One GMAT Reading Comprehension question type that you will rarely encounter is the style or tone/attitude question. By style, the test creators are not asking you to compare the style of the prose to the works of some of the renowned authors. It’s another term used to describe the tone/attitude of the author.
GMAC selects passages that are respectful to communities, nations, leaders, even tyrants of notorious records. One reason for this is the source material. They are research papers and not op-eds.
Therefore, the chance that the bias of the author is translated to extreme qualifiers in passages is rare.
The clues are in the nature in which the author builds the case, and the selectivity with which she presents her evidence and counter-evidences to support the argument. It helps to know about the subject matter, but understanding how the author subtly uses qualifiers to describe a situation or a person, will allow GMAT test takers to spot the feeling of the author. They might be disguised as objective observation, but biases/feeling cannot be hidden behind facts. It will come out.
The question will be phrased as:
Which of the following best describes the tone of the passage?
The author’s attitude towards capitalism can be best described as:
With the quotes on statistics about “welfare capitalism” in lines 23-25, what can be concluded about the author’s attitude towards capitalism?
Steps to answer GMAT Style/Tone/Attitude reading comprehension Questions
1) Emotions or feelings no matter how diverse can be categorized into three buckets: positive, negative or neutral. Look for descriptive words, adjective or adverbs used by the author and categorize them under each bucket.
2) Label the emotions inside the bucket
Positive: Sympathy (3), Appreciation (2)
Negative: Anger (2)
Neutral: Objectivity (2)
3) In case of a tie, read the concluding paragraph. Most authors conclude strongly with a clear opinion. If the emotions labelled in the final paragraph favor one of the tied buckets, pick the positive, negative, or neutral emotion emphasized in the paragraph as the winner.
Let’s use our approach to solve a passage about Stock Buyback.
<Start of Passage>
As cited by the Economist Thomas Piketty - In 2007, before the Financial meltdown, the richest 0.1% of the household earned 12.3% of all U.S Incomes, even exceeding the 11.5% in 1928, during the biggest bubble preceding the great depression. With the meltdown of 2008, the income share fell rapidly only to recover four years later to 11.3%. When the majority of the top executives fall within the richest 0.1%, the incentive to make decisions that benefit the shareholders collectively
.....
<End of Passage>
The author's attitude toward share buyback can be best described as:
A. Mild Hope
B. Mild Skepticism
C. Objective Criticism
D. Cautious optimism
E. Strong Skepticism
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Essential GMAT Reading Comprehension Guide (2023 Edition)
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How to Read Faster
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Passage #1: Protein-Rich Diet Passage #2: Pregnant Women and Stress Management
Passage #3: F Losing Momentum
Passage #4: Conservatives and Automation
Passage #5: Collaboration, Team size and Performance
Passage #6: Effective Altruism
Passage #7: Loneliness Epidemic
Passage #8: Space Exploration
Passage #9: Lab-Grown Meat
Passage #10: Minimum Wage in the US
Passage #11: AI and Creativity
Passage #12: Bias Against Healthcare in Developing Economies
Passage #13: Legacy Admissions
Passage #14: Plastic Ban and alternatives
Passage #15: Underestimating Homo Sapiens
Passage #16: Conspiracy Theories
Passage #17: Relative Poverty
Passage #18: Why Paintings are expensive
Passage #19: US Obesity Epidemics
Passage #20: The Future of Advertising
Passage #21: Breaking Large Companies
Passage #22: Helicopter Parenting
Passage #23: Future of Democracy
Passage #24: Technology and Global Citizenship
Passage #25: Morality and Investment
Answers: 157 to 294
Pages: 295
Questions: 100+
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Mastering GMAT Critical Reasoning (2023 Edition)
1) Introduction
2) 6 Step Strategy to solve GMAT Critical Reasoning Questions
3) How to overcome flawed thinking in GMAT Critical Reasoning?
