GMAT Tips

GMAT is a Computer Adaptive test and the test makers include confusing phrasing, question framing, and irrelevant data to confuse the test takers. This contributes towards incorrect answers. Although understanding the fundamentals in GMAT Quant and Verbal is important, it is also important to recognize that there are questions that will lead you to a deadlock.

Hit a deadlock – What to do?

Keep in mind that you have an average of 2 minutes to answer each question. While answering the questions, make an educated guess and move forward when you cross the 3:30 minute mark. Accuracy is important, but there is a much higher penalty for not completing the GMAT test.

Guessing Correctly

Let us assume that you picked a correct answer, and now you have another tough question. The same process continues. You will most likely continue to crack the problem until the 3:30 minute mark is crossed.

Guessing Incorrectly

Let us assume that your second guess was wrong and now you will get a comparatively easier question. There is much higher probability of getting the answer correct this time around.
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GMAT Quant is divided into two sections: Problem Solving and Data Sufficiency. Both the section requires knowledge of Arithmetic, Elementary Algebra, and Geometry Concepts & Formulae. The sections test the student’s ability to solve problems, interpret graphical data, and evaluate the information required to solve quantitative problems. 37 GMAT Quant Questions need to be answered in 75 minutes. This means you will get, on an average, 2 minutes to answer each question.

The topics covered in Quant include: Number properties, Fractions, Decimals, Percent, Averages, Ratios, Work & Rates, Multiples, Factors,  Powers and Radicals, Algebra, Lines and Angles, Triangles,  Quadrilaterals, Circles and Coordinate Geometry.

As you can see, the topics are high school math topics but the trick here is that GMAC are experts at framing questions in such a way that even questions from the simplest topics can look tricky and time consuming. Let us look at a sample question provided by GMAC:

Question
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Myth: If you get easy questions after initial 2-3 questions then it implies that you are getting the initial answers wrong.

Well don’t judge the outcome too fast. Even if you are getting the initial answers wrong, you have a good chance to bounce back, get back to right answers, and enter the 650-720 zone. Here are some reasons why you are getting easy questions after initial 2-3 questions.

Familiar Question Type

The recognition of a question type does not necessarily mean that you know the answer or the questions type is easy. The manner in which the questions are framed might create a feeling that you have seen this question earlier in Official GMAT Guide or in one of the top GMAT test prep training session. Instead of worrying about the difficulty of the question type, focus on getting the question right in the prescribed 2 min time.

Recognizing Easy Question

Every GMAT test will have at least 3-5% trial questions, and they would be randomly placed across the test in various sections. The easy question in the initial phase of the test might just be these questions. Since you cannot predict the location...

The Problem Solving (PS) section of the GMAT may not be as quirky as the Data Sufficiency section of the test – but that doesn’t mean you don’t need to study for it! PS questions require more “straight math” than Data Sufficiency questions; in other words, they’ll probably be more like the questions you’re used to seeing on high school and college math tests. The best way to study? Master the basic concepts from geometry, algebra, statistics, and arithmetic — then check out these 10 helpful tips!

1. Make sure your fundamentals are strong.

The GMAT doesn’t allow you to use a calculator—which means you need to be quick and accurate with basic calculations. Be able to multiply and divide decimals. Know common higher powers and roots. Have fractions down to a science: Knowing right away whether 3/8 is less than 5/12 will mean you have more time later to work on more complicated calculations.

2. Choose numbers wisely.

Even questions that don’t contain variables can still be tackled by choosing numbers wisely. For example, if a question asks you about “a multiple of 6,” it’s probably quicker...

CAT environment, especially GMAT CAT environment is different from your traditional paper based exams. Remember the following tips before you write your GMAT

1) Don't Stare at the Computer

First, you will find that you are spending a lot of time looking between the screen in front of you and your dry erase board. USE YOUR PEN AND DRY ERASE BOARD (but do not waste valuable time writing needless things down). One of the worst things you can do is to waste time staring at the screen. Do not make this mistake. Instead, you should get in the habit of immediately writing down ABCDE on your board for every question (When studying, I used pencils and paper, but on test day you will have dry erase markers and a laminated sheet that you can use to write things down). This should be a habit as you study for the GMAT, they don't give you material to write things down for nothing.USE IT! This way, you can immediately eliminate answers that you know are incorrect (And on a separate...

You may feel confident with the most commonly tested grammar rules on the GMAT Sentence Corrections - subject-verb agreement, verb tense, pronoun reference, pronoun number, misplaced modifiers, parallelism, idioms, false comparisons, and quantities. It’s hard to imagine any other grammar rules that could possibly be tested, but you can bet the GMAT test writers are pretty exhaustive. Here are four grammar rules that don’t receive as much attention; you’ll need to master these if you’re going for a top score.

1. Subjunctive Mood

You won’t see the subjunctive mood tested on college entrance exams like the SAT and ACT; it’s purposely reserved for the GMAT for good reason. Most of the English verbs we use are in the indicative mood - that is, verbs that have happened, are happening, or will happen. The subjunctive mood is used to express wishes or possibilities that have not happened.
The most common subjunctive verb that you might encounter is were, the subjunctive form of was.

Example 1: If he were athletic, he could make the football team. (He is not actually athletic, so the verb communicates an idea that does not really exist).

Notice that “If he was athletic…” would be incorrect, even though you may not reconize such an error in speech or writing.

Example 2: The teacher requires...

For a GMAT Newbie, POE or Process of Elimination would be a new term. POE is a skill by which you select the best answer by eliminating the remaining wrong answers. This technique is especially useful in GMAT Verbal section. The right answer might not sound the best but if the answer looks better than the other four answer choices then you are on the right track with POE.

