Ian Stewart posted a reply to Guidance Appreciated: Scored ~100 Points Lower than PT's in the GMAT Strategy forum
“There is some variance in GMAT scores, as there is in the scores on any multiple choice test, but that variance is small. If you scored in the 690-710 range on several GMATPrep tests, your level essentially has to be in the 690-710 range right now. It''s very unlikely, though not impossible, ...”
August 9, 2017
Ian Stewart posted a reply to Kim and Sue each bought some roses and some in the Data Sufficiency forum
“The table is missing from the post above, but it just says that roses cost $1 each, and daisies cost$0.50 each. If Kim and Sue buy the same number of flowers in total, the person who spends more will be the person who bought more of the expensive flowers, so we really want to know: did Kim buy ...”
August 9, 2017
Ian Stewart posted a reply to Melting cube! in the Problem Solving forum
“A cube has 6 faces, so if the length of one edge of a cube is k, each of the six faces has area k^2, and the total surface area of the cube is 6k^2. So the number ''6'' appears in the solution to this problem for two completely different reasons -- you''ll always multiply by 6 when you calculate ...”
August 3, 2017
Ian Stewart posted a reply to An operation Ф is defined by the equation x Ф y in the Problem Solving forum
“Ha, I just did a quick mental estimate when I read the question and thought "that''s way bigger than any of the answer choices", but I forgot to divide by the 4! So I thought most of the right hand side must be in the denominator, and interestingly if change the question as I did, flipping ...”
August 2, 2017
Ian Stewart posted a reply to An operation Ф is defined by the equation x Ф y in the Problem Solving forum
“Great question, but I think there''s a typo with the signs - I think it should read: x Ф y = x²/ ( 4 + xy - y² ) and brackets would probably help to make clear that most of the right hand side is in a denominator. edit: I was mistaken - the question is perfect as is, but I''ll leave this ...”
August 2, 2017
Ian Stewart posted a reply to Negatives as odd numbers in the Data Sufficiency forum
“Yes, negative numbers can also be odd or even: The odd numbers are: ... -5, -3, -1, 1, 3, 5, .... The even numbers are: ... -4, -2, 0, 2, 4, ... If you''ve learned rules for odd and even numbers (rules like: odd + odd = even), those rules apply to all odd and even numbers, regardless of ...”
July 30, 2017
Ian Stewart posted a reply to OG The average score on a test taken by 10 students in the Problem Solving forum
“The two groups are equal in size (5 students each), so the overall average score will just be the ordinary average of the scores of each group, because each group is equally important. If x is the average of two things, then 2x is the sum of those two things. So if y is the average we want to find, ...”
July 28, 2017
Ian Stewart posted a reply to Jonathan buys c chairs and t tables for his newly set up res in the GMAT Math forum
“He saves$10 on each chair, and$12 on each table. So using Statement 1, we know 10c + 12t = 100 Dividing by 2, 5c + 6t = 50 If you have an equation where you are adding or subtracting two integers on one side, and getting some result on the other side, and two of the terms share some ...”
July 28, 2017
Ian Stewart posted a reply to If the y-intercept of a line is greater than 2 in the Data Sufficiency forum
“The line meets the y-axis above the origin. Using Statement 1, we know (2, 3) is on the line. Here it''s best to draw different diagrams, placing the y-intercept above and below y=3, to see where the x-intercept will be in different cases. If the y-intercept is only very slightly greater than 2, ( ...”
July 28, 2017
Ian Stewart posted a reply to Geometry in the GMAT Math forum
“If (a, 4) and (a, b+1) are on the same line, and that line isn''t vertical, they must be the same point, because they have the same x-coordinate. So b+1 = 4, and b = 3. We know (4, b) is on the line, so if b = 3, the point (4, 3) is on the line. That means the point must work in the line''s ...”
July 25, 2017
Ian Stewart posted a reply to Line Segment in the GMAT Math forum
“Yes, you''re supposed to assume that every side of each quadrilateral is of length 4. So each is a rhombus (a parallelogram with four equal sides). Not sure if you wanted a solution, so stop reading now if you want to do the problem on your own, but the angles in each parallelogram must be ...”
July 25, 2017
Ian Stewart posted a reply to here are 5 locks and 5 keys and each of the 5 keys matches in the Problem Solving forum
“As Matt says, this won''t be relevant to GMAT test takers, so no need to worry about any of this if you''re preparing for the test, but I find it fun to sometimes talk about math problems that are beyond the scope of the test: That is an interesting question, though it does have a fast ...”
July 25, 2017
Ian Stewart posted a reply to If u > 0 and v > 0, which is greater in the Data Sufficiency forum
“Using Statement 1, if u = 1, then u^v = 1^v = 1 and v^u = v^1 = v So the question "which is greater, u^v or v^u?" becomes "which is greater, 1 or v?" We don''t know if v is greater than 1 (we only know that v > 0) so Statement 1 is not sufficient. But when we use ...”
July 25, 2017
Ian Stewart posted a reply to beat this probability Qs in the Problem Solving forum
“In an ordinary deck of cards, 1/4 of the cards are hearts. If a magician spreads out a deck of cards on a table, and asks you to pick one, and you pick the second card from the top, I think everyone would agree the probability that card is a heart is 1/4. If instead, the magician picks the top ...”
July 23, 2017
Ian Stewart posted a reply to Approach is faulty: Experts please comment in the Problem Solving forum
“If you''re asked: "in how many ways can six people be divided into two committees of three, if the order of the two committees does not matter?" (which is not a kind of question I''ve ever seen on the GMAT, incidentally, though I have seen a couple of prep company questions like that) then ...”
July 21, 2017
Ian Stewart posted a reply to Approach is faulty: Experts please comment in the Problem Solving forum
“Your approach is correct, though you could streamline it a bit by ignoring the second committee, which doesn''t matter here. We have 5C2 ways of picking the other two people on Michael''s committee, and when Anthony is on that committee, we have 4 ways to pick the third person, so the answer is ...”
July 21, 2017
“You have 2 choices for the goalkeeper. Because two of the ten don''t play any other position, you have 8 choices left for the forward. I''d prefer it if the question said so explicitly (see below) but because of the question setup, I''ll assume the order of the two defenders and of the two ...”
July 20, 2017
Ian Stewart posted a reply to here are 5 locks and 5 keys and each of the 5 keys matches in the Problem Solving forum
“This should be an SC question. They don''t mean "each key matches each lock" (which would mean every key works in any lock you choose). Instead they mean each key matches a different one of the locks. Nor is it clear what a "trial number of attempts" means - is a trial inserting ...”
July 20, 2017
Ian Stewart posted a reply to Alice, Bobby, Cindy, Daren and Eddy participate in in the Problem Solving forum
“I''m not sure what the phrase "no two or three athletes finish at the same time" is doing in the question - if no two athletes finish at the same time, clearly no three athletes finish at the same time. Anyway, with no restrictions, there are 5! = 120 orders in which they could finish. ...”
July 20, 2017
Ian Stewart posted a reply to An army’s recruitment process included n rounds of selecti in the Problem Solving forum
“In the first a rounds, we keep 2/5 of applicants; in the next b rounds, we keep 1/2 of applicants, and in the final c rounds we keep 7/10 of applicants. So: (2/5)^a * (1/2)^b * (7/10)^c * 10,000 = 1400 Let''s break these numbers down into primes, get integers on both sides, and cancel what we ...”
July 20, 2017
Ian Stewart posted a reply to Which of the following equations has in the Problem Solving forum
“That is not correct. If you have this equation: x = (1/3)*y you''re multiplying y by a non-terminating decimal, but you don''t need something to end in zero to get integer solutions; you can have x = 1 and y = 3 for example. The difficulty in C is that we''re multiplying by √5, which is ...”
July 19, 2017
Ian Stewart posted a reply to What is the greatest possible number of points in the Problem Solving forum
“Same idea as the post above, but using more elementary principles: draw just one circle first. Then draw another - it can intersect the first at 2 points, at most. Then draw a third. It can intersect each of the first two circles at two points, so we can make 4 new intersection points. Similarly the ...”
July 19, 2017
Ian Stewart posted a reply to If the square root of p^2 is an integer greater than 1 in the Problem Solving forum
“The question doesn''t say that p^2 is an integer greater than 1, which is how I think you''ve interpreted it; it says that the square root of p^2 is an integer greater than 1, which means p is an integer and p^2 is the square of an integer. There is one minor issue with the wording - the ...”
July 19, 2017
Ian Stewart posted a reply to If the square root of p^2 is an integer greater than 1 in the Problem Solving forum
“You don''t need to know any particular number theory methods to see why a perfect square always has an odd number of divisors. If you look at a number that is not a square first, all of its divisors will be in pairs. Take the number 12, say: 1 * 12 2 * 6 3 * 4 We have six divisors, which ...”
July 17, 2017
Ian Stewart posted a reply to # 69 2016 OG problem solving in the Problem Solving forum
“N votes were cast in total 40% were by independent voters, so the rest, 60%, were by voters registered with a party. So 60% of N, or 0.6N, votes were cast by voters registered with a party. Ms Robbins received 10% of those votes, so (0.1)*0.6N = 0.06N of those votes. She also received the ...”
July 13, 2017
Ian Stewart posted a reply to easy- medium OG 2016 #63 in the Problem Solving forum
“f(x) = √x - 10 To find f(t), just replace ''x'' with ''t'' on the right side above: f(t) = √t - 10 We know u = f(t) so u = √t - 10 u + 10 = √t (u + 10)^2 = t”
July 13, 2017
Ian Stewart posted a reply to The average of seven numbers in the Problem Solving forum
“The first four numbers add to 4(19) = 76. The last four numbers add to 4(24) = 96. If we add those eight numbers, we get 76+96 = 172, but we''re including the middle number twice in that sum. We know if we only include the middle number once, we get 7(20) = 140, because the average of the whole set ...”
July 13, 2017
Ian Stewart posted a reply to Question Pack 1 CR Q#1 | Revision in the Critical Reasoning forum
“The entire paragraph after "Theatergoer:" is the theatergoer''s argument. You''ve divided that paragraph into two parts, and attributed one part to the theatergoer, and the other part to the author of the CR question. But all of it should be attributed to the theatergoer.”
July 11, 2017
Ian Stewart posted a reply to Number Properties question? in the Problem Solving forum
“I does not need to be true : just let a = 1, b = 2, c = 3. In fact, I can never be true, because if a < b and a < c, then by adding those two inequalities together, you find that 2a < b + c. For II, we know c > b from the question stem. Subtract a on both sides of that inequality, and ...”
July 8, 2017
Ian Stewart posted a reply to Is there an easier way to solve Q 15 diagnostic test OG'16? in the Problem Solving forum
“I''d just use quick estimates here - the way I prefer to do this question is: 2*5 = 10 3*7 is roughly 20 11*19 is roughly 10*20 13*17 is roughly 10*20 so the product is roughly 10*20*10*20*10*20 = 8 * 10^6, which is closest to 10^7. I''d never even contemplate doing any precise ...”
July 7, 2017
Ian Stewart posted a reply to help in the GMAT Math forum
“The squares just take up half the rectangle. There are a few ways to see that. For example, if you divide up the picture into a grid of 8 squares, as I did below, you can see that half of each grid zone is taken up by part of a square, and the other half is taken up by non-square. So the area of ...”
July 7, 2017
Ian Stewart posted a reply to Question type confusion in the Critical Reasoning forum
“Hey Brent! Hope you''ve been doing well. :) Just drop me a line if you ever want to catch up on Skype.”
July 7, 2017
Ian Stewart posted a reply to Question type confusion in the Critical Reasoning forum
“This is really a strengthening question. There''s a missing connection between the plan and the goal: plan: "new courses focused on cooking exotic species of fish, alternative grains such as quinoa, and organically produced vegetables." goal: to appeal to students who want "a ...”
July 7, 2017
lunarpower posted a reply to Strategies for preventing careless mistakes ... in the GMAT Strategy forum
“i see. my apologies, i assumed you were an mba applicant.”
December 4, 2015
lunarpower posted a reply to Strategies for preventing careless mistakes ... in the GMAT Strategy forum
“i know of no such ''formulae'' (and would be constitutionally incapable of remembering them anyway). so... not really. the most important part is marty''s first line: you should play to your strengths. but you should not forget that this entire exam—start to finish—was designed specifically ...”
December 4, 2015
lunarpower posted a reply to Strategies for preventing careless mistakes ... in the GMAT Strategy forum
“you have a 750. congratulations. in this case, i have exactly one piece of advice: don''t take the test again. why would you re-take with a 750?”
December 2, 2015
Ian Stewart posted a reply to GMAT Battle Plan in the GMAT Strategy forum
“You really can''t rely on prep company tests to give you an accurate estimate of your level. If you can take an official test, you''ll get a clearer idea of how close you are to your goal, and how much time you''ll need to get there. If you were 650+ now, then a six-week timeframe is perfectly ...”
August 10, 2015
Ian Stewart posted a reply to High-Level Math Help in the GMAT Math forum
“To clear one thing up from a post above - the computer version of the GMAT was calibrated against the paper tests, so the scores are perfectly comparable. GMAT questions are harder now than before (since ACT started developing the test), but you need to get fewer of the questions right to get the ...”
August 8, 2015
Ian Stewart posted a reply to Number Line in the Problem Solving forum
“Neither statement is sufficient alone, as we''ll see when we combine them. Using both, we know xy < 0, and (xy)(z) < 0, so z must be positive. We also know that x is closer to z than it is to y, and that x and y have opposite signs (because xy < 0). But that still leaves us with possible ...”
August 8, 2015
lunarpower posted a reply to When people engage in the Critical Reasoning forum
“BENEFIT #3 of translating CR into ''conversation'': you''ll have to simplify the language of the passage (= ''explain to a 9-year-old'', as i''m always saying). normal people don''t talk in the language of dense formal text; rather, they talk like ... well, normal people. our brains are ...”
July 24, 2015
lunarpower posted a reply to When people engage in the Critical Reasoning forum
“BENEFIT #2 of translating CR into ''conversation'': you''ll be able to anticipate where the passage is going. consider: When freelance writers are offered full-time staff positions, very few of them accept. Some people try to explain this by... if this is a conversation, you can predict ...”
July 24, 2015
lunarpower posted a reply to When people engage in the Critical Reasoning forum
“BENEFIT #1 of translating CR into ''conversation'': you''ll ALWAYS catch important transitions—even if they are ''tiny little words''. this is the issue in your posts here. in an actual conversation, there is NO WAY you would miss ''Some people think...'', and there is also NO WAY you would ...”
July 24, 2015
lunarpower posted a reply to When people engage in the Critical Reasoning forum
“you''re welcome. by the way, you may have noticed that i haven''t posted here regularly in some time—i''ve been too busy on our own (MPrep) forum. if you don''t hear from me here (and the source is allowed on our forum) you may want to try your luck over there. the best fix for this ^^ ...”
July 24, 2015
lunarpower posted a reply to When people engage in the Critical Reasoning forum
“forgot the footnote— **i can only think of two exceptions: 1/ a religious authority (e.g., if a Christian says Jesus said X, or if a Muslim says Muhammad taught that X, then (s)he is probably going to agree with ''X''); 2/ a beloved mentor/parent/etc (e.g., My father always ...”
July 24, 2015
lunarpower posted a reply to When people engage in the Critical Reasoning forum
“more directly... in EVERYDAY CONVERSATION, Some people say... is almost invariably** followed by something with which the speaker DOES NOT agree. (at the very least, the speaker will generally entertain the possibility that whatever ''some people say'' is false.) if this is not obvious, just ...”
July 24, 2015
lunarpower posted a reply to When people engage in the Critical Reasoning forum
“of these two ''arrows'', only the first is actually substantiated by the passage. as far as the second arrow, note that the passage says... It has been suggested that regular release of endorphins increases people’s longevity ...in other words, ''Some people say endorphins make you live ...”
July 24, 2015
lunarpower posted a reply to When people engage in the Critical Reasoning forum
“here''s how the problem works if you make the substitution i described above. * people who wear dresses live longer than people who don''t. (this is a statistical FACT. we want to explain it.) * it''s doubtful that wearing dresses actually extends a person''s life span, so we need another ...”
July 17, 2015
lunarpower posted a reply to When people engage in the Critical Reasoning forum
“if you are still confused, just replace ''volunteer'' with ''wear dresses'', and that should make the logic easier to understand. i will explain in more detail below. but, BEFORE YOU SCROLL DOWN TO THE NEXT POST, actually make that substitution (take out ''volunteer'' and put in ''wear ...”
July 17, 2015
lunarpower posted a reply to When people engage in the Critical Reasoning forum
“interesting... resurrecting a thread that''s almost 4 years old! nope. first, you should IMMEDIATELY reject this interpretation, because this is not how the GMAT operates. we''re trying to show that this is NOT a cause/effect relationship. so, NO answer choice will state (DIRECTLY) ...”
July 17, 2015
Ian Stewart posted a reply to Planning to take GMAT for first time in the GMAT Strategy forum
“I''d be curious to know what you base that on. GMAC''s own research says the opposite: http://www.mba.com/global/the-gmat-blog-hub/the-official-gmat-blog/2013/sep/study-smart-for-your-best-gmat.aspx Notice from the tables that median study time (which is the relevant number if we''re ...”
July 7, 2015
Ian Stewart posted a reply to Math Language - 'Factor' in the GMAT Math forum
“The phrase "two factors of 10" means "two divisors of 10", so would refer to two numbers in the list: 1, 2, 5, 10. But that phrase is, in some sources, used imprecisely to mean something more like "two factors equal to 10", when the term "factor" is being ...”
July 7, 2015
Ian Stewart posted a reply to How many 3s in the Problem Solving forum
“You have the right answer - we''d write ''3'' as a units digit exactly 20 times, and as a tens digit exactly 20 times, so we''d write the digit 40 times in total. ''38'' is the answer to a different question: how many whole numbers between 1 and 200 contain the digit ''3''? Because the answer to ...”
July 5, 2015
Ian Stewart posted a reply to wine in the Data Sufficiency forum
“We can draw a Venn diagram, with one circle for people who like red wine, and one for people who like white wine. If x people like only white wine, the question tells us 3x people like only red wine. So our Venn has the following zones, using ''b'' for the number who like both: like only red: 3x ...”
July 3, 2015
Ian Stewart posted a reply to average in the Data Sufficiency forum
“We can do the problem algebraically - the question is asking if (w + x + y + z)/4 > y, or in other words if w + x + y + z > 4y. Using Statement 1, we can replace "w+z" in the question with "x+y", so our question becomes: Is w + x + y + z > 4y ? Is x + y + x + y ...”
July 3, 2015
Ian Stewart posted a reply to DS in the Data Sufficiency forum
“The formula in the question makes this look complicated, but really we''re just making an investment, and applying interest twice (with compounding). There''s no need to even look at the formula. If we know the exact size of the investment, and exactly how much interest we earn in two years, we ...”
