Archive for the 'GMAT Tips' Category

Jun 09 2006

Looking for GMAT Materials?

Published by mbaxploit under GMAT Tips

Not sure of the GMAT preparatory materials to use? I would like to provide links to the great resources that I used when I wrote my GMAT. If you come across any other helpful GMAT sites or would like to have a GMAT site listed here, please feel free to e-mail me. All the best in your GMAT test!

Free Practice Tests:

  • GMAC’s Official Site - Although they don’t offer a free practice test, they do offer a handful of free on-line questions. They also have a “Question of the Day” section.
  • Peterson’s - Offers a free downloadable program that includes a full-length practice test. It is non-adaptive but is probably worth taking nonetheless.
  • Scoretop - This site provides great preparatory resources. You will also be able to learn from other people’s experience. Continue Reading »

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May 12 2006

Preparing for GMAT exam…

Published by mbaxploit under GMAT Tips

Having decided that you want the MBA, it will do you a lot of good if you plan to do you GMAT exam later by July. This will give you enough time to prepare in case you have to do the exam again. You therefore need to come up with a study plan that you have to adhere to strictly. Your choice of study plan will depend on whether you are taking a vacation to prepare for the exam (this applies if you are currently working) or you will have to combine the preparation with your work schedule. If you are not working presently, you will not have problem creating your study plan.

GMATTutor have taken the opinions of hundreds of GMAT students and developed the Game Plan. The Game Plan will show you what to do and in what order and what resources to use to achieve your personal best score. Continue Reading »

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May 08 2006

Interpreting Your GMAT Score

Published by mbaxploit under GMAT Tips

GMAT score reports contain four separate scores: a quantitative score, a verbal score, an analytical writing score, and a total score. The quantitative and verbal subscores range from 0 to 60; in recent years, the average subscores have been between 28 and 32. Scores below 10 and above 46 are rare. Analytical writing scores go from 0 to 6 (6 is high) in half-point increments. The recent average has been between 3.5 and 4.5. The total score, which is what most people consider as their GMAT score, is based on the verbal and math scores and ranges from 200 to 800. The average total score hovers around 500.

Here are some sample percentiles to help put these numbers (representing total scores) in context:

  • 99th percentile — 750 or above
  • 95th — 710
  • 90th — 680
  • 80th — 630
  • 74th — 610
  • 51th — 540

The report lists your three most recent GMAT scores within the past five years. GMAC (the General Management Admission Council, which administers the test with ETS) will report older scores if you request them, but will add a cautionary note that those scores may not reflect your current abilities. If it’s been five or more years, some schools may require you to retake the test. Continue Reading »

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May 05 2006

The Official Guide for GMAT Review

Published by mbaxploit under GMAT Tips

Official Guide LogoWhat could be better than a book put out by the people who actually make the test? The GMAT Official Guide to the GMAT is one of the best sources for questions. It contains questions that actually appeared on previous administrations of the GMAT. Even though you won’t see these exact questions on the exam in the future, you can be sure you’ll see some questions that are very similar.

A couple of notes of caution about this book, however. First, the explanations often do not give the best method for answering a question. The Official Guide tends to stick with a more conventional form of answering questions - which is often slower. Check out a prep course in conjunction with this book to get the maximum benefit. Continue Reading »

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May 04 2006

ADVICE ON GMAT TEST PREPARATION

Published by mbaxploit under GMAT Tips

Reflecting on my GMAT preparation experience, I have been able to highlight some things I believe will be useful to you in your preparation.

Overconfidence
Don’t think that you can drop into the test testing center and cruise through the test with no effort. Think again. The test- if required by your chosen School - is important. Be forewarned: You should take it very seriously.

Focussing on some areas only
Some candidates will focus on strengths at the expense of their weaknesses, while others will concentrate only on their weak areas and neglect their strong areas. Both approaches are dangerous. Your test score will be based on how many questions you answer correctly and their difficulty level, but also on the range of question types and specific abilities covered by those questions. Prepare carefully for all sections of the test. Also note that Schools often have their own formula for weighing your individual scores. Try to perform your best on every section and every question type within each section.

