<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><rss version="2.0" xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/" xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" xmlns:sy="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/syndication/" xmlns:slash="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/slash/" > <channel> <title>GMAT Verbal – GMAT</title> <atom:link href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog/tag/gmat-verbal/feed/" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" /> <link>https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat</link> <description>GMAT Prep Course, Best GMAT Class & Study Books | Manhattan Prep GMAT</description> <lastBuildDate>Fri, 21 Feb 2020 13:22:11 +0000</lastBuildDate> <language>en-US</language> <sy:updatePeriod> hourly </sy:updatePeriod> <sy:updateFrequency> 1 </sy:updateFrequency> <generator>https://wordpress.org/?v=6.3.2</generator> <item> <title>“I’m Bad at Grammar” And Other Lies You Tell Yourself</title> <link>https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog/im-bad-at-grammar-and-other-lies-you-tell-yourself/</link> <dc:creator><![CDATA[Emily Madan]]></dc:creator> <pubDate>Wed, 12 Feb 2020 21:10:42 +0000</pubDate> <category><![CDATA[GMAT Strategies]]></category> <category><![CDATA[gmat grammar]]></category> <category><![CDATA[GMAT Verbal]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/?p=18633</guid> <description><![CDATA[<p>I’ll be honest, when I started studying for the GMAT, I couldn’t tell the difference between an adjective and a verb. If you asked what my biggest weakness was, I would absolutely have said “Grammar. I’m awful at it.” But I was wrong, and if you think you’re bad at grammar, there’s a good chance […]</p> <p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog/im-bad-at-grammar-and-other-lies-you-tell-yourself/">“I’m Bad at Grammar” And Other Lies You Tell Yourself</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat">GMAT</a>.</p> ]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img decoding="async" fetchpriority="high" class="alignnone wp-image-18635 size-full" src="https://cdn2.manhattanprep.com/gmat/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2020/02/mprep-blogimages-wave1-51-e1581541660221.png" alt="GMAT grammar" width="1200" height="628" /></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">I’ll be honest, when I started studying for the GMAT, I couldn’t tell the difference between an adjective and a verb. If you asked what my biggest weakness was, I would absolutely have said “Grammar. I’m awful at it.” But I was wrong, and if you think you’re bad at grammar, there’s a good chance you are wrong too.</span></p> <p><span id="more-18633"></span></p> <h3><strong>The GMAT Grammar You Know</strong></h3> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The grammar you know is largely instinctual at this point. When you hear the sentence:</span></p> <p style="padding-left: 60px;"><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">The history of the Mayan people are rich and varied, but it’s interesting</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;">. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">you should notice that something is wrong. You may have to say it aloud, but something will hit your ear wrong, even if you don’t know what it is.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">This instinct comes from decades of knowing and using correct grammar. You know Subject-Verb Agreement; </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">The history…IS rich</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> because </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">history </span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;">and </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">is </span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;">are both singular. The inclusion of the word </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">but</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> distorts the sentence meaning. It implies there’s some kind of contrast, but the sentence is only discussing positive traits; why would there be a contrast? A more correct sentence would be:</span></p> <p style="padding-left: 60px;"><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">The history of the Mayan people is rich and varied, as well as interesting</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;">. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Most of the grammar tested on the GMAT is grammar you are already completely comfortable with. The difference is that in your day-to-day life, you can get away with not thinking about it. In a testing situation, with the pressure on, you’re trying to put a name to concepts you haven’t directly considered in years. You’re likely to second guess yourself, though there are still probably many Sentence Correction questions you will get right just by ear.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">As you study, note which concepts you tend to get right by ear. That way, when you know that rule is being tested, you can feel more confident in trusting your instincts.</span></p> <h3><strong>The GMAT Grammar You Don’t Know</strong></h3> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">That said, there is grammar that shows up on the GMAT that, if you’ve ever learned it, you’ve probably forgotten. To master these rules, you’ll have to learn and practice them. This is incredibly common, and yet I see students get extremely discouraged by this process. It’s as if not naturally knowing the nuances of parallelism means your English is poor. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Luckily, this is simply not true. There are a finite number of rules that you’ll need to master, almost all of which are predictable. Modifiers, parallelism, and perhaps a few verb tenses are some fairly common ones, but everyone’s list will be a little different. It’s helpful to understand that there are several grammatical rules that the GMAT considers absolute, but would be completely unnecessary in spoken English.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">I often get students whose native language is not English concerned that they will have significant difficulties with Sentence Correction. However, as long as those students speak English fluently, I find they are often some of the stronger SC students. Unlike native speakers, people who learn English as adults have had to consider grammatical rules recently, making it somewhat easier to recall and implement them on test day.</span></p> <h3><strong>Applying it to GMAT Sentence Correction</strong></h3> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Why is sentence correction so hard if you are actually good at grammar? Because the sentences test things in very specific ways. If someone were to point to a clause and ask you to position it so that the sentence has the right emphasis, you likely wouldn’t have too much of a problem. Try it here. Insert the clause </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">considering whether you are taking sufficient care of yourself</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> into the below sentence.</span></p> <p style="padding-left: 60px;"><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">It is important to moisturize your hands daily, not only because of the hydrating effect moisturizers have, but also because it encourages you to take note of your hygiene routine.</span></i></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">It’s a strange clause in a detailed sentence that you have no prior familiarity with. However, the most logical place for that clause is at the end, making the sentence:</span></p> <p style="padding-left: 60px;"><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">It is important to moisturize your hands daily, not only because of the hydrating effect moisturizers have, but also because it encourages you to take note of your hygiene routine considering whether you are taking sufficient care of yourself .</span></i></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">A sentence correction problem, however, won’t directly point out what you should focus on. Without knowing which rules to consider, there are simply too many grammatical restrictions to consider all of them in only a minute. The fix? Create an SC process that enables you to decode each question. It’s possible to read the original sentence with the foreknowledge of what is most likely being tested and where you should concentrate your energy.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">To sum up, you have most of the content knowledge you need. There are a few new rules to learn, but they’re minimal. Your focus should be on learning how to bring your innate knowledge to the front of your mind and making logical decisions based in a high stress testing scenario.</span></p> <p><strong>UP NEXT: </strong><a href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog/im-bad-at-math-and-other-lies-you-tell-yourself/">“I’m Bad at Math” And Other Lies You Tell Yourself</a></p> <p><b><i>You can attend the first session of any of our online or in-person GMAT courses absolutely free! We’re not kidding. </i></b><a href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/classes/"><b><i>Check out our upcoming courses here</i></b></a><b><i>.</i></b></p> <hr /> <p><img decoding="async" class="wp-image-18571 alignleft" src="https://cdn2.manhattanprep.com/gmat/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2020/01/emily-madan-taking-the-gmat-225x300.jpg" alt="emily madan taking the gmat" width="135" height="180" srcset="https://cdn2.manhattanprep.com/gmat/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2020/01/emily-madan-taking-the-gmat-225x300.jpg 225w, https://cdn2.manhattanprep.com/gmat/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2020/01/emily-madan-taking-the-gmat-768x1024.jpg 768w, https://cdn2.manhattanprep.com/gmat/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2020/01/emily-madan-taking-the-gmat.jpg 960w" sizes="(max-width: 135px) 100vw, 135px" /></p> <p><a href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/classes/#instructor/344"><b><i>Emily Madan</i></b></a><b><i> is a Manhattan Prep instructor located in Philadelphia, Pa. </i></b><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">She has a master’s degree in chemistry and tries to approach the GMAT and LSAT from a scientific perspective. These tests are puzzles with patterns that students can be taught to find. She has been teaching test prep for over ten years, scoring a 770 on the GMAT and 177 on the LSAT. </span></i><a href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/lsat/classes/#instructor/57"><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">Check out Emily’s upcoming LSAT courses here</span></i></a><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">.</span></i></p> <p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog/im-bad-at-grammar-and-other-lies-you-tell-yourself/">“I’m Bad at Grammar” And Other Lies You Tell Yourself</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat">GMAT</a>.</p> ]]></content:encoded> </item> <item> <title>How to Review a GMAT Critical Reasoning Problem</title> <link>https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog/how-to-review-a-gmat-critical-reasoning-problem/</link> <dc:creator><![CDATA[Chelsey Cooley]]></dc:creator> <pubDate>Mon, 28 Oct 2019 14:07:59 +0000</pubDate> <category><![CDATA[GMAT Strategies]]></category> <category><![CDATA[gmat critical reasoning]]></category> <category><![CDATA[GMAT Critical Reasoning Mistakes]]></category> <category><![CDATA[GMAT Verbal]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/?p=18244</guid> <description><![CDATA[<p>Are you keeping an error log for your GMAT Verbal practice? If your goal is to get a certain overall score on the GMAT (say, a 700), don’t underestimate the value of Verbal. That’s true even if you’re scoring at a higher percentile in Verbal than you are in Quant. At first, you may find […]</p> <p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog/how-to-review-a-gmat-critical-reasoning-problem/">How to Review a GMAT Critical Reasoning Problem</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat">GMAT</a>.</p> ]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-16937" src="https://cdn2.manhattanprep.com/gmat/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2019/02/gmat-reading-comprehension-tips-1024x536.png" alt="review-gmat-critical-reasoning-problem" width="1024" height="536" srcset="https://cdn2.manhattanprep.com/gmat/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2019/02/gmat-reading-comprehension-tips-1024x536.png 1024w, https://cdn2.manhattanprep.com/gmat/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2019/02/gmat-reading-comprehension-tips-300x157.png 300w, https://cdn2.manhattanprep.com/gmat/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2019/02/gmat-reading-comprehension-tips-768x402.png 768w, https://cdn2.manhattanprep.com/gmat/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2019/02/gmat-reading-comprehension-tips.png 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Are you keeping an </span><a href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog/error-log-the-1-way-to-raise-your-gmat-score/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">error log</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> for your GMAT Verbal practice? If your goal is to get a certain overall score on the GMAT (say, a 700), </span><a href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog/do-i-need-study-gmat-verbal/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">don’t underestimate the value of Verbal</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">. That’s true even if you’re scoring at a higher percentile in Verbal than you are in Quant. </span><span id="more-18244"></span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">At first, you may find that tough Verbal problems—especially </span><a href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog/gmat-critical-reasoning-tips/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Critical Reasoning</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> and </span><a href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog/how-to-read-a-reading-comp-passage/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Reading Comp</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">—</span><a href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog/gmat-verbal-fair-part-1/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">seem arbitrary and subjective</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">. But, they’re less subjective than they seem. GMAT Verbal problems all go through an experimental stage, where they aren’t counted towards your score. A problem is only used on the real GMAT if, during that experimental stage, high scorers consistently get it right and low scorers consistently get it wrong.