July 3, 2015
Ian Stewart posted a reply to The number of ways of arranging n students in the Problem Solving forum
“If we increase something by 200%, we are multiplying it by 3. There is a conceptual solution here, but it''s more complicated than backsolving, so let''s just test answers. If you have, say, 10 students, 5 boys and 5 girls, there will be two ways to arrange them: BGBGBGBGBG or ...”
July 1, 2015
Ian Stewart posted a reply to In the xy coordinate plane, which of the following in the Problem Solving forum
“I''d do exactly what Brent did, but maybe it''s useful to see a bit more of the theory here. If we write the equation of any line in the form y = mx + b, then m is the slope of the line, and b is the y-intercept (where the line meets the y-axis). So if we rewrite the equation above in that form, we ...”
July 1, 2015
Ian Stewart posted a reply to Data Sufficiency in the Problem Solving forum
“This is a GMATPrep question. There are several ways to solve, but if you can label an unknown angle with a letter in a question like this, and then use the basic angles facts to express every other angle in terms of that letter, you''ll be able to answer any similar question, so that''s the approach ...”
July 1, 2015
Ian Stewart posted a reply to Selecting door in the Problem Solving forum
“It''s not clear what the question means, because the wording is not precise. I''d assume that we can use the same door to enter and leave, and that it matters which door we use to enter, and which we use to leave. Under those assumptions, we have 3 choices for the enter door, and 3 for the exit ...”
July 1, 2015
Ian Stewart posted a reply to Explain pls in the Data Sufficiency forum
“I do not base my opinions about the scope of the GMAT solely on what is found in the OG, and I do not understand why you''d make that insinuation. I do base those opinions on the 5,000-10,000 official Quant questions I''ve seen. I''ve seen exactly two real questions where a test taker might ...”
July 1, 2015
Ian Stewart posted a reply to Algebra in the Data Sufficiency forum
“If x=b, then our question becomes: "Does x = 9 - x^2 ? " or rewriting, the question becomes "Does x^2 + x - 9 = 0? " The answer to that question is almost always ''no'' (for example, if x=0, the answer is ''no''). The answer can also be ''yes'', since that quadratic ...”
July 1, 2015
Ian Stewart posted a reply to algebra in the Data Sufficiency forum
“Statement 2 is not sufficient, because a and b might be, among other possibilities, 2 and 1, or 4 and -1, and ab can have different values. For Statement 1, we have: a = ab - 1 1 = ab - a 1 = a(b-1) So we know that a and b-1 are integers which multiply together to give 1. That can only ...”
July 1, 2015
Ian Stewart posted a reply to Geometry in the Data Sufficiency forum
“It''s a bit hard to read the diagram, but I assume the length of ZW is given to be 1. Statement 1 is not sufficient, because we have no information about angle b, so about where point Z is, and that information is crucial. If Z and W are very close together, a line of length 1 is very short in ...”
July 1, 2015
Ian Stewart posted a reply to time to fill a pool in the Problem Solving forum
“Two of the slow outlets would fill the pool in 4.5 hours, and two of the fast outlets would fill the pool in 2.5 hours. Since we have one slow outlet and one fast outlet, the answer must be strictly between 2.5 and 4.5, and D is the only possible answer.”
June 26, 2015
Ian Stewart posted a reply to Percent Problem in the Problem Solving forum
“When you increase something by 50%, you multiply it by 1.5, or 3/2. So in this question, when we go forward 50 years, the population is multiplied by 3/2. So if instead we want to go back in time 50 years, we''d multiply by 2/3. To go from 810 to 160, we need to multiply by 160/810 = 16/81 = (4/9)^2 ...”
June 24, 2015
Ian Stewart posted a reply to RTW (nails) in the Problem Solving forum
“I''d normally just solve a problem like this from start to finish, but if you understand what the letters represent here, and know how rates problems work, you can pick the right answer very quickly. A+B together need to do the job in less time than A alone, so x < y. It clearly needs to be ...”
June 24, 2015
Ian Stewart posted a reply to weight problem in the Problem Solving forum
“Mitch''s solution is obviously fastest, but there is a no-variable solution we can use if the answer choices don''t allow for any trick: if Jake loses 8 pounds, then together they''ll weigh 270 pounds, and if Jake would then weigh twice as much as his sister, the ratio of their weights is 2 to 1, so ...”
June 24, 2015
Ian Stewart posted a reply to PS-OG#112 in the Problem Solving forum
“''Normal distributions'' are never tested on the GMAT, and test takers should not spend any time studying them. The question in the post above is not about a normal distribution; it just happens to use a number (68%) that we also see when working with normal distributions. The question in the OP is ...”
June 22, 2015
Ian Stewart posted a reply to DS in the Data Sufficiency forum
“Neither statement is sufficient alone - looking at S2, for example, if one person eats exactly 3 slices, then there are 29 slices left, and 29 people left. So it''s certainly possible that everyone had one slice, but we have no way to know for sure. When we use both statements, we know that 5 ...”
June 22, 2015
Ian Stewart posted a reply to GMAT OG, Archaeologist: Researchers excavating a burial site in the Critical Reasoning forum
“The argument essentially says: "a cat was buried with a person. Therefore the cat was domesticated." There''s a huge leap in that argument - why does "buried with a person" mean "domesticated"? It''s only a good argument if we know that an animal will be buried ...”
June 22, 2015
Ian Stewart posted a reply to 51-60 math in the GMAT Math forum
“The highest Quant score you can get is 51. The "0-60" range was used a very long, long time ago, but now the range in Quant and in Verbal is 6-51 only. Your Quant is obviously very strong already, but if you are scoring Q48 on GMATPrep tests with no study, it''s very likely you can ...”
June 21, 2015
Ian Stewart posted a reply to CR in the Critical Reasoning forum
“Answer A only discusses one point, but the question stem already addresses the other two points. The stem essentially says " X and Y are true, and if X, Y and Z are true, then Q is true." From that, you only need to know if Z is true to determine that Q will be true. Here X, Y and Z ...”
June 20, 2015
Ian Stewart posted a reply to Sets in the Data Sufficiency forum
“We want to know how many of the 250 students mentioned in the stem are in student government but not in debate (everyone is in at least one of the two groups, so if someone is not in debate, he or she must be in government only). Using Statement 1, we know 80 are not in government, so the rest, ...”
June 20, 2015
Ian Stewart posted a reply to Mean,median,SD in the Problem Solving forum
“Your understanding is correct, I think, but it''s not clear what the question is asking - is it asking whether the median could change, or whether it must change? Those are very different questions. We know the standard deviation must drop, and the mean must stay the same. The median might stay ...”
June 20, 2015
Ian Stewart posted a reply to Word Problem in the Problem Solving forum
“I assume those are meant to be fractions, so 3/4 answer no to the first question, and 2/3 of those answer yes to the second question. Then (3/4)Y people answer no to the first question. If 2/3 of these answer yes to the second question, the rest, or 1/3, must answer no. So (1/3)(3/4)Y = (1/4)Y ...”
June 19, 2015
Ian Stewart posted a reply to CR in the Critical Reasoning forum
“Where is this question from? The answer has to be A, because no other answer is supported at all, but it''s a very strange question, that requires a lot of unfounded assumptions. We know the company''s executives have "abnormally active thyroids", skip breakfast and eat fast food, and do ...”
June 19, 2015
Ian Stewart posted a reply to Cat & Owners in the Data Sufficiency forum
“I gather we''re meant to assume that cats all have 4 legs, and owners all have 2 legs. Then if we have c cats, and ø owners, Statement 1 tells us that 4c + 2ø = 84 which has a lot of possible positive integer solutions, and Statement 2 tells us that c - ø = 6 which also has a lot of ...”
June 19, 2015
Ian Stewart posted a reply to Doubt in the Data Sufficiency forum
“If we let c and r be, respectively, the value of the company and rival stock last month, we know they changed as follows: company: c ---> 0.9c rival: r ---> 1.1r The question asks us to find 1.1r/c, or 1.1(r/c), so if we can find r/c, we can answer the question. Statement 1 ...”
June 18, 2015
Ian Stewart posted a reply to Explain pls in the Data Sufficiency forum
“Just to find a fraction a/b here that works with Statement 2, you need to expand 1/7 to five decimal places, which is not the kind of thing you''d ever need to do on a real GMAT question. So this isn''t a realistic problem, and I wouldn''t worry about it. And one small correction: 1/7 is ...”
June 18, 2015
Ian Stewart posted a reply to GMAT Newbie 580GMAT Prep 2 months until the real thing in the GMAT Strategy forum
“I agree with the post above that you''re in a good starting position, and you should definitely make a lot of progress with good preparation. Your highest priority now should be to review the basics of math (how to work with fractions and ratios, how to solve simple equations, etc) since that''s a ...”
June 18, 2015
Ian Stewart started following yearzack
June 17, 2015
Ian Stewart posted a reply to Tough Probability Q in the Problem Solving forum
“This is a really tedious question - we want values of x that make x(x+1) divisible by 2^2 * 3^2. Since we''re multiplying consecutive integers, we''re multiplying two numbers with a GCD of 1, so only one of them can possibly be divisible by 3, and we know then that one of x or x+1 is a multiple of ...”
June 16, 2015
Ian Stewart posted a reply to DS Geometry in the Data Sufficiency forum
“I can count at least three mistakes in that official explanation. Where is it from?”
June 16, 2015
Ian Stewart posted a reply to Which one is a better strategy for guessing for verbal? in the GMAT Strategy forum
“Improving your overall Verbal pacing would obviously be the best thing to do. If you haven''t already, you should experiment with different strategies, to find which gives you the best balance between speed and accuracy. People are different, and have different skills (read at different speeds, ...”
June 16, 2015
Ian Stewart posted a reply to DS Algebra in the Data Sufficiency forum
“You can also see why S2 is sufficient using algebra. We can see that when r=s=t=1 we can get a ''yes'' answer to the question. We want to know if it is possible to get a ''no'' answer. That is, we want to know when it will be true that rst > 1. Using S2, we know that st = 2 - r. If we replace ...”
June 16, 2015
Ian Stewart posted a reply to A Tough CR Question: Choices seem pretty similar in the Critical Reasoning forum
“The argument is essentially: • A has better VO2-max than B after moderate activity • So A will have better VO2-max than B after intensive activity We''re comparing two different situations - moderate activity and intensive activity. We''re assuming the comparison in the first ...”
June 15, 2015
Ian Stewart posted a reply to T-1 Month in the GMAT Strategy forum
“If you have only one month to test day, I''d not recommend using any tests besides the official ones. Some company tests are decent, but none come all that close to simulating the real thing. The official tests and question pack aren''t expensive, so I''d definitely invest in those if you''ll have ...”
June 15, 2015
Ian Stewart posted a reply to Abs Value in the Data Sufficiency forum
“Mitch - I think you mean "x < 0" at the end there, and not "x < -2", so you might want to edit your post.”
June 14, 2015
Ian Stewart posted a reply to Abs Value 2 in the Data Sufficiency forum
“The answer to the question will almost always be yes, but if y can be 0, the answer can be no. So if you let, say, x=2 and y=1, then both statements are true, and the answer to the question is ''yes''. But if you let x=2 and y=0, then both statements are true, and the answer to the question is ...”
June 13, 2015
Ian Stewart posted a reply to Abs Value in the Data Sufficiency forum
“We can first work out when the answer to the question will be ''yes''. If x^12 - 2x^11 is negative, then x^12 - 2x^11 < 0 We can safely divide by x^10 on both sides without worrying about whether to reverse the inequality, since x^10 cannot be negative (it is an even power of x), so we ...”
June 13, 2015
Ian Stewart posted a reply to Budget policy - Weaken Question in the Critical Reasoning forum
“We want to identify the "best basis for a criticism of the Central Valley’s budgeting policy as an economically sound budgeting method". So the right answer absolutely needs to give a reason why the policy might not be "economically sound". That''s a vague phrase, more vague ...”
June 13, 2015
Ian Stewart posted a reply to Tricky Inference Question. in the Critical Reasoning forum
“I agree with you that the "right answer" here is incorrect. We know the company renovated to comply with government regulations. We have no basis to conclude anything at all about the company''s employees -- in fact, we don''t even know the company has any employees. It''s a logical error ...”
June 12, 2015
Ian Stewart posted a reply to Gmat Club Math Test in the GMAT Strategy forum
“I have an issue with descriptions that make GMAT scoring sound like something other than what it is - that is, descriptions that make it seem that GMAT scoring takes account of factors other than test taker ability. Most of the factors you list simply are not part of the GMAT algorithm. Question ...”
June 8, 2015
Ian Stewart posted a reply to What is the number of 7-element subsets of the set in the Problem Solving forum
“If you subtract one multiple of 3 from another, you''ll always get a multiple of 3. The sum of the values in the set is 45, which is a multiple of 3. So if we remove two elements which sum to a multiple of 3, we''ll get a 7-element subset which must sum to a multiple of 3. So we really just ...”
June 8, 2015
Ian Stewart posted a reply to An automated manufacturing unit employs N experts such in the Problem Solving forum
“We may as well assume our lowest salary is 0, our median is 5, and our largest is 10. So our set looks something like this: 0, a, b, c, ..., 5, d, e, f, ... 10 Now if we want to make the mean of this set as large as possible, we want to make every element as large as possible, so that the sum ...”
June 8, 2015
Ian Stewart posted a reply to Daily GMAT Math Q - explain in the Problem Solving forum
“After we give Bob his $4, we know that he gets 1/3 of what''s left, and Chloe gets 2/3 of what''s left, so Chloe gets twice as much as Bob (not counting Bob''s extra$4). Since Chloe got $32, Bob got$16. We need to add back Bob''s additional $4, so the answer is$20.”
June 5, 2015
Ian Stewart posted a reply to Advice on improving from a V42 to a V46? in the GMAT Verbal & Essays forum
“There''s a style and logic to the hardest real GMAT Verbal questions that prep company questions do not replicate. I would not advise you use any questions for practice besides official ones. It can be very difficult to improve in Verbal once you''re near the top of the scoring scale, but that ...”
June 5, 2015
Ian Stewart posted a reply to Area of non paved area in the Data Sufficiency forum
“I disagree with both of you. :) We only need one measurement here, but we do need it. From the diagram, the paving does not extend all the way from the left end of the lawn to the right end. We need to know just how far it extends horizontally. So we need one measurement, but only one. You can ...”
June 4, 2015
Ian Stewart posted a reply to First GMAT Exam in July in the GMAT Strategy forum
“I''d very rarely advise studying one section and not the other for an extended period of time. It''s too easy to regress in Quant without regular work. I''m not familiar with the study guide you''re using, but if it advises focusing exclusively on Verbal for a long time, I don''t think that''s good ...”
June 4, 2015
“Say the equilateral triangle has sides of length x. Its perimeter is 3x. Say the rectangle has dimensions L and W, where W < L. Its perimeter is 2W + 2L. If we''ve assumed W < L, then the rectangle''s perimeter is thus greater than 2W + 2W = 4W. We know that the triangle''s perimeter ...”
June 4, 2015
Ian Stewart posted a reply to Data Sufficiency - Standard Deviation problem in the Data Sufficiency forum
“Not only does this question test content that can never appear on the GMAT, the question is also just mathematically wrong, as I explained in a post here about five years ago. Ignore this question, and all other questions from the same source about normal distributions. Studying them will be a waste ...”
June 4, 2015
Ian Stewart posted a reply to Mistake in GMAT DS videos?! in the Data Sufficiency forum
“Let''s first look at a simpler equation more likely to resemble what you''d see on the GMAT: ab = a You cannot just divide by a on both sides here and conclude that b=1, because it might be true that a=0, and you can never divide by 0. If you want to solve this equation by dividing by a, you ...”
June 4, 2015
Ian Stewart posted a reply to How much has the GMAT changed since 2011? in the GMAT Strategy forum
“The Q and V sections of the test have not changed much, though it might be helpful to note the following: • There is a much bigger supply of official questions for practice. You can now buy two additional GMATPrep tests (in addition to the two free ones), and there''s a large Question Pack you ...”
June 1, 2015
Ian Stewart posted a reply to Divisibility Problem in the Data Sufficiency forum
“We know PS = QR. This means that PS and QR are exactly the same number. In particular, PS and QR must have exactly the same divisors. We only care about dividing by 5. Statement 2 is clearly not sufficient alone. From Statement 1, we learn that PS is divisible by 5, so QR must be. But we can''t ...”
May 30, 2015
Ian Stewart posted a reply to Extremely Confused. in the GMAT Math forum
“I don''t want to comment about specific companies, but no company test perfectly replicates the real GMAT. None use the real scoring algorithm, and in some lower quality tests, the style of question is so different from the style of real GMAT questions that the test would barely be measuring GMAT ...”
May 30, 2015
Ian Stewart posted a reply to Statistics in the Problem Solving forum
“This actually is a real GMAT question, from one of the oldest versions of GMATPrep (though the original wording says "closest to" and not "close to"). It is, however, very different from almost every other standard deviation question I''ve seen. It''s actually unlike almost every ...”
May 29, 2015
Ian Stewart posted a reply to Troubling Statistics in the Data Sufficiency forum
“The source might say Statement 1 is sufficient, because by ''set'' they might mean the true mathematical definition of ''set'' - in math, a set is a group of distinct things. But if that''s what they mean, there''s really a problem with the question, because real GMAT questions don''t test if you ...”
May 29, 2015
Ian Stewart posted a reply to Test in less than a week, expected score? in the GMAT Strategy forum
“You should trust your GMATPrep scores more than any other test scores if you want to estimate your level. So as a best guess, your level right now is in the 620-630 range. Assuming you perform to your abilities on test day, and don''t improve between now and then, that would be your expected score. ...”
May 29, 2015
Ian Stewart posted a reply to function f(a) in the Data Sufficiency forum
“When n is odd, f(n) = 3n - 9, which is an even number. When n is even, f(n) = 2n - 7, which is an odd number. So if we plug in an odd value, we get an even value back, and if we plug in an even value, we get an odd value back. If you notice that the function flips between even and odd, you can ...”
May 29, 2015
Ian Stewart posted a reply to low score on second attempt in the GMAT Strategy forum
“If you didn''t cancel the 580 score, then it will be on your score report that schools see, at least as long as it''s not from many years ago. Schools see an entire history of your GMAT attempts from the last five years. Schools can have differing policies when test takers have taken the GMAT more ...”
May 28, 2015
Ian Stewart posted a reply to Problem solving in the Data Sufficiency forum
“If a point is inside the circle, its distance from the circle''s center is less than the radius. The point (-2, 1) is exactly 4 units above the center (-2, -3), so if that point is inside the circle, the radius must be greater than 4. Similarly, if a point is outside a circle, its distance from ...”
May 28, 2015
Ian Stewart posted a reply to Area of a triangle in the Problem Solving forum
“David - I think you have a couple of typos at the end here, so you might want to edit your post - instead of "32 root3" and "64 root3", I think you meant to write "32 / root3" and "64 / root3".”
