March 23rd, 2010 | 
Author: As you’re preparing to take the test, you become very familiar with numbers, and I don’t mean just the numbers within the quantitative question. Can you recognize the significance of the following numbers?
1) 700
700 is a 90th percentile score. The average GMAT score for top 10 b-schools is right around the 700 range, so it’s a good score to set as your target if you’re looking to attend any of those schools. If you knew this, that’s great. You’ve probably already started looking at business programs you’re interested in. If you haven’t already, it’s a good idea to take a practice test to see what range you’re scoring in and how far you have to go to reach your target score.
2) 75/37
75/37 refers to the GMAT quant section being 75 minutes long and containing 37 questions. In this handy format, it reminds you that you have an average of 2 minutes per question. If you knew this, you’ve probably cracked open some prep material and you might even be cognizant of time management being a crucial skill for GMAT success.
3) 8
8 is the number of minutes for each of the two breaks you’ll have on the GMAT. The first of the eight-minute breaks will be after the Analytical Writing Assessment section, and the second will be after the Quantitative section. If you knew this, you may already be engaged in some intense preparation and have completed a practice test as well.
You may be thinking “I care about hitting a 700, and it’s good to know the 75/37 thing, but why do I care about 8?” The best test takers are those who utilize every minute of the exam to maximum efficiency. During the breaks, you need to stretch your legs, clear your head, and get yourself pumped up for the next section. Lastly, for the breaks remember that 6.5 = 8. If you exceed the eight minutes, the test will start again, with or without you! So what I always tell students is to think of the 8 minute break as a 6.5 minute break. You want those extra few seconds as a buffer before starting again; otherwise, what you did to relax during the break is negated by the fear of “did the test resume already?!”
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Ok, so you’ve just sweated through the 3.5 hour GMAT. You’ve just clicked on an answer for question #41 on the verbal section — the last question. You’ve confirmed your answer, and you’re feeling good.
And then…
You see a question flash on your screen, asking you “Do you wish to cancel your score?”
For some test-takers, this may be the most nerve-wracking moment of the GMAT. All those raw feelings can come up: anxiety, doubt, stress.
Two reasons why a test-taker would think about canceling:
1) “The test was too difficult!”
As you go through the exam, the questions will alter in difficulty, based on how you’re doing. Nearly everyone who takes the test will see at least a few questions that she found extremely difficult. Remember that your score is not evaluated merely on the number of questions you answered correctly, but also on the relative difficulty of the questions you answered correctly. Many test-takers do feel that the exam was very difficult; such is the nature of an adaptive test.
2) “The test was too easy!”
Though it’s more unlikely to think this, some test-takers might complete the test, think about how quickly they finished it, and then say to themselves, “I must not have done so well. I don’t remember seeing a ‘difficult’ question.” Remember that all questions are ‘difficult’ in some way: tempting but still categorically wrong answer choices, a trap answer choice that comes up if one step of a multi-step problem is miscalculated, etc. If you’re able to avoid these traps for every question, you may very well think “this test was pretty easy!”
The important thing to consider: neither of the two statements above is a good enough reason to cancel your score on Test Day. The score is a number, while the reasons above are too subjective for an objective measurement. Furthermore, if you do choose to cancel your score, you’ll never know how you did, but your official score report will include the date of when you canceled your score. It could be something that admissions committees notice and ask about on your applications.
Are there any valid scenarios in which you might cancel your score? Only if something happened that was beyond your control and would drastically affect your score, such as you got ill during the actual test, or something bizarre happened such as a fire drill in the middle of the test that distracted you (rare but not unheard of). If you are just nervous about how you did, rest assured that that is a normal feeling. And keep in mind that while your score report always includes your past three test scores, virtually all MBA programs will take your highest score as your official score submission, so even in the worst-case scenario, it’s not going to do much harm to accept your current score and see how you did.
The best way to avoid the panicky moment of “Should I cancel?” is obviously to prepare for the exam well enough that you have absolute confidence in how you do. Working on our Kaplan course revision, I see more and more that preparing includes not only studying various concepts and content areas, but also practicing the skills of pattern recognition, paraphrasing, attention to the right detail, and critical thinking. Working on these skills will help you recognize how questions are ‘difficult’, and answer them correctly.
Wish you much success!
The most difficult GMAT Quant questions often have nothing to do with setting up equations for triangles or finding how many different arrangements you can make of a group of people standing in a line. Often, the most difficult GMAT Quant question in a seemingly innocuous form:
Is x an integer? Is b even? Which of the following must be positive?
Integers seem so harmless! But within the broad scope of integers, let’s look at a few key concepts about integers that you’ll need to know to beat the GMAT:
1) Integers are whole numbers: positive, negative, or zero. They belong to the set {… -3, -2, -1, 0, 1, 2, 3 …}.
2) When an integer is added, subtracted, or multiplied by another integer, the result is ALWAYS another integer. This note will come in handy particularly when looking at Data Sufficiency questions. Knowing that a result is always something allows you to answer a Data sufficiency question with an unequivocal “yes” or “no”.
