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Published: March 12, 2019
GMAT Critical Reasoning Tip: Mind the Gap
Let’s start this post with a critical reasoning question: When a group of people starts a company, the founders usually serve as sources both of funding and of skills in marketing, management, and technical matters. It is unlikely that a single individual can both provide adequate funding and be skilled in marketing, management, and technical matters. Therefore, companies founded by groups are more likely to succeed than companies founded by individuals. Which one of the following is an assumption required by the argument? Before we dive into the answer choices, let’s start by wrapping our heads around what this critical
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Published: December 11, 2018
GMAT Tip: Precarious Prepositions
When offering up strategy for sentence correction questions, we often talk about “decision points” – understanding what type of error is being tested and what subtle changes exist between multiple-choice selections. One of the most common questions we see from students is “shouldn’t the answer be ______, because the subject is ______, and therefore (singular/plural)? Nine times out of ten, inquiring test taker has simply not correctly identified the subject of the sentence because of his/her failure to eliminate the prepositional phrase. GMAT questions are not straightforward – when you are being asked to identify a correct verb, there can
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Published: November 6, 2018
GMAT Tip: Eliminate Out of Scope
Believe it or not, getting to the right answer for a Critical Reasoning question can be as simple at reading the prompt carefully and strategically eliminating answer choices that are out of scope of the passage. A lot of answer choices can “sound good” but really don’t do anything in the form of answering the question being asked or give the additional information required to strengthen or weaken the argument. The below question is a perfect example of when out of scope answer choices help us to quickly get to 50/50: Boreal owls range over a much larger area than
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Published: October 30, 2018
GMAT Tip: Completing the Critical Reasoning Blank
While strengthen, weaken, and inference questions tend to make up the bulk of GMAT Critical Reasoning questions, another question Critical Reasoning type that appears often is those that require completing the blank, following the prompt: Which of the following most logically completes the argument below? These question types are asking you to figure out what makes sense, typically as part of a plan of action based upon data, surveys, or other kinds of feedback. Let’s take a look at a sample problem below: Which of the following most logically completes the argument below? NowNews, although still the most popular magazine
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Published: October 9, 2018
GMAT Tip: Focus on Sentence Corrections
GMAT test takers tend to get really focused on the quantitative section. Somehow, it seems like that in order to score a 700+ on the GMAT, we must work on endless amounts of algebra and geometry concepts, coupled with hundreds of problem solving and data sufficiency questions. The verbal section must be easier right? You scored a 54% in quantitative and a 43% in verbal, but you were just not having a great grammar day, right? Not necessarily. The vast majority of GMAT students overlook the obvious and, often, more attainable question types – particularly sentence correction. In some instances,
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Published: October 3, 2018
Has the MBA Lost Its Luster? GMAC Application Trends Survey Sheds Some Light
Declining application volume at U.S. business schools made the headlines when the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) released the findings of its annual application trends survey earlier this week (10/1). “Applications Down at 70 Percent of U.S. MBA Programs—Including Harvard,” broadcast one news outlet. And it’s true. The GMAC data reveal that just 32 percent of U.S. programs reported growth as compared to last year. Overall, U.S. business schools experienced a nearly 7 percent decline, with domestic applications down 1.8 percent and international volume off by 10.5 percent. Growth in Other Markets Offsets U.S. Decline
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Published: September 18, 2018
GMAT Tip: Three Tips for GMAT Integrated Reasoning
When the Graduate Management Admission Council introduced the Integrated Reasoning section a few years ago, it was in response to considerable business school feedback around evolving technology, changing student skill-sets and the need to continue adapting. Now with a few years of data available, schools are starting to determine how to best utilize this score data, so while the GMAT Integrated Reasoning section doesn’t fall nicely and neatly into the quant or verbal bucket, let’s break down IR since this section doesn’t look quite like the others. Familiarize Yourself with GMAT Integrated Reasoning Answer Formats and Types. Integrated Reasoning questions
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Published: August 14, 2018
GMAT Tip: Read It Right On The Screen
Many test takers get frustrated when they uncover that a point of weakness in their GMAT practice tests is the reading section. “But I have an English degree!” or “I read part of a book each day!” While reading difficult, dense reading material each day – like the Wall Street Journal, The New Yorker, or The Economist – can certainly boost and hone your reading comprehension skills, the reality is that (just like the rest of the test) there is a strategy behind the reading comprehension section that is more than, well, just reading. One strategy that a lot of test takers don’t think
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Published: August 7, 2018
GMAT Tip: The IR Matters