May 27, 2015
Ian Stewart posted a reply to Area of a triangle in the Problem Solving forum
“You can solve even if you don''t know the 30-60-90 ratios. When you draw a height between two equal sides of any isosceles triangle, and in particular in an equilateral triangle, you are always cutting the base exactly in half. So if the length of one side of the equilateral triangle here is x, then ...”
May 27, 2015
Ian Stewart posted a reply to Pls explain in the Critical Reasoning forum
“This question is testing a logical error known as Survivorship Bias. The writer is discussing hotels built before 1930 that the writer has personally visited, but then draws a conclusion about the quality of workmanship in all hotels built before 1930. But if only the good hotels have survived - if ...”
May 26, 2015
Ian Stewart posted a reply to Important Tricks/shortcuts on GMAT Quant in the GMAT Math forum
“People use the word ''trick'' to mean a variety of things. Sometimes people mean test-taking ''tricks'' like ''backsolving'' or ''picking numbers''. Sometimes people mean mathematical ''tricks'', like using units digits or divisibility properties to pick a right answer without doing any real ...”
May 25, 2015
Ian Stewart posted a reply to Need help in the GMAT Math forum
“This is very definitely not a GMAT question - logarithms and trig functions are not part of the GMAT. So GMAT test takers should definitely ignore it. I''m confused looking at the problem, for two reasons - I don''t know why the ''2'' in front of the first log is written as a superscript. I ...”
May 25, 2015
Ian Stewart posted a reply to Absolute Values in the Data Sufficiency forum
“Statement 2 is sufficient alone. There are two ways to see that - we have 3x - 2 = |x| 3x = |x| + 2 Notice now that |x| + 2 must be a positive number (since we''re adding 2 to something which is zero or greater), so 3x is equal to a positive number, which means x must be positive. If x is ...”
May 24, 2015
Ian Stewart posted a reply to x,y are positive integers. Find the number of even factors in the Data Sufficiency forum
“Thanks Brent! Hope you''re doing well. :)”
May 24, 2015
Ian Stewart posted a reply to x,y are positive integers. Find the number of even factors in the Data Sufficiency forum
“If you have a prime factorization, written in the normal way (using exponents), the power on the 2 always tells you the ratio of the number of even factors to the number of odd factors. So for example, if you have this number: 2^5 * 3^4 * 7^3 then because ''5'' is the power on the 2, the ratio ...”
May 24, 2015
Ian Stewart posted a reply to Analyzing MGMAT CR Cat in the GMAT Verbal & Essays forum
“I would not suggest trying to use a single prep company test to evaluate your level in CR and SC. A lot of company tests provide detailed diagnostic information to test takers, breaking down performance by question type. It''s important to recognize that this kind of information becomes increasingly ...”
May 22, 2015
Ian Stewart posted a reply to What to infer from Kaplan /Manhattan /GMATPrep High scores? in the GMAT Strategy forum
“You should only be using GMATPrep tests if you want to get a good estimate of your current level. Prep company tests will not give you very accurate estimates for a few reasons, and some of your company test scores don''t make sense. You''d never get a Q51 on the real GMAT with twelve mistakes in ...”
May 22, 2015
January 29, 2015
David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Panicking about the clock is killing my score in the GMAT Strategy forum
“Marty is right that you need to focus on getting questions right and stop thinking so much about the clock! Basically it comes down to this: The key to scoring as well as you are capable of is Focusing on the question in front of you. If you think you can get the question right in 3 minutes ...”
January 28, 2015
David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Recommendation on # of tutoring hours? in the GMAT Strategy forum
“Just a little help in Sentence Correction can go a long way. Even a couple of hours of tutoring can point you in the right direction. More work is a great idea but you just need to know what you are trying to learn from that studying. Sounds like most of your focus will still be on Quant?”
January 25, 2015
David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Manhattan GMAT Interact vs Veritas Prep On Demand in the GMAT Strategy forum
“Peter - As you said the reviews for Veritas on Demand are great. But you want to see for yourself so you should definitely take advantage of the opportunity for a free trial to see what works for you. You can try Veritas on Demand for free at the link: ...”
January 23, 2015
David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Recommendation on # of tutoring hours? in the GMAT Strategy forum
“I am actually not sure about that. I think that your broker is going to be the expert to speak to for that!”
January 23, 2015
David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Recommendation on # of tutoring hours? in the GMAT Strategy forum
“Your verbal score is fantastic and if you did not really study the first time around that score should still be great if you do a little practice. You might just be a natural on the verbal section. As for Quant, you asked: You can only score up to a 51 at this point on Quant. So you can ...”
January 20, 2015
lunarpower posted a reply to Tax on water bill in the Sentence Correction forum
“on the other hand, "in which", "from which", "to which", etc. can appear either with or without a comma: I saw a play that was reviewed in the local newspaper. I saw a play in which one of my friends plays a starring role. ("in" + "that" = ...”
January 19, 2015
lunarpower posted a reply to Tax on water bill in the Sentence Correction forum
“if the modifier starts with "which", it should be preceded by a comma. (in the standard american usage endorsed by GMAC, "which" without a comma becomes "that".)”
January 19, 2015
David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Last three weeks of Prep.. in the GMAT Strategy forum
“Try the Veritas Prep free exam. If you like it there is a package of 6 more questions available for purchase. These are the top of the line for non-GMATPrep exams. Fully adaptive based on 9.5 million (at this moment) responses from Veritas question bank. ...”
January 9, 2015
David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Don't register your exam until last minute! in the GMAT Strategy forum
“You make some good points. However, the conditions in your area are not necessarily the conditions in other areas. People in other locations might find that they need to do something a little different. To your points: 1) You will probably not know 2 weeks ahead of time if something ...”
December 30, 2014
lunarpower posted a reply to Tobacco SC in the Sentence Correction forum
“good observation. in the context of the original sentence, the red "it" is the cigarette itself. that is an actual conflict (with the immediately preceding "it", which is used to refer to something else). notice that there''s no "vagueness"; the problem is that ...”
December 24, 2014
lunarpower posted a reply to Tobacco SC in the Sentence Correction forum
“^^ there''s no reason why they should be parallel, since they aren''t in a parallel construction. "slowing" is a modifier. modifiers NEVER have to be parallel to the stuff they modify. if we change "entering..." to "that enters..." (but leave "slowing" ...”
December 24, 2014
lunarpower posted a reply to Tobacco SC in the Sentence Correction forum
“in context, it''s clear that "it" = oxygen, and oxygen is a singular noun. for the GMAT, that''s good enough. more importantly, talking about "vague pronouns" sets a bad precedent for the GMAT, which tests no such thing. if the GMAT tests a pronoun error, that error will be ...”
December 24, 2014
lunarpower posted a reply to Tobacco SC in the Sentence Correction forum
“i received a private message about this thread. ^^ not really. clearly, oxygen does enter a cigarette at some point in time. and, in a different context, this sort of construction could totally make sense. e.g., This cigarette causes oxygen to cool rapidly when the oxygen enters the filter ...”
December 24, 2014
David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Veritas CAT vs. actual GMAT in the GMAT Strategy forum
“Congrats on a great practice test score! With that said, you never want to trust a single practice test score. It would be a great idea to take the GMATPrep official practice test @ MBA.com as well. If you get a similar score on that exam then you will know that you are in this range of scores. ...”
December 9, 2014
David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to MGMAT 5 | Assumption in the Critical Reasoning forum
“I applaud this question for pointing to a very important issue. And I am talking about the subject matter. A recent New York Times article pointed out the importance of not eating anything within 3 hours of your bedtime. It turns out that eating late is a major cause of insomnia, allergies, nasal ...”
November 26, 2014
David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Bacteria in Washing machines in the Critical Reasoning forum
“Although the question stem is a little different, this is an assumption question. On the actual GMAT nearly every assumption question will say "assumption" or "assumes." In this case "The argument above will not hold unless which of the following statements holds ...”
November 24, 2014
David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Veritas Prep CATS - Easy or Hard? in the GMAT Strategy forum
“Jesse - When did you take that test? What time of day? What had you been doing before that? The decisions you make during the day are cumulative and trying to take an exam after any sort of long or stressful day can be a disaster. I know that this is going to sound a little unrealistic, but ...”
November 24, 2014
David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to GMAT - Where to begin? in the GMAT Strategy forum
“You have given some important details. But there are some other things to consider before you choose your preparation strategy. Certainly you will need to take a practice test, that is a given. Do not study before this test beyond simply doing a few problems to familiarize yourself with the ...”
November 24, 2014
David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Verbal/Quant resources/recs to improve from 690 to 700+? in the GMAT Strategy forum
“690 is a great score. I understand the desire to see what you are capable of (and improve your application profile as well). Have you used the GMATPrep Prep Pack 1? This delivers over 400 official GMAT questions and you can make quizzes that you take on the computer, which can be more useful for ...”
November 18, 2014
David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to 40hrs a week? in the GMAT Strategy forum
“To be honest, as you move up in hours you will likely move down in return for your time invested. 70 hours per work is too much. That is 10 hours per day. Rich mentioned burnout and this a big concern. But there is also the fact that with so much studying you may actually end up doing things ...”
November 17, 2014
David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Need help in the GMAT Strategy forum
“You should also consider purchasing the two additional GMATPrep exams. $50 U.S. is expensive for just two exams, but they are official practice tests so they are worth it. These are in addition to the two free tests that you already used. Have you tried the Veritas Prep practice tests? You can ...” November 15, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Canceling score? in the GMAT Strategy forum “I totally agree with Rich. Some people may cancel a score and find after a couple of more real GMAT exams that it is the best score out of all their attempts. It is also true that you may get into a school with a score that you personally think is "not good enough." I would reserve ...” November 14, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Canceling score? in the GMAT Strategy forum “Well, since you have already seen your score that eliminates the major disadvantage that used to be there - not knowing what you scored. So you would only cancel your score if you got a low result. The school does know that you canceled but they do not seem to hold that against you - perhaps ...” November 14, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Desperate to improve from 710 to 730+ in the GMAT Strategy forum “As Rich mentioned, GMAC has two additional official tests for purchase. These are the newest and best option for two more tests. The price for those is currently about$50 US. You can access those through MBA.com and add them to your free GMATPrep software For $49 dollars you can get 7 total ...” November 13, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Evaluating Argument! in the Critical Reasoning forum “OA is A. Please see both of the Chris@VeritasPrep explanations on the prior page. The interesting thing about this question is that everyone seems to take it the wrong way. For example, many people go for answer choice C, but choice C is not even in the ballpark. The conclusion is a ...” November 13, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Veritas Prep CATS - Easy or Hard? in the GMAT Strategy forum “That can be the difference MGMAT tests generally score pretty hard (low). And if the Veritas test scored you a little high that could be 90 points right there. Have you taken the GMATPrep tests?” November 5, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Veritas Prep CATS - Easy or Hard? in the GMAT Strategy forum “If you scored 90 points higher than your other CATS on any exam I would consider that an outlier. If the other tests you have taken were pretty recent then something about this exam just really worked for you. You might have guessed well on the math questions where you guessed. It may be that ...” November 5, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Think I Need A GMAT Prep Reboot in the GMAT Strategy forum “You can get started right now. Be committed to getting your score by March. Get back to the skillbuilders from your Veritas materials. Schedule your free retake of the Veritas course. There is so much to learn that many people do take the course twice. I will contact you with a message ...” November 5, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Think I Need A GMAT Prep Reboot in the GMAT Strategy forum “theo - Here is hoping that tomorrow you rise up and get that score! But I want you to understand that if you do not, there is no need to worry. I have a plan for you to get that score by March. Your Veritas Course comes with a free retake. Since you were not able to get the most out of the ...” November 4, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Does time counts as extra points if I answer fast? in the GMAT Strategy forum “Not only does time not matter in terms of the way the computer sees your answer, but trying to answer questions in 30 seconds will cause you to make LOTS of careless mistakes - and that WILL lower your score. Don''t "try" to be quick, be accurate, and as you become more efficient some ...” November 4, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Kaplan Premier CAT tests vs real ones in the GMAT Strategy forum “It is certainly true that not all practice Tests are created equal. And it is certainly true that if I was only going to take 4 practice tests those would be the two free GMATPrep Tests and the Two GMATPrep Exam Pack 1 tests for purchase. However, it is also true that not all third-party tests ...” November 3, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Doubt CR 1 in the Critical Reasoning forum “This is a question that seems difficult as you are reading the stimulus, but only has one possible answer. Here is the key text: So, interfering with deep sleep can aggravate or cause fibromyalgia. How? Well the last three sentences tell us that normally during sleep the nervous system ...” November 3, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Average adult in the Critical Reasoning forum “The difference between D and E is that "height" - mentioned in choice E - has a direct to connection to Body Mass Index, ideal weight, being overweight etc. So a taller person could be 11 pounds heavier and not be overweight. However, an older person should actually weigh less do to the ...” November 2, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Comparisons: when to add a word? in the Sentence Correction forum “This is a great explanation Mitch!” October 30, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Evaluate the argument in the Critical Reasoning forum “The correct answer to a "Most Useful to Know in order to Evaluate" type of question will be a fact or question that can either strengthen or weaken the conclusion depending on the information. Here is an example. "Restaurant X has more customers per night than Restaurant Y, so X ...” October 29, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Comparisons: when to add a word? in the Sentence Correction forum “The first example is a echoing a verb. The verb being echoed is "spends." So you should read the second sentence in the first example as "The US spends more money on health care than Canada spends." The word "does" echoes the word "spends" and sounds ...” October 29, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Criminals released from prison on parole in the Critical Reasoning forum “No that is not correct. "Percentage arrested is the same" is always comparable. So it does not matter if you have 10,000 people under routine supervision and 100 people under intensive supervision. What matters is at what rate these people are arrested. So if the percentage ...” October 29, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to doubt CR 1 in the Critical Reasoning forum “This is a great question with real life implications in the U.S. Many states are moving toward this type of voter I.D. law and the cite these same statistics. They say that there are deceased people whose names are still on the voter lists. But what does that prove? Voter fraud is the act of ...” October 28, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Your opinion is highly appreciated - Please rate my essay in the GMAT Essays (AWA) forum “This is a very good essay. I would say that it is at least a 5.0 if not a 5.5. It is a little too short to be a 6.0 and there are a few lapses in grammar, such as "Secondly, the argument fails to state if the company started to provide new types of services, fact which is relevant for ...” October 28, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Critical Reasoning in the Critical Reasoning forum “I forgot to include the link to the question bank where this question is found. Here is the link http://www.veritasprep.com/gmat-question-bank/ David” October 28, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Critical Reasoning in the Critical Reasoning forum “So this is a Veritas Prep Question from the Veritas Question Bank. For access to that Question Bank follow the link. A couple of more facts: 1) I wrote this one! I had not looked at it for a few years but this is one of mine. I combined the logic from two official GMAT problems, one provided ...” October 27, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Strengthen questions in the Critical Reasoning forum “The correct answer to a strengthen question does need to provide new information. I cannot strengthen your argument by repeating what you have already said. So new information is required, but that does not mean that it needs to be a new topic or a new discussion, rather it needs to relate to the ...” October 27, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to young working professionals in the Critical Reasoning forum “This part of the stimulus takes out choice A Generally means "most of the time." So it appears that young professionals do in fact desire to buy real estate if they have a stable job and spouse. The conclusion of the argument is what points you to choice E. You see the ...” October 27, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Push my quant score from 50 to 51 in the GMAT Strategy forum “At Veritas Prep we have a very well-regarded book dedicated to statistics, permutations/ combinations, and probabilities. It should give you all the practice that you need in those areas! These are the most difficult questions available for these topics. Here is the link to the newest edition on ...” October 27, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to 720 but bombed on IR in the GMAT Strategy forum “I would say that your previous IR score will count for something. You got 90th percentile before and this time although you score was very low - it was not a disastrous 0, 1 or 2. In your place I doubt that I would retake the exam. You have a GREAT score of 720 and your previous IR score in the ...” October 27, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Criminals released from prison on parole in the Critical Reasoning forum “You have found a great CR question from the Veritas Prep Advanced Verbal Lesson. I understand why you may have some difficulty with this one as it is a difficult question. However, it is also a question that follows a certain form that is quite common to the GMAT. That form is the ...” October 27, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to How in the world is it B? in the Critical Reasoning forum “Here is a previous discussion of this question. That explains why B is the answer. http://www.beatthegmat.com/hearing-t270016.html To be honest, I am not completely happy with B either. It seems a little too conclusive for something not proven. For example, what if the difference in the ...” October 27, 2014 lunarpower posted a reply to modifier issue expert in the Sentence Correction forum “you''re welcome.” October 27, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to BARRONS in the GMAT Strategy forum “There is actually a newer version of the Barron''s out there that is better than the version Rich linked you to. That link is http://www.amazon.com/Barrons-GMAT-Bobby-Umar/dp/1438002319/ref=dp_ob_image_bk I would still recommend multi-volume GMAT study materials (or computerized materials) ...” October 24, 2014 lunarpower posted a reply to modifier issue expert in the Sentence Correction forum “thinking more generally— the above is a good example of why functional thinking is superior to "classification" into rigid categories. namely, thinking about "actions" is better than worrying about whether said actions are technically verbs. in fact, in the "blue ...” October 23, 2014 lunarpower posted a reply to modifier issue expert in the Sentence Correction forum “also, note that i''ve been careful to say that these modifiers describe "actions". i.e., i''m careful NOT to say "verbs"... because, in sentences like the blue one, they won''t always be verbs. e.g., I peeked into the workshop and saw the master watchmaker here, comma + ...” October 23, 2014 lunarpower posted a reply to modifier issue expert in the Sentence Correction forum “nope, i wrote it correctly (although i do quite often reverse such things). the orange sentence is too hard to understand. when the reader sees the modifier, (s)he isn''t going to readily connect it all the way back to the orange stuff on the left. any reader''s natural instinct is to try to ...” October 23, 2014 lunarpower posted a reply to Inference Question in the Reading Comprehension forum “...let''s try that again. i''m 10 years old. in those choices, what do the words mean? e.g., choice (a) means... ...they''ll describe something people have thought for a while ...then they''ll describe a new way of thinking that goes against that one ...but will decide that the new way of ...” October 22, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Score discrepancies during practice tests in the GMAT Strategy forum “That is not inconsistent! You got a 44 twice on the official practice exam and all three times on the unofficial ones you took. You scored a little better on one test with the 47 and a little less on another with the 42. A 47 is the 68th percentile and a 42 is the is 51 percentile while a ...” October 16, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Controversial veritas Q in the Critical Reasoning forum “Many unofficial questions are copies of official questions. This is not a copy of an official question. So I cannot share any official question that it is based on. You are free to disagree with the answer or with the entire question. I think that this question has a logical - if not difficult - ...” October 15, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to GMAT and Mental toughness in the GMAT Strategy forum “I do have all of my articles in one place with a table of contents. I will PM you with the link. Glad to help! David” October 15, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to GMAT and Mental toughness in the GMAT Strategy forum “It is true that these things are not enough. Fortunately there are a couple of other things you can do. Make sure that you are not "multi-tasking" research shows that just knowing that you have an email waiting for you to read diverts your attention enough to lower you IQ by 10 ...” October 15, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to GMAT and Mental toughness in the GMAT Strategy forum “Here is one problem. You must eat during the breaks. Experiments have shown that the portion of the brain engaged during difficult decision making uses only glycogen. It is the only part of the body that only uses glycogen. Meaning that it needs to be fed constantly. In the New York Times ...” October 15, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Official Questions Enough to prepare ? in the GMAT Strategy forum “gmat_winter - You ask an impossible question! For some (rare) people just doing the questions from one official book is enough to go in and get a score much higher than 710. Most people, however, will need some help with a combination of: 1) knowledge (formulas, equations, grammar, etc.) ...” October 15, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Controversial veritas Q in the Critical Reasoning forum “I see that a couple of people have posted this question here or on GMATClub and have disagreed with the answer. That is fine, it is not an official question and you have the right to disagree with it. I will say that on this question 75% of the over 1600 people who have answered this one on the ...” October 13, 2014 lunarpower posted a reply to Because of the multiplier effect inherent in any unlimited-t in the Sentence Correction forum “update: never mind the request for a link. as it turns out, * yes, that post is over 4 years old * someone else already pointed out the same issue to me * ... so i already edited the original post here''s the edited post: http://www.beatthegmat.com/soar-t62473-15.html#280069” October 13, 2014 lunarpower posted a reply to Because of the multiplier effect inherent in any unlimited-t in the Sentence Correction forum “yep, that''s not a thing. could someone please do me a favor and link to the original post, so that i can edit it? thanks. here''s the context: i almost certainly wrote that at least 4-5 years ago. at that point, the above principle correlated very well with GMAC''s correct and incorrect ...” October 13, 2014 lunarpower posted a reply to Guidebook writer in the Critical Reasoning forum “also— if the passage were discussing some part of the hotel through which everyone passes—e.g., how quickly the floor is worn down in the hotel''s exterior doorways—THEN "older hotels are smaller" becomes a factor. i.e., since everyone must pass through the doors of the hotel at ...” October 13, 2014 lunarpower posted a reply to Guidebook writer in the Critical Reasoning forum “prudhiviram— this is insightful, but it doesn''t apply here. "carpentry work" is mostly in the underlying frame of a building. if a building has a greater capacity, then, accordingly, it will be bigger, and will thus have more "carpentry work". The amount of carpentry ...” October 13, 2014 lunarpower posted a reply to modifier issue expert in the Sentence Correction forum “In GMAC materials, you''ll routinely encounter sentences like the blue one. Although the orange sentence is technically ok, I very highly doubt that you would ever see anything like it in an official sentence, since it''s stylistically poor writing. So, if you need a guessing method, you''re ...” October 13, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Controversial veritas Q in the Critical Reasoning forum “I am happy to discuss this one. What is controversial about it? The subject matter or the official answer?” October 13, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Should I keep studying or take a break? in the GMAT Strategy forum “Only you can make this call, but I can help you with some things to think about when you make this decision. 