Undue emphasis on practice-test scores
Even though your preferred School may have a declared minimum total score for entry, setting a goal for your test score is understandable. Try not to concern yourself as much with your scores but with what you can usefully do between now and your test day to improve your performance. Continue Reading »

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May 03 2006

GMAT scoring quirk

Published by mbaxploit under GMAT Tips

When students are asked what part of the GMAT scares them the most, they typically say the Quantitative section, or even more specifically, the Data Sufficiency questions in the Quantitative section. As a prospective MBA student with Engineering background, I did find the Quantitative section quite interesting and easy. I was, however, surprised to see the low score I had in Verbal. This explain the reason I had a total score of 650. The VERBAL raw score & percentage actually drives your TOTAL score and percentage. Take a look at two hypothetical students. One is a strong Quantitative student and a decent Verbal student. She takes the test and scores the following:
Quant: 50 (96th percentile)
Verbal: 32 (67th percentile)

The other does okay in the Quantitative section, but really shines in the Verbal. His scores break out as follows:
Quant: 42 (66th percentile)
Verbal: 44 (98th percentile)

Who gets the higher total score? Are they the same? It turns out that the one with the higher Verbal percentile gets the higher Total score, approximately 690 vs. 670. Why is this? The percentiles for the Quantitative and Verbal sections were exactly the same, but switched. Here are two possible reasons: Continue Reading »

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May 02 2006

The GMAT Test Structure

Published by mbaxploit under GMAT Tips

The GMAT general test includes three major areas of testing: Verbal Ability, Quantitative Ability (Mathematics), and Analytical Writing Ability.

GMAT Verbal Ability
The GMAT verbal section contains three types of questions: Sentence Correction, Reading Comprehension and Critical Reasoning. Your success in this section will depend on your ability to read and fully comprehend written material, reason and evaluate arguments and your familiarity with the stylistic conventions and grammatical rules of written English. Questions vary in difficulty from easy to real tough ones. Typically, the verbal section contains 41 multiple-choice questions. You are allowed a maximum of 75 minutes to complete this section.

GMAT Quantitative Ability (Mathematics)
The GMAT quantitative section is often referred to as the Mathematics section. It tests your basic understanding of arithmetic, algebra and geometry. Knowledge of more advanced mathematics is not required in this section of the GMAT. Most of the questions in the Quantitative Ability section are of high school level and are intended to just show how well you understand elementary mathematics. You are allowed a maximum of 75 minutes to complete this section. Typically, the GMAT quantitative section contains 37 multiple-choice questions from the following types :

The Data Sufficiency section : Questions in the Data sufficiency section consist of a Math problem followed by two statements, which might lead you to the answer of the problem. You need to choose which of the statements (if any) is sufficient to solve the problem. Along with your math knowledge, this section will require a sense of logic.

The Problem Solving section involves traditional computational skills, and includes arithmetic, algebra, and geometry concepts you have learned in school. You will need to know the necessary facts and formulae for this section.

You can expect 17 - 18 questions of each type in this section. Questions of both types appear in random order one after the other.

GMAT Analytical Writing Assessment
It tests writing ability through 2 writing assignments - Analysis of an Issue and Analysis of an argument. Watch this space for forthcoming material on preparing for these essays! You are allowed 30 minutes to complete each essay.

All multiple-choice questions in the GMAT have five options following a problem statement. Out of these, only one option is the correct answer.

For additional information regarding GMAT and GMAT Test Structure visit the official GMAT website.

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May 02 2006

GMAT Study tips II

Published by mbaxploit under GMAT Tips

Here’s some advice that you’ll want to follow as you use prepare for your GMAT exam. Avoid it at your own peril!

