GMAT Format

Posted on August 15, 2011, filed in: GMAT, GMAT Prep, GMAT Tips
Last week I wrote about the day I scored 780 on the GMAT. That post was purely about my experiences on test day from what I ate in the morning to
how I kept my mind sharp during short breaks in the exam. Today Ill dig into some of the specific strategies I used to ace the GMAT.
Note that many of these strategies overlap heavily with Veritas Preps own GMAT prep philosophy I do work for Veritas Prep, after all so regular readers will probably see some overlap between this
post and the advice they read on this blog on a regular basis. Here I describe how the rubber met the road for me as I put these strategies to work.
The Strategies I Found Most Useful

Ive always been pretty good at math and my quant scores on practice tests were all around the mid-40s. And my verbal scores were lower and ranged from the mid 30s to low 40s. In the weeks of
studying before taking the test, I had a shift in thinking about the strategy of the GMAT. Excuse the clich, but I really started to Think Like the Testmaker. I thought What is the GMAT and what does it
reward? Its a test to get into graduate business school, not a graduate math program nor a graduate English Literature program. As a result, the GMAT is not looking for the number crunchers or the
grammar Nazis but for those who would do well in a business program those who can interpret, distill, manage and simplify complex, loose data and transform it into usable information to make
decisions and solve business problems. In order for the GMAT to be a useful tool for admissions officers, it must be a relevant test of the skills needed for an MBA. And in order for the GMAT to be relevant,
it must reward the type of thinking that is consistent with what admissions officers at MBA programs are looking for. As our Director of Academic Programs, Brian Galvin says, The test is not a test of what
you know, but a test of how you think. Now this makes perfect sense since the GMAT would not be a very good test if you could simply memorize a bunch of stuff and do well on it.
Most of the strategies I list here have some relationship to how the test rewards that certain type of thinking that makes you an effective business person.
Problem Solving
Always look at the answer choices before you start to solve a problem (Page 25, Lesson 10)
This was very useful for me on the problem solving section. I would traditionally try to read the question, solve the problem and then look for which answer choice matched my solution. However,
sometimes, the answer choices gave clues to what I needed to look for in the solution as well as whether there was a shortcut that I could use to save time. If a question asks me to multiply a bunch of
horrible-looking numbers together, and the answer choices were in exponent form and were all an order of magnitude away, then its a giveaway that I can estimate and just get close. Or, if Im dealing with
a geometry problem and I see roots of 2 and 3 or ?s in the answer choices, I know Ill be dealing with an isosceles/30-60-90 triangle property or some kind of circle property. There were definitely 3-4
questions on the test that I used this strategy for. I was able to cut a lot of time down by using estimation, thereby saving time for problems that I needed it on.
The Business Takeaway: Good business people are able to effectively use the limited resources at their disposal to solve a problem. Remember that answer choices are resources too and they can often
help guide you on how to approach the problem.
Data Sufficiency
Spot the con (Page 36, Lesson 8)
Data Sufficiency was frustrating for me because although I knew the math concepts, I kept on getting fooled by little details and assumptions I was making. The math itself is not hard, but the GMAT often
obscures information or hides information in the question stem or individual statements to try to trip you up. You often have to re-arrange or translate the information given to actually make it useful to the
problem. Other times, the test will embed information in one statement in the other statement, fooling you into thinking you need both statements when one of them is sufficient alone. When studying for the
test, I followed a simple hierarchy of answer choices:
D
A& B
C
E
When I think I have reached an answer choice, I will double check for any tricks or hidden information that might get me to a nearby answer choice. If I think the answer is A or B, I double check to see if the
other statement can be sufficient as well, making it D. If one statement is clearly insufficient alone and Im thinking A or B, I check to make sure I dont need the clearly insufficient statement to be true,
thereby making the answer C. If I think the answer is E, I check to see if I missed something that actually allows me to solve the problem with C. If I think the answer is C, I check to make sure theres no
embedded information in A or B that allows me to do it with one statement alone. Finally, if I think its C and am sure that A and B dont work, Ill check to see I assumed something I shouldnt, actually
making the correct answer, E.
The Business Takeway: Good business people are generally able to make decisions with less information but know when they are making unfounded assumptions and need to do more research.
Reading Comprehension:
The STOP reading methodology.
I definitely had some trouble with reading comprehension on my practice tests, missing about 1 or 2 questions per passagefar too many to score well on the verbal section. I found that my strategy for
dealing with reading comprehension was a bit flawed. I was trying to read the question first and then skim through the passage to get the answer to the question. This didnt work so well since many of the
questions require an understanding of the passage as a whole, not just individual parts. As a result, I started employing active reading using the Veritas Prep STOP methodology. I changed my strategy
and spent more time on the first question reading the entire passage carefully while actively looking for the STOP elements of Structure, Tone, Organization and main Point. This way, I had a much more
clear understanding of the passage from the first read through and could immediately identify things such as:
What is this passage seeking to do?
How are the paragraphs organized and what is the point of each one?
Is the author arguing for/against something or simply presenting information? If hes arguing for/against something what evidence and logic does he use to support his position?
How do these specific examples or pieces of evidence support his claim or act as counterexamples?
By taking more time up front to read the passage carefully, I found it much easier and faster to answer the subsequent questions about the passage. So instead of spending 2 minutes on each of 4 reading
comprehension passages for a total of 8 minutes or so per passage, I instead spent 4 minutes first carefully reading the passage, looking for the STOP elements and then spending about 30 seconds to 1
minute on each of the subsequent questions.
After doing this, I went from 1 or 2 errors per passage to 1 or 2 RC errors in the entire verbal section.
The Business Takeaway: When presented with foreign, unfamiliar subject matter, the effective business person is able to focus on and extract the most important elements from an otherwise esoteric
source of information.
Critical Reasoning:
Focus on the specifics of the argument and ignore any answer choices that dont directly address the linear logic of the argument.
Ive found that a lot of the wrong answers I was choosing on the CR section were answer choices that were true, but did not directly address the specific path of logic that the argument uses. Often times, an
answer choice that more appropriately fits the arguments reasoning turned out to be the correct one.
For example: Ever since the CEO of the company implemented a company-sponsored health care program, the productivity per employee has been up 12% over last year. Since there were no other
incentive programs created in the last year, the rise in productivity must be directly attributable to the employees happiness with the CEOs program.
When asked which answer choice would most WEAKEN the conclusion of the argument, a popular wrong I answer I might have selected may have been:
Incentive programs have been shown by business studies to be generally ineffective at boosting employee productivity.
However, the correct answer choice would have been:
Over the last year, over 15% of the staff of the company has been laid off, while the company has shown the same level of business activity.
As you can see, the first answer choice is very tempting since it has the words incentive program and employee productivity in it. However, it only states that it is a general case and not an absolute rule.
The second answer, while it may not sound as good, actually directly addresses the arguments logic in that the rise in per employee productivity may have actually been the result of employees having to
cover for the laid-off employees workload.
Using this general strategy, I was able to much more effectively identify the trap answers that did not relate directly to the pattern of logic presented in the argument.
The business takeaway: Effective business people have a tight focus on the things that really matter when faced with critical decisions and do not get dissuaded by irrelevant facts or information.
Sentence Correction:
Approaching sentences with the goal of creating logical meaning instead of relying on my ear or on idioms to correct sentences. And getting rid of junk.
Sentence Correction was my worst verbal subject before I started studying. I kept on getting a good number of questions wrong and was not able to identify any solid rules to follow so I just started
memorizing the particular structures of the sentences on the questions that I got wrong and saying OK, this is the idiomatic way of writing this. This became completely unmanageable because there was
no way I could hold all those idioms and constructions in my head with a sufficient level of accuracy.
Then I thought, Well, the GMAT really shouldnt reward my ability to memorize idioms. Otherwise, the people with the best memory and not necessarily those with the best reasoning abilities would do well
on the test. As a result, I changed my thinking and started to approach sentence correction from a logical standpoint. Instead of relying on a vast library of idioms, I took a small subset of grammar rules
(mostly those in the agreement category) such as verb tense, pronoun agreement, modifier agreement, subject-verb agreement, and agreement between equivalent elements. I found that almost all of the
sentence correction problems could be solved by applying this relatively small set of rules to them. It was much more manageable and made much more sense:
When describing things or events in the past, your verbs better agree when they are also describing things in the past.
When you have a singular subject, use a singular pronoun and use a plural pronoun for plural subjects.
Make sure the sentence is modifying the correct subject. Since she had been behaving well all day, Liz rewarded her dog with a treat. Who was well-behaved, the dog or Liz? I saw this
type of thing a lot on the test.
Make sure that comparisons are also logical and that the elements are equivalent (nouns to nouns, actions to actions, etc). Like other dog collars, Fido had a plain metal name tag. The dog
collar and Fido (the dog) are not equivalent. You would need Like other dog collars, Fidos had a plain metal name tag.
Dealing with sentence correction using this frame work was infinitely easier than trying to pull out the proper idiom from my memory bank. There wasnt a single question on the actual GMAT where I had to
actually KNOW the proper idiom to use in that situation. In fact, there were several instances where I saw that a wrong answer choice contained a nice-sounding idiom that ultimately ended up being the
incorrect answer choice because it did not conform to one of the rules above. Had I used my ear like I was doing before, I would have certainly gotten those questions wrong.
Finally, the difficulty on the harder sentence correction problem wasnt so much that there were harder and more obscure rules that were thrown at me as much that the GMAT just put a bunch of junk in my
way to hide where the real subjects and antecedents were. So a tricky sentence would read something such as:
The committee that handles the countrys budget, made up of six senators and six congressmen from twelve different states, are currently deciding what programs to cut in order to reduce the deficit.
You see how this is trick since the sentence hides the verb are from the singular subject committee. By cutting out all the fluff, the sentence would ready to me as:
The committee, ::junk junk junk junk::, are currently deciding ::junk junk junk junk::
Now, its plainly obvious that the committee requires a singular verb of is instead of are. For many of the problems, I was so focused on the critical elements in the sentence, I dont even remember what
the subject matter of those sentences were after answering the question!
There are probably only 2 dozen or fewer grammar rules that you actually have to know to do well on sentence correctionmuch easier than memorizing a whole list of idioms!
The Business Takeaway: Effective business people are able to avoid distracting information and sort through to the most important elements.
In conclusion, the same skills that are rewarded on the GMAT are the same skills that are required to become successful MBAs and effective business people:
creative, efficient problem solving
effective management, transformation and interpretation of data
ability to extract the most important elements from unfamiliar sources
clear focus on the path of logic or reasoning behind a proposal or plan of action
and finally, the ability to ignore extraneous, distracting information that is irrelevant to the task at hand
When you are studying for the GMAT, keep in mind that the GMAT rewards this type of thinking and you will be able to tell which strategies will actually be effective on the GMAT and which strategies will
not.
By popular demand we have added more online GMAT prep courses this month. Hurry We do close courses once they fill up! And, as always, be sure to find us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter!
Hey,
Based on your own experience in the