3) Zero is neither positive nor negative. It has no sign + or – sign. All integers other than zero are either positive or negative.
4) Zero IS an even integer. Any integer divisible by 2 is considered an even integer. Zero divides into 2 with no remainder; therefore, zero is an even integer. Integers with the last digit of 0, 2, 4, 6, or 8 are all even integers. Conversely, integers with the last digit of 1, 3, 5, 7, or 9 are odd integers.
Though all of the concepts above may seem rudimentary, keep in mind the following: for all integers other than zero, an integer will have BOTH properties: positive vs. negative and odd vs. even. Let’s say that set A contains 5 distinct even integers, and set B contains 5 distinct negative integers. Too often, a test-taker will say “set A is {2, 4, 6, 8, and 10}, and none of those are negative” and think that the two sets cannot have any intersection. But it’s very possible to have sets A and B to contain the exact same integers. Both sets could have {-2, -4, -6, -8, and -10}.
If you see a question asking you “Is so-and-so an integer?” keep in mind the different properties of integers listed above so that you can answer the question as quickly as possible (while of course, still answering it correctly!). This is the type of basic, yet potentially troublesome, math content that is crucial for test day, and is included extensively in the math content review in the newly updated Kaplan GMAT course for 2010. Be sure that your test preparation materials have a thorough basis for reviewing math content and providing those crucial test-day tips and most-tested math theorems and facts! Best of luck!
Let’s first note the two reasons why we read in everyday life:
1) We read because we are required (for real-life purposes) to be knowledgeable about the content we are reading: studying for a history exam, delivering on a business proposal, etc.
2) We read because we have a natural interest in the topic at hand, as in leisurely reading: a novel, an analysis of a favorite sports team, etc.
You may have already known that the GMAT does not use particularly “interesting” topics. Most content of a passage deals with topics such as a biological process, a historical event, or a technological innovation. It would be silly to simply hope that your passages on the GMAT will be about specific topics that interest you.
However, you should also not view the passages as a set of details and factoids to be memorized. Any reading passage may have up to 350 words. That would be a lot to memorize, especially for a timed test. From this passage, you may be tested on as little as two different details. This doesn’t seem very efficient. Moreover, once you are done with a passage and its accompanying questions, you will never have to care about that passage and questions again. So why put so much effort to memorize something that you’ll forget about eight minutes later?
Instead, you should keep a couple of different approaches in mind. The first is to look for structural patterns. For example, if you see any biographical passage, you’re likely to see a few sentences about the subject’s childhood and what led to that person becoming interested in what she is famous for now, and a few sentences dedicated to how she worked toward that interest. A passage about contrasting theories almost always has one paragraph dedicated on one theory, and another dedicated to the other theory, and then some sort of conclusion — sometimes advocating one over the other. Looking for structure will help streamline your reading.
In conjunction, when you start encountering specific details, think in the context of why the author mentions these things, as opposed to what those things actually are. Again, there’s no need to memorize — the passage will remain on the screen as you’re answering the relevant questions. “Why is this detail important?” or “What’s the purpose behind this paragraph?” are the questions you want to ask yourself as you’re reading; by keeping these questions in your mind, you also won’t think “this is boring”, because there’s purpose behind your reading.
Reading Comprehension, more than any other question type, tests your critical thinking and time management abilities, which are the real-life skills that business schools are looking for. Mastering these will not only lead to success on the GMAT, but also through b-school. Good luck!
GMAT data sufficiency questions test your ability to analyze a quantitative problem and recognize which information is necessary to figure out the solution. What a data sufficiency question does NOT test you on is your ability to calculate and number-crunch. A simpler way of addressing this might be to ask yourself a question as you work through a data sufficiency problem: “Is this enough?” Keep this in mind as you evaluate (and on test day, avoid) two specific common errors that test-takers make while taking the GMAT:
Mistake #1: Combining statements when unnecessary
This is done when a test-taker looks at both statements and says “Yes, if I have both pieces of information, then I can figure out the answer, so together the statements are sufficient.” However, you must remember that you’re also asked if either statement ALONE is enough to answer the question. Understanding the differences among all five answer choices in itself can be a boost to your quantitative score. As you look at each individual statement, ask yourself, “is this enough?” Once you can definitively answer yes or no, you are then closer to an answer to the data sufficiency problem.
Mistake #2: Over-calculating
Since you may not need to calculate an actual value for a data sufficiency question, you should avoid going into the calculation step unless absolutely necessary. For example, if dealing with a statement like:
2x + 15 – 7x + 32 = -1
Instead of trying to plow through with the calculations as you might have to do in a problem-solving question, recognize that you have one variable in this equation (x), and that this is solvable. So if this shows up in a data sufficiency question, the answer to the question “is this enough?” is yes, and again you are closer to solving your data sufficiency question.
Though data sufficiency questions look very abstract, there’s a hidden beauty involved in solving them. Practice these while taking on the mindset of “is this enough?” to maximize your time-management ability for the GMAT.
