GMAT Strategy

Hi All,

I have been preparing for GMAT using Official Guide 12th edition and Manhattan SC Guide and their tests. Apart from that I am also using LSAT RC material. I am planning to write my GMAT end of Feb 2012.

What changes can I expect in the test before end of Feb 2012? I am told the GMAT format is changing only after June 2012.
From the forums I gather that the tests recently have more SC questions based on the meaning of the sentence - two answer options might be grammatically correct and one of the answer choices has the correct meaning.

1. What are the new question types I can expect in any of the sections?
2. What all *NEW* topics that I should cover if I am giving my exam end of February 2012?

Appreciate your help here. Also if there is already a discussion on this and if you could point me to any link that would be helpful.

Cheers
Gmatrant

(1) You won't see any new question types for your exam in Feb 2012. The new section (replacing one of the AWA sections) is set for June

(2) The 'meaning' SC questions are not new, so you don't have to prepare for new questions. Quite simply idioms are less of a focus. A good way to think about these 'meaning' SC questions is to identify the subject and main points of the sentence. You want this information to be clear and often near the front of the sentence to avoid ambiguity and confusion. Get the subject of the sentence out early.

Hope this helps.

Jim is right, nothing actually NEW in any of the areas until June. Even after June it is only the Integrated Reasoning taking over part of the AWA. The sections that combine to give you that 200-800 stay the same.

In terms of an emphasis on meaning...I really do not like this phrase that I have seen before that is quoted in your post above

two answer options might be grammatically correct and one of the answer choices has the correct meaning.

This is not quite the way to put it. You see, logic has always been a part of sentence correction. Logic is the basis for the entire GMAT.

So how does logic work in Sentence Correction? Like this, as you are evaluating grammar, so you should also be looking to make sure that everything is logical as well. A misplaced modifier is not usually grammatically misplaced, it is usually LOGICALLY misplaced. The modifier implies that the dog drove the car to the store instead of the person. The modifier refers to the music as the color red (yes I understand metaphor but Sentence Correction does not).

Verb tense is also more of a logical meaning area as opposed to pure grammar. Which event is intended to be first, which one comes later.

If you think about comparisons these are also in the area of Logic. Are you comparing a person to a glass of water? not usually appropriate.

So you see it is not usually some vague quest for the ideal meaning where two answer choices are otherwise perfect but one of them claims that there were 6 members of the Beatles or something. It is LOGIC you should really be thinking of. As long as an answer choice is logically and grammatically correct it should be the one and only correct answer.

As to idioms, these are considered culturally biased and have been phased out over the past few years, although as GMAC says some few idioms will always remain.

Great stuff in this thread! And since I've been discussing this a lot lately with students and instructors, let me just tack on a few things:

1) Regarding "idioms", "correct meaning", and "logical meaning" - the danger to me is that the word "idiom" is just too broad and counterproductive to study. Some of you WILL see:

if vs. whether
center on vs. center around
and a few other "idioms" like that

But there's a reason for those...they're meaning-based, not "that's just how you say it, no rhyme or reason" based. There's a problem with:

I have to decide if I'm going to Stanford.

Because that means "If I'm going to Stanford, I need to decide. If I'm not going to Stanford, I don't need to decide". That raises the question of "will I decide?" not "will I go to Stanford?". It's meaning-based...the above is just an unclear/illogical meaning.

Similarly, the center of a circle is a terminal point at the middle. The center isn't "around" anything. It's right *on* the middle.

Those expressions you can reason your way out of. It's the idiomatic "you either know it or you don't" stuff that's been phased out as the true Decision Points.

___________________________________________________________________

And just since you asked about Integrated Reasoning (I just got out of a meeting discussing our draft lesson for IR...coming soon!). For those studying IR, the big takeaway is that the bulk of the skills are not "new". The word "integrated" really just signifies that that section will test you on some math skills and some "verbal" (really logic, from CR and RC) skills. Most of that section will deal with your abilities to:

-draw conclusions
-make efficient calculations and estimates
-interpret wording in word problems
-identify faulty arguments

The main "new" content area will be understanding different types of graphs and graphical representations of data ("Graphics Interpretation" is one of the four question types). And the other major skill that I'd say is both "new" and crucial is that of sorting data tables to make your processing of information that much faster.

If you're interested in a preview with some explanations and strategies, I'd suggest checking out:

https://www.veritasprep.com/gmat/integra ... questions/