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">That tells us that there’s a method to the madness. High scorers are people who have figured out what makes a right answer right. And the way you get there is by reviewing Verbal just as carefully as you </span><a href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog/how-to-review-easy-gmat-quant-questions-and-why-theyre-important/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">review Quant</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">. </span></p> <h3>Reviewing Critical Reasoning</h3> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">You should review most of the Critical Reasoning problems you do, even if you get them right. That’s because Critical Reasoning arguments use the same structures over and over, even though the content changes. The wrong answers also use the same traps repeatedly. If you get a problem right, analyze the wrong answers anyways. You might see very similar ones in a harder problem on test day.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The only problems you shouldn’t review (yet) are the ones that were unrealistically hard. Feel free to set those aside for later in your studies. Your time is best spent on the problems that will pay off most quickly.</span></p> <h3><b>Redoing a Critical Reasoning Problem</b></h3> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The first step of reviewing a CR problem is redoing it. Do this shortly after finishing a problem set, or during your next study session.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">When you redo a CR problem, you don’t need to use a timer. You’re also welcome to look back at the notes you took (if any) when you first did the problem. When you try the problem a second time, with a clear head, three things can happen:</span></p> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">You convince yourself that your original answer was right.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">You convince yourself that your original answer was wrong.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">You’re still not sure. </span></li> </ul> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In the first two scenarios, go ahead and check out the explanation and then start taking notes on the problem. But, if you get stuck, </span><b>don’t read the explanation immediately</b><span style="font-weight: 400;">. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Instead, just check what the right answer was. Try to come up with your own theories for why that answer was right, and for why the other answers were wrong. </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">Then</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;">, you can read the explanation—to prove or disprove your own theories, or to add to them. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">If you can’t get anywhere at all with a CR problem unless you read the explanation, the problem might just be too hard to do at the moment. Or, you might need to review how to approach that type of CR problem (for instance, by using </span><a href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/prep/on-demand/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">GMAT Interact</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">) before doing more practice questions. </span></p> <h3><b>Breaking down a Critical Reasoning problem</b></h3> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Let’s assume that you’ve tried the problem twice, and you now know what the right answer is and why it was right. You’re ready to learn. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Before you keep reading, do this CR problem from GMATPrep. Use a 2-minute timer. Then, take a break for a couple of minutes, and try it again. </span></p> <p><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">Correctly measuring the productivity of service workers is complex. Consider, for example, postal workers: they are often said to be more productive if more letters are delivered per postal worker. But is this really true? What if more letters are lost or delayed per worker at the same time that more are delivered?</span></i></p> <p><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">The objection implied above to the productivity measure described is based on doubts about the truth of which of the following statements?</span></i></p> <ul> <li><span style="font-weight: 400;">(A) </span><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">Postal workers are representative of service workers in general.</span></em></li> <li><span style="font-weight: 400;">(B) </span><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">The delivery of letters is the primary activity of the postal service.</span></em></li> <li><span style="font-weight: 400;">(C) </span><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">Productivity should be ascribed to categories of workers, not to individuals.</span></em></li> <li><span style="font-weight: 400;">(D) </span><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">The quality of services rendered can appropriately be ignored in computing productivity.</span></em></li> <li><span style="font-weight: 400;">(E) </span><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">The number of letters delivered is relevant to measuring the productivity of postal workers.</span></em></li> </ul> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Then, check out </span><a href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog/want-a-750-do-this-critical-reasoning-question-in-less-than-60-seconds/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">this article by Stacey Koprince</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> for the explanation. (But, try to figure out as much as you can about the problem on your own before you read the article! The right answer is (D)—if that’s not what you picked, return to the problem and come up with a theory for why (D) was right.)</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Here’s what your review process will look like for a CR problem. There are four pieces of a CR problem, and you can take notes on any of them, depending on what was interesting about the problem. </span></p> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">The question</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">The argument</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">The right answer</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">The four wrong answers</span></li> </ul> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The problem above had a really unusual question, so you might choose to jot down some notes about it. Ideally, look for a big takeaway or two: lessons that could apply not just to this problem, but to the whole problem type, to all CR problems, or even to the GMAT in general. Here are some examples of students’ notes:</span></p> <p><b>Student A: </b><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">based on = assumption</span></i></p> <p><b>Student B</b><span style="font-weight: 400;">: </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">if the question is complicated, focus on one piece at a time. “The objection to the measure” = letters might be delayed, so more letters doesn’t = more productivity. “Based on” = assumption required for this to be true. “Doubt about…” = the right answer will be negative, something that the person objecting DOESN’T believe. </span></i></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Your notes might look like either example, or, if nothing about the question confused or surprised you, you might take no notes at all. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">If you struggled to understand the argument, or if you picked the wrong answer because you misunderstood the argument, spend some time breaking it down carefully in your notes. You can also think about what answers you could have predicted, based on the argument itself. If you notice any patterns in the argument—for example, if the argument looked like a </span><a href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog/gmat-critical-reasoning-problems-arguments-that-tell-you-why/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">“tell me why” argument</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">—you could note that as well. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The most important part of reviewing a CR problem, however, is understanding the answer choices. </span></p> <h3><b>Reviewing Critical Reasoning answer choices</b></h3> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">A lot of the time, two or three of the answer choices in a CR problem will be easier to eliminate than the others. If your CR problem is like this, take a moment to make sure you do understand why those answer choices were wrong. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The ones to really dive into, though, are the answer choices that weren’t obvious. If you got the CR question </span><b>right</b><span style="font-weight: 400;">, make sure you can answer these questions:</span></p> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">What made the right answer right?</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">If any of the wrong answers were difficult, confusing, or tempting, what ultimately made them wrong? </span></li> </ul> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">If you got the question </span><b>wrong</b><span style="font-weight: 400;">, answer these questions instead:</span></p> <ul> <li><span style="font-weight: 400;">What made the right answer right?</span></li> <li><span style="font-weight: 400;">What made the answer I picked wrong? </span></li> <li><b>Why did I eliminate (or not choose) the right answer?</b></li> <li><strong>Why did I choose the answer I picked? </strong></li> </ul> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The point of this exercise isn’t to beat yourself up for missing the problem! The point is to gather data about your own problem-solving process, and identify patterns or areas to review. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Here are some examples of notes from students who missed the problem we worked on earlier: </span></p> <p><b>Student A</b><span style="font-weight: 400;"> picked (E):</span></p> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">eliminated (D) because I thought “quality of services rendered” was different from letters being delayed. But, that was a trick! It’s okay if the answer choice uses different exact wording in some cases. </span></i></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">picked (E) because it matched my own thoughts when I was reading the argument</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">But, (E) was wrong because it’s too strong: the person doesn’t think that number of letters delivered isn’t relevant, they just think there are other issues that may also be relevant. </span></li> </ul> <p><b>Student B </b><span style="font-weight: 400;">picked (C):</span></p> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">Picked (C), guessed randomly </span></i></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Didn’t pick (D) because I didn’t actually read it fully, got confused by “can appropriately be ignored” and decided not to waste time figuring out what that meant</span></li> </ul> <p><b>Student C </b><span style="font-weight: 400;">picked (A)</span></p> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">When I read the argument, I thought that you couldn’t go from “service workers” to talking about just postal workers.</span></i></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">The “objection” is actually just about postal workers specifically, so that’s okay</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Focus on what the conclusion says specifically, not on random background statements in the argument!</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Missed (D) because I didn’t really read the answer choices past (A) <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/14.0.0/72x72/1f641.png" alt="🙁" class="wp-smiley" style="height: 1em; max-height: 1em;" /> Read all of the answer choices unless you’re in a huge hurry!</span></li> </ul> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Your notes don’t need to be this detailed, but it’s great if they are. That’s not just because you’ll review them later. It’s also because writing down your thoughts on a problem forces you to slow down and articulate them in a way that makes sense. (And if you’re doing </span><a href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/prep/tutoring/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">GMAT tutoring</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">, it gives you information to share with your tutor!)