide to the leading test preparation companies here. This FREE guide includes coupons for discounts on test prep services at ten different firms!