4) 4 GMAT Critical Reasoning Fallacies
5) Generalization in GMAT Critical Reasoning
6) Inconsistencies in Arguments
7) Eliminate Out of Scope answer choices using Necessary and Sufficient Conditions
8) Ad Hominem in GMAT Critical Reasoning
9) Slippery Slope in GMAT Critical Reasoning
10) Affirming the Consequent – GMAT Critical Reasoning
11) How to Paraphrase GMAT Critical Reasoning Question
12) How to Answer Assumption Question Type
13) How to Answer Conclusion Question Type
14) How to Answer Inference Question Type
15) How to Answer Strengthen Question Type
16) How to Answer Weaken Question Type
17) How to Answer bold-faced and Summary Question Types
18) How to Answer Parallel Reasoning Questions
19) How to Answer the Fill in the Blanks Question
Question Bank
Question 1: 5G Technology (Inference)
Question 2: Water Purifier vs. Minerals (Fill in the Blanks)
Question 3: Opioid Abuse (Strengthens)
Question 4: Abe and Japan’s Economy (Inference)
Question 5: Indians and Pulse Import (Weakens)
Question 6: Retail Chains in Latin America (Assumption)
Question 7: American Tax Rates – Republican vs. Democrats (Inference)
Question 8: AI – China vs the US (Weakens)
Question 9: Phone Snooping (Strengthens)
Question 10: Traditional Lawns (Assumption)
Question 11: Appraisal-Tendency Framework (Inference)
Question 12: Meta-Analysis of Diet Trials (Weakens)
Question 13: Biases in AI (Strengthens)
Question 14: Stock Price and Effectiveness of Leadership (Inference)
Question 15: US Border Wall (Weakens)
Question 16: Driverless Car and Pollution (Assumption)
Question 17: Climate Change (Inference)
Question 18: Rent a Furniture (Weakens)
Question 19: Marathon Performance and Customized Shoes (Weakens)
Question 20: Guaranteed Basic Income (Assumption)
Question 21: Brexit (Infer)
Question 22: AB vs Traditional Hotels (Assumption)
Question 23: Tax Incentive and Job Creation (Weakens)
Question 24: Obesity and Sleeve Gastrectomy (Inference)
Question 25: Recruiting Executives (Weaken)
Answers with Detailed Explanation
Winning MBA Essay Guide - A Complete Guide for M7 and Top 15 MBA Application Essays
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+ The Art of Storytelling
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+ Review Tips
+ Persuasion Strategies
+ The Secret to "unleashing" your unique voice
+ How to prepare and present for the Video Essay
+ How to write about your Strengths
+ How to write about your Weaknesses
+ Leadership Narratives
+ Review Tips
+ Persuasion Strategies
+ The Secret to "unleashing" your unique voice
+ How to prepare and present for the Video Essay
+ How to write about your Strengths
+ How to write about your Weaknesses
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Harvard MBA Essay Guide (20 Sample Essays)
Growth-Oriented Essay: Curiosity can be seen in many ways. Please share an example of how you have demonstrated curiosity and how that has influenced your growth. (up to 250 words)Example #1: Persistence Narrative
Background Information: The applicant – a design and music talent, shares her journey through several setbacks. She attributes curiosity to her growth.
Curiosity: Philosophy
Curiosity (Explained): Curiosity as a philosophy is tough to translate into a narrative unless you are from the creative industry or your contributions had an influence on a solution or an initiative.
MBA Essay Strategy: I wanted to capture the humanity of the applicant and her influence in music instead of just highlighting how she overcame multiple roadblocks to gain attention as a designer.
Theme: Persistence
Read: Harvard MBA Curiosity Essay – Life Starts at NO (Growth-Oriented HBS MBA Essay Example)Example #2: International Community Building
Background Information: The applicant, a Machine Learning (ML) entrepreneur specializing in healthcare diagnostics, shares how his curiosity to learn other ML algorithms’ evolution in diagnosing Alzheimer’s, cancer, and heart disease transformed his platform into a global community.
MBA Essay Strategy: I wanted to show the applicant’s contributions in diagnostic from 2020 to 2024 by citing two events. Such examples build credibility instead of engagements that were recent. The evolution of the platform from an AI development community to a community for discussing the application of AI in diagnostics is captured through a ‘curiosity’ angle.
Read: Harvard MBA Curiosity Essay – Growth through Collaboration (AI in Healthcare) (Growth-Oriented HBS MBA Essay Example)Example #3: Culture
Background Information: The applicant, an Entrepreneur from India narrates his first entrepreneurial experience – facilitating exchange of stamps in the late 1990s.
Theme: Culture
MBA Essay Strategy: Instead of addressing the biases in the investor community that could turn preachy, I wanted to focus on the applicant and his entrepreneurial journey by citing two entrepreneurial experiences – a platform(club) for stamp collection and his Grocery delivery App.
Read: Harvard MBA Curiosity Essay – The American Dream (Growth-Oriented HBS MBA Essay Example)Example #4: Addiction
Background Information: The applicant – a beneficiary of the foster home system, captures the sacrifice his adopted grandparents made to save him from a path of addiction. Paying it back through early intervention among teenagers and community engagement is the curiosity narrative.
Theme: Addiction
MBA Essay Strategy: My strategy is to capture a gratitude narrative in the first one-third of the essay to demonstrate motivation for starting the venture and dedicate the latter part of the essay to the unique solution
Read: Harvard MBA Curiosity Essay – Drug Addiction and Gaming (Growth-Oriented HBS MBA Essay Example)Example #5: Scarcity
Background Information: The applicant, an education major, recognizes that 70% of all students in Kenya don’t have a computer. The curiosity that drives him to pivot from one solution to another is the growth narrative.