1) When you are trying to begin business school? If you want to go in the Fall of 2015 then you know you will need to have your applications in soon, even round two is coming right up in ...” October 12, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Should I keep studying or take a break? in the GMAT Strategy forum “Why do you feel that you do not need to improve on Quant? A Quant 41 is right at the 49th percentile, while even a 34 on the verbal side is the 71st percentile and a 41 Verbal is the 94th percentile. The way the scores are scaled is confusing, but as you stand right now your verbal score is ...” October 12, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Score calculator in the GMAT Strategy forum “You should never do this. For a few reasons, #1 you do not know if this test gave you an accurate reflection as you were too tired and #2 when you retook the test it was not accurate as you saw repeated questions. #3 unless you typically go to sleep at 3AM you have actually disrupted your sleep ...” October 12, 2014 lunarpower posted a reply to Inference Question in the Reading Comprehension forum “If I were 10 years old, how would you explain to me what choices D and E say?” October 12, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to 760 on Official GMAT practice test??? in the GMAT Strategy forum “The official GMATPrep practice test is the closest to the actual exam. The question is, did you recognize any of the questions, had you seen them before? Maybe on a forum like this on. If so that may have inflated your score. Have you visited the location yet? It might be a good idea to do that ...” October 9, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Gave gmat today in the GMAT Strategy forum “I think that you have studied too many verbal sources. They are probably giving you different techniques that are not needed. For example, PowerScore is for the LSAT and for some students it is too much to take in for the GMAT and can lead to confusion. Ask yourself this, "Do you have a ...” October 7, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Trying to improve quant from v39 to v47 in the GMAT Strategy forum “How is your data sufficiency? People that score well on the verbal, particularly on Critical Reasoning can often do well on data sufficiency without having to become math experts. If you are under-performing on Data Sufficiency you can probably make up some ground rapidly. David” October 7, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to 700+ CR in the Critical Reasoning forum “In my opinion, this question does not have a correct answer. The listed OA is C. However, that does not rise to the level of an assumption. What if legislation had just been passed that made it easier to file for bankruptcy? People could still be filing for bankruptcy because the economy is ...” October 7, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Spinach factory!! in the Critical Reasoning forum “Here is a great discussion of this topic from Karishma, a Veritas instructor and one of the top experts on GMAT Club. Here is what she had to say: We need to explain how spinach-growing facility near Chicago could be profitable. Note that the argument tells us that the production of factory ...” October 7, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Spinach factory!! in the Critical Reasoning forum “Here is the question in a readable presentation. Please take the time to correct for line breaks. The original post is hard to read. "Near Chicago a newly built hydroponic spinach "factory," a completely controlled environment for growing spinach, produces on 1 acre of floor space ...” October 7, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to OG VR2 #7 Pls help in the Critical Reasoning forum “There is a great discussion of the question on the Veritas Prep Blog. One of our veteran instructors, Antony Ritz, not only breaks down the causation assumption in this question, but also points you to several other official questions that you can practice causation on! here is the link: ...” October 7, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Anxiety Relief: Lay the Groundwork for Stress-free Test Prep in the GMAT Strategy forum “I ask this question not to be rude, but rather because I am genuinely interested. I have heard a few other instructors mention speed reading before, but I have never understood the logic behind it or evidence for it. I was hoping that you could shed some light on this particular recommendation. ...” October 2, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Ice tea in the Critical Reasoning forum “Showing that answer choice C is correct is a very simple matter. This is like a quantitative problem with two numbers that may not be comparable. The manager is basing his recommendation of ordering more iced tea on the basis of the number of drinks left at the end of the day. He or she is ...” October 2, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Anxiety Relief: Lay the Groundwork for Stress-free Test Prep in the GMAT Strategy forum “I wonder what the science is behind this recommendation. Do you have scientific research or other evidence that suggests that reading this fast is good for your score? Or is it just the general notion that faster is better...” October 2, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to IR strategy in the GMAT Strategy forum “Schools are going to want to see that you at least attempted the IR section and as time passes your score on this section is likely to become more important. I would say that you would want to be at the 50th percentile or above in order to show your effort. That means getting a 5.0 out of 8.0. In ...” October 1, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Extra Time? in the GMAT Strategy forum “I have worked with many students who received an accommodation of extra time on their GMAT exam. What I can tell you is this: 1) It is usually a lengthy process. Many if not most of the students I have worked with have been denied the first time by GMAC and have had to appeal. This process ...” September 30, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Strategy on SC Questions, Take notes? in the GMAT Strategy forum “High scorers on the verbal section generally have a very thorough process for sentence correction that goes something like this: 1) Notice a word or phrase that seems questionable to you. 2) Look for other options for this word or phrase in the 5 answer choices. 3) Select the better of ...” September 30, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Footwear in the Critical Reasoning forum “Sure! The evidence is that the exotic prints are not more expensive to make and that they sold at a much higher price and their seems to be strong demand for these exotic prints. The conclusion is "de los Santos could earn a higher profit per unit by producing a greater percentage of his ...” September 30, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Editorial: Companies worldwide have started adopting MAT (Ma in the Critical Reasoning forum “This is not in the format of a GMAT question. There are multiple problems with the language and the logic. This question was posted at GMAT Club and the consensus over there is that this is not a good question. What is this answer supposed to mean? This does not make sense. My ...” September 30, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to GMAT query in the GMAT Strategy forum “It depends on the application deadlines. You can certainly be ready for round 2 applications if you take the GMAT in November. However, the rest of your application needs to be done as well and that can take some time. So you will likely need to be working on your applications while you are getting ...” September 30, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Kindly rate my essay in the GMAT Essays (AWA) forum “You make some good points. I would say that the main issue is that you seem to be relying on outside knowledge of one particular country and you are making definite statements that should only be phrased as possibilities. For example, you state the railroads are nationally owned and maintained. ...” September 28, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to doubt 1 C/R in the Critical Reasoning forum “Here is the text of an article I wrote for the Veritas Prep Blog. It is Called "Shift the Burden on Inference Questions" and it directly addresses the issue you have here. "The correct answer to an inference question is the answer that must be true based on the facts given in the ...” September 27, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to doubt 1 C/R in the Critical Reasoning forum “This question is from the Veritas Prep Advanced Verbal book. It is an inference question. So you are looking for the answer that must be true! Your statement: Is exactly what makes C a great inference answer choice. With an inference question, generally the weaker the statement the ...” September 27, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Strategy on SC Questions, Take notes? in the GMAT Strategy forum “What kind of notes do you take? Can you give an example of what you write down that helps you? Sentence correction is 100% a process of elimination so it is important to keep track of the answers you have eliminated. You can do this by writing A B C D E vertically for each sentence correction ...” September 26, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to How many GMAT attempts ?? in the GMAT Strategy forum “I have to agree with Rich here. Having spoken with numerous admissions officials (and former admissions officials who now work for Veritas Prep admissions consulting) the main theme is this: if you are not happy with your GMAT score, and if your score is not at least within the middle 80% for ...” September 25, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Test in 3 days! Anxious! in the GMAT Strategy forum “dshah9380 - I am glad to be able to help. Here is an article that I think you should read. Basically it tells you how to fake a little confidence early and have more confidence as you go! http://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2012/06/10/laugh-your-way-to-success-on-the-gmat And here is one that ...” September 24, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Mental illness in the Critical Reasoning forum “This is an official GMAT question and it is a classic!! There are dozens of imitation questions based on this one. When dealing with cause and effect there are a couple of things to keep in mind. 1) When two items are correlated either of them can be the cause. For example, those persons ...” September 24, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Test in 3 days! Anxious! in the GMAT Strategy forum “As you said yourself, these two things are almost certainly correlated: You are correct to think that a lack of concentration - caused by thinking about something other than the problem in front of you - is a major source of silly mistakes. You job on test day is to focus on the ...” September 24, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Easier way to understand the answer? in the Critical Reasoning forum “Actually the numbers in the problem are in percentages. And as you know the total is always 100%! So if we get 115% we know that something has been counted too many times. And remember that we do not have exactly 15% that are in the both category, but anywhere from 15 to 25% and that is why ...” September 24, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Easier way to understand the answer? in the Critical Reasoning forum “Duplicate post: please see the following link for the discussion on this one. http://www.beatthegmat.com/easier-way-to-understand-the-answer-t279652.html” September 24, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Easier way to understand the answer? in the Critical Reasoning forum “This question is from MGMAT and many people consider it a difficult one. The OA is C. The explanation is thus: 90% of those employees who are working at home say that they are more productive. Yet, 25% of those working at home work less than 1 hour. Think of this as a Venn Diagram! ...” September 24, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Chez Shay valet parking in the Critical Reasoning forum “Yes but the problem is the exact wording of choice C. It says (one can reasonably conclude that Chez Shay customers) "are not deterred from dining at Chez Shay by the expense of valet parking." But this goes too far. Perhaps customers are deterred. Perhaps Chez Shay would be sold ...” September 23, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to CR ques in the Critical Reasoning forum “I really like this paradox question! Thanks for posting this one. It is a fun question and the answer is certainly beyond dispute.” September 22, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Calcium in the Critical Reasoning forum “This is a very standard cause and effect set up. Be ready to see something like this on test day! So the question shows us the CORRELATION between two things: laryngeal polyps and low levels of calcium. Then they arbitrarily decide that one of the two caused the other. So in this case they ...” September 22, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Need to know the right time to schedule test in the GMAT Strategy forum “Do you mean how fan in the future should you schedule your exam? That depends on a few factors. Depending on your responses you could be a couple of months away from being ready for the exam or you could be ready to schedule it for the next opening * You say you have given two practice tests. ...” September 22, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to best book for verbal practice? in the GMAT Strategy forum “I am wondering why you "skimmed" those guides. You are looking for recommendations for books on verbal, but you have only skimmed the materials that you have. A 21 score gives you plenty of opportunity to move that score up. A 40 is the 90th percentile and indicates a real ...” September 22, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Mock Test score range from different tests in the GMAT Strategy forum “I would not worry as much about the "score" on the Kaplan tests as what weakness it may point out. Clearly the official tests give you the most realistic prediction of your score. However, as Rich indicated that does not mean that you should dismiss the other exam without seeing if it ...” September 22, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Wage in the Critical Reasoning forum “Choice D is not moving in the correct direction at all. Remember that you are trying to weaken the conclusion that the overall impact on wages of the increase in the minimum wage "will probably be negligible." Now how could a law that changes the minimum wage have a negligible ...” September 22, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to special mortgage offers in the Critical Reasoning forum “This is from the GMAT Club tests right? I went over to that forum and found that people over there do not think that any of these answers are correct. I might agree with them. The official answer (and the obvious one) is really focused several years into the future whereas the argument ...” September 22, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Chez Shay valet parking in the Critical Reasoning forum “I am not sure that any of these can be reasonably concluded. What is the source of this question?” September 22, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Which CAT's to Buy in the GMAT Strategy forum “I am not sure that "People consider the Veritas CAT too easy." Some people have said that they think that the score they received was higher than expected (although others said it was lower and most seem to believe it is pretty close). However, a higher than expected score does not mean ...” September 22, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to How the GMAT works on the RC passages in the Reading Comprehension forum “If you check the Official Guide for GMAT Review (2015 or 13th edition, 12th edition, etc) you will see that there are many as 8 questions for a single passage. Clearly 8 questions will not be given to a particular test-taker for a single passage. You will also notice that there are pairs of these ...” September 22, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to GMAT TEST TIME in the GMAT Strategy forum “If you mean 4:30 or 5PM...that is one of the starting times that is commonly offered. Therefore many thousands of people have taken an exam ending around 9PM. However, this time frame is not for me. I prefer the afternoon time, which is around 1PM. Now the time that works for you is something ...” September 21, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Download GMAT questions with Expert solutions! in the GMAT Strategy forum “I just checked out the critical reasoning 300 questions and there are a couple of issues with this document. 1) It contains a mixture of official questions and unofficial questions with no sources given. Some questions may be much better than others and there is no way for the non-expert to tell ...” September 19, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to 1997/1998- Is this even a valid GMAT question in the Critical Reasoning forum “To answer your question vivekvijayan: The phrase "percentage of people suffering from hay fever" tells you how to set up this fraction. Whenever you have the word "of" "to" or "per" you should draw a fraction line and whatever comes after one of those ...” September 19, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to 1997/1998- Is this even a valid GMAT question in the Critical Reasoning forum “For the original question posted by akhilsuhag, there is a GREAT explanation on an earlier post of this question. Kudos to Ilyana for an great explanation. http://www.beatthegmat.com/not-convinced-with-the-answer-t271905.html It turns out that neither B nor E is well supported and E is even ...” September 19, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to GMAT prep with veritas in the GMAT Strategy forum “The best source of course is the GMATPrep add-on pack or the Official Guide for GMAT Review 2015 (or 13th edition). That is because these are official problems that have been used on the exam and the retired. I would lean towards using the resources online. The GMATPrep pack 1 add-on is all ...” September 19, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Good GMAT Stragies in the GMAT Strategy forum “You have essentially asked the same question twice. I replied to your question at the other thread which asks the same question. Please refer to that thread http://www.beatthegmat.com/information-about-online-gmat-exam-preparation-t279496.html#730216” September 19, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Critical Reasoning Sulutions in the Critical Reasoning forum “What do you know already? Have you tried many critical reasoning questions? Are you identifying the evidence and the conclusion when working with strengthen, weaken, and assumption questions? Here are a couple of articles that might help you look at critical reasoning the "correct" ...” September 19, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Information about Online GMAT Exam Preparation in the GMAT Strategy forum “I generally give the following guidelines to people think about beginning on the self-study track or starting with a course. 1) How close are you to your goal right now? If your goal is a 700, for example. If you take a practice test now and you score within 100 points of your goal then you ...” September 19, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Information about Online GMAT Exam Preparation in the GMAT Strategy forum “That is an extremely open question!! You can do what is called "self-study" which is probably misnamed since it generally involves using paid resources such as the Official Guide to GMAT Review by GMAC and any of the several strategy books written by GMAT experts, as well as the use of ...” September 19, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Should I wait to take the GMAT in the GMAT Strategy forum “You are in a great position! Many people seem to decide that they want to apply to business school within a few months. This means packing in not only the GMAT but the rest of the application as well. It also can be difficult for people to know where to apply since their GMAT scores have a ...” September 19, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Economist Tutor CR Q Pls explain in the Critical Reasoning forum “This seems like a flawed question to me. I am not sure how being illiterate even relates to audio. These are different things. Are they suggesting that people say "Oh, I don''t want to be able to read, I can just listen to things on audio?" And then how does choice B relate to ...” September 17, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Critical Reasoning in the Critical Reasoning forum “This question is from the Veritas Prep free question bank (over 7 million questions have been served from the question bank so far!) Here is the link if you want to try the question bank for yourself http://www.veritasprep.com/gmat-question-bank/ The funny thing is that I actually wrote this ...” September 17, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Focus strategies? in the GMAT Strategy forum “#5 - Nutrition Nutrition is the most controversial topic because there is a lot of money in processed foods. Some things to possibly avoid if you have focus problems: 1) MSG 2) Artificial Colors and flavors 3) Simple Carbohydrates (white bread, etc.) 4) Sugar Let me say some ...” September 17, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Focus strategies? in the GMAT Strategy forum “#4 Sleep Sleep is essential to proper mental functioning for several reasons: First, sleep helps gently wash away the cares and concerns from the previous day. If you don’t believe me, try to remember what you had for lunch three days ago. Unless that lunch was a particularly memorable ...” September 17, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Focus strategies? in the GMAT Strategy forum “#3 - Exercise is a MUST! Exercise is everything for the brain. Without exercise you cannot create new brain cells and you cannot protect the ones you already have. Exercise is crucial for your ability to focus and for you emotional control. The importance of regular exercise cannot be overstated. ...” September 17, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Focus strategies? in the GMAT Strategy forum “#2 The second thing you can do is to stop multitasking! This goes hand-in-hand with mindfulness, but definitely deserves its own discussion. I have written several articles about this subject that I will reference in a moment, but I want to first mention a new book called “The Organized ...” September 17, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Focus strategies? in the GMAT Strategy forum “#1 way to increase your ability to focus = Meditation and mindfulness practice. When I mention “meditation” people think that I am talking about sitting in an uncomfortable position and meditating for hours at a time. