Data sufficiency question are a strange animal that exists only in GMAT land.  The newness of this question type creates high levels of anxiety because we don’t know how to react when we see something new (How do you think you would react if you were standing face to face with a unicorn?).   Once we get over this newness, data sufficiency questions all follow a specific morphology, and in my opinion actually contain less diversity than problem solving questions.  There is always either a yes/no question (is ab even?) or value question (how many boys are in the class?), followed by two statements, and the five answer choice are always the same and in the same order. (If you are completely unfamiliar with data sufficiency questions take a look at an example here)

Because of this very confined structure, there are actually cases where the structure of question and statements can give you information regardless of the specifics of the problem. There are at least four instances where a specific form of the statement(s) will allow you to eliminate several responses without evaluating the full content of the problem.

1) A value statement for a yes/no question

If a statement provides a value for the sole variable in the question, it is definitely sufficient to answer any yes or no question.

For example:

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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:

Triangle ABC is cut by a line DE parallel to side AC, as shown in the diagram. If side AC has length 1, and the area and perimeter of triangle ABC are both twice the corresponding values for trapezoid ADEC, what is the perimeter of triangle DBE?

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

6/17/13– Santa Monica, CA – Free Trial Class– 6:30PM- 9:30PM (EDT)

6/17/13– Boston, MA – Free Trial Class –  6:30PM- 9:30PM

6/17/13– Atlanta, GA  – Free Trial Class –  6:30PM- 9:30PM

6/17/13– Evanston, IL – Free Trial Class-  6:30PM-9:30PM

6/18/13– Berkeley, CA – Free Trial Class – 6:30PM- 9:30PM

6/18/13– Online- Writing a Standout HBS Application Essay presented by mbaMission– 9:00PM-10:30PM (EDT)

6/19/13– Glendale, CA- 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:

Best Non-US Business Schools (About.com Business School)

Here is a list of the best non-US business schools. Each school offers at least one high-quality program for business students.

Tweets, Slideshows and Social Media”The New MBA App (Poets & Quants)

The University of Iowa’s Tippie School of Management revamped their application to connect with candidates in their own space “ social media.

14 Simple Ways to Get Considerably More Done (Inc.)

Don’t think it’s possible because you’re already working in overdrive? Here’s a new way to look at your to-do list.

Applicants Invest 90 to 140 Hours to Apply (Poets and Quants)

Find out just how well b-schools get to know you through the admissions process.

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

Many a true word is said in jest.—I don’t know, but I heard it from my mother.

When I was a little boy, I didn’t want to be a fireman when I grew up.  I wanted to be a riverboat gambler.  Unfortunately, I didn’t because of a bad upbringing—utility stocks were too risky for my father. . .I do play poker and blackjack some though.  And I don’t try to fill inside straights.  On the other hand, I don’t play baccarat because I don’t understand the rules well enough.  The same principles apply to the GMAT.  The first part of this series—-Heart of Darkness—A Holistic Guide to GMAT Scoring —- highlights why test takers don’t score as well as they should because they don’t understand the rules of the game and thus often try to fill inside straights.  And, like a Greek tragedy, that post ends by lamenting how even test takers who know how to play baccarat are corrupted by the siren song of the ticking clock.  Yes, the clock.

Folks fail to understand that all their good work will be undone if they do not finish the sections in good order.  Leaving the last five blank will lower your score by as much as sixty points.  Roughly speaking, doing so in both sections will magically turn a 660 into a 550.  And you must not only finish, but also finish in good order.  If you blind guess the last five in each section, with average karma, your score will still drop sixty points.   Run the assessment reports on your practice exams—if your score is lower than the average difficulty of the questions that you missed, you have timing problems, even if you are finishing the sections.

How can you avoid this penalty?  Well, the easiest way is to have an angel on your shoulder and always guess right.  However, if you can’t count on that angel full time, you have to control the clock. In the first half of a section, the CAT computer is roughly approximating your ability level.  Thus, what is unforgiveable there is missing questions that you know how to do.  But test takers misunderstand—that is NOT the same as getting them ALL right.  If I take a GMAT, I’ll get ten of the first fifteen quants correct.  Maybe eleven.  Or maybe nine.  It doesn’t matter.  For me, after about the fourth one, they are all 800 level questions and, as part one discussed, you only need to be about 50% accurate at the score level that you want.  Trying to get them all right is a trap.  First off, as I implied a second ago, even if you are scoring 790, the computer will give you problems that you don’t know how to do.  So it’s hopeless on the face of it.  Equally importantly, attempting to do so uses up too much time.  The Catch-22 here is that you must answer those that you know correctly without disproportionally using the time.  Or you’ll turn your 660 into a 550.  What is the solution to this dialectic?  The envelope, please. . .

