When talking to my students about their study plans to prepare for the GMAT, I always emphasize the need to take as many computer-adaptive practice tests as possible. A test-taker needs to experience what the real GMAT is like, and there’s no better way to do that than to sit for four straight hours and experience the challenge (and joy?!) of facing progressively difficult questions.
While the two essays on the GMAT require you to do completely different things, the approach and foundation of each essay is exactly the same. In this blog article, I want to address two questions my students often ask: “How long should I spend on planning the essay vs. writing the essay?” and “How long should the essay be?”
Applying to business school can require a lot more time and energy than you might initially think. Many applicants reduce the number of schools they apply to after beginning work on the applications and realizing just how much is involved with each and every application; the average candidate applies to 3-4 schools. With so many admissions factors (resume, work experience, GPA, activities, volunteer experience, GMAT score, recommendations, essays, interviews, etc), how should you prioritize your time?
The GMAT is notorious for many reasons. As you continue to study with relevant books and materials, you’ll find that one aspect of the test will continue to frustrate you – getting the correct answer, but not answering the right question.
“Because it sounds right!”
This refrain is often heard when a GMAT student is asked to explain why he or she has selected a specific answer. At Kaplan, we disabuse students of the notion that sentence correction questions can be consistently solved simply by “sound.” Instead, test takers need to look for specific grammatical errors. Identifying most of these errors depends on the context in which they are used. For example, if the subject of a sentence is singular, the verb must be singular as well.
If you have decided to read this post, then you are already debating the merits of a GMAT classroom course. While I (and the world’s largest team of GMAT experts) helped build Kaplan’s new GMAT Experience, this post is NOT limited to why you should take “Kaplan”. This post is about the benefits of a classroom course (any of them) versus non-classroom courses. Additionally, this isn’t a post about preparing for the GMAT or not preparing for the GMAT – the test is too important to just ‘wing it’ – you’ll be paying for that decision for the rest of your life.
When confronting a sentence correction problem, one of the first error types for which test-takers (rightfully) search is an incorrect verb tense. In order to identify the correct verb tense to use in a specific situation, students must be aware of the appropriate context of each tense. This is especially important when one of the “perfect” tenses is in play.
Over these past few months of writing articles for Beat The GMAT, you’ve probably noticed that I like to associate important GMAT concepts with common situations. Well, with regards to pacing on data sufficiency questions, the best way to approach them is to know the material and content through and through. However, while on the actual GMAT and as you practice with CAT tests, keep in mind the words of Kenny Rogers, The Gambler:
There’s so much to do as you prep for the GMAT….review math formulas, remind yourself of grammar rules from way back when, take practice tests, learn this whole new world of data sufficiency…there are endless tips on how to improve your score, and most people find the need to spend 2-3 months or so preparing. In addition to the study-prep tips that are already top of mind, such as working through all of the practice problems in your test-prep books, there are other things that you can do during your preparation period that can indirectly help you improve your GMAT score, outside of your study time. One of these is to READ as much as possible between now and Test Day.
Probability is a perennially dreaded GMAT topic by students of all scoring levels. It’s hard enough to master concepts that you haven’t seen since high school, such as triangles and exponents, but probability is a topic that many test takers have never seen before, unless you did a little research before your last trip to the casino (in which case you may have decided to stay home instead!).
There are three tenets of probability theory that underlie every probability question on the GMAT, each of which follows from the last. You’ll still have to put some practice in on your own to really get the concepts down, but these are a good start:
On the most advanced GMAT content, you will see complicated geometric figures. While these questions are often the most daunting questions, you (as the prepared and confident test taker) will realize that the GMAT is only testing a couple concepts.
It is test day. You are on question number 11 of the quantitative section. You have been on question number 11 for the past 2 minutes. You glance down at your scratch work and you see a tangle of equations and calculations, but not one of them is getting you any closer to the right answer. What do you do?
The first instinct of most students is to check how much time is left. This is an important consideration in determining your next step, but its usefulness varies based on a couple of factors, as we will see below.
You’ve been studying religiously for the GMAT, learning all of the content and formulas you need, practicing under timed conditions…and suddenly, your practice test scores went down! How is that possible, you wonder? Is all the work that you’re doing pointless? Are you doomed to stay at this low score level no matter what?
Relax, and know that it is NORMAL for your practice test scores to fluctuate. There are many reasons for this, including:
On the GMAT verbal section, all questions consist of one right answer choice, and four wrong answer choices. Test takers tend to focus on how to get to the right answer (obviously). However, to really sharpen your verbal skills, I also encourage students to spend some time during their preparation focusing on wrong answer choices as well. Just as there is great care from the test creators to make a choice unequivocally correct, there is just as much effort to make the other four answer choices unequivocally wrong. Being able to spot wrong answer choices is especially helpful when you’ve made an elimination of wrong answer choices, and you’re narrowing down to the correct answer from two or three remaining choices. Here, I’ll discuss two common wrong answer types in GMAT Verbal (which show up in both Reading Comprehension and Critical Reasoning): choices that we classify as Extreme, and Out of Scope.
In this excerpt from a Kaplan Lesson on Demand, Adi Hanash covers an advanced geometry question.