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Meditation and mindfulness ...” September 17, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Focus strategies? in the GMAT Strategy forum “I am so glad that you asked this question. This is something that I think and write about very frequently. Focus is one of the most underrated aspects of the exam. Basically there are several things that you can do to improve your focus. I will address each of them in turn but let me just ...” September 17, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Veritas CR Tough to interpret? in the Critical Reasoning forum “I responded to that other thread. Let me know if you run into any other "interesting" CR questions! David” September 17, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Valid/ Invalid Veritas score? in the GMAT Strategy forum “You always want to verify your improvement with official questions. But assuming that you have not seen similar questions before, you should be able to trust your improvement in CR. As for reading comp it looks like the questions that you faced were of similar difficulty but this time you got 10 ...” September 17, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Veritas CR Tough to interpret? in the Critical Reasoning forum “I am glad to help feel free to alert me anytime you have a posting that you would like a response to. You know looking at this one -- it is a tough question to interpret! We are always editing and improving the questions and this one may need a little editing to make it clearer.” September 15, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to SC in the Sentence Correction forum “This is one of my favorite sentence corrections myths!! My other favorite is that you cannot change the meaning of the sentence from what is stated in choice A. Not only is "being" acceptable on the GMAT, the test makers know that people think it is unacceptable so they make sure that ...” September 15, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to 690 to 730 in 2 months...crossing the 700 mark!! in the I just Beat The GMAT! forum “dp26389 - Congrats on the score! Thanks for sharing your story. In addition to the links you just shared (GMAT Club and Veritas question bank) there is also the free Veritas Prep practice test at http://www.veritasprep.com/gmat/free-gmat-practice-test/ Hope others are able to achieve their ...” September 15, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to 600 -> 770! Advice: Practice, Practice, Practice in the I just Beat The GMAT! forum “Congratulation lukedmurphy! That is an exceptional score. I am glad that the Veritas practice tests were a part of your success. I notice that there were a couple of questions from others about practice tests: The Veritas practice tests use Item Response Theory, which is also the basis for ...” September 15, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Prep course: Veritas vs. Manhattan vs. Kaplan in the GMAT Strategy forum “You should check out the verified reviews here on Beat the GMAT. These reviews are written by actual students who have enrolled in the course they are reviewing. The link is above at the top of the page, or click on http://reviews.beatthegmat.com/ Why not try out a session of Veritas to see ...” September 15, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Assumption or Strengthen Question? Why is D not correct? in the Critical Reasoning forum “To answer your question - this is a STRENGTHEN question, not an assumption. The question stem is worded in a confusing way. The word assumption in this question merely indicates that we should take the answer choice as true, something that you always do on strengthen questions anyway. The key ...” September 15, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Valid/ Invalid Veritas score? in the GMAT Strategy forum “Again - this test is very consistent with your other Veritas tests and your GMATPrep test. You seem to have settled into the 710 to 720 range. You are very consistent, with the exception of one GMATPrep and one Veritas test that were below 700. I looked through your exam and I see nothing ...” September 15, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Veritas CR Tough to interpret? in the Critical Reasoning forum “This question is a bit above average in terms of the difficulty rating, but it is a typical "questionable statistics" problem. I would stay that statistics in critical reasoning can be the most confusing. I have seen some official CR questions with statistics that are very confusing. ...” September 15, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to untimed diagnostic test. in the GMAT Strategy forum “I will tell you how to take an untimed "diagnostic" and that is to purchase the GMATPrep Tests add-on pack called the "Prep Pack 1." You can create quizzes with this question set and you can see how you do on a mix of questions on the verbal and on the quant. Now this will ...” September 15, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to GMAT prep with veritas in the GMAT Strategy forum “First let me say that a 680 is very close to a 710 or 720. It is certainly very different from a 610. So you are moving in the right direction! Two of your statements struck me! 1) You said, "Even in the Q section i almost knew when i was making a mistake but had to keep moving in ...” September 14, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Detailed topic breakdown of GMAT OG 13 in the GMAT Strategy forum “Brent is quite right... A CR question is not a strengthen and a weaken, a Word Problem is not a work/ rate and a venn diagram, but a sentence correction problem is often many things at once. Thanks Brent!” September 14, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Critical Reasoning in the Critical Reasoning forum “This is a great LSAT assumption question. It fits well with the GMAT critical reasoning format. Start by finding the conclusion: "We must conclude that North American children can be made physically fit only if they participate in school calisthenics on a daily basis." What ...” September 14, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Can someone please rate my essay? It's my first try! in the GMAT Essays (AWA) forum “This is quite a good essay. There were a few grammar errors that seem to result perhaps from haste. Did you find that you were rushing? Did you use the whole 30 minutes? You could have done just as well on the score with more precise sentences and perhaps fewer words. For example, you said, ...” September 14, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Could anyone please review my essay? in the GMAT Essays (AWA) forum “Nice Work here! I enjoyed reading this essay. I thought that the reasoning was good and I only caught a couple of grammar errors, (you can spot these if you just paste your essay into a Microsoft word document). I would rate this as a 5.0 or above. Certainly this is in the top half of essays ...” September 14, 2014 lunarpower posted a reply to Organic food industry GMAT Prep Question in the Sentence Correction forum “You''re welcome.” September 14, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Detailed topic breakdown of GMAT OG 13 in the GMAT Strategy forum “Unfortunately, a breakdown of the SC questions by topic would render them useless for students to use. You see, if you know in advance that you have a strengthen CR question that is no big deal because the question stem will tell you that it is a strengthen question! But if you know in advance ...” September 14, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Assumption question in the Critical Reasoning forum “I wrote a very popular article on this question. Here is the link to the article. http://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2012/06/27/approaching-assumptions-questions-like-an-expert I have also excerpted just the part that explains this question and I am including that portion here: "Remember that ...” September 14, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to RC Time Allotment in the Reading Comprehension forum “As for the time you should spend on reading versus answering the questions, we have incredibly experienced instructors at Veritas who different thoughts on this. I have taught well over 100 courses and was a contributing author to the latest edition of the Veritas books. I tend to take longer to ...” September 14, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to RC Time Allotment in the Reading Comprehension forum “Unless I am mistaken, the GMATPrep timing is only based on taking the 75 minutes and dividing it evenly between either 37 questions on Quant or 41 on verbal. 75/ 41 = 1min 49.2 seconds. So it seems that at 1 min and 50 seconds on EACH verbal question regardless of question type, the GMATPrep will ...” September 14, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Veritas Prep Question: Doubt in the Critical Reasoning forum “Notice that the question stem says "Which of the following can be concluded from the argument above?" This is an inference question. Which means that you are looking for the answer choice that must be true. If we look at choices B and C that you favored, you can see that these are ...” September 14, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Veritas Prep Question: Doubt in the Critical Reasoning forum “Here is the text of the question: A new medical procedure replaces all three of the tiny bones in the inner ear with a single piece of ultra-thin fiberglass. The procedure has been found to greatly improve hearing in people who have experienced damage to these bones, though it is useless to ...” September 14, 2014 lunarpower posted a reply to Organic food industry GMAT Prep Question in the Sentence Correction forum “Probably. As always, context matters.” September 7, 2014 lunarpower posted a reply to Organic food industry GMAT Prep Question in the Sentence Correction forum “No one is going to be able to answer this kind of question, because this isn''t how the human brain stores information. Think of a word, from your own first language, that is "exceptional" in some way. Now, ask yourself the same type of question ("What are the other words that act ...” September 7, 2014 lunarpower posted a reply to modifier issue expert in the Sentence Correction forum “Too abstract for me. Can you write an actual example that looks like this? Thanks.” September 7, 2014 lunarpower posted a reply to soar! in the Sentence Correction forum “Also, gmat62, those don''t look like official problems. Are they official problems? If not, ignore them.” September 7, 2014 lunarpower posted a reply to soar! in the Sentence Correction forum “That statement is admittedly a bit too strong. If you see a helping verb in the second part of a comparison, you should look for (in order) 1/ the same helping verb; 2/ the main verb that the helping verb goes with; 3/ whichever choice looks most like the other part. All of this is, of ...” September 7, 2014 lunarpower posted a reply to soar! in the Sentence Correction forum “That statement is admittedly a bit too strong. If you see a helping verb in the second part of a comparison, you should look for (in order) 1/ the same helping verb; 2/ the main verb that the helping verb goes with; 3/ whichever choice looks most like the other part. All of this is, of ...” September 7, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Critical Reasoning Practice in the Critical Reasoning forum “Here is a good, Free source of GMAT questions The Veritas prep question bank Here is a link to the Beat the GMAT review of the Veritas Question Bank (it received a 10/10 rating) http://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2014/02/16/review-veritas-prep-free-gmat-question-bank And here is the link to the ...” September 6, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Analysis of an Issue still possible AWA question? in the GMAT Essays (AWA) forum “The Analysis of an Argument was the better essay of the two and I am glad that the analysis of an issue is the one they let go of. The analysis of an argument is much more predictable and can be approached in a consistent and even an enjoyable manner. Here are a couple of articles to read ...” September 6, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Is it too late to start GMAT for 2015 admissions ? in the GMAT Strategy forum “While your credentials are certainly impressive, I would still believe that you need to differentiate yourself from other candidates with a similar background. That means that a good GMAT score is indeed necessary. A 710- 720 (your goal) would certainly qualify for that. As to whether you ...” September 6, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to How do I handle abstract language? in the Critical Reasoning forum “This is a great question that you ask. The point is to simplify the process instead of making it more complicated. One of the easiest ways to simplify is to focus on what you do know. You have stated, You have forgotten a couple of other things that can make this process less ...” September 6, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Guidebook writer in the Critical Reasoning forum “I see... That is a big assumption though isn''t it? That hotel guests using a place would lead to the idea that the carpentry is bad? I mean I am no "guide book writer" but I think that when I rated the carpentry it would be the quality of the cuts made, how everything lined up, whether ...” September 5, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Guidebook writer in the Critical Reasoning forum “prudhviram - You said that option B - although clearly not the correct answer - seems to weaken the argument a bit and you went on to explain: Do you see how many assumptions you are making here? You are assuming that larger projects mean more carpenters (a logical assumption) and that ...” September 4, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to HELP!! in the Critical Reasoning forum “j_sheryans - Here are two postings that I have written that will help you with these subjects: Most useful to know in order to EVALUATE: http://www.beatthegmat.com/evaluate-what-does-the-test-want-t72335.html Assumption questions: ...” September 4, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to BasketBall in the Critical Reasoning forum “This is a strengthen question. We want to say that even though Smith made 80% of his shots (an exceptionally high percentage) that this does not mean he is a great shooter. Instead it is because he took most shots from close to the basket while the best shooters take shots from 20 feet away or ...” September 4, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Allowences in the Critical Reasoning forum “The answer is B. What we need to know is if the parents are using the same standard for what is frivolous. If they are using the same standard than this seems like a pretty good argument. However, if they are not using the same standard then the difference may not be in what the children spend ...” September 4, 2014 lunarpower posted a reply to Organic food industry GMAT Prep Question in the Sentence Correction forum “Two things. 1/ In general, you shouldn''t think of "using" as an __ing form. Like "including", "using" is allowed more latitude than other words spelled with __ing. In fact, it''s used more like a preposition (e.g., "with") than like a typical __ing ...” September 3, 2014 lunarpower posted a reply to Heavy commitment in the Sentence Correction forum “You''re welcome.” September 3, 2014 lunarpower posted a reply to modifier issue expert in the Sentence Correction forum “In the problem you''ve cited, the whole issue is a non-issue, because NO modifier makes sense. In that context, "applying... is something that happens later. It''s not something that happens in the same timeframe as "moving in", and it is most certainly not a description of the ...” September 3, 2014 lunarpower posted a reply to modifier issue expert in the Sentence Correction forum “Have you ever seen this--or anything remotely like it--in an official problem? If not, it''s a non-issue (and thinking about it will have negative returns, in the sense of needlessly over-complicating the concept). If you have seen this sort of thing in an official problem, then point out ...” September 2, 2014 lunarpower posted a reply to Heavy commitment in the Sentence Correction forum “There are at least 2 more issues you can look at. • Choice C doesn''t convey the intended meaning explicitly. The intended meaning is that excessive commitment will cause an executive to make certain mistakes. This meaning is expressed explicitly in the correct answer (... is likely to ...” September 2, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Self Stufy or take the course? in the GMAT Strategy forum “The reason to take a GMAT course - particularly on the verbal side of the equation - is not really for tips and tricks. It is much more fundamental than that. While on the Quantitative side of things there are particular shortcuts for various problem types - such as weighted average problems - on ...” August 27, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Aiming for 740 - Strategy and books required?? in the GMAT Strategy forum “Have you taken that first practice test? I echo what Rich says about taking the GMATPrep - just use one of the two free practice tests it will give you an indication of where you stand and if you do end up studying for several months you can retake that test since you will have forgotten the ...” August 27, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to GMAT prep with veritas in the GMAT Strategy forum “Different people perform differently on the various practice tests. The Veritas exam is based on real student responses and is one of the most realistic practice tests. However, I do like to know how my students have done on the GMATPrep official practice tests from MBA.com. Those are the ones ...” August 16, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to GMAT Retake - AWA and IR in the GMAT Strategy forum “Confused13 - Rich has said it. There is such a thing as pulling back and not shooting for a perfect 6.0 and 8.0, but you do need to do the work. And I am not sure that it benefits you to skip these things anyway. They can provide a nice warm up. This is just an anecdote but once when I took ...” August 12, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to How to study in one hour per day? in the GMAT Strategy forum “If you have just one hour per day you need to get the most from that hour. You need to turn off the phone, lock the front door, and focus strictly on the task at hand. One hour of focused study is worth 2+ hours of distracted studying. Now you will need to have your one hour be very targeted. ...” August 12, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Veritas CAT in the GMAT Strategy forum “Wow! Those are some great scores. It looks like the Veritas scores are consistent with what you are seeing on the GMATPrep. 750 is the 98th percentile on GMATPrep and then the 99th percentile on the Veritas exam. My bet is on you scoring at least a 750 on test day if you can carry this through. ...” August 12, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to What to do if one falls behind by say, 10 minutes?? in the GMAT Strategy forum “I assume you are speaking of the Quant section so that is the section I will address. If this is a practice test, take note of how you fell behind so that you can avoid doing this on the real exam. On the official exam the key is not to panic. You may not actually be behind. I once appeared ...” August 8, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Veritas CAT in the GMAT Strategy forum “the Veritas Prep CATs are based on the same principle - Item Response Theory - that the GMATPrep and the actual GMAT are based on. The Veritas Prep data base has millions of actual student responses so the level of difficulty of the questions is not something that we have guessed at or assigned, it ...” July 30, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Selecting 5 schools on test day... What to do? in the GMAT Strategy forum “Actually the first question is not a matter of opinion, schools will see all the scores. So if you take the exam now and 1 month later they will see both scores.” July 28, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Veritas CR. Experts Please explain. in the Critical Reasoning forum “This is a paradox question. "Why would the current faculty be opposed to a new rule that does not apply to them?" It is likely that someone this rule is going to impact them, somehow. So we look at this one and we see how it does impact the current professors. Choice B shows us ...” July 28, 2014 lunarpower posted a reply to OG - SC Question 1 in the Sentence Correction forum “In any case, for readers who might be wondering about this distinction out of pure curiosity, here''s a brief explanation. • If you control a variable, then you actually exert influence on that variable. E.g., Smith''s data are questionable because he did not adequately control the ambient ...” July 28, 2014 lunarpower posted a reply to OG - SC Question 1 in the Sentence Correction forum “I received a private message about this thread. Hm? You don''t even need to "bypass the issue". There''s no issue in the first place. "Control(ling) for..." is in every choice.” July 28, 2014 lunarpower posted a reply to gasoline in the Critical Reasoning forum “Cool, thanks. It''s most rewarding, to me at least, to post stuff that makes people think about life beyond just this exam. So, good to know that''s happening in the mind of at least one reader. The whole sisu thing needs to be tempered, though, by an honest evaluation of whether you''re ...” July 28, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Veritas Tests Results: 710, 720, 660, TBD in the GMAT Strategy forum “I misspoke when I said that question 16 was the hardest question. What I meant was that is where the exam had the highest estimation of your score. That does not mean that this was the most difficult question or even one of the top 3 most difficult, but rather this is when the computer was ...” July 28, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Veritas Tests Results: 710, 720, 660, TBD in the GMAT Strategy forum “The explanation for getting more verbal questions right, but getting a lower score is that you missed some easier questions early and never really faced the tougher questions. I was able to go into the exams and look at the computer''s estimation of your score throughout. At no point during the ...” July 28, 2014 lunarpower posted a reply to gasoline in the Critical Reasoning forum “Oh, and, I forgot two more things. • DO NOT label mistakes as "silly mistakes" or "carelessness". Both of these labels will prevent you from actually addressing the issue. The former just trivializes the issue, as though God just dropped mistakes on your head while you ...” July 26, 2014 lunarpower posted a reply to gasoline in the Critical Reasoning forum “This one is simple. • Write EVERYTHING down. Absolutely everything. If there are conditions, write them down directly next to wherever you''re going to use them. (If you''re going to use them in multiple places, write them down multiple times. Do it.) Do NOT tell yourself that "this ...” July 26, 2014 lunarpower posted a reply to gasoline in the Critical Reasoning forum “When it comes to things requiring attention to detail, I''m just ... well, slow. Ridiculously, shamefully slow. If you saw how long it takes me to get through things that are entirely details, and that don''t really have a big-picture component (e.g., start-up instruction manuals for electronic ...” July 26, 2014 lunarpower posted a reply to gasoline in the Critical Reasoning forum “There are a couple of good ways to respond to this. 1/ First, I take issue with the "lots of words" thing. If you think about this test in a way that''s well adapted to it, the "lots of words" complaint doesn''t ring as true. The parts of the test with the most words are ...” July 26, 2014 lunarpower posted a reply to COMMA+-ING Vs noun modifier in the Sentence Correction forum “It''s ok to write that the experiments investigated these effects. In some situations——such as this one——you have "compromises" in terms of the exact literal quality of a modifier. If... ... there''s no way to write a single sentence that''s exactly literal, or ... the ...” July 26, 2014 lunarpower posted a reply to COMMA+-ING Vs noun modifier in the Sentence Correction forum “It''s ok to write that the experiments investigated these effects. In some situations——such as this one——you have "compromises" in terms of the exact literal quality of a modifier. If... ... there''s no way to write a single sentence that''s exactly literal, or ... the ...” July 26, 2014 lunarpower posted a reply to gasoline in the Critical Reasoning forum “Ah, yes. C is worded incorrectly. This is where you''ll discover that I''m "special". I am very severely dyslexic; I can''t read sentences in a straight line. Ever see those refrigerator magnets with words on them? That''s what every sentence looks like to me at first. I just see a ...” July 24, 2014 lunarpower posted a reply to gasoline in the Critical Reasoning forum “"10 or more gallons" means "x gallons, where x ≥ 10".” July 24, 2014 lunarpower posted a reply to Australian embryologists in the Sentence Correction forum “And, finally, "descended" has the same problem as "has descended" or "had descended". It wrongly suggests literal downward motion, rather than lineal descent from an ancestor.” July 17, 2014 lunarpower posted a reply to Australian embryologists in the Sentence Correction forum “By the way, "has suggested" is also wrong. It implies that the evidence made this suggestion at one point but doesn''t anymore. I explained this here: http://www.manhattangmat.com/forums/post100122.html That''s way, way, WAY too subtle to be necessary on the GMAT. But it''s a thing.” July 17, 2014 lunarpower posted a reply to Australian embryologists in the Sentence Correction forum “You''re going in the right direction here, but not quite reaching the right goal. This is a comma + __ing modifier. Comma + __ing doesn''t modify a noun. It tries to modify the entire preceding action/clause. E.g., I dropped the groceries onto the floor, scaring the dogs. This is a ...” July 17, 2014 lunarpower posted a reply to gasoline in the Critical Reasoning forum “Choice C doesn''t really do anything, because "lower quantities" and "more frequently" are offsetting ideas. In terms of their effect on total sales dollars, they cancel each out.” July 14, 2014 lunarpower posted a reply to gasoline in the Critical Reasoning forum “Right here you''re doing something you should NEVER do——focusing on an extreme (and very bizarre/counterintuitive) mathematical case, rather than thinking about the most likely or most ordinary interpretation of a statistic. Remember——This is not the quant section. It''s the verbal ...” July 14, 2014 lunarpower posted a reply to og cr 91 in the Critical Reasoning forum “Always read very carefully for the exact nature of things like goals, purposes, objectives, etc. Choice B implies that the plan might ultimately have bad results for the government budget. But that''s not the point. It''s not a plan to balance/fix the government budget; it''s a plan to make ...” July 9, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Veritas Tests Results: 710, 720, TBD in the GMAT Strategy forum “You are most likely a little