Students ask this all the time “ they’ve heard that the scoring penalizes us for getting a lot of questions wrong in a row.

That’s true, to some extent “ there is something of a penalty built in if we get 4+ questions wrong in a row. The test writers don’t want us to spend, for example, 65 minutes doing the first 2/3 of the questions really carefully (in hopes of boosting our score very high) and then blowing the remaining questions. They prioritize steady performance over the length of the entire test, so they’ve built safeguards into the algorithm to ensure that we can’t game the test, essentially.

So how do I avoid getting a bunch of questions wrong in a row?

Here’s the thing. You can’t avoid that “ not in the way that you mean.

The only real way to avoid getting a bunch of questions wrong in a row is to make sure you don’t mess up your timing so badly that you get other questions wrong just because you’re rushing.

But that’s not what people mean when they ask me about this. Instead, they mean something like, I’m pretty sure I got the last two wrong “ I just outright guessed on the last one. Now, how do I make sure I get the next one right?

You can’t. You can never make sure that you get any particular question right. If you could well, then you wouldn’t need any help, right? : ) Nobody on the planet, not even the best test takers, can guarantee that they’re going to answer any particular question correctly.

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We invite you to test your GMAT knowledge for a chance to win! Each week, we will post a new Challenge Problem for you to attempt. If you submit the correct answer, you will be entered into that week’s drawing for a free Manhattan GMAT Prep item. Tell your friends to get out their scrap paper and start solving!
Here is this week’s problem:

If x^3.5 > y^2.5 > z^1.5, then which of the following cannot be true?

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Here are the free GMAT events we’re holding this week. All times are local unless otherwise specified.

2/28/13– Online- Free Trial Class– 8:00PM-11:00PM (EST)

3/02/13– Online- Free Trial Class- 1:00PM-4:00PM (EST)

3/03/13– Online- Free Trial Class– 7:00PM-10:00PM (EST)

2/28/13– Online- Long-Term MBA Planning presented by mbaMission– 8:00AM-9:30AM (EST)

2/26/13– Austin, TX- Free Trial Class– 6:30AM-9:30PM

3/03/13– Boston, MA- Free Trial Class– 10:00AM-1:00PM

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Catch up on some business school news and tips with a few of this week’s top stories:

Bouncing Back From the Great Recession (Poets & Quants)

Poets & Quants examines data through 2011 to see which business schools have been able to recover the losses from the Great Recession and which schools have actually gained ground.

Harvard Business School Splits $50K Between 10 Student Startups Dedicated to Going Lean (BostInno)

Harvard Business School’s Arthur Rock Center for Entrepreneurship recently announced the 10 student groups who will receive $5,000 each to fund their startup ventures.

What Harvard, Haas and Other Top Business Schools Want to Learn About You (Forbes)

Former Executive Director of Admissions for the full-time program at Berkeley-Haas shares what business school admissions committees are really looking for in their applicants.

Why MBA? How an MBA Can Boost your Employability (The Telegraph)

The Telegraph discusses how MBA graduates”particularly those from top-tier schools”are still in demand from leading employers despite the tight job market.

Did we miss your favorite article from the week? Let us know what you have been reading in the comments or tweet @ManhattanGMAT

The first time I read the original sentence in the below SC problem, I thought to myself: wait, what? What are you actually trying to say? I knew immediately that this would be a good one to discuss with all of you. 🙂

Let’s try it out (1 minute 15 seconds) and then we’ll dive in. This question is from the free problem set included in the new GMATPrep 2.0 version of the software.

*  Displays of the aurora borealis, or northern lights, can heat the atmosphere over the arctic enough to affect the trajectories of ballistic missiles, induce electric currents that can cause blackouts in some areas and corrosion in north-south pipelines.

