I ran across the GMAT problem below when I was reviewing a GMATPrep® test that I took a while back, and as soon as I saw it, I knew I needed to share it with you. There are some really intriguing aspects to this one. Read more

Has GMAT Critical Reasoning been driving you crazy? Do you keep getting tangled up in arguments, agonizing back and forth between answers, or picking an answer confidently only to find that you fell straight into a trap? This article is here to save you. ☺️

It’s going to take some work, but if you follow these steps, you’ll see your CR performance improve significantly. Ready? Let’s do this! Read more

The GMAT Critical Reasoning question type “Explain a Discrepancy” has a very specific goal. If you know what your goal is, you’ll be much more likely to answer the question correctly. If you don’t, it can be very easy to get turned around and fall into a trap.

Try this problem from the free questions that come with the GMATPrep® software and then we’ll talk about how Discrepancy questions work! Read more

Note: The pilot project has now gone live as “Select Section Order”—however, the details are a bit different. Read this post for all the info you need on the new Select Section Order feature.

You may have heard that, on Monday, some GMAT students started receiving emails inviting them to take part in a Select Section Order Pilot program that GMAC (the organization that makes the GMAT) is holding in late February/early March.

This pilot is to test an awesome potential new feature: the ability to select the order in which you do the various sections of the GMAT!

Below, I’ve laid out all of the important details and I also talk about how to decide whether to join, if you were one of the lucky students invited to take part.

How does the pilot work? What are they testing?

Read more

Last time, we talked about how to avoid annoying calculations on Data Sufficiency. It’s not so surprising that you can do this on DS, since you don’t “really” have to solve all the way on this question type.

But you can avoid annoying calculations on Problem Solving, too! Try this problem from the GMATPrep® free exams to learn how. Read more

Whenever I see a story problem, I immediately make myself think, “How would I solve this in the real world?” I don’t want to get sucked into doing a bunch of annoying textbook math. In the real world, we lay things out on paper very differently than when we’re in “I’m taking a math test” mode.

Want to see what I mean? Try this GMATPrep® problem from the free exams and then we’ll talk! Read more

Recently, I wrote a post about how to get the most out of Official Guide (OG) problems during your studies. In that article, I discussed how to interleave your GMAT studies and I’ve got more to say on this strategy that’s of crucial importance to your studies.

What is Interleaving?

In a nutshell, interleaving is a way of mixing up your studies. For example, let’s say that you’re about to start studying the Fractions chapter of our Fractions, Decimals, & Percents (FDP) Strategy Guide. It’s only 8 pages long, so you should just read the whole thing straight through, right? (Note: if you actually have this guide,  pull it out right now and follow along below.) Read more

Did you know that you can attend the first session of any of our online or in-person GMAT courses absolutely free? We’re not kidding! Check out our upcoming courses here.

The beautiful thing about GMAT Data Sufficiency is that we’re allowed not to do all of the calculations that a Problem Solving problem might require. Still, leave it to the GMAT to try to suck you into doing more than you need to do in order to get to the answer.

Normally, I just toss you into a problem and then we discuss, but today I’m going to warn you: the GMATPrep® problem that I’m about to give you is going to do its best to make you waste time. As you try this problem, ask yourself, “Do I really need to do that calculation? Is there an easier way?”

Try this problem from the GMATPrep free exams. Read more

Last time, we talked about how to use holiday downtime to get ready for round 2 GMAT admissions. This time, we’re going to talk about what to do if you aren’t applying for round 2 this year.

We have two broad scenarios to talk about: Read more

The holidays are fast approaching and all of my students are asking me how best to use their extra downtime over the next few weeks. I have some different recommendations, depending upon your circumstances.

In this installment, we’ll talk about what to do if you’re aiming for the second round (in other words, your applications are due in January 2016—soon!). In the next installment, we’ll talk about what to do if this circumstance does not apply to you. Read more