actual GMAT exam, or what you have
heard from others, how many
questions of each type (i.e., SC, CR,
RC) normally appear in the real GMAT
exam?!
Since there are 41 verbal questions,

one would think that there might be a
14/14/13 combination. However, in
the GMATprep practice exams, I have
even seen a 17 SC, 11 CR, 13 RC
combination.
What would you say?
As I know, there are 3 passages in the

actual GMAT exam. Has anybody
experienced or heard any exception to
this, i.e. more or less passages than 3?
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Re: Number of questions of each type: SC, CR, RC in the actual GMAT exam [#permalink] 25 Jan 2015, 14:22
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on my gmat test taken in january - I had ~16-17 SC questions
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apolo Re: Number of questions of each type: SC, CR, RC in the actual GMAT exam [#permalink] 25 Jan 2015, 15:06
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mvictor wrote:
on my gmat test taken in january - I had ~16-17 SC questions
So this #17-16 SC seems fixed!

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Re: Number of questions of each type: SC, CR, RC in the actual GMAT exam [#permalink] 25 Jan 2015, 23:25
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This is what I have found on the actual GMAT:
Sentence Correction: 16
Critical Reasoning: 11
Reading Comprehension: 14
And yes, three passages.
Dabral
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Re: Number of questions of each type: SC, CR, RC in the actual GMAT exam [#permalink]
26 Jan 2015, 13:13
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You may see slight variations -- but there is generally a focused range of #
Joined: 14 Apr 2009
of questions for each question type:
Posts: 1905
Location: New York, NY
Followers: 328 As posted here: http://www.gmatpill.com/gmat-test-struc ... s-for-you/
Kudos [?]: 895 [0],
given: 8 TEST STRUCTURE
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Part IA: Analytical Writing Assessment (AWA) [1 Essay + IR, 60 minutes]
A. Analysis of an Argument (30 minutes)
B. Integrated Reasoning (30 minutes)
5 min break
Part II: Quantitative Section (37 questions, 75 minutes)

A. Problem Solving (23 or 24)
B. Data Sufficiency (13 or 14)
5 min break
Part III: Verbal Section (41 questions, 75 minutes)

A. Critical Reasoning (14 or 15)
B. Reading Comprehension(4 passages, 12-14)
C. Sentence Correction (14 or 15)
For the Integrated Reasoning section -- as described

here: http://www.gmatpill.com/gmat-practice-t ... -reasoning
Time: 30 minutes
Questions: 12 Total (~8-10 real, ~2-4 experimental)
Graphics Interpretation (~2-3 questions)
Two-Part Analysis (~3-4 questions)
Table Analysis (~1-2 questions)
Multi Source Reasoning (~2-3 questions)
Each question has multiple parts. Since there is no partial credit, you'll
need to answer all parts correctly in order to get credit for that question.
GMAT scoring in this section is out of 8.
So any combination that fits in the above requirements can be fair game.
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Re: Number of questions of each type: SC, CR, RC in the actual GMAT exam [#permalink]
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I wanted to correct the distribution of PS and DS cited in the above
comment:
Problem Solving: 18 to 21.

Data Sufficiency: 16 to 19.
The distribution does vary from test to test but I have never seen 13 data
Joined: 19 Apr 2009 sufficiency questions out of a total of 37.
Posts: 407 Here are some examples form official GMATPrep tests.
Location: San
Francisco, California Exam Pack 1: Test 3
Followers: 71
PS: 20
Kudos [?]: 272 [1] ,
DS: 17
given: 4
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PS: 21
DS: 16
Cheers,
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EMPOWERgmat Blog [#permalink] 18 May 2015, 00:15
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Blog Topics:
5/18/15 Getting a Head Start on the Fall Application Season NOW
5/22/15 YOU Are the Cause of Your Pacing Problem
5/25/15 The 3 Biggest Problems With How Most GMATers Take Their CATs
5/29/15 GMAT Assassin's Manifesto
6/01/15 Calculating an Average is NOT the Same as Understanding the Concept of Averages
6/05/15 Speed Matters: The "Math Approach" vs. The "Strategy Approach"
6/06/15 THE NEW OFFICIAL GUIDE 2016 IS HERE (PDF of CONTENT CHANGES IN THE NEW BOOK!!!)
6/12/15 What the New GMAC 2016 Official Guide IS and ISN'T
Status: GMAT Assassin/Co-Founder
Affiliations: EMPOWERgmat
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Posts: 2778 6/19/15 GMAT Assassin's Manifesto Pt. II: The 90th Percentile Difference - The Do or Die Mindset Shift
Location: United States (CA) 6/22/15 Monday Mail Bag: Most Popular GMAT Questions Answered
GMAT 1: 800 Q51 V49 6/26/15 The Biggest "Little" Cause of Your Pacing Problem
GRE 1: 340 Q170 V170
6/29/15 Monday Mail Bag: Most Popular GMAT Questions Answered
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7/09/15 The Challenge(s) That You Face in Your GMAT Prep are NOT That Complicated
Getting a Head Start on the Fall Application Season NOW

Most MBA Applicants face a harsh reality when it comes to prepping for the GMAT and working on their applications EVERYTHING
takes longer than the Applicants think it will. Youre not the exception. You may have read a few stories about the exceptions, but
those stories dont apply to you. You need more time than you think you do, so plan accordingly.
Most Test Takers spend 3 months (or more) preparing to take the GMAT. You probably read a story about someone who picked up a
book, studied for 2 weeks, then scored 750. Thats not you nor is it any of the other 99% of Test Takers. It doesnt matter if youre
on a shorter deadline; if you want a 700+ score, then you have to put in the time and effort.
Now, if your first GMAT score isnt to your liking, then you have to wait ANOTHER 31 days to retake the GMAT, which extends the
overall study timeline significantly. Many Test Takers will take the GMAT repeatedly; thankfully, doing so is not a big deal (Business
Schools dont care if you take the GMAT more than once). However, you have to consider if youve given yourself enough lead
time to take the GMAT again before your application deadline(s). If your score isnt competitive, then your whole plan and timeline
can derail.
Applications need to be tailored to the individual School/Program and each Essay (or Personal Statement) should likewise be
tailored. All of THOSE activities also take time. Well-written, compelling essays are one of the greatest ways for an Applicant to
make up for a weak spot in an application. Are there any areas of YOUR profile that seem lackluster or boring? How is your
undergraduate GPA? Is your work experience interesting or exciting? If you cringe when thinking about any of those details, then
killer essays are a MUST.
You CANNOT treat the essay-writing process as if you were back in High School writing a last-minute book report. You should write
and rewrite, have friends and professional associates give you honest critique on your work, then rewrite again. Putting together
effective applications with well-written essays can take another 1-2 months of time. If you want to apply to a Top20 School, then
you have to ask yourself what youre willing to do to make that happen. The other 10,000+ Applicants that youre up against at
each School are thinking about these exact issues.
While all of this might seem shocking (and possibly upsetting), this investment of time, money and energy is all meant to get YOU
into an elite Business School Program. Top Programs reject 70% - 90% of applicants, so you have to think about what you are willing
to do to increase your chances at getting an invitation to your First Choice School (and all the benefits to your career and life that
having that MBA will afford you). When the idea is put that way, you really MUST embrace the entire task and work diligently to
make it all happen.
Considering that most MBA Programs have a Round 1 Deadline in October, this is the PERFECT time of year to begin your GMAT
studies and give yourself enough time to work on everything else that will go into your applications.
To that end, were here to help.
GMAT assassins arent born, theyre made,