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What’s the difference between a real GMAT and a practice one? On the real GMAT, you’re finished after three and a half hours, give or take. But while you are preparing for the GMAT, finishing a practice test is much different than being finished with it. As I’ve written about before, practice tests are great assessment tools but not necessarily great learning tools. Practice tests tell you what you would likely score on the real GMAT if you answered 37 quant and 41 verbal questions with the same level of aptitude that you had on the questions you just saw. But if you want to see your GMAT score improve, you’re going to have to spend some time reviewing what you did, how you did it, and how you could do it better. To help you on that quest to get better, here are four kinds of questions that you can use to help improve your score.

1)  Questions You Got Wrong

This one is the obvious one- if you want to get better at the GMAT, you need to find questions that you got wrong and learn how to get them right. But this isn’t as simple as finding an explanation online and memorizing it. Studying for the GMAT is more than just trying to read and memorize a bunch of facts- it’s about changing the way that your brain thinks about how to manipulate an equation or dissect an argument. And what better way for your brain to learn how to tackle a challenge than to give your brain more time to do so. In the middle of a test, your brain is rushed. You might have had to give up on the question halfway through or guessed on it immediately to save yourself time. But when you give your brain more time to discover that A-HA! moment, your brain is much more likely to recognize what to do the next time you see a similar hurdle. After you spend some time trying to solve it on your own, feel free to search for an explanation or a better way of solving a problem. However, you have to make sure that the explanation you read is something that you can do in your own head or your own paper come test day.

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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:

Each of seven consecutive integers, all greater than positive integer n, is divided by n. The seven resulting remainders, not necessarily distinct, are assembled into a list L. What is the value of n?

(1) List L contains two odd values and 5 even values.

(2) No odd integer appears in list L more than once.

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

6/10/13– New York, NY –MBA Admissions Myths Destroyed presented by mbaMission– 7:30PM- 9 :00PM (EDT)

6/11/13– Bellevue, WA – Free Trial Class –  6:30PM- 9:30PM

6/11/13– Boston, MA  – Free Trial Class –  6:30PM- 9:30PM

6/11/13– San Antonio, TX  – Free Trial Class-  6:30PM-9:30PM

6/11/13– Chicago, IL – Free Trial Class – 6:30PM- 9:30PM

6/11/13– Denver, CO- Free Trial Class– 6:30PM-9:30PM

6/11/13– Online – Free Trial Class– 1:00PM-4:00PM (EDT)

6/12/13– San Diego, CA – Free Trial Class- 6:30PM-9:30PM

6/12/13– Online – Free Trial Class– 9:00PM-12:00AM (EDT)

6/12/13– Dallas, TX – Free Trial Class– 6:30PM-9:30PM

6/16/13– Online – Free Trial Class– 7:00AM- 10:00AM (EDT)

6/16/13– Irvine, CA- Free Trial Class– 5:30PM- 8:30AM (EDT)

Looking for more free events? Check out our Free Events Listings Page.

Note: The following is a guest post by Liza Weale, Senior Consultant for mbaMission.

The numbers from GMAC’s 2013 Corporate Recruiters Survey are in, and the MBA continues to gain ground with employers. Of the companies surveyed, 75% plan to hire MBAs in 2013 versus the 71% that hired business school graduates in 2012. The median starting salary for MBAs at U.S. companies is also on the rise: up from $90K in 2012 to $95K in 2013. And companies in the classic fields of consulting and finance are not the only ones expecting to add MBAs to their work force (79% in 2013 over 69% in 2012 and 75% in 2013 over 70% in 2012, respectively): 86% of energy and utility companies (up 17% over 2012) and 89% of health care and pharma companies (up 12% over 2012) report plans to do so as well.

Undoubtedly, the outlook for MBAs is rosy, but being aware of this promising forecast is not enough to help an applicant gain a spot at a top program. Some deep soul searching is needed, and resources such as GMAC’s 2013 Corporate Recruiters Survey can be excellent sources of inspiration”especially as candidates contemplate what next after business school.

The following are a few things that might be helpful to consider as you think about your goals:

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Manhattan Prep is offering special full tuition scholarships for up to 16 individuals per year (4 per quarter) who will be selected as part of Manhattan GMAT’s Social Venture Scholars program. This program provides the selected scholars with free admission into one of Manhattan GMAT’s live online Complete Courses (a $1290 value).

These competitive scholarships are offered to individuals who (1) currently work full-time in an organization that promotes positive social change, (2) plan to use their MBA to work in a public, not-for-profit, or other venture with a social-change oriented mission, and (3) demonstrate clear financial need. The Social Venture Scholars will all enroll in a special online preparation course taught by two of Manhattan GMAT’s expert instructors within one year of winning the scholarship.

The deadline our next application period is 6/14.

Details about the SVS program and how you can apply can be found here.