Tips for Process of Elimination
 
1) Do not pre-judge or assume that an answer choice is wrong. You should have a strong reason while eliminating the wrong answer choices.

2) Avoid connecting the answer choice to the question. Be as objective as you can when you eliminate the answer choice. Just because an answer choice looks better doesn’t mean it is the right one

3) Be critical in your approach. Your job is to find the mistakes in an answer choice.

4) The right answer choice does not need your support to be right. It has all the information to do so.

5) Do not get hung up on finding the maximum errors in an answer choice. When you find one glaring error in the...

1. Prepare: This one is on the obvious side, but too important to leave off the list. The most important things you can do to prepare for the GMAT is to understand all the concepts tested and to be familiar with all the question types. There is no magic formula–the best strategy is to spend a lot of time beforehand practicing and familiarizing yourself with the various concepts and question formats.

2. Be confident: If you know the right answer, stick with it. Often on, say, a Problem Solving question, you’ll need to figure out the right answer before you even get to the choices. Don’t waste time second guessing yourself when you see a different answer that looks appealing; you studied for this, you did the question properly. Select your answer and proceed to the next question.

3. Don’t spend time on calculation: This one is obvious but often overlooked. Data Sufficiency problems ask you to say when you have enough information to answer the question in the prompt, not to actually compute the answer. Sometimes you need to work all the way to a solution, but often, all you need to know is how to get the...

Ever heard of a Math problem that you actually don't have to solve. If you have just started your GMAT prep, then this can be confusing. Don't worry! With some practice, your mind will be trained to think like a DS Wizard. Follow these 10 tips and you will be on your way to mastering GMAT Data Sufficiency.

1. Familiarize with the Answer Choices

No excuses: On Data Sufficiency, they’re always the same! Know in the blink of an eye what choice C is. On test day, if you find that Statement 1 is insufficient, be able to cross out choices A and D without hesitation.

2. Takes notes efficiently

Each statement alone will be sufficient if both of the statements on their own contain all the information necessary to answer the question. The statements will be sufficient together if they contain every piece of necessary information between them. Take the area of a parallelogram: Do you need to know every side length to determine the area? If you have every side length, can you find the area?

3. Don’t look at the statements together.

Statement 2 may tell you that x is negative, but that fact has no bearing on Statement 1 when viewed by itself. Explore all the possibilities offered by each statement individually. If you’ve...

GMAT Reading Comprehension passages are complicated and boring texts that will test your concentration and stamina. It is easy to lose your focus after an energy draining AWA and Math section. Most GMAT test takers will start to zone out at this stage and will just stare at the screen, re-reading the same sentence again and again. This is a sure shot step to crash your GMAT 700+ dream.

Follow these four preparation and test day tricks and you will learn to keep your focus for a long duration of time

Start practicing GMAT-like texts

It’s obvious that a reading comp passage won’t be as thrilling as your favorite Dan Brown novel, but the GMAT actually makes RC passages boring on purpose. The test-makers go out of their way to make the text complex, and they like to use natural science and social science topics with which potential business-school students may not be familiar. To prepare yourself, start reading real-world texts that mimic GMAT passage structures. The Economist, Scientific American, and The Wall Street Journal are good places to start, and magazines like Time and Newsweek feature editorial articles that can help you learn...

The GMAT finds much of its competitive advantage in its ability to wear down its unsuspecting challengers, who perform unnecessary calculations on the quantitative side and reading and analyzing unnecessary verbiage on the verbal side, while all the while the GMAT packs its "knockout punch" in the form of a subtle uniqueness in the line of questioning that a tired examinee is unlikely to notice.

In order to combat this opponent, be sure to seek out opportunities to save time and energy when possible:

Quantitative Section

• When answering a Data Sufficiency question, once you know that you will get one definitive answer, you can stop performing the calculation. The actual answer does not matter, as the question is only concerned with whether you will, indeed, arrive at an answer.

• When calculating the answer for a Problem Solving question, consider the answer choices and whether an estimate, or a property of the correct value (does it have to be even? Must it be negative?) will be sufficient to solve the question...

Your performance on the GMAT, like all peak performances tend to come in a familiar three-step pattern: ready, set, go; bump, set spike; game plan, warm up, perform. All signs point to I came, I saw, I conquered.

The GMAT begins with the AWA essays, a pair of 30-minute writing samples designed to test your communication ability, and for which the scores are used sparingly in MBA admissions. Effectively, the biggest threat to your MBA candidacy from the AWA section is not necessarily the essay score itself, but more likely the way in which that hour will impact your overall performance on the ever-important Quantitative and Verbal sections, which combine for your score between 200 and 800. How can you use the AWA section as a competitive advantage, and not a threat?

Game Plan
Assume that the AWA section comes first for a reason - in spending an hour writing about generic topics, students are apt to lose track of (or at least worry that they'll lose track of...

1. Read the labels first. Mentally categorize each graph, chart and table. (EX: “This is a graph showing the change in the price of gas per gallon over the course of one year.”) Do not just skip the statistics entirely and go straight to the question! While you may think this will save you time, it actually significantly decreases your accuracy.

Data Interpretation questions are like an open-book test. You wouldn’t skip a Reading Comp passage, so don’t skip the data. Make sure you read every tiny piece of writing on or near the data, including titles, the labels for the x and y-axes, column names, and even footnotes. Scroll down to make sure you’ve caught everything.

2. Note the units. Once you understand the labels, take special care to note the units (mph, m/sec, cm2, etc.). Are we dealing with seconds, minutes, or hours? Does one graph represent the month of June, while the other graph represents the entire year? The units may change from graph-to-graph or chart-to-table. Especially note any given information about percentages, as DI questions frequently require you to work with...