Rich
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YOU Are the Cause of Your Pacing Problem
While taking a CAT, or on Test Day itself, almost all Test Takers experience the terrible feeling that comes with the realization that
there are WAY too many questions left to answer and not enough time to answer them. Learning proper pacing is an issue that
most Test Takers have to deal with the first step in fixing that problem is to realize that YOU are the cause of your pacing
problem.
Hunting For Pacing Errors

Here are a few things to investigate that you can use as a reference on any of the CATs that youve already taken:
Finding More Time From An Unexpected Source

When reviewing a CAT performance, most Test Takers focus on the questions that they answered incorrectly or just stared at for
too long. However, there is a potential huge pacing advantage to be gained from the questions that you answered CORRECTLY. How
long did you take to answer each of those questions? Could you have approached the question in a different way? Would it have
been faster to take more notes (hint: the answer is almost always YES)?
Quant
Joined: 19 Dec 2014 Open up your most recent CAT and find the Quant question that you answered correctly AND that took you the LONGEST amount of
Posts: 2778 time to answer. How long did that one question take? Ill bet that it took MORE than 3 minutes. Now, how many OTHER Quant
Location: United States (CA) questions took you at least 3 minutes each?
GMAT 1: 800 Q51 V49
GRE 1: 340 Q170 V170
Followers: 118 1) Did the work required to answer those questions really take 3+ minutes or did you have to keep re-reading the prompt (and did
Kudos [?]: 774 [4] , given: 53 you spend some time staring at the prompt and/or your pad)?
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SEND PM 3) Could you have approached the question using a different tactic? Is it possible that your way of solving the problem is actually
the long way to solve it?
Verbal
For the Verbal section, pacing problems can really compound if youre not reading RC and CR prompts correctly, not taking notes
and not using grammar rules to help you deal with SCs. While RC is an easy target, you might be surprised how much of your clock
is getting eaten up by how you handle SCs and CRs.
Start with the average amount of time that you spend solving SCs and CRs (some CATs include this information; if its not available,
then youll have to calculate it). A typical SC should take no more than 60-75 seconds to solve. On really wordy SCs, you could go up
to 90 seconds, but you should not be going past that. A typical CR should take no more than 2 minutes to solve. On wordy CRs, you
might go up to 2.5 minutes, but you should not be going past that.
1) Is the SC average greater than 75 seconds? If so, then how much greater?
2) Are you using grammar rules to actively eliminate answer choices? How often are you rereading answer choices and choosing an
answer that sounds like how I would say this? The second option is whats eating up your clock.
3) Is the CR average greater than 2 minutes? If so, then how much greater? Do you understand the differences in the various CR
types and how to logically approach each? Do you know the common wrong answer types for CR and how to spot them? How often
do you end up narrowing it down to 2 choices and then going back-and-forth before guessing? That last option is whats eating
up your clock.
If this sounds like you, then Your way of dealing with SCs and CRs could easily be costing you 10-20 minutes of excess timetime
that could be spent picking up RC points.
In total, those are some of YOUR Quant and Verbal pacing errorsand they eat up time.
To fix your pacing problem AND improve your score, YOU have to take responsibility for these errors, fix them and make sure that
they never happen again. Thankfully, there are plenty of ways to do so and you can be trained to fix these pacing mistakes.

Rich
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The 3 Biggest Problems With How Most GMATers Take Their CATs
The GMAT is a predictable, standardized Test. As such, you can train to score at a high level. Full-length practice CAT exams are an
essential part of the study process, but it never ceases to amaze me how often Test Takers use their CATs incorrectly. Choosing to
do any of the following will likely lead to CAT scores that are unrealistic and an Official Score that is far lower than you want it to
be.
1) Not taking the FULL CAT The GMAT is a specific event that you can train for, but you have to train for the FULL event.
Skipping the Essay and IR sections during practice means that youre turning a 4-hour exam into a 2.5 hour exam. With that shorter
exam, you dont end up facing ANY of the endurance or fatigue issues that you WILL face on Test Day. If youve ever heard a story
about someone whose Verbal score dropped significantly on the Official GMAT, this is likely one of the big reasons for that drop.
2) Inconsistency with the day/time of your CATs If your Official GMAT is scheduled for 9am on a Monday morning, then guess when
you should be taking your practice CATs?..... At 9am on Monday mornings, if possible. The human brain can be trained to perform
well under any number of circumstances, but if youre consistently taking your CATs at a day/time that doesnt match up with Test
Day (or if youre inconsistent with the day/time overall), then there is a greater likelihood that your scores on Test Day will be
off (and by off, I mean lower than you want them to be).
Joined: 19 Dec 2014
Posts: 2778 3) Practicing in an unrealistic setting Your GMAT will be administered at a Testing Center, where you will work on a desktop
Location: United States (CA) computer workstation in a roomful of other Test Takers. Thinking about taking your CATs at your kitchen table on a laptop
GMAT 1: 800 Q51 V49 computer? Take a moment to think about EVERYTHING in that scenario that is unrealistic. If you train yourself to score at a high
GRE 1: 340 Q170 V170
Followers: 118
level in your kitchen, then dont be surprised when you DONT score nearly that well on Test Day.
Kudos [?]: 774 [2] , given: 53
FOLLOW Thankfully, all of these factors can be dealt with, but YOU have to choose to deal with them correctly. Scoring at a high level on
SEND PM the GMAT isnt supposed to be that easy. The 700+ score represents the 90th percentile meaning that 90% of Test Takers either
CANT or WONT do what it takes to hit that score. If a 700+ score is your goal, then you have to decide what you are willing to do
to make that score happen.
Of course, theres something to be said for putting in the proper study time, using the proper materials, and learning all of the
tactics and secrets to the GMAT, but those are subjects for another post.

Rich
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GMAT ASSASSIN'S MANIFESTO
How To Master Essential GMAT Content & Tactics
A GMAT Club Verbal Advantage 2015 Article
Those who beat the GMAT not only learn the core content tested on the GMAT, but they also (and most importantly for maximum
achievement) learn the core set of skills that the GMAT is specifically tuned to measure. If you're prepping for the GMAT, then
mastering those skills is mandatory. Perhaps the most important skill of all is the one skill that almost NO ONE ever seems to talk
about:
THE SKILL OF LEARNING NEW SKILLS

Joined: 19 Dec 2014 To learn a new skill:
Posts: 2778 1) You need to understand the processes you intend to master
Location: United States (CA) 2) You need a process to master those processes
GMAT 1: 800 Q51 V49
GRE 1: 340 Q170 V170
It's the lack of item 2 that causes people to "get stuck", and learning how to build new skills goes WAY beyond the GMAT. Knowing
Followers: 118
Kudos [?]: 774 [1] , given: 53 how to cultivate new skills will be essential not only in Business School, but also in your professional life beyond.
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CONTENT - Using a Combined Approach To Master GMAT Content

Any new skill requires intake and absorption of new information. It's important to distinguish between learning content and training
for a skill. Before skill mastery can happen, the GMAT student must first learn the content (although sometimes the two overlap).
To learn content, youll want to draw on a combined approach:
Note Taking & Outlining