Many test takers spent the vast majority of their preparation working towards improving in the Quantitative and Verbal Reasoning sections, only taking a day or two to skim through the Integrated Reasoning sections, and almost always skipping the IR section on practice exams. Not giving the Integrated Reasoning section due diligence and/or just a tenth of preparation time may be detrimental for a competitive application. Set up as an experimental section, many b-school experts felt that the IR would never become a valid aspect of a GMAT application. But more recent surveys indicate that IR is, in fact, becoming an
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GMAT Tip: When You Can’t Swim in Critical Reasoning, Eliminate
With Critical Reasoning questions, many test takers forget the immense importance of figuring out the gap, or disconnect, in the reasoning in the question being provided. Understanding this gap is essential to determining what answer choice fits to resolve the gap. The next step is moving to evaluate what the question asks you to find – say, whether you need to select an answer choice that strengthens or weakens the prompt provided. Many test takers fail to spend adequate time evaluating the gap, and find themselves stuck between 2 or 3 answer choices. Without fundamentally understanding the gap, figuring out
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GMAT Tip: Only a Kitchen Calculator
There are many different approaches in tackling a GMAT Quantitative question effectively. Algebraically, working backwards from the answer choices, considering “lucky twins” – a smart test taker is flexible and takes a fresh new approach by evaluating each quantitative question individually, taking the route that is efficient and effective. But how does said test taker become the smart test taker – what kinds of signs tip us off that we should go down a certain strategy road for a tricky and/or difficult quantitative question? Think of the “kitchen calculator” – the kind of cheap plastic, four-digit calculator that you find
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Published: April 17, 2018
Our Latest Podcast: The Great Test Debate—GMAT Versus GRE
In early April, the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC), which owns and administers the GMAT, announced that it is shaving half an hour off the test, bringing it down from four hours to three and a half. GMAC called it a “candidate friendly change designed to enhance the test taking experience,” adding that “the GMAT is the only assessment designed specifically for graduate business school.” To get to a shorter test, GMAC sliced out 23 minutes of unscored (research) questions in the Quantitative and Verbal Reasoning sections and streamlined non-exam portions like tutorials and instructions. GMAC made no mention of
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Published: April 10, 2018
Sentence Corrections: Not About the Grammar?
Gerunds, prepositional phrases, past perfect test, idioms…if you are a test taker who knows your E.B. White and Will Strunk book by heart, you should ace the Sentence Corrections section every single time, right? Not necessarily. While a cursory review of grammar is important to do well in verbal, a common mistake that test takers make is assuming that knowing good grammar is the number one path to success on Sentence Correction questions. Furthermore, test takers rely on “what sounds good,” not focusing on what the GMAT test makers are seeking to understand from those test takers – the ability
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A Shorter GMAT? It’s True—Starting April 16th
If you’re planning to sit for the GMAT exam in preparation for applying to business school, you might do well to hold off for a couple of weeks. According to the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC), which owns and administers the GMAT, the test will be 30 minutes shorter than it has been in the past, lasting just 3.5 hours instead of the previous 4, including breaks and instructions. But before you get too excited, we should stress that this does not mean the test will be any easier. GMAC sliced 23 minutes out of the exam sections themselves by
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The Managerial Approach to Sentence Correction
For most examinees, GMAT Sentence Correction can look a lot like a typical workday: you face a series of tasks and decisions that seem a bit daunting and quite a bit out of your control or expertise. But remember: the whole reason you’re taking the GMAT is to eventually become a high-level manager, and what effective managers do is determine where they’re best able to add value and then focus on that. The same ideology should be true of your Sentence Correction approach! Elon Musk is able to spearhead initiatives in space travel, electric cars, and (perhaps soon) revolutionary public
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Published: February 27, 2018
GMAT Tip: Put the Critical in Critical Reasoning
As you read GMAT Critical Reasoning problems, you might be struck by how different the questions can be: some are about biology, others about geology, and still others about politics, home repair, corporate strategy, and a whole host of other topics. But, strategically speaking, Critical Reasoning problems are all a lot more similar than meets the eye. There are a handful of blueprints for the structure of these problems, and if you can see those blueprints the subject matter becomes window dressing. The most popular Critical Reasoning blueprint? It looks like this: Fact that guarantees that X is true. Conclusion
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Published: February 20, 2018
Your 3-Phase GMAT Study Plan
Perhaps the most common question students ask about the GMAT is some variation of “how many hours per week do I need to study for the GMAT?” and “how long should I study for the GMAT?” And while these questions aren’t completely off base, they’re at least somewhat misguided. The key to studying for the GMAT isn’t as much the quantity of your study, it’s the quality. So let’s talk about how to get the most value out of your GMAT study plan, by paying attention to three very important phases. 1. Learn The single biggest mistake that test-takers make
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Published: December 26, 2017