  1. Always time yourself. Whenever you’re doing problems make sure the clock is running. When you first start out, don’t hold yourself to rigid guidelines but rather get a feel for how much time it’s taking you. As you progress though, start to set time limits for yourself when you do sets of questions. This is especially important when working on problems out of the Official Guide. Don’t think that you need to do all the recommended questions at once but try to allow the following amounts of time per question.
    • Problem Solving - 2 minutes per question
    • Data Sufficiency - 2 minutes per question
    • Reading Comprehension - 2 minutes per question (This includes the passage. For example, you would have 14 minutes total to do a passage with 7 questions.)
    • Critical Reasoning - 2 1/2 minutes per question
    • Sentence Correction - 1 1/2 minutes per question Continue Reading »

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Apr 28 2006

GMAT Essay and AWA Tips

Published by mbaxploit under GMAT Tips

Top Essay & AWA Tips for the GMAT
1. Be sure to include brief introductory and concluding paragraphs, which are consistent with each other and with the paragraphs in the body of your essay.

2. Your GMAT essay must at least appear to be well organized. Use transition words and phrases to help the reader follow the flow of your discussion.

3. Compose your introductory paragraph last after you’ve completed the rest of your essay. Why? Because you essay might evolve somewhat from your initial plan; if you’ve composed your introduction first, you might need to rewrite it.

4. For every point you make in a GMAT essay, always provide a reason and/or an example to support that point! Continue Reading »

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Apr 28 2006

Sentence Correction Tips for GMAT

Published by mbaxploit under GMAT Tips

The Sentence Correction questions in the GMAT exam ask you to choose the correct grammatical format of a sentence. In practice there are only a few categories of mistakes that they tend to test.

Remember, more often than not, a sentence correction question will present you with a combination of several errors at once. They must all be corrected, and no other errors must be introduced. The following sections deal with the different errors separately, but the example questions may present you with multiple errors, so be careful!

General Principle: Concentrate on the parts of the different options which differ. Consider the following questions:

When I saw Mum struggling through the door with the shopping, I remembered I promised to help her.

    1. struggling through the door with the shopping, I remembered I
    2. struggled through the door with the shopping, I had remembered I
    3. struggling through the door with the shopping, I had remembered that I had
    4. struggling through the door with the shopping, I remembered that I had
    5. struggled through the door with the shopping, I had remembered that I had

    As you can see, the phrase “… through the door with the shopping, I ...” is identical in each option and can be ignored for the purpose of sentence correction. Having read the question, don’t bother looking at option (A). It simply duplicates the original. By all means choose (A) if you think that the original is correct, but there is no point in reading the original question and then reading (A) in great detail. Remember, time is pressing!

    Try to spot particular errors. Glance through the options, to see if there is some aspect of grammar that you immediately recognise. “Aha! I know this! This is a ….. question!” Then look for the options that correct that error. But be careful - the option that you choose must correct errors in the original without introducing other errors!

    The best way to solve sentence correction questions is via a process of elimination. The correct answer may not be perfect, but it should be the least bad option. If you can eliminate all the options containing grammatical errors, then what you are left with must be the correct answer! You should always keep the same basic meaning as in the original, except when that meaning is patently stupid.

    Beautifully restored to its original condition, the antique dealer displayed the cabinet in his window.

      1. Beautifully restored to its original condition, the antique dealer displayed the cabinet in his window.
      2. The antique dealer, beautifully restored to its original condition, displayed the cabinet in his window.
      3. The antique dealer beautifully restored the cabinet to its original condition and displayed it in his window.
      4. The antique dealer restored the cabinet beautifully to its original condition and displayed it in his window.
      5. The antique dealer displayed the cabinet, beautifully restored to its original condition, in his window.

      All the options here are grammatically correct, so we must judge them on their meaning and apply some common sense. The original sentence (and, of course, option (A)) and option (B) imply that it was the antique dealer who had been restored to his original condition (although the pronoun “its” is used, which should be a give-away that something is wrong) - clearly this is stupid! Options (C) and (D) both imply that the antique dealer was the one who restored the cabinet, but there is no suggestion of this in the original, and we must keep as much of the meaning of the original sentence as common sense allows. Only option (E) makes sense in this question. Hence option (E) is the correct answer, even though its meaning differs slightly from that of (A).

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