Every GMAT student should create a set of notes for all core content on the GMAT. That's true for whether the student is just
prepping out of books or is taking a comprehensive Course. The notion that someone can just hear or read something once, and
perfectly absorb and retain that information, is a dangerous and complete farce. Notes boost accountability, and good notes should
be paraphrased in the student's voice, rather than just a mindless carbon copy of the existing text. Paraphrasing allows the student
to take ownership of the content.
Outlining
Top performing students almost universally build outlines of the notes they took. Building an outline has many fantastic benefits: 1)
Review You have to review your notes to build an outline as opposed to letting the notes collect dust. 2) Organizing To build an
outline, you have to organize your notes, decide what the bigger categories are, and construct a priority tree. 3) Creating a Cheat
Sheet An outline serves as a summary - effectively a cheat sheet for continued review. 4) Re-Paraphrasing A well-constructed
outline forces the outliner to re-paraphrase the content. A successful paraphrase requires a solid understanding of the content, and
accordingly can also point to any gaps in understanding that can then be filled in.
Listening
If youre taking a Course, whether live or on demand, then the listening component will naturally be there. Listening (and watching)
is the backbone of the institution of education worldwide. Book-only learners will be at a disadvantage, but those who are able to
listen and watch a pro break down the content will have an extremely powerful advantage. On the downside, as is the case with any
subject matter, the quality of instruction can vary depending on your instructor and the curriculum that is taught. For those still
looking, do your researchits important to find the right resources for you. Invest time and financial resources to make sure that
you won't be at a disadvantage come Test Day.
Speaking/Forum Posting
Its well known that teaching something is a powerful way to learn. You cant teach if you have any missing knowledge, so teaching
is a great accountability & review component to content mastery. For GMATers, by far the greatest way to teach what you know is
on the GMAT Club forums. Those forums are available 24 hours a day to a global community, they're free, and just about any GMAT
question every published has a thread that you can add your discussion to. If the thread doesn't exist, then you can create it.
Seeing
Seeing has two different manifestations. 1) Seeing an expert walk you through the content and tactics, breaking down a passage,
eliminating options, etc. - that's a central component of any GMAT Course. 2) Converting content into visual notes. For example,
you can keep a log of rarer grammar or idiom rules.
SKILL-BUILDING
The GMAT is also engineered to measure a key set of skills that will also serve you at Business School and beyond. Key among them:
The ability to detect pertinent information, and to do so under pressure
The ability to distinguish what you can deduce, and what you cant
The ability to answer the exact question that is asked
If you are serious about improving your GMAT score, then you must be committed to developing these skills. Without these skills, it
is impossible to break 700 (the 90th percentile on the GMAT - a score 90% of test-takers are unable to hit). The average GMAT score
for each of the Top 10 MBA programs is well above 700.
A Systematic Approach to GMAT Skill-Building
The Right Environment & Resources

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Re: EMPOWERgmat Blog [#permalink] 01 Jun 2015, 00:40
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Calculating an Average is NOT the Same as Understanding the Concept of Averages
**Warning: During this article, Im going to stop you periodically and ask you to perform some basic math and logic tasks. The
work that you do on earlier tasks WILL impact your understanding of later tasks.**
During the Quant section of the GMAT, youll be asked to deal with averages on a few questions - sometimes youll be asked to
calculate an average or an average speed, sometimes youll be given an average and asked to figure out something else. You will
probably handle all of those questions just fine, but you would be amazed how many GMATers mis-apply the concept of averages
when deciding on their goals for Test Day and their application plans.
Your first task is pretty straight-forward
Task #1: Do you know how to calculate an average? Right now, in the simplest way possible, describe how to calculate an
average

If youre thinking something along the lines of the sum of the terms divided by the number of terms, then you are correct. This is
Affiliations: EMPOWERgmat essential information and is the basis for ALL averages that you will perform on the GMAT and beyond.
Joined: 19 Dec 2014
Posts: 2778 Task #2: If youre told that the average of 3 numbers is 100, then can you come up with a few different examples of what those 3
Location: United States (CA) numbers COULD be? With an average of 100, does that mean that all 3 numbers have to be 100?
GMAT 1: 800 Q51 V49
GRE 1: 340 Q170 V170
Followers: 118 There are many different examples that you could come up with (especially since I didnt say that the numbers had to be integers
Kudos [?]: 774 [0], given: 53 and I didnt say that they had to be positive). Here are some examples:
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99, 100, 101
.1, .9, 299
0, 100, 200
0, 0, 300
-100, -100, 500
Etc.
My guess is that you handled these first two tasks with ease. Now lets see what you think about these next concepts
Task #3: How much time should you spend on EACH GMAT Quant question? And why do you THINK that?
Many Test Takers WANT to spend less than 2 minutes per Quant question, but have you ever really stopped to think about WHY they
think that?
You have 75 minutes to answer 37 Quant questions on Test Day, so assuming that you use the entire 75 minutes and answer all of
the questions, the AVERAGE amount of time that you will spend per question is a little over 2 minutes. But does that mean that you
should spend 2 minutes on EACH question?
Certain Quant questions can be answered relatively quickly (in under 30 seconds), while others are wordy and complex these
questions will require 3 minutes of your time (and thats if you KNOW what youre doing. If you dont know what youre doing, then
these questions will take you 5 minutes each AND youll end up getting them wrong anyway).
Thus, the answer to that prior question is NOT less than 2 minutes per question. The correct answer to the question in Task #3 is
whatever amount of time is necessary for me to answer the question in the most efficient way possible, without wasting time or
making any silly mistakes. Trying to answer every question in under 2 minutes is a silly idea and Im not in the habit of doing silly
things.
That last part is difficult for many Test Takers to accept that THEY are ultimately responsible for their own efficiency and
accuracy. Part of your GMAT training MUST involve finding those efficiencies and learning to do work in an organized, strategic
fashion.
At a certain point in this grand process, you have to decide that your Official GMAT score is competitive enough for you to be done
with the Test, then you have to choose your Schools and get to work on your applications.
Task #4: If Harvards incoming MBA class last year had an average GMAT score of 720, then does that mean that everyone who got
accepted had a 720? Does that mean that you MUST have a minimum of 720 just to apply? Does that mean that if you have a
minimum of 720, then you will get in?
At this point, the prior work that youve done throughout this blog post should be kicking in with an average of 720, some
invitees clearly scored higher than 720, some scored 720 exactly and others scored less than 720 So the answer to ALL 3 of those
questions in Task #4 is NO. Hundreds of people got into Harvard last year with scores that were BELOW AVERAGE FOR HARVARD.
Let THAT fact sink in for a moment You DONT necessarily need to hit that average score to get an acceptance letter. YES, you
still need a strong OVERALL application and YES, a higher GMAT score is better for you than a lower one, and if youre after
scholarship money, then you might need a higher GMAT scorebut having a score that is slightly below average for a given
School/Program will not necessarily keep you out of consideration.
This is all meant to say that you should strive for excellence in your studies and put together the best performance possible. If your
score is a little lower than you want it to be though, then you still have a chance at your dream School. The averages say so!

Rich
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Speed Matters: The Math Approach vs. The Strategy Approach
GMAT questions can often be solved with more than one approach this is great news for Test Takers since having more than one
option means that youre less likely to get stuck on a given prompt. Taking this idea one step further, if YOU know more than one
way to answer a given question, then you have a significant advantage: you can CHOOSE to use the fastest approach, save time and
save on the amount of energy that you have to expend to get to the correct answer. To that ultimate end, you might be surprised to
learn that just because you answered the question correctly does NOT mean that you did you so in the fastest, most efficient way
possible.
Consider the following question (before you start it, you might want to test yourself and see how much time you would need to get
to the correct answer. Grab a timer and lets find out)
Andrew has a certain number of coins in his pocket. He has three times as many dimes as quarters and six times as many nickels as
dimes. A nickel is worth $0.05, a dime is worth $0.10 and a quarter is worth $0.25. If he has a total of $10.15, then which of the
following represents the number of dimes in Andrews pocket?
9
Joined: 19 Dec 2014 10
Posts: 2778 18
Location: United States (CA) 20
GMAT 1: 800 Q51 V49 21
GRE 1: 340 Q170 V170
Followers: 118
Kudos [?]: 774 [1] , given: 53 The following video showcases two different approaches to solving this prompt: a traditional math approach and a strategy
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http://www.empowergmat.com/uploads/free ... html5.html
Now its time for the reality check be honest, which way is really faster? Which way did you choose? Now imagine how often you
might take a math approach and spend too much time on a given prompt. If you have a pacing problem in the Quant section, then
you have to consider how often youre taking the long way to solving the prompt.
The Quant section of the GMAT is NOT a math test, so to optimize your pacing and maximize your score, you have to be open to
learning more than just the math approach to answering a given question.
To that end, were here to help.

Rich
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THE NEW OFFICIAL GUIDE FOR GMAT 2016 IS HERE!!!
Hi All,
With the arrival of the new Official GMAT Guide 2016, we have a series of new practice questions - approximately 25% new content
(with certain older questions removed from the prior version of the book). This handy PDF documents the new additions, the
"location shifts" in questions and the questions that have been removed. The Team at EMPOWERgmat hopes you find it a useful
addition to your studies.
GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,

Rich
Attachments
2016 GMAT Official Guide Changes Master Guide - EMPOWERgmat.pdf [568.53 KiB]
Downloaded 69 times
Status: GMAT Assassin/Co-Founder _________________

Joined: 19 Dec 2014 Official Guide 2016 Question Breakdown:
Posts: 2778
Location: United States (CA)
GMAT 1: 800 Q51 V49
GRE 1: 340 Q170 V170 Rich Cohen
Followers: 118 Rich.C@empowergmat.com
Kudos [?]: 774 [4] , given: 53 http://www.empowergmat.com
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Last edited by EMPOWERgmatRichC on 26 Jun 2015, 20:33, edited 1 time in total.