GMAT Tip: Let It Cancel Out
When faced with Geometry problems with variables, many test takers will approach the question with fear, believing they are forgetting some obscure geometric rule that is the only path towards a correct answer. In reality, as we’ve covered in a few past posts, the understanding required to do well on Geometry questions on the GMAT is basic – Pythagorean theorem, special right triangles, area formula, and the like that you’ve found in the first half of an introductory Geometry course. Occasionally, we see some oddball questions associated with central angles, but there are still multiple ways to get to the
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Published: December 19, 2017
GMAT Tip: Assumption without Negation
Quick recap: we typically see four different question types on the GMAT – Strengthen, Weaken, Assumption, and Method of Reasoning. Many students find the assumption questions to be one of the toughest nuts to crack because of how difficult it is to discern what type of logic the author uses to form his/her argument. Assumption questions can be identified by the question (or similar question): The argument relies on which of the following assumptions? A commonly recommended strategy is the assumption-negation technique, where we negate answer choices to determine whether the conclusion can hold without the assumption. Some test takers
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Published: November 28, 2017
GMAT Tip: Analyzing Sentence Correction
If you hit the road over the Thanksgiving holiday in the U.S., you joined millions of other Americans who traveled more than 50 miles to get to their feast of turkey, stuffing and cranberry sauce. And more likely than not, you probably sat in traffic for some portion of that journey and enlisted the help of at least one travel app to try and find another less-congested route. The moment of truth comes when you have to decide whether or not to pull the trigger on the seemingly longer and more circuitous route or stick with your original plan of
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Published: November 7, 2017
GMAT Tip: More On Data Sufficiency
While many folks in the U.S. celebrate the arrival of Thanksgiving (or an excuse to watch American football and pig out on decadent sweet and savory treats), there are others who cringe at the idea of cooking an extravagant multi-course feast. If you’re wondering what late night calls to the Butterball turkey help line have to do with data sufficiency, there are some remarkable parallels between the two that might make for better studying (and happy friends and family on Turkey Day). • Take stock of what you have (& avoid last minute trips to the store). Before you
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Published: October 24, 2017
GMAT Tip: Relieving Test Anxiety in the Last Week
Everyone gets nervous and anxious in the weeks and months leading up to test day, but what about the last week or two leading up to test day? If you’ve been sticking to a study plan and schedule, you may still be looking for ways to up your test day game. • Inventory what you know. Don’t worry about trying to learn new material. You’ve already put in the time, so organize and review what you already know. Do shorter drills that focus on specific question types, topics and levels of difficulty. Think through your plan of attack
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Published: October 17, 2017
GMAT Test Week Advice: 3 Things to Avoid
You’ve prepped for months, sacrificed happy hours and quality time with your friends and stayed up late and risen early just to get in an extra few drills. Much like an endurance athlete, you’ve put in the time, and the only thing left to do is execute. Often the hardest part of the days leading up to test day is doing nothing and clearing your mind. In this week’s GMAT Tip, we take a look at three things you shouldn’t be wasting your time on during that week (and on test day). 1. No Excuses. We’ve all had
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Published: October 11, 2017
ApplyWire Reveals Class of 2020 Post-MBA Industry Preferences, Highly Competitive GMAT Scores
As MBA applicants set their sights on top MBA programs, they have been sharing their target business schools, admissions stats, and post-MBA career goals in ApplyWire, Clear Admit’s latest admissions tool. As we’ve watched the entries roll in, we’ve recognized that they provide a unique early glimpse into the caliber of the most elite MBA applicants this year—offering insight into their qualifications, career plans, and school preferences. In this and subsequent posts, we plan to share some of the observations we’re drawing from the ApplyWire data.
Through ApplyWire, applicants can receive feedback from fellow applicants and Clear Admit experts when they post profile information, such as where they are applying and their pre-MBA career, GMAT score, GPA, work experience, and post-MBA goals. Since ApplyWire launched in July 2017, hundreds of prospective applicants have posted their plans, and today we’re taking a closer look at the data to identify trends in terms of what industries current applicants hope to enter as correlated to their target schools. Of course, since ApplyWire only recently launched, we should note that any conclusions are based on a small sample size and not necessarily reflective of the entire applicant pool.
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Published: October 10, 2017
GMAT: The Importance of Drills
If you’ve ever played a sport, you probably have a love-hate relationship with drills. Whether it was running pyramids at the track, shooting countless free throws, or taking batting practice until you thought your shoulder would fall off, you probably didn’t feel yourself getting better in the moment. If you’re like most, you probably got excited to scrimmage so you could have a tangible measure of improvement (and the satisfaction of beating your peers). GMAT drills and practice tests function in a similar way; practice tests are the bright and shiny measures of progress while drills get resigned (or often
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