above 700 right now, but remember that even between official GMAT tests (not even GMATPrep but official exams) your score can move within a 30 point window. So even if you are capable of scoring a 750 you could still get a 720 on the exam day. This can be due to ...” July 8, 2014 lunarpower posted a reply to Flight - Need clarification in the Sentence Correction forum “When it comes to dealing with correct answers to official problems, you have 2 options: 1/ Complain about them and/or say why you think they''re wrong; 2/ Figure out how they work, learn from them, and retain these experiences as part of a growing "memory bank" of formal written ...” July 6, 2014 lunarpower posted a reply to Tough one- Marcus Gavery in the Sentence Correction forum “This looks like a solid understanding. You''re welcome.” July 6, 2014 lunarpower posted a reply to COMMA+-ING Vs noun modifier in the Sentence Correction forum “I think you''re right here. Remember, "__ed" is a passive construction, normally representing an action done on or to the subject. So, in most cases, it''s not possible for such a construction to be intimately connected to the subject+action of the preceding clause (which describes ...” July 6, 2014 lunarpower posted a reply to COMMA+-ING Vs noun modifier in the Sentence Correction forum “Sure.” July 6, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to GMAT PREP exam Pack-1 worth Purchasing? - Please Help in the GMAT Strategy forum “It is worth it. With your exam in three weeks you want to get some more accurate information. Brent has given you the facts of it and here is one more - if you are not close to your goal score and you are still more than 7 days from your test date you can postpone. I imagine you will see a ...” July 1, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to For JD/MBA candidates: which test should you take first? in the GMAT Strategy forum “LSAT first. That way you only really have to study for the Quant and for the Sentence Correction in order to do well on the GMAT. Also, in many ways the LSAT is a tougher test (I know the GMAT is pretty tough, too.) So getting that one out of the way is probably the way to go. The LSAT is ...” June 30, 2014 lunarpower posted a reply to Usage of - When in the Sentence Correction forum “You''re welcome.” June 29, 2014 lunarpower posted a reply to Usage of - When in the Sentence Correction forum “This is just the normal use of "in which". If it''s idiomatically correct to say "in NOUN", then you can also write "(a/an/the) NOUN in which..." E.g., Robert starred in this play. ... the play in which Robert starred ... I was born in 1975. In 1975, the ...” June 29, 2014 lunarpower posted a reply to Flight - Need clarification in the Sentence Correction forum “An increase is a numerical quantity, so, like any other numerical quantity, it can theoretically be doubled. I.e., in 1989 ("the previous year"), this statistic went up by N percent. Then, in 1990, it went up by 2N percent (= twice the previous increase).” June 29, 2014 lunarpower posted a reply to Tough one- Marcus Gavery in the Sentence Correction forum “Well... no. If that were non-essential, then you could eliminate it without any loss of specificity. If you try to eliminate that modifier, then you''re left saying that Africa is just "the land". That''s nonsense, of course; the sentence has to say that Africa is the land that ...” June 29, 2014 lunarpower posted a reply to Tough one- Marcus Gavery in the Sentence Correction forum “In general, these aren''t the same. • "People ___ing" are people who are ___ing in the timeframe of the sentence. • "People who ___" are people who ___ in general. (If you were going to describe their habits/traits/tendencies, you would mention the fact that they ...” June 29, 2014 lunarpower posted a reply to A Common Mistake or An idiom usage. in the Sentence Correction forum “You''re welcome. You should always ask "Why?" about every type of question on this test. If you understand what is emphasized (and what isn''t) on this exam—in terms of both content and skills—you''ll find the whole experience much more circumscribed, and much less daunting.” June 29, 2014 lunarpower posted a reply to COMMA+-ING Vs noun modifier in the Sentence Correction forum “Hi, Honestly, I can''t really come up with anything better than what I wrote the first time. So, I''ll just quote what I wrote the first time. (: • Describes Roberta • Must have a relationship to the whole idea of the sentence. I don''t really know the grammar terms (and don''t ...” June 29, 2014 lunarpower posted a reply to COMMA+-ING Vs noun modifier in the Sentence Correction forum “Nah. It describes "a technique". That sentence doesn''t imply a contrast. It just points out that the use of a certain technique has been extended beyond its original purpose. (This is just the diffusion of technology; there''s nothing anticlimactic or "unexpected" about ...” June 29, 2014 lunarpower posted a reply to COMMA+-ING Vs noun modifier in the Sentence Correction forum “I know I say this way too often, but, this sort of understanding (involving classifications/categories) shouldn''t be your end goal, because it''s awkward and clumsy. I.e., your goal is to distinguish correct usage from incorrect usage immediately. If you have to think in terms of grammar terms ...” June 29, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Getting frustrated, pacing problem, working sloppy in the GMAT Strategy forum “I agree with much of what the others have said - but I humbly disagree with the emphasis on keeping a close track on the clock. You are not suffering from "huge pacing problems" just because you had to guess at the last question. I had to guess at the last question on a test where I ...” June 28, 2014 lunarpower posted a reply to modifier problem in the Sentence Correction forum “Hmm—this discussion was dead for more than 5 years before that post. Interesting. -- Basically, common-sense understanding should resolve these issues. Just ask yourself whether the __ing modifier actually makes sense as a DESCRIPTION of each of these things. Possibility #1: They ...” June 27, 2014 lunarpower posted a reply to Usage of - When in the Sentence Correction forum “Yes.” June 27, 2014 lunarpower posted a reply to COMMA+-ING Vs noun modifier in the Sentence Correction forum “More generally——Your understanding of patterns and constructions should not be totally static. It should have some "kernel" of understanding——i.e., a "core" understanding that represents the essence of a particular concept——but you should be willing to tweak it / ...” June 27, 2014 lunarpower posted a reply to COMMA+-ING Vs noun modifier in the Sentence Correction forum “It can describe turns. They took turns. — Turns doing what? / What kind of turns? Turns drawing xxxxx stuff. If you really don''t like that, then you can just remember it as an "idiom". That works, too, although it''s a slippery slope. I.e., it''s easy to slip into a pattern ...” June 27, 2014 lunarpower posted a reply to Usage of - When in the Sentence Correction forum “In all of the examples you''ve cited, "when" does refer to the actual timeframe when the following event happens. Look at this pair of sentences: When you return the goods, your money will be refunded. If you return the goods, your money will be refunded. The first sentence implies ...” June 26, 2014 lunarpower posted a reply to A Common Mistake or An idiom usage. in the Sentence Correction forum “If you notice any constructions that are used in contradictory / opposite / significantly different ways in the two languages (spoken and written English), you should pay more than the usual amount of attention to them. (As another example, consider pronouns. In SPOKEN English, they''re not ...” June 26, 2014 lunarpower posted a reply to COMMA+-ING Vs noun modifier in the Sentence Correction forum “• These are wrong answers. • As noted above, the OG explanations are not infallible. If you see "seems to..." in one of the explanations, that often——not necessarily 100% of the time, but often——indicates that the authors are hedging; they''re not totally confident about ...” June 26, 2014 lunarpower posted a reply to COMMA+-ING Vs noun modifier in the Sentence Correction forum “"Including", when used in this way, is not actually a ___ing word. It''s a different word, that (coincidentally) happens to be spelled with __ing on the end. See here: http://www.beatthegmat.com/stone-age-t36393.html#296165” June 26, 2014 lunarpower posted a reply to COMMA+-ING Vs noun modifier in the Sentence Correction forum “Also of note—— If you peruse the OG explanations, it will become clear that they aren''t written by the same people who write the questions. Specifically, it''s clear that ... ... gmac''s best writers write and/or edit the questions (and don''t spend their time writing explanations); ... ...” June 26, 2014 lunarpower posted a reply to COMMA+-ING Vs noun modifier in the Sentence Correction forum “The whole point of the comma -ing modifier is that you don''t have to pin it specifically on one word. The point is that it''s talking about the entire idea in the preceding part. I think you''re thinking too much about rules here, and not nearly enough about examples that actually work. For ...” June 26, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Veritas Books vs. Veritas on Demand course. in the GMAT Strategy forum “Since you specifically asked about Veritas books versus ON-Demand... I will tell you that with the On-Demand course you get everything that you would get with a full Veritas course. That includes homework help desk, all the practice exams (at this point 7), the solution station and everything ...” June 26, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Exciting Announcement from GMAC: NEW Score Reporting Policy in the GMAT Strategy forum “I encourage everyone to read the article cited by "Official GMAT" in the posting above. There are some nuances to this policy. For example, even if you cancel your score you can reinstate the score within a given time for a fee. This is a positive development for anyone who has had ...” June 25, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Which test to take to set a baseline for preparation in the GMAT Strategy forum “Yes! Do take the GMATPrep CAT 1. It is your best baseline test. You can re-take it an a few weeks when you are closer to the exam and you should mostly get different questions so you will not have really "wasted" one of your tests. If you need more tests than the GMATPrep tests (you ...” June 24, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Veritas GMAT Practice Tests in the GMAT Strategy forum “That last exam was an improvement on both Quant and Verbal. Your scores have been consistent and have improved. You should take a GMATPrep test at this point. This is just to give you another data point. You appear to definitely be clear of the 590 to 640 range. I would not worry about the ...” June 22, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Help Assess my Situation in the GMAT Strategy forum “eQuant - Having to put forth a lot of effort on the verbal is not always a good sign. I can tell you from these facts what likely happened: 1) you were tired and zoned out, 2) you put forth alot of effort, 3) you finished on time, 4) you score was still quite low for you What likely ...” June 22, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Verbal - 34 to 41 in the GMAT Strategy forum “QWERTY12321 - You will need to supply more information. What have your practice tests revealed? What question types are you missing. The general answer to your question is described in the Veritas Prep Advanced Verbal Reasoning Lesson. Those who are already at the 70 to 75th percentile (and ...” June 22, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to AWA - The author ... he or she? or something else? in the GMAT Essays (AWA) forum “I am going to have to agree with Rich on this one. Don''t use "they" since most arguments on the AWA are from a single person or source. Perhaps my favorite way to refer to the material is to use the context given to you at the beginning of the argument. Examples of this context are ...” June 22, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to In New York there has been an explosion of public interest i in the Critical Reasoning forum “This question is almost identical to another assumption question that is in the Veritas Critical Reasoning Book. I have written a feature article about that question and how to approach it. Please read it and you will see what we are looking for from this assumption question. ...” June 20, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Retaking...exhausted most of my prep material!! in the GMAT Strategy forum “When looking for material, please do not neglect the Veritas Prep Free Question Bank and the Veritas Free Practice test. Lots of great questions there! If you like the Veritas Practice test there are several more for sale as a bundle. The LSAT can be good material for the GMAT if you use it ...” June 19, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Official Guide for GMAT Review 2015: Identical to OG13 in the GMAT Strategy forum “The ability to create exams with these 900 questions is a significant feature. This sounds very much like functionality of the GMATPrep Pack 1 add-on. Except this book has 900 questions and the Prep Pack 1 has about 400. Doing questions on the computer is more realistic than doing them in the ...” June 17, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to GMAT PREP SOFTWARE in the GMAT Strategy forum “The questions are written by the same people. The GMATPrep practice tests are adaptive. If you are getting questions right then you should be getting harder questions. Of course "harder" or "more difficult" as seen by the test-taker is a subjective thing. You may just ...” June 16, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Veritas GMAT Practice Tests in the GMAT Strategy forum “Your CR % dropped from 86% to 63%. It is a small sample size. That means you missed 3 more problems. On the first test you probably got 12 of 14 CR questions right - to get 86%. On the second test you got 9 out of 14 right, or so. The difference may be that the questions were not as difficult on ...” June 12, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Assumptions and Strengthen the conclusion.. in the Critical Reasoning forum “iongmat - you are correct. "80 % of all lung cancers are attributed to cigarette smoking" is a very good strengthen answer, but it is a terrible assumption answer. It is absolutely one of the worst assumption answers you could come up with and I am shocked if the book you are using says ...” June 12, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Assumptions and Strengthen the conclusion.. in the Critical Reasoning forum “Rahul - I hate to by picky but this is not the correct way to negate an assumption that features a quantifier. For example, the following statement is wrong because of a woman named Margaret Thatcher: "All British Prime Ministers have been men." Or to put it into a percentage ...” June 12, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Source: Verias Prep in the Critical Reasoning forum “This is a Veritas Prep question. appy_fizz said, The problem is that you have misstated both answer choices!!! Choice C does not say, "only few drivers use headlights where they are not legally bounded to use headlights." It says that the ONLY drivers who use headlights when ...” June 12, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Do most GMAT testing centers look the same?? in the GMAT Strategy forum “Hopefully someone who has tested in that exact testing center will be able to reply. I have taken the exam in a few locations in the U.S. and have had students from around the world tell me what their test centers were like. They seem to be pretty similar in setup, although different in ...” June 12, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Fatigue in the GMAT Strategy forum “Mental fatigue of the kind you are describing is often based on the way that you approach problems. If you approach each problem with a do or die sort of effort and you are fighting each one then you will be exhausted well before the end. For example: how often are the verbal section are you ...” June 12, 2014 lunarpower posted a reply to COMMA+-ING Vs noun modifier in the Sentence Correction forum “There IS one exception of which you should be aware, though. Namely, if comma + __ing follows only a noun, rather than a full sentence/clause, then it modifies only that noun. (It can''t do anything else!) E.g., Roberta, having just finished her first marathon, collapsed onto the floor. Here, ...” June 12, 2014 lunarpower posted a reply to COMMA+-ING Vs noun modifier in the Sentence Correction forum “All of the examples you''ve cited follow the normal rule. • og12 #30: The modifier describes "were essential items". It''s the reason why they were essential items. • og13 #48: The modifier describes "is ... the largest lake on Earth". It substantiates that ...” June 12, 2014 lunarpower posted a reply to A Common Mistake or An idiom usage. in the Sentence Correction forum “Not "basic"/"obvious" at all for native speakers, actually. In fact, native speakers--excepting only those with unusually deep ability and/or enthusiasm for the written word--have more trouble with the spoken language/written language distinction. After all, they''re the ones ...” June 12, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Veritas Statistics/Probability/Combinations Book in the GMAT Strategy forum “Stats, Probability and Combinatorics, is a very good and very interesting book. There are nearly as many questions for these subjects combined as there are for Geometry. Perhaps 4 questions on these subjects compared to maybe 6 Geometry questions. But the difference is this: You can study every ...” June 10, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Veritas GMAT Practice Tests in the GMAT Strategy forum “Alejandro - It is now more common to get 4 passages on the actual exam. If you got 3 passages on the Veritas exam or on the GMATPrep or the actual GMAT they would be longer passages with more questions. This should not make a big difference even if English is not your first language. Veritas ...” June 9, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Pattern of DS questions in the GMAT Strategy forum “Great to see you picking up on that. Most students never see the pattern without having it explained. Let me know if you make any other observations on Data Sufficiency. Data Sufficiency theory is perhaps my favorite subject. B-)” June 8, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Veritas Tests Results in the GMAT Strategy forum “Notes for critical reasoning depend on the type of question that you are addressing. I refer to Strengthen, Weaken, Assumption, and Most useful to know in order to evaluate questions as "normal" questions. I call them normal because they are likely to have a conclusion in the ...” June 8, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Veritas Tests Results in the GMAT Strategy forum “There are different thoughts on "note taking" on the verbal section. I think most experts agree that for sentence correction you should not really take notes. Just keep an A B C D E so that you can cross out the wrong answers. For Reading Comprehension, I recommend that you not ...” June 8, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Veritas Tests Results in the GMAT Strategy forum “So it appears that Veritas score was not out of line with your more valid GMATPrep score! I encourage you to take the remaining Veritas tests and do not worry if a test feels easier. If you get a question that seems easy to you it just means that it is one that you can get right so do your best, ...” June 8, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Just took the GMAT, and the Proctor ruined my score in the GMAT Strategy forum “The answer is yes and no. Certainly you can do poorly on the first several questions and still score a 40 or even a 45, but the task becomes more difficult. If you some of the questions that you missed early were of a low difficulty level (and these are questions you would normally have gotten right ...” June 8, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Just took the GMAT, and the Proctor ruined my score in the GMAT Strategy forum “Students have had worse things happen to them and the best outcome they were given is a free retake. However, they still had to wait 31 days for the retake. So be prepared to take the test again in a month. You should certainly contact GMAC, but in my experience they will not alter your score ...” June 8, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Pattern of DS questions in the GMAT Strategy forum “In your example, for statement 1 you got just one value for x, and that value was 2, and for statement 2 you also got a single value but it was 3. So each statement gives you just one value and this appears to be choice D, but the statements contradict each other. And you noticed that the official ...” June 8, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Veritas Tests Results in the GMAT Strategy forum “Rich is certainly correct we need to know what the scores are on your other CATS, particularly on the GMATPrep practice tests. We are proud of our adaptive Veritas CATs and the score results are based on millions of responses, however as Rich said one data point is not enough for an analysis. ...” June 8, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Best GMAT Preparation in the GMAT Strategy forum “The source for verified GMAT course reviews here on Beat the GMAT is http://reviews.beatthegmat.com/ Veritas is the top rated company both in number of reviews and in the average score that students gave (number of stars). Remember that most of the major companies offer a free trial period or ...” June 4, 2014 lunarpower posted a reply to Helping verbs in different tenses in the Sentence Correction forum “Yes. Correct conclusion, but incorrect analysis. "Did" is just referring to a tense of "see" again (as in the first example above).” June 4, 2014 lunarpower posted a reply to Helping verbs in different tenses in the Sentence Correction forum “"Helping verb changes tense" is incorrect. If that were the situation, the right-hand part would be "had" (and then you''d need additional context to justify the use of that tense, too). "Do"/"did"/etc. can stand for an action verb that originally appears ...” June 4, 2014 lunarpower posted a reply to A Common Mistake or An idiom usage. in the Sentence Correction forum “In writing, neither of these would work. "Go out" is grammatically verboten. A verb can''t act as a noun. "To go out" would work in terms of pure mechanics, but the meaning isn''t right. "To ____", if used as a noun, should be a reference to the ...” June 4, 2014 lunarpower posted a reply to A Common Mistake or An idiom usage. in the Sentence Correction forum “I received a private message about this thread. First and foremost... this: This is the biggest mistake here. You''re trying to evaluate spoken English by the standards of written English. You shouldn''t do that. Because... Spoken English and written English are DIFFERENT LANGUAGES. ...” June 4, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Commercials in the Critical Reasoning forum “Fact 2 indicates that the reason people do not remember commercials is because that commercial is in the middle of a cluster of commercials. So if there are 5 commercials, only commercials 1 and 5 are well remembered -- 2, 3, and 4 are not remembered well. Now a shorter cluster has a greater ...” May 29, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Veritas on-demand course VS Manhattan GMAT guided self-study in the GMAT Strategy forum “If you feel like you can comfortably finish the course, work practice sets, and take 3 more practice tests within the next three weeks you can choose that June date. But if you get closer to the 19th of June and find that you need to postpone you might be postponing to some time in August and that ...” May 28, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Veritas on-demand course VS Manhattan GMAT guided self-study in the GMAT Strategy forum “You are not far from being ready to take the exam. You need to complete the rest of the content on your Veritas course and you need to take a few more practice tests. Ideally you would like to see a 700+ on two GMATPrep exams or at least on another GMATPrep and another Veritas test. Some people ...” May 27, 2014 lunarpower posted a reply to modifier issue expert in the Sentence Correction forum “No. A modifier doesn''t make sense here, because you''re talking about two separate things: 1/ move into new housing 2/ apply part of the rent to a later purchase #2 is not, in any meaningful sense, a description of #1. They''re totally different things. So, this modifier doesn''t work—and ...” May 27, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to ctrl + F | allowed in the test? in the Reading Comprehension forum “What a great idea! In my opinion, the answer has to be "no!" Knowing where to look for key words a phrases is part of the deal on Reading Comp. The search function would undermine that. In addition, the only tool that you use during the exam (except for AWA) is the mouse. So I am ...” May 21, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Loosing Hope....Please help... in the GMAT Strategy forum “Let''s talk about Data Sufficiency. You need to address those errors by being more careful and considering the possibilities for each question. Here are some articles that can really change how you look at DS: http://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2012/10/11/the-gmat-is-slipperyso-use-the-handrails ...” May 19, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to BEST TIME FOR OG VERBAL REVIEW, QUANT REVIEW AND Q PACK 1 in the GMAT Strategy forum “I disagree with this statement. Official problems are terrific problems for testing your strategies and for honing your skills, but you need to develop those strategies first! I would recommend that someone new to the GMAT start with a good complete set of guides like the M-GMAT set or the (in my ...” May 17, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Best GMAT Prep Course Poll in the GMAT Strategy forum “This is the oldest post! This is from 2009. And poll respondents may or may not have taken any of the courses mentioned. For a VERIFIED review of courses from actual students of those courses please see http://reviews.beatthegmat.com/” May 16, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Newbie GMAT Question - Sending Report to Schools? in the GMAT Strategy forum “I did some quick research and it looks like you only need to send one score report to the consortium and then your entire application, including the scores are reported to member schools. So that is a savings of time and money! The code (again no need to memorize) is "GMAT® Code: ...” May 16, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Detailed score report real gmat in the GMAT Strategy forum “Brent is exactly right. GMAC does not give out that sort of information. They guard their questions very closely and do not want anyone to know even the number of questions missed. Furthermore, you would need to know the difficulty of the questions you missed in order for this to really help ...” May 15, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to gmat prep test in the GMAT Strategy forum “As Rich said, the more closely your practice test matches your test day the more likely it is to be accurate. 