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What the new GMAC 2016 Official Guide IS and ISNT
**Note: I will NOT be discussing any individual questions from this new book. Doing so would cheat YOU,
the reader, out of experiencing those questions fresh. On Test Day, you have to be prepared to deal
with any GMAT concept at any time in each section, so knowing anything beyond the obvious (its
Geometry because I can see a picture of a circle; its an Assumption question because the prompt asks
for the assumption) would diminish the process that you have to go through to answer the question.**
You probably already know that the various GMAC resources (in print and online) are the best sources for realistic practice
questions. Some combination of those resources should be a part of EVERY GMAT Test Takers study plan. While no one resource (or
set of resources) can guarantee a score result, using credible resources can help you to train effectively. However, you have to also
realize what GMAC is willing to give you and what GMAC is NOT willing to give you.
First, the GMAC Official Guide gives you a broad sampling of the types of questions, content and logic that youll see when you take
the Official GMAT. Knowing what to focus on in your studies is important, and this book helps a great deal in defining the content
that you will need to know for Test Day. It will NOT show you every variation on a concept and it will NOT show you any active
Affiliations: EMPOWERgmat questions (since that would be unfair). To score at a high level, you have to look beyond individual questions and learn the
Joined: 19 Dec 2014 concepts, patterns and logic. This is meant to say that if you answer a question once, you probably have NOT learned everything
Posts: 2778 there is to know about the concepts involved. Re-doing questions using different approaches is one of the most direct ways to build
Location: United States (CA) up your skills. That work might sound tedious, but theres a reason why the 700+ score represents the 90th percentile 90% of Test
GMAT 1: 800 Q51 V49
GRE 1: 340 Q170 V170
Takers either CANT or WONT do what it takes to score at that level. Are you willing to learn other ways to approach questions
Followers: 118 and then re-do questions? How badly do you want that 700+ score...?
Kudos [?]: 774 [0], given: 53
FOLLOW Second, the Content Review sections and Explanations provided by the book tend to be technical in nature. This is the standard
SEND PM in most education-based texts (which is fine), but this type of presentation is also limited. It almost always ignores tactics that can
be used, pattern-matching that can make answering the question easier and other secrets to how the writers create the questions
that youll see on Test Day. The given explanation is often NOT efficient either. In most cases, youll learn one way to answer each
question the way that GMAC decides to teach you. GMAC has NO interest in turning everyone into a 700+ Test Taker. If most Test
Takers scored 700+, then that upper-level score would become relatively meaningless.
Third, there is a functional issue with ALL books (not just the Official Guide). No book can ever properly simulate what youll
experience taking a Computer-Adaptive Test for 4+ hours on Test Day. Beyond the obvious issues with books (questions grouped
together, the general increase in question difficulty through each section, etc.), a book simply wont wear you down the way
that working on a computer will. I often hear from book-studiers who do really well on quizzes, but perform terribly on their
CATs. Getting 15/15 SCs correct in a book is great, but you wont see any SCs on Test Day until almost 3 HOURS into the Exam, after
youve already been working hard and youre starting to tire out (and those 15 SCs WILL NOT be in row, which means youll have to
periodically switch out of CR or RC mode to tackle SCs). Working primarily with computer-based resources that will teach you
tactics, combined with Official materials (such as the OG 2016) is a better overall method for preparing to face Test Day than just
working solely out of a set of books.
Ultimately, the Official Guide is a great resource; at least one version of it should be included in your studies. If you have the
GMAT2015 (or the OG13, theyre the same book), then you dont necessarily need the GMAT2016. However, the marginal cost of
buying that new book ($30 or so, in most cases) is rather low relative to the price of taking the GMAT ($250) and the added value of
having those new practice questions. When you consider that the GMAT is often the most important part of ones application AND a
high GMAT score can get you a scholarship in the thousands or tens of thousands of dollars, spending the extra $30 seems like an
obvious decision.

Rich
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Monday Mail-Bag: Most Popular GMAT Questions Answered - Advice on Big Picture
Issues That Impact GMAT Test Takers
This series of emails and PMs focuses on situations that Test Takers have faced during their studies. The names of the original
posters have been changed to protect their identities.
The Perils of Book-Only Prep

Rich,
I just completed a good stretch of doing and reviewing OG questions. While doing this, I focused on one topic at a time to really
drive home what I was learning. I'm ready to move on to more realistic practice sets and looking for advice. I've done the majority
of the OG and plan to use the quant/verbal official guide supplements. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
Alpha
Status: GMAT Assassin/Co-Founder Dear Alpha,

Joined: 19 Dec 2014
Posts: 2778 If you're working out of books only, then you're going to run into a functional problem on Test Day. Working out of books does NOT
Location: United States (CA) prepare you for the rigors and physical wear-and-tear of pulling info off of a computer screen, working on a notepad and referring
GMAT 1: 800 Q51 V49 back as needed. Some computer-based prep is definitely advised. MBA.com has a downloadable package of questions and 2 CATs
GRE 1: 340 Q170 V170 that you can get for free. There are also freebies offered by a variety of companies that will allow you to get some additional
Followers: 118 computer-based practice. There really is NO SUBSTITUTE for this. The GMAT tests many aspects of your abilities that have nothing
Kudos [?]: 774 [0], given: 53 to do with math or verbal skills: organization, discipline, pacing, attention to detail, ability to make smart decisions (even when
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Does Cramming Work?

Rich,
I only have one month of prep time available before I attempt the gmat for a second time. (so I can apply for the next round
deadline). Will I be able to get a 700+ score if I do really intensive prep?
Beta
Dear Beta,
Each Test Taker will vary in how long he/she needs to study for the GMAT. Since your goal is a 700+, you have to ask yourself what
you're willing to do to achieve that score (since 90% of the Test Takers either CANT or WONT do what it takes to score at that
level).
It is possible to make significant strides in a short period of time, but you'll have to adjust your tactics. The GMAT tests you in ways
that traditional schooling does not (and provides you with hints, shortcuts and options that a traditional test does not, so you have
to train properly to take advantage of all those options).
The next question is ultimately about what's more important: taking the GMAT in 1 month or getting a 700+ score? You might not be
able to do both. You have to remember your BIG PICTURE goals the GMAT is one step in the process of applying to your first
choice Business School, but if your score is not competitive enough, then the plan falls apart. Missing an Application Round is not
the end of the world you can always apply for a later Round or apply next year.
Will A Private GMAT Tutor Save Me?

Rich,
I have couple of days left until my official exam - now scoring within 650-700 range. Do you recommend to hire a private tutor for a
couple of hours to address some of the potential weaknesses?
Gamma
Dear Gamma,
A tutor may or may not make a difference in the last few days before an exam. My opinion is that it will make little difference
because you probably already have a set way of doing things that will take more than a few days to alter.
Instead, do a light review of all the concepts that you know. Take a good look at both the questions youve answered correctly and
those that youve answered incorrectly. If a question is too hard or too weird, then don't waste your time on it. Instead, make sure
that you put your emphasis on correctly answering questions that are gettable. Focus on removing as many silly mistakes as
possible. Those mistakes are the things that are costing you your missing points.

Rich
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Manifesto Pt. II The 90th Percentile Difference
The Do or Die Mindset Shift
Does This Sound Familiar?
If youve read any posts on this forum, youve invariably come across a user expressing that studying for the GMAT is frustrating and
difficult. Youve also probably read those stories about test-takers whove gone from 510 to 770. Why is the GMAT so beatable for
some people, yet seemingly so unbeatable for others?
The Difference
In GMAT Assassins Manifesto Pt. 1 (verbal-advantage-gmat-assassin-s-manifesto-master-content-tactics-198768.html) we
talked about how to train. In Part II, were going to discuss a decision that all successful GMAT students make... Some students are
naturally pre-wired with the right mindset (its in how they see life in general); others make the decision deliberately.
TheEMPOWERgmat Course was programmed to implicitly build this decision into how you will view the GMAT.
The Decision: To earn a huge GMAT score, are you ready and willing to find victory in the PROCESS of building your skill and not
Status: GMAT Assassin/Co-Founder just in a score?
Joined: 19 Dec 2014
Without an enjoyment of the skill-building process, prepping for the GMAT will feel like work, it will be boring, and frustrating.
Posts: 2778
Location: United States (CA) Dont look at it as work. Instead, you have to look forward to practice. You need to be able to dive into total immersion as youre
GMAT 1: 800 Q51 V49 prepping, practicing, reviewing, and taking your real GMAT. If you want your best GMAT score then you should be totally immersed
GRE 1: 340 Q170 V170 in growing and refining your skill instead of obsessing about a score.
Followers: 118
Kudos [?]: 774 [0], given: 53 Once you decide to shift to the mindset of valuing the PROCESS, you will feel empowered. You will not find the GMAT prep process
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painful, but rather a challenge to be savored. If you make that choice, then youll be able to earn a much bigger score, and earn
it faster.
Lets make it specific and explore the Assassins mindset.
The GMAT Assassins Mindset