</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">If there are other things you want to remember about a CR problem, edit your error log to include them! For instance, some of my students have used an extra column in their error log to write down how much time they spent on a problem, so they could go back and only redo the problems that took them too much time. Or you may want to take a note whenever you fall for a trap answer, so you avoid falling for the same ones over and over. A “general takeaways” column can also be useful! </span></p> <h3><b>Finishing up</b></h3> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Now that you’ve redone the problem, understood the solution, and reflected on your own process, put the problem aside for a week or two. On your GMAT study calendar, schedule a couple of hours every other week to do nothing but redo old problems from your log. It doesn’t even matter whether you remember the right answer when you redo: all you’re doing is reminding your brain of the problem and the lessons you learned from it. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">You should also quickly read over your problem log at least once a week, maybe when you have a few minutes of spare time but not enough time for a full study session. There’s no need to redo any problems or take any more notes unless you want to! Just glance at your takeaways to keep them fresh in your mind. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The secret to mastering Critical Reasoning is to get methodical. Understand the rules behind each problem type, and what they look like when they’re used in problems. Doing a lot of practice problems will expose you to these rules, but review is the way to truly understand them. </span></p> <h4>Want some more GMAT review tips? Check out these posts.</h4> <ul> <li><a href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog/how-to-review-a-sentence-correction-question/">How to Review a GMAT Sentence Correction Question</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog/how-to-review-a-data-sufficiency-question/">How to Review a GMAT Data Sufficiency Problem</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog/how-to-review-a-gmat-reading-comprehension-question/">How to Review a GMAT Reading Comprehension Question</a></li> </ul> <p><b><i>Don’t forget that you can attend the first session of any of our online or in-person GMAT courses absolutely free. We’re not kidding! </i></b><a href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/classes/free/"><b><i>Check out our upcoming courses here</i></b></a><b><i>.</i></b></p> <hr /> <p><b><i><em><strong><a id="bloglink" href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/instructors/chelsey-cooley/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Chelsey Cooley</a><a href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/instructors/chelsey-cooley/?utm_source=manhattanprep.com%2Fgre%2Fblog&utm_medium=blog&utm_content=CooleyBioGREBlog&utm_campaign=GRE%20Blog" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignleft" title="Chelsey Cooley Manhattan Prep GRE Instructor" src="https://cdn2.manhattanprep.com/gre/wp-content/uploads/sites/19/2015/11/chelsey-cooley-150x150.jpg" alt="Chelsey Cooley Manhattan Prep GRE Instructor" width="150" height="150" data-pin-nopin="true" /></a> is a Manhattan Prep instructor based in Seattle, Washington.</strong> </em></i></b><i><em>Chelsey always followed her heart when it came to her education. Luckily, her heart led her straight to the perfect background for GMAT and GRE teaching: she has undergraduate degrees in mathematics and history, a master’s degree in linguistics, a 790 on the GMAT, and a perfect 170Q/170V on the GRE. <a href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/classes/#instructor/336"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Check out Chelsey’s upcoming GMAT prep offerings here</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">.</span></em></i></p> <p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog/how-to-review-a-gmat-critical-reasoning-problem/">How to Review a GMAT Critical Reasoning Problem</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat">GMAT</a>.</p> ]]></content:encoded> </item> <item> <title>Do I Really Need to Study GMAT Verbal?</title> <link>https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog/do-i-need-study-gmat-verbal/</link> <dc:creator><![CDATA[Chelsey Cooley]]></dc:creator> <pubDate>Thu, 14 Sep 2017 16:48:44 +0000</pubDate> <category><![CDATA[For Current Studiers]]></category> <category><![CDATA[GMAT 101]]></category> <category><![CDATA[GMAT Prep]]></category> <category><![CDATA[GMAT Resources]]></category> <category><![CDATA[GMAT Strategies]]></category> <category><![CDATA[GMAT Study Guide]]></category> <category><![CDATA[How to Study]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Verbal]]></category> <category><![CDATA[GMAT Verbal]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/?p=14627</guid> <description><![CDATA[<p>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. You know the story. You haven’t taken a math class for eight (or ten, or fifteen, or twenty) years. You weren’t even that great at […]</p> <p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog/do-i-need-study-gmat-verbal/">Do I Really Need to Study GMAT Verbal?</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat">GMAT</a>.</p> ]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-14746" src="https://cdn2.manhattanprep.com/gmat/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2017/09/need-study-gmat-verbal-chelsey-cooley.png" alt="Manhattan Prep GMAT Blog - Do I Really Need to Study GMAT Verbal? by Chelsey Cooley" width="1200" height="628" srcset="https://cdn2.manhattanprep.com/gmat/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2017/09/need-study-gmat-verbal-chelsey-cooley.png 1200w, https://cdn2.manhattanprep.com/gmat/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2017/09/need-study-gmat-verbal-chelsey-cooley-300x157.png 300w, https://cdn2.manhattanprep.com/gmat/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2017/09/need-study-gmat-verbal-chelsey-cooley-768x402.png 768w, https://cdn2.manhattanprep.com/gmat/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2017/09/need-study-gmat-verbal-chelsey-cooley-1024x536.png 1024w" sizes="(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px" /></p> <p><b><i>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! </i></b><a id="bloglink" href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/classes/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><b><i>Check out our upcoming courses here</i></b></a><b><i>.</i></b></p> <hr /> <p><b><i></i></b><span style="font-weight: 400;">You know the story. You haven’t taken a math class for eight (or ten, or fifteen, or twenty) years. You weren’t even that great at math when you </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">were</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> in school! And now that it’s been a decade since you last simplified a quadratic or calculated an average speed, you’re feeling rusty. You’ve got a </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">lot</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> of work to do. </span><span id="more-14627"></span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">GMAT Verbal, on the other hand, feels more natural to you. You read and write every day; you may even be a bit of a grammar maven. Critical Reasoning isn’t so tough—after all, you flex your logical thinking muscles every time you read the news or make a proposal to your boss. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">When you took your first practice GMAT, you probably weren’t too surprised by the results. Let’s suppose that you scored in the 30</span><span style="font-weight: 400;">th</span><span style="font-weight: 400;"> percentile in Quant and the 70</span><span style="font-weight: 400;">th</span><span style="font-weight: 400;"> percentile in Verbal. What does that really mean? How much of your study time should you devote to each topic? And is it safe to totally ignore GMAT Verbal for now? </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Let’s talk about percentiles, first. A percentile, by definition, compares you to your peers. Your 30</span><span style="font-weight: 400;">th</span><span style="font-weight: 400;"> percentile Quant score indicates that you did better on Quant than 30% of test-takers. Likewise, you did better on Verbal than 70% of test-takers. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">If everyone does very well on a test, a low percentile may still represent a strong performance. If everyone does very poorly, a high percentile may still represent a weak performance. Imagine being in the 10</span><span style="font-weight: 400;">th</span><span style="font-weight: 400;"> percentile of intelligence… among NASA scientists. You’d still be crazy smart!</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">This quirk of percentiles has had a dramatic effect on the GMAT. To see why, focus on a different pair of numbers: your </span><b>subscores</b><span style="font-weight: 400;">. Those are the numbers ranging from 0 to 51, which represent your ‘Quant score’ and your ‘Verbal score’. For instance, if you’re at the 30</span><span style="font-weight: 400;">th</span><span style="font-weight: 400;"> percentile in Quant, your Quant subscore was approximately 35. If you’re at the 70</span><span style="font-weight: 400;">th</span><span style="font-weight: 400;"> percentile in Verbal, your subscore was approximately 33.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Look at those numbers one more time. Your Quant subscore was actually </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">higher</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> than your GMAT Verbal subscore, even though you were at a much lower percentile! </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">When you take the GMAT, you’re being compared to a very unique population. Many of the people who take the GMAT aren’t native English speakers. In 2013, only 38% of GMAT takers were in the United States. Although non-native speakers can achieve very high GMAT Verbal scores, it’s a greater challenge than it is for native speakers. Many GMAT test-takers from outside of the U.S. also have very strong quantitative backgrounds. </span><b>Worldwide, the average GMAT student is much better at Quant than at Verbal—and that student is who you’re being compared against, when you look at your percentiles.</b></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Admissions committees aren’t unaware of this trend. They like to see high percentiles, but they’re familiar with the GMAT. They know that a 70</span><span style="font-weight: 400;">th</span><span style="font-weight: 400;"> percentile Verbal score represents a pretty strong performance, but a 70</span><span style="font-weight: 400;">th</span><span style="font-weight: 400;"> percentile Quant score is spectacular. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In short, you shouldn’t directly compare your GMAT Verbal percentile to your GMAT Quant percentile. Because of the unique population of test-takers, the two percentiles mean different things.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Here are a few other facts about percentiles on the GMAT:</span></p> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Percentiles can’t tell you how easy it will be for you to improve.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Percentiles can’t tell you how much it’s </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">possible</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> to improve.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Percentiles don’t determine your actual GMAT score.</span></li> </ul> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">We all want to get to our goal score—let’s say it’s a 700—as efficiently and quickly as possible. The way to do that is to gain as many </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">easy</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> subscore points as possible first. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">If you’re very weak in Quant, you definitely have some easy points to add to your Quant subscore. For instance, you may need to brush up on some of the basic math rules. However, even if you’re at the 70</span><span style="font-weight: 400;">th</span><span style="font-weight: 400;"> percentile or higher in Verbal, you probably have some easy points in Verbal, too. For instance, it’s likely that you’re still making </span><a id="bloglink" href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog/2016/03/14/the-top-three-gmat-sentence-correction-errors-that-sound-totally-normal/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span style="font-weight: 400;">a few simple grammar mistakes</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> without realizing it. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Your GMAT score is (roughly) based on the sum of your subscores. Right now, a 700 requires about 87 total subscore points. Let’s look at those subscores from our example scenario one more time—33 in Verbal and 35 in Quant. That’s a sum of 68, or 19 points shy of our goal.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">It doesn’t matter whether those points come from Quant, from Verbal, or from a combination of both! (Again, some schools may want to see a minimum subscore in one or both areas. That’s a conversation to have with the admissions committee, or an admissions consultant like the folks at </span><a href="https://www.mbamission.