660 is the 80th percentile, a 600 is the 62nd percentile. Based on those numbers you would be able to have a considerable slippage in your performance and still obtain that score. I ...” May 14, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Timing and wrong/right answer choices in the GMAT Strategy forum “No problem! It is all a little unclear. Glad I could finally help out!” May 14, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Population Tension- Bold Face question in the Critical Reasoning forum “Answer choice C states that the role of the first portion in bold is "The first is a premise that contradicts the main point made by the analyst" Ask yourself this question, "Does saying that measures like health care and road safety have not increased the population actually ...” May 14, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Population Tension- Bold Face question in the Critical Reasoning forum “Here is the question but with the proper portions in bold. Source is Manhatten GMAT exam. Political Analyst: After the Soviet Union collapsed, some hoped that freedom would encourage Russians to multiply, but as a result of dislocation and insecurity, the Russian population continues to ...” May 14, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Timing and wrong/right answer choices in the GMAT Strategy forum “I highlighted the relevant portion and I now see where the misunderstanding is. You say that you got 6 questions right but only received a 5 as your score - as in why did you not receive a 6 since you got 6 right... The IR section is not scored that way. You score IS based on the number you ...” May 14, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to "SuperOXY" Bold face question in the Critical Reasoning forum “This is a special kind of bold-faced question with just one statement in bold and the answer does not describe the role but rather the correct answer replaces the portion in bold. So why, is B the correct answer to this question? It is because we are focused on the FUNCTION played by the ...” May 14, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to "SuperOXY" Bold face question in the Critical Reasoning forum “Here is the argument, but with the correct portion in bold (Kamal2014 seem to have left out the bold in original post) One of the limiting factors in human physical performance is the amount of oxygen that is absorbed by the muscles from the bloodstream. Accordingly, entrepreneurs have begun ...” May 14, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to GMAT TUTOR in the Critical Reasoning forum “Matt said: The fact is Matt, that you are famous! You are Matt from G-Matt Mondays! Therefore your argument is false and since you are famous maybe you have won the Nobel Prize as well??? Seriously, though this is a strange question. Best to take Matt''s advice and ignore this one.” May 14, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to How to keep your focus up through verbal in the GMAT Strategy forum “One of the problems that test takers face is the fact that it is not possible to go for 4 hours all out. You have to have certain techniques in place that allow you to make maximum use of those times when you really are making the "tough decisions." Many test takers do get tired and ...” May 14, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Timing and wrong/right answer choices in the GMAT Strategy forum “ This is correct. IR is scored based on the number of full questions (there are 12) that you get correct. Pacing is not considered by the computer when it gives you the score. If you get a question right in 30 seconds or in 5 minutes it is still a correct answer. This is not ...” May 13, 2014 lunarpower posted a reply to CR-OG - 203 - In Physics journals ..particle accelerators.. in the Critical Reasoning forum “I suppose you meant D. The problem with D is that it doesn''t address the essence of the problem, which is the difference between this year and previous years. As stated, D is something that is true for accelerators in general—and that thus has always been true, both in previous years and ...” May 10, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Gmatprep Software in the GMAT Strategy forum “First let me say that I can vouch for both of those GMATPrep products. They are both worthwhile. I am a big fan of the GMATPrep Pack 1. It does not have adaptive tests as it is more a question bank, but you can create your own sort of quizzes and they can be 37 questions and 41 questions long ...” May 7, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Best on-demand course? kaplan Vs Manhattan Vs Veritas in the GMAT Strategy forum “Those guys are right. You should see what is right for you. Why not do a free trial of the Veritas on Demand? There is, literally, nothing to lose. http://www.veritasprep.com/gmat/gmat-on-demand-free-trial/ You will find the HD quality videos are actually very enjoyable to watch. ...” May 6, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Critical reasoning.Didnt understand the OG answer explanatio in the Critical Reasoning forum “This is an assumption question, it is also a cause and effect question. The effect that has been observed and cannot be contradicted is that more children are going to the school nurse. Now the speculation is about the cause. The conclusion says that the cause is either "children have been ...” May 4, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Bold faces questions in the Critical Reasoning forum “Remember that with Bold Faced Reasoning it is a process of elimination so you are looking for anything wrong with the answer choice so that you can eliminate it. Like in Sentence Correction. Here is a simple strategy that I have found works well: Start the problem by identifying the main ...” May 4, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Scratch Pad Strategy in the GMAT Strategy forum “Let''s start with the second question. I have never heard that it was considered cheating to jot down a few notes during the 4 minutes of the "tutorial." However, what I would be doing there is not drawing quadrants, but writing down any math formulas, equations, or other notes that you ...” May 4, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to I got 12 incorrect in verbal and still got 26 :( in the GMAT Strategy forum “As has been said by many experts here at Beat the GMAT, the number of questions right or wrong is not a reliable gauge of your score - unless you miss very few questions. If you have said you got 3 questions wrong we could expect a very high score, but 12 questions wrong is enough to really ...” May 3, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Veritas on-demand course VS Manhattan GMAT guided self-study in the GMAT Strategy forum “See juan.manrique, Great minds think alike! And by that I mean YOU and Bill (and I). Let us know if you have questions.” May 1, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to GMATPrep 1 - Q43, V24 - (Q- 16 incorrect, V- 14 incorrect) in the GMAT Strategy forum “First, remember that it is not the number of questions you miss, nor even the placement of those questions throughout the section. It is the difficulty level of those questions. In general it is better to miss tougher questions. You may have simply missed less difficult questions on the verbal ...” April 30, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Veritas on-demand course VS Manhattan GMAT guided self-study in the GMAT Strategy forum “Your approach is just right. We often recommend to students that do at least 50% of the homework. The entire set of 12 Veritas books contain more questions than does the Official Guide 13th edition. So that is lots of questions. If you do at least half of the questions you will get exposure to ...” April 30, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Veritas Prep Full Course vs. Manhattan Complete Course in the GMAT Strategy forum “I am sure that either format will work but you asked for the reason why we structured the Veritas course the way that we have...so here you go. You are correct, the difference is 36 classroom hours versus 27. Those extra nine hours allow for a more in-depth look at subjects like data ...” April 30, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Veritas on-demand course VS Manhattan GMAT guided self-study in the GMAT Strategy forum “Rich is right a 670 and a 650 are essentially the same score and each is a big improvement over a 580. The change in the Quantitative is something to look into. As I have mentioned to others who have a good verbal score and are better at data sufficiency, data sufficiency is about reasoning ...” April 27, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Reading comprehension or Quant?? in the GMAT Strategy forum “Well either would be fine depending on what you are going for. Reading comp does not take too long...but you might want to get started on the Quant. Are you planning to mix them in or are you going for a "first one and then the other" approach? I personally would do some Quant ...” April 26, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Better At DS than PS in the GMAT Strategy forum “As Brent said, you can certainly stick to the schedule. Next Sunday is not far away.” April 24, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Better At DS than PS in the GMAT Strategy forum “I knew it! Critical reasoning is my best subject as well and Data Sufficiency is much more enjoyable than Problem Solving. So the good news is that you can still get a great score. 6 weeks left until test day is plenty of time to improve that problem solving (and as you do your data ...” April 24, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Veritas Prep Full Course vs. Manhattan Complete Course in the GMAT Strategy forum “This is the right forum for your question! I am glad that you learned of Veritas. In the past 12 years we have worked with over 50,000 students! It is fine to ask people if they know about a particular person but the verified reviews on Beat the GMAT and GMAT Club are a more trustworthy ...” April 24, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Better At DS than PS in the GMAT Strategy forum “bml1105 - I am actually in the same boat that you are in. On my last official exam, a 770 score, I had to guess at several problem solving questions. On the other hand I would be shocked if I missed more than 1 or 2 Data Sufficiency for the whole exam. The difference is that Data Sufficiency ...” April 24, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Until 2010, a state tax regulation known as the “80-20 rul in the Sentence Correction forum “This is from the Veritas Prep question bank. The OA is A. Here is the explanation: Solution: A Explanation: The primary difficulty in this question refers to a false decision point between “such as” and “like”. Generally speaking, you use “such as” when what follows is an ...” April 22, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to GMAT Prep Question in the Sentence Correction forum “I guess after 7 years the person who original posted this is not coming back to confirm the answer! Since it was brought back up, I thought would confirm the OA. The OA is A. The other 4 choices all contain misplaced modifiers. The modifier "Called proton-induced X-ray emission” should ...” April 22, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to When there is less rainfall in the Critical Reasoning forum “Amadalia - Others have already discussed this question, but I just wanted to point out the two most important words in the question: "short intervals" Choice D says: (D) Australian rivers dry up completely for short intervals in periods of extreme drought. I see that what you ...” April 22, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to HELP!!! Did not do well on test day! in the GMAT Strategy forum “Parimal1215 - You said The Veritas critical reasoning questions are more varied and in many cases seem to be more difficult. You can try the FREE Veritas question bank (this thing is popular, over 4 million questions delivered now!) http://www.veritasprep.com/gmat-question-bank/ ...” April 22, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to parapsychology in the Critical Reasoning forum “This is an assumption question. The conclusion is that "parapsychology it is in fact a genuine scientific enterprise" So you want parapsychology to be a scientific enterprise. Choice C goes in the wrong direction. With choice C you are able to determine which things are NOT genuine ...” April 22, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Gmat Overview of the administration of the test in the GMAT Strategy forum “I misspoke -- it is not a dry erase but a "wet erase" board. You cannot erase it in any feasible way during the exam.” April 22, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Gmat Overview of the administration of the test in the GMAT Strategy forum “I would be shocked to learn that any center gave pencil and paper. GMAC is more concerned about keeping their questions secret than just about anything else - other than verifying the identity of test taker. It is very difficult to account for every sheet of paper so questions could be ...” April 22, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Perhaps its not meant to be in the GMAT Strategy forum “Clearly you are discouraged and the GMAT can be just that kind of ordeal. The math skills necessary are those that many people have not used for years and as you have seen this can cause problems. Going forward you are going to need to work just on the actual skills themselves for a while, ...” April 18, 2014 lunarpower posted a reply to Kerosene Heater.. Experts Please Explain. in the Critical Reasoning forum “Prithvi, The problem here is that you aren''t reading the words literally enough. Specifically—When you see the words "a negative effect on disposable income", you should read that as... "a negative effect on disposable income". I.e., any "negative effect", ...” April 14, 2014 lunarpower posted a reply to NEED EXPERT ADVISE in the Sentence Correction forum “I received a private message about this thread. From the standpoint of carefully written, formal English—i.e., the type of English tested on the GMAT—"drug and alcohol abuse" is singular. It''s just "abuse", with adjectives in front of it. (If this construction appears ...” April 14, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Recent Longitudinal Study in the Critical Reasoning forum “This is a weaken question. First let''s break the argument down into conclusion and evidence. The conclusion is "The researchers thus concluded not only that remaining on an effective weight management and exercise program is difficult, but also that personal trainers are largely ...” April 14, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Need GMAT Free Full Length Test Series Links in the GMAT Strategy forum “It takes a huge investment to make a great set of CATs. The New Veritas tests are written by a impressive team of instructors edited over and over and then offered to students as experimental questions before they are ever graduated to the actual Veritas practice test. Even then the process does ...” April 14, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to CAT's in the GMAT Strategy forum “Let me just advise you that you might want some Variety in those CATs. There is not reason to take six M-GMAT CATs and not take even one of the other types. The new Veritas FREE CAT is very good and gives you another angle to look at things. Take all of those official CATs that you can as Vivian ...” April 14, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Powerscore CR doubt... in the Critical Reasoning forum “Great explanation from Mitch! Hey I wanted jump in here because one of the things quoted in the Power score is Now I know that this is just an answer choice to a CR question, but it turns out that exercise is not only what causes a person to be intelligent, but according to evolutionary ...” April 14, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Confused : weakening the argument in the Critical Reasoning forum “I might just step in here to say a few words about this particular question and similar questions of this type. This is an LSAT question that calls for you to point out the flaw. It is different from a weaken question in that with a weaken question you choose an answer that actually weakens the ...” April 14, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Verbal is killing me in the GMAT Strategy forum “You said, And then I agree with Rich that adjustments are needed, but I say they are needed right now. Adjustments to your approach need to begin immediately. It is tough love time again. So here we go... If studying is "in one ear and out the other" then please ...” April 13, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Verbal is killing me in the GMAT Strategy forum “You say this was a "mock exam" Please clarify for me - if this was a mock exam who was the proctor? How was there a proctor? Why did the proctor offer an uninformed opinion about Veritas? Not only are Veritas tests adaptive they are now based on over 3 million responses by ...” April 13, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Veritas on-demand course VS Manhattan GMAT guided self-study in the GMAT Strategy forum “Why not try Veritas on Demand for free? Here is information about Veritas On Demand http://www.veritasprep.com/gmat/gmat-on-demand/ Here is the link for the free trial http://www.veritasprep.com/gmat/gmat-on-demand-free-trial/” April 12, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to can someone provide an OA to this in the Critical Reasoning forum “OA is D This should be treated as an inference question. The "therefore" before the blank lets us know that the correct answer will be a conclusion. Remember to eliminate those answers that could be false. Out of scope answers and predictions are the two biggest categories to ...” April 9, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to This one tricked me in the Data Sufficiency forum “Very nice explanation from Rich! It is important to be careful and not leap to the conclusion that the answer is C. Which many people do. (AT Veritas we say "No easy C''s" because C can be a trap for many people). I wanted to add one thing that might help here. This is a Yes/No ...” April 7, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Conditionals in the Critical Reasoning forum “This is an experimental question from the Veritas question bank. It does involve more formal logic than you would see in the Official Guide or the GMATPrep. Although it is formal logic it is not nearly to the extent of what you would see on the LSAT and can be fun in small doses like this! I just ...” April 7, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Which books are better in order of importance in the GMAT Strategy forum “My point was not that you should specifically buy the Veritas books - whatever books you have are fine - in fact my point was that you have to take ownership of your studying and make it your own. People say "I studied all 10 of these books and still got a 560." Okay but what did you ...” April 6, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Which books are better in order of importance in the GMAT Strategy forum “Don''t get all of them! It is better to decide to not clutter your mind with too many takes on the same thing. In the end you have to make the GMAT your own. You should be using study guides as a way to help you to develop the tactics and techniques you will use. You are taking the exam, you ...” April 6, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to How can one attack a premise!..A premise is a fact! Confused in the Critical Reasoning forum “The major problem that people have had with this question has been the definition of "contact" from choice D: "Tuberculosis is not spread through human contact." Most people who have a problem with this question define contact as physical. So a hand shake or a kiss. They go on ...” April 6, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to How can one attack a premise!..A premise is a fact! Confused in the Critical Reasoning forum “I am guessing from your subject line that you think you need to attack a premise on this question? You need to be more specific. I cannot see that you would be attacking any premise with the OA - D. D states that "Tuberculosis is not spread through human contact." Which premise does ...” April 6, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to How can one attack a premise!..A premise is a fact! Confused in the Critical Reasoning forum “Just a tip Mukherjee: When you hide the official answer, don''t hide the OA part just the actual letter. When you hide the whole thing no one knows what is under the black bar. Also, please post the actual text of the argument rather than a screen shot. It is very easy to find each of these ...” April 6, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Data Sufficiency in the GMAT Strategy forum “Here is the link to another article that I just posted in the Data Sufficiency forum. I think it might help you out! David http://www.beatthegmat.com/diagnose-your-own-data-sufficiency-difficulties-t275308.html” April 5, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a new topic called Diagnose your own Data Sufficiency Difficulties. in the Data Sufficiency forum “This is the text of an article I wrote for the Veritas Prep Blog on Bloomberg Businessweek. The article was posted in three parts so rather than link it I thought I should include the full text here. Diagnose Your Own Data Sufficiency Difficulties Do you need help diagnosing your own data ...” April 5, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Data Sufficiency in the GMAT Strategy forum “The key is to begin each problem the same way each time. By that I mean, if there are certain steps that you take at the beginning of each question you can be sure to avoid the silly mistakes and you can also be careful to take everything into consideration. Here are a few articles that can ...” April 5, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to LSAT question example 3: The Calculus in the Critical Reasoning forum “Now I am going to give a little "tough love." I want to help you and all who read this... I am glad that you brought this up This is an official LSAT question, and the answer choice has been given to you by a registered expert here on Beat the GMAT. I do not understand why you ...” April 3, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to LSAT question example 3: The Calculus in the Critical Reasoning forum “You are over-thinking this question and making it more difficult than it is. First, lets deal with choice B, you said The difference between Choice E and B is that if you negate choice B this does not indicate that this "third person" had any contact with either Newton of ...” April 3, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to GMATPrep Software by GMAC in the GMAT Strategy forum “GMAC does not update the questions on the free GMAT tests very frequently. You can post a question to the "Ask the TestMaker" in this forum and ask if GMAC plans an update in the next few weeks. Assuming that this is not time for an update, you can still take the first test again. No ...” April 2, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Reading Comprehension Individual Passages are Adaptive? in the Reading Comprehension forum “No. This is not true. You will notice on most passages that the initial question is a primary purpose. This is not the easiest question, just the one that they want to ask you first. You see if they were to ask the primary purpose question last you could sort of figure it out from the other ...” March 31, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Veritas CR - Need expert help in the Critical Reasoning forum “First, I am not sure that this really would take you more than 2 minutes. And even if it did, there are other questions that will take less time so you could spend 3 minutes on a question and it would not be a big deal. Second, this is a standard weighted average flaw. The comparison is not valid ...” March 31, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Reading Comprehension Individual Passages are Adaptive? in the Reading Comprehension forum “The passage and the questions are all selected at one time. So the questions do not adapt within the passage. The passage is of a range of difficulties - so a passage could work with, for example, 650 to 700. The questions then make the difficulty more specific. So there might be 8 questions ...” March 27, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Reading the Question Correctly - Tips / Good Habits etc? in the GMAT Strategy forum “I had to respond to this: You sound like one of my favorite writers, Bill Bryson. I swear that he would write just exactly this "When I do so, I give myself a good telling off..." Perhaps this is best-selling author Bill Bryson? Billy is that you? In all seriousness I have some ...” March 27, 2014 David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to GMAT study in 3 months full time or study full time 3 weeks in the GMAT Strategy forum “Yes the two free CATS (and you can probably take each one twice) and then the latest questions are on the tests that cost$39.99 So that is between 4 and 6 official tests depending on if you retake them. Add your M-GMAT tests that you got with the books and the Veritas Free Test and this is more ...”