When you review a question from a Quiz, a CAT, GMAT Club, etc., there are four properties you need to possess to extract
maximum improvement from each question:
1. Self-Discipline
2. Focus
3. Patience
4. Self-Awareness
A Real Example
Let me offer you a comparative example of someone whos not process-oriented vs someone who is. Take a look at this Critical
Reasoning Inference question: (heres the link to the live question: (cr-inference-series-1-securities-industry-regulator-
200100.html).
Inference questions ask you to select the ONLY option that has to be 100% logically true from the information given in the prompt
(and the opposite for Inference EXCEPT questions). Tempting incorrect options usually sound very reasonable, but "reasonable"
doesnt cut it. We need the option that HAS TO BE true.
Securities Industry Regulator: Brokerage Buy ratings are suffering from a credibility gap. There is a far greater proportion of
Buy ratings than Sell ratings. In fact, 80% of all major financial institutions ratings are Buy ratings. Given that inflated
volume of Buy ratings, its hard to trust the quality of those ratings, and equally challenging to take them seriously. Even the
simple act of reducing a financial institutions analysis to just Buy, Hold, or Sell is dubious since a companys financial
outlook is typically quite complex. Accordingly, a financial institutions investment rating is rendered almost meaningless.
If the Securities Industry Regulators statements are true, then which of the following must be true?
An investor can only profit from an investment if he or she confirms the merits of a companys financial future.
A Buy rating does not guarantee that a given company will have a strong financial future.
Financial institutions should refrain from issuing Buy ratings.
The ability of a company to earn a Buy rating has become easier than ever before.
Increasingly, financial institutions are issuing meaningless investment ratings.
Lets say that someone picked option E (its the #1 selected INCORRECT option). The prompt closes with: Accordingly, a financial
institutions investment rating is rendered almost meaningless, so option (E) seems very reasonable. However, the prompt never
said, nor implied, that any rating IS MEANINGLESS. Theres a huge difference between almost meaningless and meaningless.
Over the course of an entire GMAT, catching subtle distinctions such as this can make the difference between a 550 and a 700.
The Outcome Oriented, Impatient, Misery-Fest

I want you to imagine a GMAT student whos struggling... Struggling not only with this question, but also with the entire GMAT prep
process. This is someone who wants to break 700, but is stuck at 550. It seems like no matter what they do, theyre stuck. In this
scenario, theyve scored around 550 on their last 5 practice tests....
Now, picture what this student might be do during a question review for this Inference question. Are you picturing this student
just jumping straight to the explanation to read why (E) is wrong and why the correct answer (B) is right, and then moving on to the
next question? Good. Thats what people who are stuck do. What we just described is arguably the #1 reason why people dont
hit their potential and do not earn their target score - theyre not allowing themselves the opportunity to retire old, ineffective
habits and build new, more successful ones.
Heres Where Excellence Happens The 90th Percentile Breakdown

So what do process oriented test-takers do differently? They ask themselves two key questions on EVERY question they miss:
1) WHY DID I miss this question? If I answered correctly, did I answer it in the best way?
2) WHAT CAN I do differently next time to avoid that same mistake?
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Monday Mail-Bag: Most Popular GMAT Questions Answered - Advice on Big Picture
Issues That Impact GMAT Test Takers
This series of emails and PMs focuses on situations that many Test Takers face during their studies. The names of the original
600 to 700: Should I Be Focused On the Hard Questions?

Rich,
I'm pretty efficient in the test overall, and Ive been scoring in the mid 600s for over a month, but I've been having problems with
the most difficult questions. I have a few books, including the OG. Can someone point me to the best place to get additional help
with the hard questions?
Delta
Status: GMAT Assassin/Co-Founder Dear Delta,

Joined: 19 Dec 2014
Posts: 2778 While many people become concerned about "hard" questions during their studies, it's possible that those questions are NOT what
Location: United States (CA) you need to be focusing on. When you review your CATs, how many questions did you get wrong because of a silly/little mistake and
GMAT 1: 800 Q51 V49 how many questions did you get wrong because they were just too hard? Ill bet that there are plenty of gettable questions that
GRE 1: 340 Q170 V170 youre overlooking to focus on the hard stuff. Theres also a decent chance that what you consider a hard question could actually
Followers: 118 be a 'gettable' question if you just use a different (strategic) approach. Until you eliminate the little mistakes that youre making,
Kudos [?]: 774 [0], given: 53 you shouldnt be worrying about harder questions and rare categories.
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The Proper Way To Test Verbal Abilities
Rich,
Quick question Im looking to get as realistic of a diagnostic on my current verbal abilities. As such, Im looking for the most
accurate practice cat for verbal. Is it gmatprep??
Also, what are your thoughts on only taking the verbal section without awa, ir, and quant? Of course my score will be inflated; guess
my question is by how much, and can the verbal score still provide some value/indication of current ability?
Really appreciate your thoughts/direction.
Epsilon
Dear Epsilon,
The most realistic CATs available are the 2 that you can get for free (and the 2 others that you can purchase in Exam Pack 1)
from http://www.mba.com
Taking one section of a CAT for practice is normally NOT a good idea. If your main problem is with the verbal section, then you have
to practice 2 things:
1) Verbal content and strategy/tactics

2) Endurance
Taking a verbal section out of context means that you didn't do all the necessary work that appears in the 3 hours BEFORE you take
the verbal section. The net effect is that you're not dealing with fatigue, which is something that you will have to deal with on Test
Day.
By not taking a realistic practice CAT, your score could end up wildly overinflated because your brain is fresh and you aren't
carrying around any of the angst/stress/fatigue from the prior sections. You can find plenty of verbal practice in books and online,
but a CAT is best used to measure your overall performance, not just one section.
Raising a V38 to V40+

Rich,
I'm constantly scoring high 30s for my verbal score, averaging about a 38. However I've hit a ceiling and I'm having trouble breaking
through to the 40s. What's the difference between someone scoring high 30s and low 40s? I get the easy/mid questions right for
RC,CR,SC correct. It looks like my problem is with the 700-800 level questions. Should I specifically target higher level questions?
Will more exposure to these help?
Zeta
Dear Zeta,
The difference you're talking about (38 to low 40s) is remarkably thin. That level requires a higher level of detail (more note-taking,
attention to Focus and Main Point, knowledge of rarer grammar rules, knowledge of what typical "wrong" answers look like, etc.).
Scoring a 38 means that you have a strong aptitude and skills across all 3 Verbal categories, so it's possible that you need to change
the physical and psychological ways with which you're tackling the verbal section, and not anything mental.
To that end, make sure that you're taking notes on every question, sitting up in your chair (proper posture and breathing can make a
huge difference in your performance, especially late in the test), and using your breaks for a quick snack/drink and some exercise.
You might also consider slowing down a bit as you're doing your work. Many Test Takers come out of the Quant section feeling
"frazzled" by the fact that they had to rush to finish. They then carry that energy into the verbal and rush through THAT section.
Finishing 10-15 minutes early is actually quite common, BUT it provides no benefit. If you can slow down and use that extra time to
your advantage, then you'll likely pick up many of the points that you lost due to minor mistakes.

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The Biggest Little Cause of Your Pacing Problem
GMAT Test Takers often face similar difficulties during their studies, so there are certain questions that tend to come up about how
to improve those studies. One of the most frequent questions Im asked about is pacing-related: how do I fix my pacing problem?
To start, you have to acknowledge that a pacing problem does NOT exist on its own its the result of OTHER problems in how you
are approaching the process of answering GMAT questions.
It really is often this simple

Arguably the most common cause of your pacing issue is simple to diagnose.
Heres a basic story problem to help emphasize the point (no multiple choice answers to choose from though you have to do a bit
of actual math to get to the solution).
Do you see yourself in this situation?