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span style="font-weight: 400;">mbaMission</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">.) When it comes to hitting a 700, you just need as many subscore points as you can get, and Verbal points and Quant points are worth exactly the same amount. If you gain your </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">easy</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> points first, regardless of where they come from, you won’t have as far to go when you need to start studying the really tough stuff. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In fact, it may not even be possible to hit your goal score by solely improving in Quant. Once you’ve taken at least one practice test and decided on a goal score, check out our </span><a id="bloglink" href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/gmat-score-calculator/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span style="font-weight: 400;">GMAT Score Calculator</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> for the details. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">It’s easy to put too much emphasis on GMAT Quant, once you see that your starting percentile is pretty low. There are a lot of reasons not to do that! It’s okay to spend a bit more of your time studying Quant, but unless your GMAT Verbal score is already </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">very</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> high—90</span><span style="font-weight: 400;">th</span><span style="font-weight: 400;"> percentile or higher—you certainly still have some points to gain there as well. So treat yourself to a break from math and crack open your </span><a id="bloglink" href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/store/strategy-guides/sentence-correction/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Sentence Correction Strategy Guide</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">! ?</span></p> <hr /> <p><b><i>Want more guidance from our GMAT gurus? You can attend the first session of any of our online or in-person GMAT courses absolutely free! We’re not kidding. </i></b><a id="bloglink" href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/classes/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><b><i>Check out our upcoming courses here</i></b></a><b><i>.</i></b></p> <hr /> <p><b><i><em><strong><a id="bloglink" href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/instructors/chelsey-cooley/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Chelsey Cooley</a><a href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/instructors/chelsey-cooley/?utm_source=manhattanprep.com%2Fgre%2Fblog&utm_medium=blog&utm_content=CooleyBioGREBlog&utm_campaign=GRE%20Blog" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignleft" title="Chelsey Cooley Manhattan Prep GRE Instructor" src="https://cdn2.manhattanprep.com/gre/wp-content/uploads/sites/19/2015/11/chelsey-cooley-150x150.jpg" alt="Chelsey Cooley Manhattan Prep GRE Instructor" width="150" height="150" /></a> is a Manhattan Prep instructor based in Seattle, Washington.</strong> </em></i></b><i><em>Chelsey always followed her heart when it came to her education. Luckily, her heart led her straight to the perfect background for GMAT and GRE teaching: she has undergraduate degrees in mathematics and history, a master’s degree in linguistics, a 790 on the GMAT, and a perfect 170/170 on the GRE. </em></i><i><em><a id="bloglink" href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/gre/classes/#instructor/48" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Check out Chelsey’s upcoming GRE prep offerings here</a>.</em></i></p> <p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog/do-i-need-study-gmat-verbal/">Do I Really Need to Study GMAT Verbal?</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat">GMAT</a>.</p> ]]></content:encoded> </item> <item> <title>GMATPrep® Reading Comprehension: Tackling a Tough GMAT Passage (part 1)</title> <link>https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog/gmatprep-reading-comprehension-tackling-a-tough-gmat-passage-part-1/</link> <dc:creator><![CDATA[Stacey Koprince]]></dc:creator> <pubDate>Thu, 18 Feb 2016 22:54:14 +0000</pubDate> <category><![CDATA[For Current Studiers]]></category> <category><![CDATA[GMAT Prep]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Reading Comprehension]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Verbal]]></category> <category><![CDATA[business school]]></category> <category><![CDATA[GMAT]]></category> <category><![CDATA[GMAT prep]]></category> <category><![CDATA[GMAT Verbal]]></category> <category><![CDATA[gmat-reading-comprehension]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Graduate Management Admission Test]]></category> <category><![CDATA[how to study]]></category> <category><![CDATA[MBA]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Passage Map]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Passage Mapping]]></category> <category><![CDATA[verbal]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/?p=11024</guid> <description><![CDATA[<p>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. Halfway through a GMATPrep® free practice test, I hit the passage I’m going to discuss in this series—and I groaned aloud the second it appeared […]</p> <p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog/gmatprep-reading-comprehension-tackling-a-tough-gmat-passage-part-1/">GMATPrep® Reading Comprehension: Tackling a Tough GMAT Passage (part 1)</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat">GMAT</a>.</p> ]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><strong><em><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignleft size-full wp-image-11028" src="https://cdn2.manhattanprep.com/gmat/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2016/02/blog-toughpassage-pt1.png" alt="Manhattan Prep GMAT Blog - GMATPrep Reading Comprehension: Tackling a Tough Passage (Part 1)" width="676" height="264" srcset="https://cdn2.manhattanprep.com/gmat/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2016/02/blog-toughpassage-pt1.png 676w, https://cdn2.manhattanprep.com/gmat/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2016/02/blog-toughpassage-pt1-300x117.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 676px) 100vw, 676px" />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! <a href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/classes/?utm_source=manhattanprep.com%2Fgmat%2Fblog&utm_medium=blog&utm_content=GMAT%20Complete%20Courses%20Plug&utm_campaign=GMAT%20Blog">Check out our upcoming courses here</a>.</em></strong></p> <hr /> <p>Halfway through a GMATPrep® free practice test, I hit the passage I’m going to discuss in this series—and I groaned aloud the second it appeared on the screen.</p> <p>Why? Here’s what I saw (without really reading much of anything!):<span id="more-11024"></span></p> <p><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="size-full wp-image-11029 aligncenter" src="https://cdn2.manhattanprep.com/gmat/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2016/02/345-image-1.png" alt="GMATPrep Reading Comprehension First Glance" width="754" height="514" srcset="https://cdn2.manhattanprep.com/gmat/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2016/02/345-image-1.png 754w, https://cdn2.manhattanprep.com/gmat/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2016/02/345-image-1-300x205.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 754px) 100vw, 754px" /><img class="alignnone" alt="" width="311" height="211" /></p> <p>Can you spot what I spotted?</p> <p>The roman numeral set-up hit me first. A roman numeral on Reading Comp (RC)! These aren’t that common and they definitely take longer to answer than regular problems. Plus, I could see that the passage, on the left-hand side of the screen, was really long; it ran off the screen.</p> <p>Sigh. So what’s my approach when something like this pops up?</p> <p>First, they’re asking me to do more work than normal to answer one question. I might be okay with that on certain quant problems, but I’m pretty annoyed on RC. So the first thing to figure out is whether I even want to bother trying this problem at all.</p> <p>I normally do not read the question before reading the passage, but in this case, I’m going to do so. I want to see how hard the question seems and, if I do decide that I want to do it, then during my read-through, I may want to keep an eye out for the info I’ll need to answer it.</p> <p>In this case, one aspect is lucky: the question references specific text that they’ve highlighted in yellow for me, so I know exactly where I need to concentrate. That’s just about the only redeeming feature of this problem.</p> <p>Okay, here’s the start of the problem. Don’t try to answer it, of course—you haven’t even looked at the passage yet! Just decide whether this looks like something you think you can handle or whether this looks like a nightmare, in which case you’re going to guess and move on.</p> <blockquote><p>* “It can be inferred from the passage that application of “other mandates” (see highlighted text) would be unlikely to result in an outcome satisfactory to the female employees in which of the following situations?</p> <p>“I. Males employed as long-distance truck drivers for a furniture company make $3.50 more per hour…[2 more lines of text]</p> <p>“II. [five lines: even longer than the first one!]</p> <p>“III. [long, like the other two]</p></blockquote> <p>Wow. That’s a lot of work: three long scenarios and I have to figure out whether a particular thing can be inferred about each scenario.</p> <p>If you know that RC is a weaker area for you, this would be a great time to guess and move on. If you are behind on time and need to catch up, ditto. If I decided to skip this one, I would guess on this question immediately, before I even bother to read the passage; I don’t want to get sucked into wasting any time at all on a problem that is so ridiculously long.</p> <p>Unless you’re really behind on time, you’ll likely still want to try the other questions associated with this passage. But feel free to bail on something like this.</p> <p>Okay, time to read the passage and create a passage Map. (Note: we will go through the roman numeral problem, but not until the second installment of this series. First, we need to process the passage.)</p> <p>Ready? Here you go.</p> <blockquote><p>“Comparable worth, as a standard applied to eliminate inequities in pay, insists that the values of certain tasks performed in dissimilar jobs can be compared. In the last decade, this approach has become a critical social policy issue, as large numbers of private-sector firms and industries as well as federal, state, and local governmental entities have adopted comparable worth policies or begun to consider doing so.</p> <p>“This widespread institutional awareness of comparable worth indicates increased public awareness that pay inequities—that is, situations in which pay is not “fair” because it does not reflect the true value of a job—exist in the labor market. However, the question still remains: have the gains already made in pay equity under comparable worth principles been of a precedent-setting nature or are they mostly transitory, a function of concessions made by employers to mislead female employees into believing that they have made long-term pay equity gains?</p> <p>“Comparable worth pay adjustments are indeed precedent-setting. Because of the principles driving them, <span style="text-decoration: underline;">other mandates</span> that can be applied to reduce or eliminate unjustified pay gaps between male and female workers have not remedied perceived pay inequities satisfactorily for the litigants in cases in which men and women hold different jobs. But whenever comparable worth principles are applied to pay schedules, perceived unjustified pay differences are eliminated. In this sense, then, comparable worth is more comprehensive than other mandates, such as the Equal Pay Act of 1963 and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Neither compares tasks in dissimilar jobs (that is, jobs across occupational categories) in an effort to determine whether or not what is necessary to perform these tasks—know-how, problem-solving, and accountability—can be quantified in terms of its dollar value to the employer. Comparable worth, on the other hand, takes as its premise that certain tasks in dissimilar jobs may require a certain amount of training, effort, and skill; may carry similar responsibility; may be carried on in an environment having a similar impact upon the worker; and may have a similar dollar value to the employer.”</p></blockquote> <p>What does your passage Map look like? What do you think the main idea is?</p> <p>Here’s the story I articulated to myself as I read, followed by my Map in blue (which I wrote paragraph by paragraph, as I read).</p> <p>First, the author defines a term: comparable worth, or CW, says that you <i>can</i> compare the values of tasks performed in dissimilar jobs. This approach has become pretty widespread recently.</p> <p>The CW concept has made the public more aware of pay gaps. But has CW actually helped to fundamentally fix the problem or is it just making people feel better but not fixing anything?</p> <p>The author answers her own question: CW has made a real difference. The rest of the paragraph is long and somewhat confusing, but at heart, she’s saying that some other things haven’t had the same impact as CW on the pay gap and attributes that to CW’s focus on comparing tasks in dissimilar jobs.</p> <p><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-11030 size-full aligncenter" title="GMATPrep Critical Reading Passage Map" src="https://cdn2.manhattanprep.com/gmat/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2016/02/345-image-2.png" alt="GMATPrep Critical Reading Passage Map" width="719" height="392" srcset="https://cdn2.manhattanprep.com/gmat/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2016/02/345-image-2.png 719w, https://cdn2.manhattanprep.com/gmat/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2016/02/345-image-2-300x164.