March 26, 2014
David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Mind Block in the GMAT Strategy forum
“You will want to get those CAT scores up a little so that you feel confident going in to the actual exam. If you CAT is 550 you will feel like you cannot make any mistakes. If it is 580 - 600 then you will feel more comfortable. Clearly Rich has asked you the right question here! 13% on the Quant ...”
March 26, 2014
David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Evaluate the Argument : Economists in the Critical Reasoning forum
“When I read this stimulus I had to investigate to see if this was how it was really written or if there might have been a typo. I found this on the Economist GMAT tutor as an example CR question. And the question does indeed say "To save time and money on water and maintenance, many ...”
March 26, 2014
David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to GMAT study in 3 months full time or study full time 3 weeks in the GMAT Strategy forum
“Well the manhattan guides rely on the Official Guide for homework problems so you need that. You may not need the Verbal Review and the Quant Review. As you get closer to the exam you will want to do problem sets from the OG 13 or from the GMATPrep Prep Pack 1 add-on. Are you familiar with the ...”
March 26, 2014
David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to GMAT study in 3 months full time or study full time 3 weeks in the GMAT Strategy forum
“Have you been studying? It has been a few days now. Is your study plan in place and working? David”
March 25, 2014
David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Critical Reasoning: Best Book? Confused which to follow??!! in the GMAT Strategy forum
“I would not probably make this suggestion for any topic other than Critical Reasoning and Reading Comprehension, but have you tried some official GMAT critical reasoning questions? Before you start to make things overly complicated (which the Powerscore Bible book will certainly do) try some ...”
March 25, 2014
David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Mind Block in the GMAT Strategy forum
“Oh, and here is part of a response that I wrote to another student who wanted to know about "the mental side of the GMAT" This part of the response has to do with lifestyle factors that help control anxiety. Please add "sleep" to the list below. I am writing about sleep ...”
March 25, 2014
David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Mind Block in the GMAT Strategy forum
“ Choking on the GMAT “Choking” is the opposite of panic. Choking is something that occurs when you think too much. In the article cited above Gladwell gives the example of a tennis player who was about to win a major championship when she suddenly collapsed and started hitting everything ...”
March 25, 2014
David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Mind Block in the GMAT Strategy forum
“ Panic or Choking? Now we come to an interesting distinction emphasized by Malcom Gladwell. His discussion can be found at http://gladwell.com/the-art-of-failure/ As Gladwell says “Panic, in this sense, is the opposite of choking. Choking is about thinking too much. Panic is about thinking ...”
March 25, 2014
David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Mind Block in the GMAT Strategy forum
“Has your tutor helped you understand what you need to do on the Quant section to get your score? A 550 is roughly average on the exam so if you are at or above average on the Verbal you can afford to be a little below average on the Quant. Getting about 20 questions right could get you the score ...”
March 25, 2014
David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Mind Block in the GMAT Strategy forum
“I am going to break this into a number of posts to keep it manageable. Just a few!!! This is one of my favorite topics, because there is so much potential to help people. As I recently wrote to another student with issues in this direction, the GMAT is a test taken by people, and who you ...”
March 25, 2014
David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Time on questions in the GMAT Strategy forum
“For the Verbal Section: It is really a matter of Trusting Yourself and your techniques on Verbal. People spend too much time on verbal questions because they are debating the answer choices and stuck between two choices. If you have good methods you can keep a consistent pace. Suggested time ...”
March 24, 2014
David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Time on questions in the GMAT Strategy forum
“Continuing with the Quant: twhansbury - I just read this part of your question and wanted to caution you: It is true that you can "bank" that time - but it needs to be something that happens naturally. On the Quant section for example, there is no such thing as being able to ...”
March 24, 2014
David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Time on questions in the GMAT Strategy forum
“For Quant: You need to get around 25 questions right on the Quant section in order to get a very good score. (As long as you are doing your job and getting easy questions right the 12 that you miss will be hard questions...and many of the ones you get right will be tough, too). In order to do ...”
March 24, 2014
David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Different GMAT scores from GMAT prep, Kaplan, veritas prep in the GMAT Strategy forum
“I totally agree with what Rich said about waiting for another couple of weeks before taking another practice test. Remember, you use practice tests to see where you are and to work on things like timing strategy and overall test strategy. But when you are a little down and need to see some ...”
March 23, 2014
David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Should I consider Giving GMAT if I'm not working ? in the GMAT Strategy forum
“Business Schools would be lucky to have you. They need some people with a little bit of life experience! You must know this, but there are lots of IT people who apply to the MBA, and India is one of the top countries of origin. In other words, you would need a good GMAT score even without a gap in ...”
March 23, 2014
David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to GMAT Test skills in the GMAT Strategy forum
“Skills that you should work on would include: simple calculations done without a calculator. An amazing number of people rely exclusive on calculators and have difficulty doing addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. Do calculations in your head when they are small and easy enough, ...”
March 22, 2014
David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to GMAT prep books in the GMAT Strategy forum
“If you are going to buy a single book it should be the 13th edition of the Official Guide to the GMAT by GMAC. (Any book that says "Official Guide" that is not published by GMAC is not "official" since it is not written by the test maker). The OG 13 as it is called, contains ...”
March 22, 2014
David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Veritas in the Sentence Correction forum
“This question is from the Veritas Free Question Bank. Here is the question: In relocating to countries in Europe or Asia, U.S. companies are looking to avoid the attention brought on by moving to such obvious tax shelters as Belize, and taking advantage of the more favorable business conditions ...”
March 22, 2014
David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to GMAT study in 3 months full time or study full time 3 weeks in the GMAT Strategy forum
“GREAT! So extend that schedule out a little. You could conceivably take more of your M-GMAT CATs if you need to. Take 3 days between tests so that you have two days to analyze and improve before you take the next test. With 40 days you really can do this is on 7.5 hours per day. You could even ...”
March 21, 2014
David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to GMAT study in 3 months full time or study full time 3 weeks in the GMAT Strategy forum
“Great question! Let me say that 10+ CATS in 26 days is too many. I have a schedule below that includes 7. This is probably the most you should do. You use practice tests to see where you are in your studies - kind of like a track meet is how people see how fast they are. You do not become a ...”
March 21, 2014
David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to GMAT study in 3 months full time or study full time 3 weeks in the GMAT Strategy forum
“Okay GMAT Easy - Reality Check! I have to agree with the guys above - you need to take a diagnostic. Where you start from is more important in the short term than it is in the long term. I feel like I need to address something that you said so that it does not give other people a false and even ...”
March 21, 2014
David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Different GMAT scores from GMAT prep, Kaplan, veritas prep in the GMAT Strategy forum
“When you understand the role that sleep plays in clearing the brain of information in order to allow more adaptive thinking you will find that taking the test after a hard day of work can result in a severe decline in your scores. The biggest problem is that most of our jobs are not just ...”
March 21, 2014
David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Is this an argument or fact set? in the Critical Reasoning forum
“Powerscore is a good book for the LSAT. It may be a little too much for the GMAT and can lead to confusion as people over think. Argument versus a set of facts is a very insignificant distinction in reality and here is why... In order to strengthen - you need an argument weaken - you need an ...”
March 21, 2014
David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Which CAT'S to exclude in the GMAT Strategy forum
“Oh well I did not know that you can try one of those as well then. That depends on how many tests you feel you need and what you want to pay for. I am sure that they each offer a free exam as Veritas does and you can see which you like!”
March 21, 2014
David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Different GMAT scores from GMAT prep, Kaplan, veritas prep in the GMAT Strategy forum
“You must be doing something differently on the practice tests. I would be strange for you to go from the 23rd percentile on the GMATPrep (a 460) to the 70th percentile on the Veritas test (a 620) back down to the 31st percentile (a 490). It is not really about which test is more reliable ...”
March 21, 2014
David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Which CAT'S to exclude in the GMAT Strategy forum
“Whatever you do be sure to keep the official tests in there! Keep the GMATPrep 2 free tests and the GMATPrep tests that you add-on. It is also worth it to purchase the additional questions for GMATPrep. As for the other practice tests, you can try one of the Veritas Prep tests for free. The ...”
March 20, 2014
lunarpower posted a reply to Christopher Columbus in the Sentence Correction forum
“By the way— The stuff I explained in the immediately preceding post ("that xxxx" as a noun) is one of the most common "fake idioms" that I''ve seen. By "fake idiom" I mean that the entire internet thinks it''s an idiom, but it''s actually not. For instance, upon ...”
March 7, 2014
lunarpower posted a reply to Christopher Columbus in the Sentence Correction forum
“In that structure, the clauses starting with "that" are not modifiers at all. They play the role of nouns. There''s probably some fancy grammar term for that; I don''t know. In any case, nouns don''t refer to anything, so neither do these modifiers. Here are some examples—first ...”
March 7, 2014
lunarpower posted a reply to Christopher Columbus in the Sentence Correction forum
“The official problems have tested "x and y" as a singular noun before, but never without proof. E.g., OG13 #85, in which "owning and living..." is a singular noun. * It''s actually essential to recognize that "owning and living" is singular. If you assume by ...”
March 3, 2014
David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to GMAT around the corner. ALL ADVICE WELCOMED in the GMAT Strategy forum
“Also, realize that the Veritas tests have a good correlation with official GMAT results so do not discount those scores. Try not to stay up late thinking about it. There is not much that anyone can tell you accept 1) to focus - meaning no wandering mind during the exam 2) to focus - on the ...”
March 3, 2014
David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to GMAT around the corner. ALL ADVICE WELCOMED in the GMAT Strategy forum
“At this point, you are taking the exam tomorrow. So you need to forget those last two exams. You need to go in there with the attitude that you will do well and also that it does not matter - you can take it again. You do not want to have too much pressure on yourself. Now if you start to ...”
March 3, 2014
David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Hit target on 1st test but I can do better in the GMAT Strategy forum
“I certainly agree that for the purposes of admissions to an MBA program there is probably no reason to retake. I am just curious as to whether there is another reason. Something personal or professional. Or maybe there is a scholarship I do not know about that requires a 760 + ! Maybe it is just ...”
March 2, 2014
David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to 480 to 700 Tips & Strategy in the GMAT Strategy forum
“Since you are looking for computer based resources... A great computer based FREE resource for you to work with is the Veritas Prep Question Bank and the Veritas Prep Practice test. For access to the FREE Veritas Prep question bank http://www.veritasprep.com/gmat-question-bank/ For access ...”
March 1, 2014
David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Hit target on 1st test but I can do better in the GMAT Strategy forum
“It is totally up to you. The question is why you would be looking for a 780? Do you feel like you need it for your application? A 750 will play well on your application no matter where you apply. Do you want the higher score for another reason? I would say take a GMATPrep exam or two and see ...”
March 1, 2014
David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to LSAT to study for the GMAT, part 2: Critical Reasoning in the Critical Reasoning forum
“No. I would not say that. I would say that the questions from 17 on are generally the toughest ones on the LSAT so those are harder than you would likely see on the GMAT. You do not have to ignore them - just remember that it is about learning and that you can learn from a question even if you ...”
March 1, 2014
David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Best CAT's in the GMAT Strategy forum
“Well, Before you take eleven of the unofficial CATs you should try out some different options, and you should maximize the number of official GMATPrep tests that you take. I have never heard of GMAT Premier so I have no comment on those exams. So, yes it is worth it to purchase the two additional ...”
March 1, 2014
David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to GMAT 4th Attempt:- Retake or Move on in the GMAT Strategy forum
“MBAsa - Since you do have the time to retake, if you decide to, I wanted to mention that your scores are not that far apart. A Quant 48 is the 76th percentile and a Verbal 33 is the 68th percentile. So you are not that far behind on the verbal. I am just saying don''t think that the math could ...”
February 12, 2014
David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Advice needed Goal 600+ Score in the GMAT Strategy forum
“If you have signed up for the Veritas course there are lots of resources that I can help you to access and use. In understand being exhausted from work and you have a big improvement to make from 350 to 600. But you have already made some progress and April 12th is about 60 days away (maybe ...”
February 11, 2014
David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to GMAT Help !! in the GMAT Strategy forum
“Below is a list of considerations for people trying to decide whether to take a course or to begin with self-study. Whatever you choose be sure that the techniques described make sense to you and are based on a true understanding of the test material rather than gimmicks. For example, any ...”
February 11, 2014
David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to spending a lot of time in the GMAT Strategy forum
“DO NOT WORRY ABOUT TIME NOW. You should be concentrating on doing things the right way. People that focus on timing too early can be like the person who improves their tennis swing but plays a match too soon and just reverts back to whatever they were doing. In order to beat a tough opponent ...”
February 11, 2014
David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Veritas Prep self-study pace/timeline guide? in the GMAT Strategy forum
“Depending on which books you went through first, you may very well be on a good pace. For example, the first three Quant books: Arithmetic, Algebra, and Geometry can take a long time to work through - lots of material lots of homework - (as Bill said you do not need to do every problem in the ...”
February 11, 2014
David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Veritas CAT vs. actual GMAT in the GMAT Strategy forum
“mrpapiou - My response was not to your posting. I actually did not see your posting - I was responding to dominhtri1995. mrpapiou - I was able to find your actual exam in the computer so I do not need to speculate I can tell you exactly what happened, and I will do so in a moment... ...”
February 6, 2014
David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to Veritas CAT vs. actual GMAT in the GMAT Strategy forum
“I can "hear" the disappointment in your voice. Clearly that is not the score that you hoped to see. You practice test scores show that you have the ability to do this. You just need to figure out what was different on test day compared to most of your practice tests. You can start ...”
February 6, 2014
David@VeritasPrep posted a reply to HELP! I feel completely HOPELESS! in the GMAT Strategy forum
“It is certainly possible for you to improve your score dramatically. I cannot recommend 8 hours per day. That is a bit to much. 5 hours is fine. You can divide that between one 3 hour and one 2 hour session. You also need to be sure to exercise, sleep, get good nutrition, etc. The key to ...”
February 6, 2014