Q: A certain Test Taker refuses to take notes while reading Quant questions. As such, the Test Taker must go back to regularly re-
Status: GMAT Assassin/Co-Founder read the prompt. If this Test Taker spends an average of 10 seconds re-reading every Quant question in the Quant section on Test
Affiliations: EMPOWERgmat Day, then approximately how many minutes, in total, does the Test Taker have to spend on this task (instead of actually spending
Joined: 19 Dec 2014 that time working to answer the given question in the prompt)?
Posts: 2778
GMAT 1: 800 Q51 V49 The solution is actually pretty simple, but for the sake of bringing the point home, you really should do the math (take notes!) and
GRE 1: 340 Q170 V170 come up with the answer yourself.
Followers: 118
Kudos [?]: 774 [0], given: 53 The magnitude of the issue
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A: Since there are 37 questions in the Quant section on the GMAT, if you have to spend an extra 10 seconds per question re-reading
the prompt (because you didnt take good notes), then you will end up spending 37x10 = 370 seconds re-reading the prompts (and
thats time that you COULD have been working to answer the question).
370 seconds = 6 minutes, 10 seconds.
Take a GOOD look at that number. Would having an extra 6+ minutes of time make dealing with the Quant section a bit easier? I bet
it would.
In that same way, you could squeeze out even MORE time in the Verbal section (and not just because there are 41 questions instead
of 37) since everything in the Verbal section requires some significant reading and a typical Verbal prompt is far wordier than a
typical Quant prompt.
The big fix and the even bigger long-term benefit

This all ties into the proper mechanical work that you will have to do to answer GMAT questions (of ANY type) in a timely fashion.
By breaking prompts down into pieces, and taking good notes while you read, you can set yourself up to begin answering the
given question right as you finish reading the prompt for the first time.
Ultimately, all of the issues that you might face during your studies (not just pacing-related issues) are definable, so you have to
put some thought into the likely causes of those issues and then go about working to fix those issues. As a future MBA, you are
not allowed to say I have no idea why. Instead, you have to look at the data, analyze the processes and come up with an idea.
Whether you realize it or not, the process of training to score at a high level on the GMAT involves the same skills that youll use to
earn your MBA.

Rich
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Monday Mail-Bag: Advice on Big Picture Issues That Impact GMAT Test Takers
Reading Skills vs. GMAT RC Skills

Hi Rich
I am preparing for the test, and I find the verbal section more difficult (in terms of time spent to come up with a solution) than the
quantitative section. This is because I am a non-native english speaker, so in order to improve effectively my english reading-
reasoning ability I would ask for suggestions on how to deal with it (for instance, if it is useful to read the new york times or
the economist in the free time, or if there is a particular newspaper writer whose articles could help).
Eta
Hi Eta,
Affiliations: EMPOWERgmat The suggestion to read from scholarly journals (The New York Times, etc.) is an interesting way to build RC reading skills but it's not
Joined: 19 Dec 2014 necessarily going to improve your RC performance because those articles do NOT come with GMAT questions attached.
Posts: 2778
Effective practice requires an understanding of what MATTERS in an RC passage and what does not, the proper way to take notes as
GMAT 1: 800 Q51 V49
GRE 1: 340 Q170 V170 you read (the EMPOWERgmat Method is called the RC Ladder), and an understanding of the types of questions and the common
Followers: 118 types of wrong answers that you'll see with each question. In short, you have to be trained to know what RC questions require of
Kudos [?]: 774 [0], given: 53 you.
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As a nudge to help you improve, try thinking about WHY a sentence or paragraph appears in a prompt (what purpose does it serve),
as opposed to trying to understand or memorize every nitpick detail provided.
Extra Time on IR Training?

Rich,
How much time should be given to IR preparation? I have given GMAT once and did not prepare for IR much. I got a 4. Is that a
decent score? I am giving my GMAT again in few days and I am wondering that if giving practice tests with IR section sufficient for
the preparation.
Theta
Hi Theta,
The national average for the IR section is right around a 4.3, so your IR score is fine. The good news is that just about every Business
School who has spoken on the subject considers IR to be a NON-FACTOR in the application process. The data collected on this
section doesn't consistently correlate with scores in other sections, so Business Schools haven't found a way to use IR data to assess
applicants. The short answer is that it IR doesn't matter in the short term, so you shouldn't spend too much time or energy trying to
improve (that time would be better spent improving other areas). This might change going into the future, but it likely won't be for
at least several years.
The Random Order of Questions in Each Section

Hey Rich,
I had a strange experience with verbal section during my retake of GMAT prep 1. In my first attempt I scored 650(Q49,V29). So,
today I gave my GMAT prep 1 again after resetting it. To my surprise, I got 3 reading comprehensions within the first 13 questions.
How common is this experience?
Iota
Hi Iota,
Your experience with the software is clearly NOT typical and I wouldn't expect it to repeat (either in practice or on Test Day). From
a probability standpoint, it's clearly mathematically possible, however unlikely; I once had a client tell me that (on his actual GMAT)
that his first 10 Quant questions were DS questions. While he said it was a bit unnerving, he stayed calm, remembered his training
and scored 730. My advice is to roll with whatever the GMAT throws at you. The order of the questions will vary, but the content,
rules, format, etc. won't.

Rich
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Re: EMPOWERgmat Blog [#permalink] 03 Jul 2015, 10:33
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How to Get the Most Accurate Assessment From Your CATs
When it comes to studying for the GMAT, there are a variety of ways to approach the process. Regardless of how you might
formulate your study plan, CATs are essential to your improvement as a Test Taker and to help you prepare for what you will
eventually face on the Official GMAT. Unfortunately, many Test Takers mis-use their CATs and end up not properly prepared on Test
Day. Using your CATs in a rather specific way will help you to maximize your performance on the GMAT.
First off, its important to understand that a CAT is a measuring device it will not inherently make you a better Test Taker. Like
a bathroom scale that measures your weight and provides a result, a CAT (when properly used) will measure your general Test
Taking skills and provide results. If you use the CAT incorrectly, then the score results will not be accurate and youll have an
incorrect idea of your readiness for Test Day.
To properly utilize a CAT, there are a number of parameters that you must follow:
1) You MUST take the FULL CAT, including the Essay and IR sections. Skipping sections will shorten the Test, which inherently makes
the Test easier to deal with. During practice, you want REALISTIC results the reality of Test Day is that you have to deal with an
Affiliations: EMPOWERgmat Essay, an IR section and a break before you see a single Quant question and almost 3 hours will have gone by before you see your
Joined: 19 Dec 2014 first Verbal question. Skipping the early parts of a CAT is a mistake that many Test Takers make.
Posts: 2778
Location: United States (CA) 2) You should try to take your CATs at the same time of day as your Official GMAT is scheduled for. Doing so will help you to train to
GMAT 1: 800 Q51 V49
perform at a high level at the same time of day that you will need to perform on Test Day.
GRE 1: 340 Q170 V170
Followers: 118
Kudos [?]: 774 [0], given: 53 3) You need to take the CATs at a location OTHER than your home (if possible) and you need to account for how long it will take to
FOLLOW get to the Test Center. For example, if the Test Center is 30 minutes from your home, then you should plan to drive around for 30
SEND PM minutes before taking your CAT at a library, office space or other similar location.
4) Its best to make sure all of the little details line up with Test Day as much as possible do NOT pause the CAT, dont use a
pencil/eraser and paper to take the CAT, use a desktop computer (if possible), dont do ANYTHING that youre not allowed to do on
Test Day, etc.
5) Do NOT reuse a CAT that youve already taken IF your goal is to receive a realistic score. You can always retake a CAT to get in
some extra repetitions, but your score result from doing so will almost certainly be inflated (meaning that it will be higher than it
should because you have seen some of the questions already).
As far as scheduling your CATs is concerned, you should plan to take 1 CAT/week at the most. Since taking a CAT wont make you a
better Test Taker, taking more than 1 per week will provide no real advantage. Taking CATs throughout your studies will help you to
identify (and fix) issues that take time to improve endurance, pacing, energy levels, general attitude, stresses (both physical and
mental), etc.
Improving your scores requires review and an insistence on precision in your work. Your CAT results will provide LOTS of useful
information, including what you got correct/incorrect and how much time you spent on questions. Your analysis of your own work
will help to identify WHY you got certain questions wrong and provide insights into the areas that you need to focus on. Putting in
the necessary time between CATs to work on those issues is what you ultimately need to do to improve.
If you find that youre stuck at a particular scoring level, taking more CATs is NEVER the solution. Oftentimes the BIG problem is
the process one uses to attack the Test. Acknowledging that your study plan and approach might not be sufficient to help you
achieve your goals, and then investing in new resources that will help you to improve, is the big adjustment that most Test Takers
fail to make. There are some amazing solutions to whatever challenges you face, but blowing through lots of CATs isnt one of
them.