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 719px) 100vw, 719px" /></p> <p><img class="aligncenter" alt="" width="387" height="220" /></p> <p>What’s the main idea here? Even if you don’t get a main idea question, articulating this to yourself will help you to orient yourself to the passage and answer even specific questions. Here’s my stab at the main idea:</p> <p>Explain an important method for tackling a widespread problem and demonstrate that this method has a distinct advantage in one particular situation (when dealing with different jobs).</p> <p>All right, got it. Time to do the problem (unless you decided to skip it!).</p> <blockquote><p>* “It can be inferred from the passage that application of “other mandates” (see highlighted text) would be unlikely to result in an outcome satisfactory to the female employees in which of the following situations?</p> <p>“I. Males employed as long-distance truck drivers for a furniture company make $3.50 more per hour than do females with comparable job experience employed in the same capacity.</p> <p>“II. Women working in the office of a cement company content that their jobs are as demanding and valuable as those of the men working outside in the cement factory, but the women are paid much less per hour.</p> <p>“III. A law firm employs both male and female paralegals with the same educational and career backgrounds, but the starting salary for male paralegals is $5,000 more than for female paralegals.</p> <p>“(A) I only</p> <p>“(B) II only</p> <p>“(C) III only</p> <p>“(D) I and II only</p> <p>“(E) I and III only”</p></blockquote> <p>Join me in <a href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog/2016/04/01/gmatprep-reading-comp-tackling-a-tough-passage-part-2/" target="_blank">the next installment of this series</a>, when we’ll talk about how to work your way through the above problem and we’ll try another. <em>?</em></p> <h4>Key Takeaways for Mapping Long Passages</h4> <p>(1) You’re trying to accomplish three things: understand the overall “story” of the passage, note the purpose of each paragraph, and articulate the overall main point to yourself.</p> <p>(2) Don’t go too deep! Compare my Map to the actual passage. I didn’t write down or even bother to try to remember the Equal Pay Act or Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. If I need to know their names, I can go back to the passage at any time. All I really need to know is that they are “other”: the point is that they work differently than the big CW theory.</p> <p>(3) Once you’re done with your read-through, take about 20-30 seconds to articulate the main point to yourself. Don’t skip this step! You’ll use it to answer any main idea questions and to inform your answers to other questions.</p> <p>* GMATPrep® questions courtesy of the Graduate Management Admissions Council. Usage of this question does not imply endorsement by GMAC.</p> <hr /> <p><em><strong>Can’t get enough of Stacey’s GMAT mastery? Attend the first session of one of <a href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/classes/?utm_source=manhattanprep.com%2Fgmat%2Fblog&utm_medium=blog&utm_content=KoprinceCoursesLinkGMATBlog&utm_campaign=GMAT%20Blog#instructor/86">her upcoming GMAT courses</a> absolutely free, no strings attached. Seriously. </strong></em></p> <hr /> <p><em><strong><a href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/instructors/stacey-koprince/?utm_source=manhattanprep.com%2Fgmat%2Fblog&utm_medium=blog&utm_content=KoprinceBioLinkGMATBlog&utm_campaign=GMAT%20Blog" target="_blank"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignleft wp-image-9719 size-thumbnail" src="https://cdn2.manhattanprep.com/gmat/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2015/06/stacey-koprince-150x150.png" alt="stacey-koprince" width="150" height="150" /></a><a href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/instructors/stacey-koprince/?utm_source=manhattanprep.com%2Fgmat%2Fblog&utm_medium=blog&utm_content=KoprinceBioLinkGMATBlog&utm_campaign=GMAT%20Blog" target="_blank">Stacey Koprince</a> is a Manhattan Prep instructor based in Montreal, Canada and Los Angeles, California.</strong> Stacey has been teaching the GMAT, GRE, and LSAT for more than 15 years and is one of the most well-known instructors in the industry. Stacey loves to teach and is absolutely fascinated by standardized tests. <a href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/classes/?utm_source=manhattanprep.com%2Fgmat%2Fblog&utm_medium=blog&utm_content=KoprinceCoursesLinkGMATBlog&utm_campaign=GMAT%20Blog#instructor/86">Check out Stacey’s upcoming GMAT courses here</a>.</em></p> <p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog/gmatprep-reading-comprehension-tackling-a-tough-gmat-passage-part-1/">GMATPrep® Reading Comprehension: Tackling a Tough GMAT Passage (part 1)</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat">GMAT</a>.</p> ]]></content:encoded> </item> <item> <title>Here’s Why You May Be Misinterpreting Your GMAT Score</title> <link>https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog/heres-why-you-may-be-misinterpreting-your-gmat-score/</link> <dc:creator><![CDATA[Céilidh Erickson]]></dc:creator> <pubDate>Thu, 11 Feb 2016 16:53:12 +0000</pubDate> <category><![CDATA[Apps and Admissions]]></category> <category><![CDATA[For Current Studiers]]></category> <category><![CDATA[GMAT Resources]]></category> <category><![CDATA[MBA]]></category> <category><![CDATA[mbaMission]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Practice Tests]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Quant]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Verbal]]></category> <category><![CDATA[b-school]]></category> <category><![CDATA[business school]]></category> <category><![CDATA[GMAT]]></category> <category><![CDATA[GMAT Percentile]]></category> <category><![CDATA[gmat quant]]></category> <category><![CDATA[GMAT Raw Score]]></category> <category><![CDATA[GMAT Score]]></category> <category><![CDATA[GMAT Score Meaning]]></category> <category><![CDATA[GMAT Verbal]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Graduate Management Admission Test]]></category> <category><![CDATA[How to Interpret Your GMAT Score]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Quant Verbal Breakdown]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/?p=10991</guid> <description><![CDATA[<p>Here’s a scenario that might seem familiar to many of you: you take your first GMAT practice test, then you see the score. Ouch! Probably lower than you were hoping for, right? Then you look at the breakdown between Quant and Verbal, and you think “wow, my Quant is way lower than I thought! I […]</p> <p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog/heres-why-you-may-be-misinterpreting-your-gmat-score/">Here’s Why You May Be Misinterpreting Your GMAT Score</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat">GMAT</a>.</p> ]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignleft size-full wp-image-10993" src="https://cdn2.manhattanprep.com/gmat/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2016/02/blog-gmatscore.png" alt="blog-gmatscore" width="676" height="264" srcset="https://cdn2.manhattanprep.com/gmat/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2016/02/blog-gmatscore.png 676w, https://cdn2.manhattanprep.com/gmat/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2016/02/blog-gmatscore-300x117.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 676px) 100vw, 676px" />Here’s a scenario that might seem familiar to many of you: you <a href="//www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/free-gmat-practice-test/?utm_source=manhattanprep.com%2Fgmat%2Fblog&utm_medium=blog&utm_content=Free%20Sample%20GMAT%20Test%20%26%20The%20GMAT%20Uncovered%20Plug&utm_campaign=GMAT%20Blog" target="_blank" rel="noopener">take your first GMAT practice test</a>, then you see the score. Ouch! Probably lower than you were hoping for, right?<span id="more-10991"></span></p> <p>Then you look at the breakdown between Quant and Verbal, and you think “wow, my Quant is <em>way </em>lower than I thought! I clearly need to focus most of my time there. My Verbal looks pretty good, though, so I can just let that ride.”</p> <p>First of all, don’t get discouraged. A low starting score definitely doesn’t mean a low final score. I’ve seen students start with scores in the 300s and end up with scores in the 700s. It just means that you haven’t mastered the rules of the game yet: content knowledge, pattern recognition, timing, and strategic decision-making.</p> <p>Secondly, though, <em>you’re probably misinterpreting your Quant and verbal scores!</em></p> <p><strong>Raw scores matter, not percentiles.</strong></p> <p>If you’re looking at the <em>percentiles</em> rather than the raw scores, you’re getting the wrong impression. It is the raw score – not the percentile – that indicates your ability level. These raw (or scale) scores range from 0-51, and they don’t change over time. As <a href="//www.gmac.com/market-intelligence-and-research/research-library/validity-and-testing/demystifying-the-gmat-articles/scalescores.aspx" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Larry Rudner</a>, former Chief Psychomatrician for GMAC, says, “The GMAT scale [raw] scores represent the same ability level over time. Thus, a Quant score of 43 in 2002 represents the exact same level of ability as a Quant score of 43 does in 2011.”</p> <p>The percentiles, on the other hand, have changed significantly over time. When the test was originally developed, an overwhelming majority of test takers were US citizens. In 2015, though, only 34% of the roughly 250,000 test takers who took the GMAT were US citizens*.</p> <p>The net impact of these shifting demographics, as Rudner says, is that “the means and standard deviations of the Quant and Total scores have gone up, but those of the Verbal scores have gone down.” If your Quant percentile looks low but your verbal looks high, this is more of a reflection on the global pool of test takers than it is on you.</p> <p><strong>Business schools don’t look at percentiles.</strong></p> <p>Don’t listen to any sources that tell you to aim for a particular percentile. Ten years ago, a Quant raw score of 47 out of 51 was 81<sup>st</sup> percentile. Today, that same score is only a 67<sup>th</sup> percentile. But business schools know that this represents the same skill level now as it did then, so they don’t care what the percentile is. Jeremy Shinewald, founder of our admissions consulting partner, <a href="//mbamission.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">mbaMission</a>, recently told me, “Admissions officers know the GMAT well and they are not confused by the percentiles. Fundamentally, they want to know that you can manage the coursework, and your raw score is a clearer indicator of your abilities than the percentile, because it is consistent over time.”</p> <p><strong>You need to study both sections.</strong></p> <p>I’ve seen dozens of students with Quant scores of 48 or 49 think that they have to cram on Quant, when in reality there are only 2 or 3 more points possible to gain there. A 48 or 49 already indicates a <em>very</em> high skill level!</p> <p>These students also frequently ignore Verbal, where they might actually have a lot more points to gain. Take a look at the differences between current Quant and Verbal percentiles, posted by <a href="//www.mba.com/us/the-gmat-exam/gmat-exam-scoring/your-score-report/what-percentile-rankings-mean.aspx" target="_blank" rel="noopener">GMAC</a>:</p> <p><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class=" wp-image-10997 aligncenter" src="https://cdn2.manhattanprep.com/gmat/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2016/02/quan-verbal-charts.png" alt="Quan_Verbal_Charts" width="455" height="670" srcset="https://cdn2.manhattanprep.com/gmat/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2016/02/quan-verbal-charts.png 426w, https://cdn2.manhattanprep.com/gmat/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2016/02/quan-verbal-charts-204x300.png 204w" sizes="(max-width: 455px) 100vw, 455px" /></p> <p>For example, a student who got a 41 on Quant and 32 in Verbal would see percentiles of 48% and 66%, respectively. It would be a mistake for this student to focus primarily on Quant, though. There are <em>more overall points</em> to be gained on the Verbal side, so spending time on that section might do more to boost the overall 200-800 score.</p> <p>Broadly speaking, business schools care more about your 200-800 score than they care about the breakdown between your Quant and Verbal scores. If you want to maximize that overall score, make sure you’re studying <em>both</em> sections, and gaining whatever points you can.</p> <p>Of course, the most in-depth way to learn the ins-and-outs the GMAT is to <a href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/classes/?utm_source=manhattanprep.com%2Fgmat%2Fblog&utm_medium=blog&utm_content=GMAT%20Complete%20Courses%20Plug&utm_campaign=GMAT%20Blog">take a complete course</a> with one of our master instructors. Try out any first session for free! No strings attached.</p> <p>Good luck!</p> <p>* <a href="//\\mars\Users\ceilidherickson\Downloads\gmat-profile-citizenship-ty-2015-web.