Theme: Innovation
MBA Essay Strategy: Often, innovation is captured with a ‘hero’ narrative where the applicant is the sole originator of an idea. I wanted to break that cliché and include a person from whom the applicant learned to use a concept called ‘scaffolding.’
Read: Harvard MBA Curiosity Essay – Scarcity (Growth-Oriented HBS Essay Example)Example #6: FinTech
Background Information: The applicant captures a vulnerable moment of a beneficiary to compare his journey of side hustle before a technology giant noticed his talent. Although cryptocurrency is not a flavor for the year, capture niches where innovation is still happening.
Theme: Education, Child Welfare
MBA Essay Strategy: Empathizing with a techno solution is tough without a strong backstory around the beneficiary. For the essay, I wanted to clearly establish the beneficiary – Rami, before the applicant narrates the similarities to his journey and finally shares the solution that emerged from his curiosity.
Read: Harvard MBA Curiosity Essay – FinTech as a Tool for Good (Growth-Oriented HBS MBA Essay Example)Example #7: Learning from the best
Background Information: The applicant – a Remote Engineer in the Oil and Gas industry, reflects on a value that has helped her learn from the best regardless of her geographical limitations.
Theme: Learning
MBA Essay Strategy: The effectiveness of the case-study method depends on the assumption that peers in a Harvard MBA class will help elevate your learning experience. For the essay, I have highlighted the applicant’s recognition of this value proposition with three examples.
Read: Harvard MBA Curiosity Essay – Learning from the Best (Growth-Oriented HBS MBA Essay Example)Example #8: Military & Search for IMPACT
Background Information: The most common narrative for US military applicants is to quote 9/11 and the reaction your immediate family had while watching the events unfold. The horrifying moment is captured as a motivation to join the Military. On digging deeper, most applicants would share that their motivations were diverse.
Theme: Career Choice
MBA Essay Strategy: I wanted to quickly highlight that the applicant had the choice of entering any industry. One achievement to demonstrate his curiosity that I shared in the first half is the invention of a game. Since the game is mentioned in the resume and verifiable through search, I didn’t quote the name. By clearly highlighting the person’s curiosity and career options, the family legacy is used as a factor in joining the military.
Read: Harvard MBA Curiosity Essay – Career Choice after a Military Career (Growth-Oriented HBS MBA Essay Example)
Leadership-Focused Essay: What experiences have shaped who you are, how you invest in others, and what kind of leader you want to become? (up to 250 words)Example #9: Small Business Values
Background Information: The applicant - a second-generation Asian American, is familiar with the values of fiscal conservatism, building relationships, and understanding the daily struggles of the community through his family’s department store.
Theme: Customer-Centric
MBA Essay Strategy: The applicant’s role in developing an App for the store is highlighted in the essay at a crucial part of the narrative so that the essay is not all about his father. I have also humanized the journey – by sharing how upset the father was when the revenues fell by 40%. The essay is about the transformation in the applicant’s value from a person chasing productivity and optimization technique to someone who is truly thinking about the customers.
Read: Harvard MBA Leadership Essay – Small Business Values (Leadership-Focused HBS MBA Essay Example)Example #10: Breaking Away from Family Business
Background Information: A unique challenge that applicants whose parents are public figures or CXOs of businesses or entrepreneurs are the pressure to live up to the parent’s standards or milestones. For the leadership narrative, the burden of legacy is established before the narrative addresses his leadership principles.
Theme: Authenticity
MBA Essay Strategy: For the essay, I want to capture an entrepreneur’s journey to rise above his entrepreneur father’s image. But I didn’t want to make the entire essay about this complex dynamics. The narrative is around the applicant’s focus on customers and surrounding with teams who keeps him grounded.
Read: Harvard MBA Leadership Essay – Breaking Away from Family Business(Leadership-Focused HBS MBA Essay Example)Example #11: Creativity and Communication
Background Information: When the overall percentage of users with internet access is 62% in South Africa and the inequality accentuated by the rural and urban divide, the applicant endured the lack of digital infrastructure, and spending close to 22% of the family income on gaining relevant information on schools, global exams, and financial assistance.
Theme: Creativity, Communication
MBA Essay Strategy: The strategy is to share why the applicant values no distraction in a child’s home for optimum education experience. Then I highlight the many roadblocks the applicant’s non-profit faced in receiving fee waiver for their cooperative run ISP.
Read: Harvard MBA Leadership Essay – Non-Profit (Telecom) (Leadership-Focused HBS MBA Essay Example)Example #12: Mental Health
Background Information: The applicant like most didn’t pay much attention to the mental health epidemic until tragedy hit home.