 

(A) to affect the trajectories of ballistic missiles, induce

(B) that the trajectories of ballistic missiles are affected, induce

(C) that it affects the trajectories of ballistic missiles, induces

(D) that the trajectories of ballistic missiles are affected and induces

(E) to affect the trajectories of ballistic missiles and induce

This was my thought process as I read that first sentence:

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We invite you to test your GMAT knowledge for a chance to win! Each week, we will post a new Challenge Problem for you to attempt. If you submit the correct answer, you will be entered into that week’s drawing for a free Manhattan GMAT Prep item. Tell your friends to get out their scrap paper and start solving!
Here is this week’s problem:

How many integer values of x satisfy the relationship x⁴ “ 4x³ “ 4x² +16x ≤ 0?

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If you asked me where I learned my countries in Africa, I’d tell you that it was from watching Where In the World is Carmen Sandiego? My knowledge of state capitals? Animaniacs. My ability to find prime numbers while being hunted by cartoon monsters in a 6×5 grid? Number Munchers.

And while these and so many other skills that I learned in school also came largely from my grade school teachers, I think that there’s an underappreciated value to using videos and games to help supplement learning. Staring at a GMAT book for an hour isn’t helpful if you aren’t learning anything because your mind is checked out. But tricking your brain into getting faster at finding numbers that multiply to 24 might be, especially if you can make time to do so on your ride to work or while waiting for your dentist appointment. And for many of us, myself included, there’s no better place in the world to find 5-minute distraction than at the App Store. So if you have an iPhone or iPad (and many of these apps are also found on Android too) check out some of these apps below. And if you have any other apps that you use, type them up in the comments below!

Note: Listing here is not an endorsement by Manhattan GMAT.

Basic Computation Apps

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Here are the free GMAT events we’re holding this week. All times are local unless otherwise specified.

2/20/13– Online- Free Trial Class– 9:00PM-12:00AM (EST)

2/23/13– Online- Free Trial Class- 10:00PM-1:00PM (EST)

2/24/13– Online- Free Trial Class– 1:00PM-4:00PM (EST)

2/19/13– Online-Interview Workshop presented by mbaMission– 9:00PM-10:00PM (EST)

2/21/13– Online- Thursdays with Ron- 7:00PM-8:30PM (EST)

2/19/13– Atlanta, GA- Free Trial Class– 6:30AM-9:30PM

2/21/13– Boston, MA- Free Trial Class– 6:30PM-9:30PM

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Catch up on some business school news and tips with a few of this week’s top stories:

MBA Rankings: Top Schools for E-Business (Bloomerberg Businessweek)

Bloomberg Businessweek asked current business school students to rank their program’s coverage of  Internet commerce.

MBA Pay Growth: U.S. Business Schools Lag Behind (Business Week)

Business Week shares some recent research, which reveals that MBA pay growth at business schools in the U.S. has lagged significantly behind increases in Europe and Asia.

Relax! You’ll Be More Productive! (The New York Times)

Struggling to concentrate on your studies? The NY Times reports on growing research that shows how naps, longer sleep hours, time away from the office, and more vacations actually boost productivity and performance.
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The other week, we discussed the overall process for Data Sufficiency. This week, we’re going to test out the process using a GMATPrep question “ and take a look at a couple of very common DS traps.

Set your timer for 2 minutes. and GO!

*  A bookstore that sells used books sells each of its paperback books for a certain price and each of its hardcover books for a certain price. If Joe, Maria, and Paul all bought books in this store, how much did Maria pay for 1 paperback book and 1 hardcover book?

(1) Joe bought 2 paperback books and 3 hardcover books for $12.50.

(2) Paul bought 4 paperback books and 6 hardcover books for $25.00.

Note that I haven’t listed the answer choices for you. Because DS answers are always the same, we should memorize them. If you don’t have them memorized yet, look back at the How DS Works article linked in the first paragraph.

All right, let’s tackle this problem.

Step 1: Read the Question Stem

The first sentence tells us that each paperback book sells for the same price and each hardcover book also sells for the same price (but possibly a different price than the paperback books).

The question asks how much Maria paid for 1 of each type of book. Is this a value or a yes/no question?

They’re asking for a specific amount; this is a value question. We’ve also got lots of words; we’re going to have to translate.

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