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Profile of GMAT® Testing: Citizenship Report</a></p> <hr /> <p><a href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/instructors/ceilidh-erickson/?utm_source=manhattanprep.com%2Fgmat%2Fblog&utm_medium=blog&utm_content=Ceilidh%20Erickson%20Instructor%20Bio&utm_campaign=GMAT%20Blog" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignleft wp-image-10992 size-thumbnail" title="Ceilidh Erickson Manhattan Prep GMAT Instructor" src="https://cdn2.manhattanprep.com/gmat/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2016/02/ceilidh-erickson-150x150.png" alt="ceilidh-erickson-Manhattan-Prep-GMAT-Instructor" width="150" height="150" /></a>By far, the most frequent question that <a href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/instructors/ceilidh-erickson/?utm_source=manhattanprep.com%2Fgmat%2Fblog&utm_medium=blog&utm_content=Ceilidh%20Erickson%20Instructor%20Bio&utm_campaign=GMAT%20Blog" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Céilidh</a> is asked is “how do you pronounce that?” When she tells people that it’s pronounced “kay-lee,” she often gets puzzled looks. Céilidh is a graduate of Princeton University, where she majored in comparative literature. While there, she began teaching SAT prep and discovered a knack for teaching test-prep. After graduation, tutoring was always the job that bought her the greatest joy and challenge, so she decided to make it her full-time job. Check out <a href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/classes/?utm_source=manhattanprep.com%2Fgmat%2Fblog&utm_medium=blog&utm_content=Ceilidh%20Erickson%20InstruCeilidh%20Erickson%20Upcoming%20GMAT%20Courses%20Plug&utm_campaign=GMAT%20Blog#instructor/276" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Céilidh’s upcoming GMAT courses here</a> (she scored a 760, so you’re in great hands). You can attend a first session for free! No strings attached.</p> <p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog/heres-why-you-may-be-misinterpreting-your-gmat-score/">Here’s Why You May Be Misinterpreting Your GMAT Score</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat">GMAT</a>.</p> ]]></content:encoded> </item> <item> <title>Here’s What to Do When You Don’t Know What to Do on the GMAT</title> <link>https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog/heres-what-to-do-when-you-dont-know-what-to-do-on-the-gmat/</link> <dc:creator><![CDATA[Chelsey Cooley]]></dc:creator> <pubDate>Mon, 01 Feb 2016 23:10:57 +0000</pubDate> <category><![CDATA[Critical Reasoning]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Data Sufficiency]]></category> <category><![CDATA[GMAT Prep]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Integrated Reasoning]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Problem Solving]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Quant]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Reading Comprehension]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Sentence Correction]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Taking the GMAT]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Verbal]]></category> <category><![CDATA[b-school]]></category> <category><![CDATA[business school]]></category> <category><![CDATA[data sufficiency]]></category> <category><![CDATA[GMAT]]></category> <category><![CDATA[gmat quant]]></category> <category><![CDATA[gmat strategies]]></category> <category><![CDATA[gmat strategy]]></category> <category><![CDATA[GMAT Test Help]]></category> <category><![CDATA[gmat test taking strategies]]></category> <category><![CDATA[GMAT Verbal]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Graduate Management Admission Test]]></category> <category><![CDATA[problem solving]]></category> <category><![CDATA[taking the gmat]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/?p=10946</guid> <description><![CDATA[<p>You’re staring at a GMAT problem that you just don’t understand. There’s a minute left on the clock. What do you do? Are you behind on time? If so, guess randomly and move on. Making up for lost time is much more valuable than anything I’ll describe in this article. Even if you’re ahead on time, consider […]</p> <p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog/heres-what-to-do-when-you-dont-know-what-to-do-on-the-gmat/">Here’s What to Do When You Don’t Know What to Do on the GMAT</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat">GMAT</a>.</p> ]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignleft size-full wp-image-10953" src="https://cdn2.manhattanprep.com/gmat/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2016/02/blog-what-to-do.png" alt="blog-what-to-do" width="676" height="264" srcset="https://cdn2.manhattanprep.com/gmat/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2016/02/blog-what-to-do.png 676w, https://cdn2.manhattanprep.com/gmat/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2016/02/blog-what-to-do-300x117.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 676px) 100vw, 676px" />You’re staring at a GMAT problem that you just don’t understand. There’s a minute left on the clock. </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">What do you do?</span></i><span id="more-10946"></span></p> <h4><b>Are you behind on time?</b></h4> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">If so, </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">guess randomly and move on. </span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;">Making up for lost time is much more valuable than anything I’ll describe in this article. Even if you’re</span><span style="font-weight: 400;"> ahead on time, consider moving on from the problem anyway, especially if you tend to work slowly. </span></p> <h4><b>Question-Type Strategies</b></h4> <p><strong>Integrated Reasoning</strong></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Unless it’s the very last problem, or you’re way ahead on time, guess randomly and move on. Integrated Reasoning rewards strategic skipping more than any other problem type, since the problems often have multiple parts (making it much less likely that you’ll get the right answer by guessing) and the difficulty comes mainly from intense time pressure. </span></p> <p><b>Problem Solving</b></p> <ul> <li><span style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Eliminate “Homers.”</strong> </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">A Homer is any answer choice that Homer Simpson might pick. Homer is clueless, so he’d probably just look at the numbers in the problem, look at the answer choices, and pick one that looks similar. The test writers expect this, so don’t be like Homer. If an answer choice contains a lot of the numbers from the problem, or if it’s a simple combination of those numbers (like a sum or a product), don’t pick it.</span></li> <li><span style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>If there are two variables in the problem, eliminate singletons.</strong> </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">Suppose that a problem states that the sum of Archie’s and Betty’s ages is 38. The test writers will probably include both Archie’s actual age and Betty’s actual age among the answer choices, just because it’s easy to slip up and pick the wrong one. The right answer, and one of the wrong answers, will sum to 38. Eliminate any answers that aren’t part of such a pair.</span></li> <li><span style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Benchmark.</strong> </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">If you understand the problem a little, but you don’t know how to do the math, check the answer choices. Are some of them greater than 1, and some less than 1? Are some of them very large, and others very small? If so, guess which category the right answer would belong to. </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">When in doubt, pick an answer choice that looks complex over one that looks simple.</span></li> </ul> <p><b>Data Sufficiency</b></p> <ul> <li><span style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Don’t forget that you can work with just the easier statement. </strong>This will allow you to eliminate either 2 or 3 answer choices.</span></li> <li><strong>If the two statements look almost identical, guess A or B.</strong> The test writers are probably trying to see if you can identify a small but crucial difference between the statements.</li> <li><span style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>In general, avoid guessing C.</strong> On the one hand, C is the right answer 20% of the time, just like any other answer choice. On the other hand, a lot of logically complex problems are designed to trick you into choosing C. If C </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">feels</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> right, but you’re not really sure why, it’s probably a trap.</span></li> </ul> <p><b>Sentence Correction</b></p> <ul> <li><span style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Mentally cross off modifiers to find the core of the sentence.</strong> If you’re really struggling to understand the sentence, there’s probably something wrong with the core.</span></li> <li><strong>Find a single, easy, grammatical split to work with.</strong> Hard problems often have a single, subtle pronoun or subject/verb agreement split that’ll let you eliminate 2 or 3 answer choices.</li> <li><span style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Never guess an answer choice if you know there’s a grammatical error in it</strong>, even if it sounds the best overall. The right answer will never have </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">any</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> errors.</span></li> <li><strong>If you’re out of ideas, it’s okay to go with what sounds right.</strong> That’s the great thing about Sentence Correction — on a Quant problem, you can get completely stuck and have no idea where to start. On Sentence Correction, you always have your instincts as an English speaker!</li> </ul> <p><b>Reading Comprehension</b></p> <ul> <li><span style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Look at the first few words of every answer choice</strong> if you’re guessing the answer to a </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">general</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> Reading Comprehension question, such as a Main Idea question. They’ll usually include a term such as </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">explain</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> or </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">argue</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;">. Eliminate any answer choices that don’t seem to describe the passage you read. Don’t guess an answer choice containing </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">argue</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> or </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">advocate</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> unless the author is obviously doing that. Just because the author seems to have a slight preference or voices a positive or negative about something, you can’t necessarily describe the point of the passage as </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">arguing</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;">.</span></li> <li><strong>Avoid guessing an answer that contains too many keywords from the passage.</strong> It’s probably a trap.</li> <li><span style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>If there’s anything wrong with an answer choice, it’s wrong.</strong> Wrong answers will often have a single incorrect word or phrase, but otherwise look great — don’t pick an answer that looks </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">mostly right</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> if you can identify anything wrong with it. </span></li> </ul> <p><b>Critical Reasoning: </b></p> <ul> <li><span style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Pick the most boring, wishy-washiest answer</strong> if it’s a Draw a Conclusion or Find the Assumption problem. The right answers to these problem types rarely consist of bold statements.</span></li> <li><strong>Don’t pick a guess that contains strong language</strong>, such as “all” or “every” or “never”. These are sometimes right, but they’re often traps.</li> <li>Don’t pick a guess that makes a comparison, such as “GMATopia exports more books than any other country.” These answer choices are sometimes right, but they’re also often inserted to trick you.</li> </ul> <p><b>These aren’t the only ways to make a quick strategic guess, but they’re a few of the best ones.</b></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">As you practice, you’ll observe other patterns in which answers tend to be right or wrong. Which wrong answer choices you’re tempted by, or which answers tend to be correct on problems that you struggle with, will also depend on your own habits as a test-taker. Use this list as a jumping-off point, but whenever you make a successful guess — or whenever you notice a clever way to guess while reviewing a problem — write down what you’ve discovered, and use it on test day. </span><b>Guessing is necessary for everyone</b><span style="font-weight: 400;">, and </span><b>guessing is a skill you can learn</b><span style="font-weight: 400;"> — that’s why we teach good guessing skills in our 9-week <a href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/classes/?utm_source=manhattanprep.com%2Fgmat%2Fblog&utm_medium=blog&utm_content=GMAT%20Complete%20Courses%20Plug&utm_campaign=GMAT%20Blog" target="_blank">GMAT Complete Courses</a>, alongside lots of real math and language content. Improve your guessing abilities now to avoid trouble when you take the official GMAT. <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/14.0.0/72x72/1f4dd.png" alt="📝" class="wp-smiley" style="height: 1em; max-height: 1em;" /></span></p> <hr /> <p><em><strong><a href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/instructors/chelsey-cooley/?utm_source=manhattanprep.com%2Fgre%2Fblog&utm_medium=blog&utm_content=CooleyBioGREBlog&utm_campaign=GRE%20Blog" target="_blank">Chelsey Cooley</a><a href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/instructors/chelsey-cooley/?utm_source=manhattanprep.com%2Fgre%2Fblog&utm_medium=blog&utm_content=CooleyBioGREBlog&utm_campaign=GRE%20Blog" target="_blank"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignleft wp-image-10949 size-thumbnail" title="Chelsey Cooley Manhattan Prep GMAT Instructor" src="https://cdn2.manhattanprep.com/gmat/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2016/01/chelsey-cooley-150x150.png" alt="Chelsey Cooley Manhattan Prep GMAT Instructor" width="150" height="150" /></a> is a Manhattan Prep instructor based in Seattle, Washington.