Rich
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Monday Mail-Bag: Advice on Big Picture Issues That Impact GMAT Test Takers
Lack of Concentration
Hello Rich,
I have a recurring problem I hope you could help me with. When I practice for the GMAT (either with books or GMATprep) I always
make silly mistakes like misreading the question or ticking the wrong answer although I solve the question right and it makes me
feel really stupid. Do you have any advice to help with this type of problem?
Kappa
Hi Kappa,
Affiliations: EMPOWERgmat Issues in concentration have little to nothing to do with intelligence, so try looking at the PHYSICAL ways that you work (and that
Joined: 19 Dec 2014 you can improve). Try writing EVERYTHING down on your pad and labeling your work. On the physical level, eat breakfast every
Posts: 2778 day, eat a snack and have a drink during each break of the CAT, and sit UP in your chair. Take your CATs earlier in the day (instead
of later in the day). These are variables that are easy to control and yet most Test Takers don't factor them in.
GMAT 1: 800 Q51 V49
GRE 1: 340 Q170 V170
Followers: 118 Getting to Q51 and My Goal Score
Kudos [?]: 774 [0], given: 53 Rich,
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I have been kind of frozen on Q49 for long on my CAT's in Quant. I believe that 50/51 would help me hit my goal score.
What does it take to be a 50/51 on Quant? I typically make about 12-13 mistakes on a CAT and get 49 and even getting it down to
11-12 mistakes still keeps me at 49.
Any help would be great.
Lambda
Hi Lambda,
At the level you're talking about, picking up those missing points requires a high level of attention to detail (which you already
mostly have, since you're scoring Q49). Take a good look at what you're getting wrong and figure out WHY you're getting those
questions wrong. To score at that higher level, silly mistakes are NOT AN OPTION. In addition, you'll need to be comfortable with
rarer math concepts and have a strong sense of "thoroughness" on DS questions.
The missing points you're looking for will likely be EASIER to earn on the Verbal section (and there will be a greater opportunity
there as well). Thats something to consider if you're trying to squeeze a few more points out of the GMAT.
Last Minute Tutoring?

Hi Rich,
I have couple of days left until my official exam - now scoring within 650-700 range. Do you recommend hiring a private tutor for a
couple of hours to address some of my potential weaknesses?
Mu
Hi Mu,
A tutor may or may not make a difference in the last few days before an exam. My opinion is that it will make little difference
because you likely have a consistent way of doing things that will take more time than a few days to alter.
Instead, do a light review of all the concepts that you know. Take a good look at both the things that you can do and those that you
can't. If a question is too hard or too weird, then don't waste your time on it. Instead, make sure that you put your emphasis on
correctly answering questions that are gettable. Focus on removing as many silly mistakes as possible. Those mistakes are what
are costing you your missing points.

Rich
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The Challenge(s) That You Face in Your GMAT Prep are NOT That Complicated
Nearing the middle of July, many Test Takers are starting their GMAT prep (or are in the midst of it already) in anticipation of
applying to Business School before the Round 1 deadlines occur in September/October. Many of those same Test Takers will face
varying challenges during their studies and they wont know how to go about overcoming those challenges. Worse still, many will be
so unable, or unwilling, to do the necessary self-analysis that they will utter the least useful phrase imaginable I have no idea
why_____. As a future MBA, you are NOT allowed to have no idea; you have to be able to come up with a POSSIBLE idea, even if
its not great, complete or ultimately correct.
I have NO IDEA why Im so bad at CR and RC.
Lets step away from your GMAT challenges for a moment, and instead deal with a simple hypothetical situation. Imagine that you
walk into room, lit with sunlight from an open window, and you see a ceiling lamp that is NOT lit. You notice a light switch on the
wall and flick it to the on position, but the lamp does NOT turn on. WHY is it not turning on?
Status: GMAT Assassin/Co-Founder Stop. Think. Give me a reason why that lamp isnt turning on (even if its just the first thing that comes to mind).
Joined: 19 Dec 2014 Dont read another word until you have a possible reason why that lamp did not light up when you flicked the switch.
Posts: 2778
Now, from a logical standpoint, the obvious problem is probably the bulb itself if the bulb is burned out (or there is no bulb in the
GMAT 1: 800 Q51 V49
GRE 1: 340 Q170 V170 lamp to begin with), then flicking the light switch wont matter. The BULB is probably the problem. If that was your initial
Followers: 118 explanation, then thats fantastic, logical and most likely correct. You NOW have something that you can work on, fix and
Kudos [?]: 774 [0], given: 53 potentially be DONE with the problem!
FOLLOW
SEND PM But what it thats NOT the answer? What if the bulb is fine? What ELSE could the reason be? Come up with another possibility.
I have no idea why my score is stuck at ______.
Dont get distracted by that prior sentence were still on the issue with the lamp. We checked the bulb and the bulb is FINE, so
that is NOT why the lamp wont turn on. What else did you come up with as a possible cause of this problem? As a future MBA, you
have to be able to come up with answers. If you cant answer questions and come up with possible solutions, then theres no reason
for a company to hire you, much less give you power and responsibility (and lots of money) to do an MBAs job.
Be critical think of this as if it were a big CR question. Is it possible that the light switch that were flicking doesnt actually turn
on THAT lamp? Is it possible that the wiring between the switch and the lamp is faulty? Is it possible that the circuit breaker has
overloaded and electricity is simply not getting to the lamp? By thinking about what the problem COULD be, you can define what
YOU have to do to fix it and then go about the necessary tasks to do so.
I have no idea why my score dropped on Test Day.
Now, back to the GMAT and a statement that youll see many Test Takers making in the Forums. The truth is that you probably DO
have the capacity to ask AND answer those bold-faced questions so you DO have some idea why youre stuck, or facing challenges
or seeing a drop in your score. Part of effectively solving a problem is in defining it. You might not know the exact solution, but you
can then work with an expert, research possible solutions, invest in new resources, etc. and ultimately overcome whatever the
challenge is.
The great thing about the GMAT is that it is standardized and predictable. Whatever your problem(s) may be, you are not the first
person that they have impacted. We can help you to solve them all, but you have to do some of the work to clearly define them
first.

Rich
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Posted on August 15, 2011, filed in: GMAT, GMAT Prep, GMAT Tips

The Strategies I Found Most Useful

What is this passage seeking to do?

However, the correct answer choice would have been:

effective management, transformation and interpretation of data

ability to extract the most important elements from unfamiliar sources

Based on your own experience in the

Since there are 41 verbal questions,

What would you say?

As I know, there are 3 passages in the

Joined: 17 Jul 2014

on my gmat test taken in january - I had ~16-17 SC questions

So this #17-16 SC seems fixed!

And yes, three passages.

New!2016 OFFICIAL GUIDE FOR GMAT REVIEW: Free Video Explanations.

Joined: 19 Apr 2009

Part II: Quantitative Section (37 questions, 75 minutes)

Part III: Verbal Section (41 questions, 75 minutes)

For the Integrated Reasoning section -- as described

Problem Solving: 18 to 21.

New!2016 OFFICIAL GUIDE FOR GMAT REVIEW: Free Video

Sort by Date Sort by Kudos

EMPOWERgmat Blog [#permalink] 18 May 2015, 00:15

Getting a Head Start on the Fall Application Season NOW

To that end, were here to help.

GMAT assassins arent born, theyre made,

Official Guide 2016 Question Breakdown:

GMAT Club Verified Reviews for EMPOWERgmat & Special Discount

Re: EMPOWERgmat Blog [#permalink] 22 May 2015, 00:12

Hunting For Pacing Errors

Finding More Time From An Unexpected Source

GMAT assassins arent born, theyre made,

Official Guide 2016 Question Breakdown:

GMAT Club Verified Reviews for EMPOWERgmat & Special Discount

EMPOWERgmat Podcast - A Wild Secret About The GMAT Algorithm

Re: EMPOWERgmat Blog [#permalink] 25 May 2015, 01:10

GMAT assassins arent born, theyre made,

Official Guide 2016 Question Breakdown:

GMAT Club Verified Reviews for EMPOWERgmat & Special Discount

EMPOWERgmat Podcast - A Wild Secret About The GMAT Algorithm

Re: EMPOWERgmat Blog [#permalink] 29 May 2015, 00:40

THE SKILL OF LEARNING NEW SKILLS

CONTENT - Using a Combined Approach To Master GMAT Content

To learn content, youll want to draw on a combined approach:

Note Taking & Outlining

A Systematic Approach to GMAT Skill-Building

The Right Environment & Resources

SavageBrother Re: EMPOWERgmat Blog [#permalink] 29 May 2015, 01:49

Joined: 18 Dec 2014

Re: EMPOWERgmat Blog [#permalink] 01 Jun 2015, 00:40

Your first task is pretty straight-forward

Status: GMAT Assassin/Co-Founder

GMAT assassins arent born, theyre made,

Official Guide 2016 Question Breakdown:

Re: EMPOWERgmat Blog [#permalink] 05 Jun 2015, 00:05

To that end, were here to help.

GMAT assassins arent born, theyre made,

Official Guide 2016 Question Breakdown:

GMAT Club Verified Reviews for EMPOWERgmat & Special Discount

EMPOWERgmat Podcast - A Wild Secret About The GMAT Algorithm

Re: EMPOWERgmat Blog [#permalink] 06 Jun 2015, 09:32

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,

Status: GMAT Assassin/Co-Founder _________________

EMPOWERgmat Podcast - A Wild Secret About The GMAT Algorithm