Theme: Communication, Innovation
MBA Essay Strategy: A question we frequently get from applicants is whether they should cite tragedy in the family as a motivation for a venture or a non-profit initiative. As long as you don’t linger too much on the tragedy and offer a balanced narrative, there are no restrictions on leveraging unique stories from your life.
Read: Harvard MBA Leadership Essay – Mental Health (Leadership-Focused HBS MBA Essay Example)Example #13: Trauma, Healing & Finding Authentic Self
Background Information: The applicant narrates the absurdity of war in the narrative about the duties in Kabul, and the trauma. Instead of wallowing in on the horror, the applicant takes what makes military applicants strong and guides unprivileged children build life and leadership skills.
Theme: Resilience
MBA Essay Strategy: Capturing PTSD in an essay, the healing process, and the cues that helped the applicant are too sacred to be shared in a Harvard MBA application essay. However, with the right motivation and narrative arcs, you can capture the essence of your journey without sharing the darkest secrets. That is what I did by merging two stories – the horrors of the war with a non-profit engagement.
Read: Harvard MBA Leadership Essay – Military & PTSD (Leadership-Focused HBS MBA Essay Example)Example #14: Addiction, Setback and Leadership Mantra
Background Information: In this narrative, the applicant captures Peru’s Silver mining boom of 2006. The growth experienced in her father’s business shifted the family’s economic status to a new stratosphere. Through the changing economic and family dynamics, the applicant finds her voice in a unique way, initially to record her unheard voice but later as one of the youngest subject matter experts in mining and commodities.
Theme: Failure
MBA Essay Strategy: For the essay, the strategy is to show how life’s unpredictability is a blessing. By narrating two setback events, the essay demonstrates the applicant’s resilience and her acknowledgment of people who made a comeback possible.
Read: Harvard MBA Leadership Essay – Addiction, Setback and Leadership Mantra (Leadership-Focused HBS MBA Essay Example)Example #15: War, Immigration and Starting Over Again
Background Information: Despite a raging war in Syria, the family of the applicant was unblemished by the chaos. The strategic government assets near the applicant’s house would have made the region an easy target, but it was not. The calmness of her journey is shattered in one event. From the privileges of a cocooned life, the applicant is forced to think about survival, her sister’s future, and her future in the US. The second half of the narrative captures the change that was forced on her.
Theme: Gratitude, Resilience
MBA Essay Strategy: I consciously chose not to start the essay with a dialogue or trauma. Two lines are allocated to set up the narrative before the trauma event.
Read: Harvard MBA Leadership Essay – War, Immigration and Starting Over Again (Leadership-Focused HBS MBA Essay Example)Harvard MBA Business-Minded Essay: Please reflect on how your experiences have influenced your career choices and aspirations and the impact you will have on the businesses, organizations, and communities you plan to serve. (up to 300 words)
Example #16: Creative or Finance
Background Information: The applicant starts the narrative with the origin of her talents. The unbridled enthusiasm receives a reality check when in high school, the applicant’s father has a conversation with her about academics. While the applicant picked up her quant skills, she was reaching over 50,000 loyal fans, and her videos captured 1 million views.
Theme: Passion, Talent
MBA Essay Strategy: Capturing vulnerability is the toughest part for Harvard MBA applicants. For this essay example, I have captured the applicant’s uncertainty about career choice throughout the essay. Here the goal is to show vulnerability in the career choice essay while for leadership and growth essay, I could capture one example each from creative and PE industry respectively to balance the narrative. So don’t follow this example without a strategy.
Read: Harvard MBA Business-Minded Essay – Creative or Finance (Business-Minded HBS MBA Essay Example)- Stanford MBA Essay Guide (24 Sample Essays)
- Columbia MBA Essay Guide (21 Sample Essays)
- Wharton MBA Essay Guide (15 Sample Essays)
- INSEAD MBA Essay Guide (19 Sample Essays)
- Darden MBA Essay Guide (21 Sample Essays)
- Yale SOM MBA Essay Guide (15 Sample Essays)
- Tuck MBA Essay Guide (15 Sample Essays)
- Haas MBA Essay Guide (18 Sample Essays)
- NYU Stern MBA Essay Guide (15 Sample Essays + 6 Examples - Visual Essay)
- LBS MBA Essay Guide (6 Sample Essays)
- MIT Sloan MBA Essay Guide (6 Sample Cover Letters + 3 Sample Video Statement Scripts + 3 Sample Optional Essays)
- Kellogg MBA Essay Guide (11 Sample Essays)
- Chicago Booth MBA Essay Guide (12 Sample Essays)
- Ross MBA Essay Guide (31 Sample Essays)
- Duke Fuqua MBA Essay Guide (10 Sample Essays + Two 25 Random Things Samples)
- Cambridge MBA Essay Guide (12 Sample Essays)
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