</strong> Chelsey always followed her heart when it came to her education. Luckily, her heart led her straight to the perfect background for GMAT and GRE teaching: she has undergraduate degrees in mathematics and history, a master’s degree in linguistics, a 790 on the GMAT, and a perfect 170/170 on the GRE. Check out Chelsey’s upcoming GMAT prep offerings <a href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/classes/?utm_source=manhattanprep.com%2Fgmat%2Fblog&utm_medium=blog&utm_content=CooleyCoursesLinkGMATBlog&utm_campaign=GMAT%20Blog#instructor/336">here</a>.</em></p> <p> </p> <p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog/heres-what-to-do-when-you-dont-know-what-to-do-on-the-gmat/">Here’s What to Do When You Don’t Know What to Do on the GMAT</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat">GMAT</a>.</p> ]]></content:encoded> </item> <item> <title>How to Master Every GMAT Critical Reasoning Question Type</title> <link>https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog/how-to-master-every-gmat-critical-reasoning-question-type/</link> <dc:creator><![CDATA[Stacey Koprince]]></dc:creator> <pubDate>Tue, 26 Jan 2016 20:44:44 +0000</pubDate> <category><![CDATA[Critical Reasoning]]></category> <category><![CDATA[For Current Studiers]]></category> <category><![CDATA[GMAT Prep]]></category> <category><![CDATA[GMAT Resources]]></category> <category><![CDATA[GMAT Study Guide]]></category> <category><![CDATA[How to Study]]></category> <category><![CDATA[MBA]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Verbal]]></category> <category><![CDATA[GMAT]]></category> <category><![CDATA[gmat critical reasoning]]></category> <category><![CDATA[gmat study tips]]></category> <category><![CDATA[GMAT Verbal]]></category> <category><![CDATA[gmat verbal critical reasoning]]></category> <category><![CDATA[graduate management admissions test]]></category> <category><![CDATA[study tips]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/?p=10917</guid> <description><![CDATA[<p>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 […]</p> <p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog/how-to-master-every-gmat-critical-reasoning-question-type/">How to Master Every GMAT Critical Reasoning Question Type</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat">GMAT</a>.</p> ]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignleft size-full wp-image-10918" src="https://cdn2.manhattanprep.com/gmat/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2016/01/blog-master-cr.png" alt="blog-master-cr" width="676" height="264" srcset="https://cdn2.manhattanprep.com/gmat/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2016/01/blog-master-cr.png 676w, https://cdn2.manhattanprep.com/gmat/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2016/01/blog-master-cr-300x117.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 676px) 100vw, 676px" /><em>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.</em> <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/14.0.0/72x72/263a.png" alt="☺" class="wp-smiley" style="height: 1em; max-height: 1em;" /></p> <p>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!<span id="more-10917"></span></p> <p><strong>Open up an Excel spreadsheet (Seriously!)…</strong></p> <p>Now, set up this template on the first worksheet:</p> <p><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignleft size-full wp-image-10919" src="https://cdn2.manhattanprep.com/gmat/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2016/01/337-image-1.png" alt="337 - image 1" width="1112" height="788" srcset="https://cdn2.manhattanprep.com/gmat/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2016/01/337-image-1.png 1112w, https://cdn2.manhattanprep.com/gmat/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2016/01/337-image-1-300x213.png 300w, https://cdn2.manhattanprep.com/gmat/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2016/01/337-image-1-1024x726.png 1024w" sizes="(max-width: 1112px) 100vw, 1112px" />Label this first worksheet your Key.</p> <p>Are you wondering why I didn’t just give you an Excel file with this template? I specifically want you to type out each step and think about what it means. You’re about to apply this analysis to the different question types; you’ll do so more effectively if you have a solid understanding of what you’re trying to accomplish.</p> <p>If you aren’t using Manhattan Prep’s CR book, then read my blog post on <a href="//www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog/2011/10/28/the-process-for-tackling-any-critical-reasoning-problem/">our CR process</a>. It explains the four steps listed above.</p> <p><strong>Now, create new worksheets in the spreadsheet.</strong></p> <p>You’re going to need a total of 10 worksheets, including the first worksheet that you already created above. Copy that worksheet 9 times.</p> <p>Now label those other 9 questions in this way (and in this order!):</p> <ul> <li>Assump (for Find the Assumption)</li> <li>Str (for Strengthen the Argument)</li> <li>Weak (for Weaken the Argument)</li> <li>Infer (for Inference)</li> <li>Discrep (for Find the Discrepancy)</li> <li>Role (for Describe the Role) (could also call this BF for Boldface)</li> <li>Eval (for Evaluate the Argument)</li> <li>Flaw (for Find the Flaw)</li> <li>DA (for Describe the Argument)</li> </ul> <p>I put these in this order because this is the rough order of importance based on the frequency with which these are tested. The three most common types are Assumption, Strengthen, and Weaken; you will most likely see more than one of each of these. After that, the next four (Infer, Discrepancy, Role, and Evaluate) are about equally common; you will most likely see just one of each. The Flaw and</p> <p>Describe the Argument questions are the least frequently seen; you may or may not see one of these.</p> <p><strong>Start filling out your templates!</strong></p> <p>Each question type now has its own worksheet with the template. Your task is to start replacing the template with your answers to those questions for each question type. Get going!</p> <p><strong>Is that all?</strong></p> <p>Okay. I’ll give you a little more. <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/14.0.0/72x72/263a.png" alt="☺" class="wp-smiley" style="height: 1em; max-height: 1em;" /></p> <p>Here’s what I have in my template for the Describe the Role question type. (I chose a medium-frequency one because I really want you to put the three most common ones in your own words. You’re going to use those the most.)</p> <p><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignleft size-full wp-image-10920" src="https://cdn2.manhattanprep.com/gmat/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2016/01/337-image-2.png" alt="337 - image 2" width="1258" height="700" srcset="https://cdn2.manhattanprep.com/gmat/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2016/01/337-image-2.png 1258w, https://cdn2.manhattanprep.com/gmat/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2016/01/337-image-2-300x167.png 300w, https://cdn2.manhattanprep.com/gmat/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2016/01/337-image-2-1024x570.png 1024w" sizes="(max-width: 1258px) 100vw, 1258px" /></p> <p><strong>Ready? Set? Go!</strong></p> <p>Okay, you’ve got your instructions—now go make it happen! This template will help you to know exactly what to ask yourself and what to examine while you’re working through any CR problem. Want to test out your templates? Take a look at this <a href="//www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog/2013/06/19/the-master-resource-list-for-critical-reasoning/">Master Resource CR article</a>. It contains links to articles on every type of CR problem with the exception of Describe the Argument (these are really pretty rare). Each article gives you a problem to try (from the free resources in GMAT Prep) and then analyzes it thoroughly using this same 4-step process.</p> <p>Happy Studying!</p> <p>Live in L.A.? I’m teaching a <a href="//www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/classes/details/17036/?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&utm_content=Stacey%20Koprince%20West%20Hollywood%20Winter%20A%202016%20FB%20Ad&utm_campaign=GMAT%20Blog">GMAT Complete Course in West Hollywood</a> starting February 9th. Anyone is welcome to attend the first class for free. I hope to see you there!</p> <hr /> <p><em><strong><a href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/instructors/stacey-koprince/?utm_source=manhattanprep.com%2Fgmat%2Fblog&utm_medium=blog&utm_content=KoprinceBioLinkGMATBlog&utm_campaign=GMAT%20Blog" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignleft wp-image-9719 size-thumbnail" src="https://cdn2.manhattanprep.com/gmat/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2015/06/stacey-koprince-150x150.png" alt="stacey-koprince" width="150" height="150" /></a><a href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/instructors/stacey-koprince/?utm_source=manhattanprep.com%2Fgmat%2Fblog&utm_medium=blog&utm_content=KoprinceBioLinkGMATBlog&utm_campaign=GMAT%20Blog" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Stacey Koprince</a> is a Manhattan Prep instructor based in Montreal, Canada and Los Angeles, California.</strong> Stacey has been teaching the GMAT, GRE, and LSAT for more than 15 years and is one of the most well-known instructors in the industry. Stacey loves to teach and is absolutely fascinated by standardized tests. <a href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/classes/?utm_source=manhattanprep.com%2Fgmat%2Fblog&utm_medium=blog&utm_content=KoprinceCoursesLinkGMATBlog&utm_campaign=GMAT%20Blog#instructor/86">Check out Stacey’s upcoming GMAT courses here</a>. ?</em></p> <p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog/how-to-master-every-gmat-critical-reasoning-question-type/">How to Master Every GMAT Critical Reasoning Question Type</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat">GMAT</a>.</p> ]]></content:encoded> </item> <item> <title>GMAT Critical Reasoning Problems: Benefit/Drawback Arguments</title> <link>https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog/gmat-critical-reasoning-problems-benefitdrawback-arguments/</link> <dc:creator><![CDATA[Chelsey Cooley]]></dc:creator> <pubDate>Mon, 25 Jan 2016 23:04:38 +0000</pubDate> <category><![CDATA[Critical Reasoning]]></category> <category><![CDATA[GMAT Prep]]></category> <category><![CDATA[How to Study]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Verbal]]></category> <category><![CDATA[GMAT]]></category> <category><![CDATA[gmat critical reasoning]]></category> <category><![CDATA[GMAT prep]]></category> <category><![CDATA[gmat study tips]]></category> <category><![CDATA[GMAT Verbal]]></category> <category><![CDATA[gmat verbal critical reasoning]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Graduate Management Admission Test]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/?p=10913</guid> <description><![CDATA[<p>Here are a few benefit/drawback arguments: 1. Inexperienced workers are willing to take jobs with lower pay and fewer benefits. So, FantasyCorp should exclusively hire new workers with little experience. 2. Regular exercise reduces the risk of heart disease. To protect my heart, I exercise for three hours every day. 3. Certain chemical pesticides leave […]</p> <p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog/gmat-critical-reasoning-problems-benefitdrawback-arguments/">GMAT Critical Reasoning Problems: Benefit/Drawback Arguments</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat">GMAT</a>.</p> ]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignleft size-full wp-image-10914" src="https://cdn2.manhattanprep.com/gmat/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2016/01/blog-benefit.png" alt="blog-benefit" width="676" height="264" srcset="https://cdn2.manhattanprep.com/gmat/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2016/01/blog-benefit.png 676w, https://cdn2.manhattanprep.com/gmat/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2016/01/blog-benefit-300x117.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 676px) 100vw, 676px" />Here are a few benefit/drawback arguments:<span id="more-10913"></span></p> <p><em>1. Inexperienced workers are willing to take jobs with lower pay and fewer benefits. So, FantasyCorp should exclusively hire new workers with little experience. </em></p> <p><em>2. Regular exercise reduces the risk of heart disease. To protect my heart, I exercise for three hours every day. </em></p> <p><em>3. Certain chemical pesticides leave a residue on the leaves of plants treated with them. This pesticide residue is known to kill caterpillars that harmlessly feed on fallen leaves, ensuring that they never mature into butterflies. If farmers in GMATopia continue using chemical pesticides on their crops rather than alternative methods of pest control, they will inevitably decimate the butterfly population in the area. </em></p> <p>In the first two arguments, the author <em>promotes a plan</em>. In the third argument, the author<em> predicts negative consequences</em>. In Critical Reasoning arguments, the author is never 100% correct: if he or she is promoting the plan, then there’s probably a <strong>hidden drawback</strong>. If he or she disagrees with the plan, there may be a <strong>hidden benefit</strong>, or perhaps one of the author’s claims about drawbacks will turn out to be irrelevant.</p> <p>1. One drawback to hiring inexperienced workers is that <em>they’re likely to do their jobs poorly</em>.</p> <p>2. The second argument is a little more complex. Here are two possible drawbacks: think of them as two possible answers to a <strong>Weaken the Argument</strong> question.</p> <p><em>Wrong: Exercising for three hours a day is time-consuming, making it difficult to keep a job or pursue other hobbies. </em></p> <p><em>Right: Exercising for more than ten hours each week has been shown to cause lasting damage to heart muscle. </em></p> <p><strong>Only the second option is an acceptable GMAT answer. </strong></p> <p>On the GMAT, you have to address the conclusion exactly as it’s written. It says, specifically, that the author exercises <em>to protect his heart</em>. A drawback will have to show that exercising that much might not actually keep his heart healthy.</p> <p>3. In the third argument, the author predicts that the farmers’ use of pesticides will have a <em>specific</em> negative consequence. To prove him wrong, you’d have to show that the butterfly population might not suffer: either by finding a hidden benefit that outweighs the drawbacks, or by proving his claims about drawbacks incorrect.</p> <p><em>Wrong: Butterflies have been shown to harm many common crops. </em></p> <p><em>Right: Most chemical pesticides, including the ones commonly used in GMATopia, are actually harmless to caterpillars. </em></p> <p>The conclusion doesn’t say “we shouldn’t decimate the butterfly population,” even though the author probably does believe that! The conclusion claims that “using chemical pesticides <em>will</em> decimate the butterfly population.” Only the second option given above actually addresses that claim.</p> <p>Now, imagine seeing these arguments in a <strong>Strengthen the Argument</strong> problem. Do the reverse of what we’ve already done: add an additional benefit or drawback, or address the relevance of one that’s already given. The following statements all strengthen these cost/benefit arguments.</p> <p><em>1. Inexperienced workers are generally more careful with their work, and have fewer bad habits. </em></p> <p><em>A cost-benefit analysis has shown that the cost of training and supervising inexperienced workers is significantly less than the loss accrued due to paying higher salaries to more senior workers.</em></p> <p>2<em>. The heart-protective effects of exercise increase in direct proportion to the amount of exercise performed.</em></p> <p><em> </em><em>Regular exercise also prevents the normal deleterious effects of aging on heart tissue.</em></p> <p>3<em>. The type of chemical pesticide commonly used in GMATopia kills butterflies that happen to alight on crops that have been sprayed with it, as well as killing caterpillars that feed on these crops. </em></p> <p><em><em>Farmers generally use harmful chemical pesticides on their crops in the springtime, which is the main feeding season for young caterpillars. </em> </em></p> <p>Work out how each of these facts would successfully strengthen the arguments above. Can you also think of some incorrect “strengtheners” that actually miss the point, similar to the incorrect “weakeners” provided earlier? Can you think of some assumptions that are being made in these arguments? (Think about benefits and drawbacks when you identify assumptions — if the author believes the plan is good, he or she is <em>assuming that it lacks major drawbacks</em>.) If you can, then you understand the benefit/drawback argument type.</p> <p>As you practice with the <a href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/store/strategy-guides/critical-reasoning/?utm_source=manhattanprep.com%2Fgmat%2Fblog&utm_medium=blog&utm_content=Critical%20Reasoning%20Strategy%20Guide%20Plug&utm_campaign=GMAT%20Blog">Critical Reasoning Strategy Guide</a>, or the Official Guide to the GMAT, look for this type of argument. When you notice one, remember to identify the <strong>specific </strong>conclusion, steer clear of tempting “real world” answers, and think about adding, removing, supporting, or disagreeing with benefits and drawbacks. The next time you see one of these arguments, predict some possible right answers before you check the answer choices. You may surprise yourself with your accuracy!</p> <hr /> <p><em><strong><a href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/instructors/chelsey-cooley/?utm_source=manhattanprep.com%2Fgre%2Fblog&utm_medium=blog&utm_content=CooleyBioGREBlog&utm_campaign=GRE%20Blog" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Chelsey Cooley</a><a href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/instructors/chelsey-cooley/?utm_source=manhattanprep.com%2Fgre%2Fblog&utm_medium=blog&utm_content=CooleyBioGREBlog&utm_campaign=GRE%20Blog" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignleft wp-image-10949 size-thumbnail" title="Chelsey Cooley Manhattan Prep GMAT Instructor" src="https://cdn2.manhattanprep.com/gmat/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2016/01/chelsey-cooley-150x150.png" alt="Chelsey Cooley Manhattan Prep GMAT Instructor" width="150" height="150" /></a> is a Manhattan Prep instructor based in Seattle, Washington.</strong> Chelsey always followed her heart when it came to her education. Luckily, her heart led her straight to the perfect background for GMAT and GRE teaching: she has undergraduate degrees in mathematics and history, a master’s degree in linguistics, a 790 on the GMAT, and a perfect 170/170 on the GRE. Check out Chelsey’s upcoming GMAT prep offerings <a href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/classes/?utm_source=manhattanprep.com%2Fgmat%2Fblog&utm_medium=blog&utm_content=CooleyCoursesLinkGMATBlog&utm_campaign=GMAT%20Blog#instructor/336">here</a>.</em></p> <p> </p> <p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog/gmat-critical-reasoning-problems-benefitdrawback-arguments/">GMAT Critical Reasoning Problems: Benefit/Drawback Arguments</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat">GMAT</a>.</p> ]]></content:encoded> </item> <item> <title>GMAT Grammar Weekly: FANBOYS</title> <link>https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog/gmat-grammar-weekly-fanboys/</link> <dc:creator><![CDATA[Emily Madan]]></dc:creator> <pubDate>Fri, 15 Jan 2016 21:18:23 +0000</pubDate> <category><![CDATA[GMAT Prep]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Sentence Correction]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Verbal]]></category> <category><![CDATA[GMAT]]></category> <category><![CDATA[gmat grammar]]></category> <category><![CDATA[GMAT Grammar Sentence Correction]]></category> <category><![CDATA[gmat sentence correction]]></category> <category><![CDATA[gmat study tips]]></category> <category><![CDATA[GMAT Verbal]]></category> <category><![CDATA[gmat verbal sentence correction]]></category> <category><![CDATA[gmat verbal tips]]></category> <category><![CDATA[GMAT Vergal Grammar]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Graduate Management Admission Test]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/?p=10899</guid> <description><![CDATA[<p>Join us every other week for a commonly-tested grammar factoid that will improve both your accuracy and your confidence on GMAT Sentence Correction. 📖📝 Do you ever find yourself going on and on? And on? And on? Sentences can do the same. Sometimes it works, but often it doesn’t. Let’s talk about when a GMAT sentence […]</p> <p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog/gmat-grammar-weekly-fanboys/">GMAT Grammar Weekly: FANBOYS</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat">GMAT</a>.</p> ]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignleft size-full wp-image-10900" src="https://cdn2.manhattanprep.com/gmat/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2016/01/blog-fanboys.png" alt="blog-fanboys" width="676" height="264" srcset="https://cdn2.manhattanprep.com/gmat/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2016/01/blog-fanboys.png 676w, https://cdn2.manhattanprep.com/gmat/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2016/01/blog-fanboys-300x117.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 676px) 100vw, 676px" /><em>Join us every other week for a commonly-tested grammar factoid that will improve both your accuracy and your confidence on GMAT Sentence Correction. <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/14.0.0/72x72/1f4d6.png" alt="📖" class="wp-smiley" style="height: 1em; max-height: 1em;" /><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/14.0.0/72x72/1f4dd.png" alt="📝" class="wp-smiley" style="height: 1em; max-height: 1em;" /></em><span id="more-10899"></span></p> <p>Do you ever find yourself going on and on? And on? And on? Sentences can do the same. Sometimes it works, but often it doesn’t. Let’s talk about when a GMAT sentence is a run-on (grammatically incorrect) and when it’s just very long (but grammatically correct).</p> <p>A <strong>run-on sentence</strong> is any sentence that smushes two independent clauses together. Let’s take two simple clauses as an example.</p> <p>Clause 1: Sara is wearing a purple shirt. Clause 2: She is wearing pink pants.</p> <p>Both are independent clauses (meaning they can stand alone as their own sentence), but bring them together and trouble ensues:</p> <p>Sara is wearing a purple shirt, she is wearing pink pants.</p> <p>It’s not only a fashion faux pas, but also a grammatical one. So, how to fix it? FANBOYS to the rescue! Any of these seven simple conjunctions will turn a run-on sentence into a compound, and correct, sentence.</p> <p><strong>F </strong> For</p> <p><strong>A </strong> And</p> <p><strong>N</strong> Nor</p> <p><strong>B</strong> But</p> <p><strong>O</strong> Or</p> <p><strong>Y</strong> Yet</p> <p><strong>S</strong> So</p> <p>Try it: Sara is wearing a purple shirt, yet she is wearing pink pants. Now we’re talking!</p> <p>Now you know what FANBOYS are, but it’s time to talk GMAT. GMAT sentences are often incredibly complex, so we have to break down the complexity. Let’s practice on a much more complicated sentence:</p> <p>After watching the documentary, Joe and Aaron, who had been friends since elementary school, stayed up most of the night talking about the pros and cons of the country’s leadership, which had been the subject of much criticism throughout the movie, they decided that many of the conclusions the documentary made were fallacious.</p> <p>Take a moment to break this very long sentence down to it’s core. Find the main subject and verb (more on how to do this in the <a href="//www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/store/strategy-guides/sentence-correction/?utm_source=manhattanprep.com%2Fgmat%2Fblog&utm_medium=blog&utm_content=GMAT%20Blog%20Sentence%20Correction%20Strategy%20Guide%20Plug&utm_campaign=GMAT%20Blog" target="_blank">Sentence Correction Strategy Guide</a> if you need more help). Start by eliminating all the modifiers:</p> <p><span style="text-decoration: line-through;">After watching the documentary,</span> Joe and Aaron, <span style="text-decoration: line-through;">who had been friends since elementary school,</span> stayed up most of the night talking about the pros and cons of the country’s leadership<span style="text-decoration: line-through;">, which had been the subject of much criticism throughout the movie,</span> they decided that many of the conclusions the documentary made were fallacious.</p> <p>Already, we have a much simpler sentence. Keep breaking it down until you see the main subject-verb: “Joe and Aaron stayed up.” But we have a problem. The last clause is “They decided.” Both of those clauses are independent, so we should look for one of the FANBOYS. Go ahead and look, but you won’t find. We’ve come across the fatal error of this sentence. Insert one of the FANBOYS, and you’ve got a sentence:</p> <p>After watching the documentary, Joe and Aaron, who had been friends since elementary school, stayed up most of the night talking about the pros and cons of the country’s leadership, which had been the subject of much criticism throughout the movie, AND they decided that many of the conclusions the documentary made were fallacious.</p> <p>So Grammar tip of the week in a nutshell: FANBOYS are used to turn run-on sentences into compound sentences. <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/14.0.0/72x72/1f4dd.png" alt="📝" class="wp-smiley" style="height: 1em; max-height: 1em;" /></p> <hr /> <p><a href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/instructors/emily-madan/?utm_source=manhattanprep.com%2Fgmat%2Fblog&utm_medium=blog&utm_content=GMAT%20Blog%20Emily%20Madan%20Instructor%20Bio&utm_campaign=GMAT%20Blog" target="_blank"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignleft wp-image-10901 size-full" src="https://d27gmszdzgfpo3.cloudfront.net/gmat/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2016/01/emily-madan.png" alt="Emily Madan Manhattan Prep GMAT Instructor" width="241" height="227" /></a></p> <p><em><strong><a href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/instructors/emily-madan/?utm_source=manhattanprep.com%2Fgmat%2Fblog&utm_medium=blog&utm_content=GMAT%20Blog%20Emily%20Madan%20Instructor%20Bio&utm_campaign=GMAT%20Blog" target="_blank">Emily Madan</a> is a Manhattan Prep instructor based in Philadelphia. </strong>Having scored in the 99th percentile of the GMAT (770) and LSAT (177), Emily is committed to helping others achieve their full potential. In the classroom, she loves bringing concepts to life and her greatest thrill is that moment when a complex topic suddenly becomes clear. <a href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/classes/?utm_source=manhattanprep.com%2Fgmat%2Fblog&utm_medium=blog&utm_content=GMAT%20Blog%20Emily%20Madan%20Upcoming%20Courses&utm_campaign=GMAT%20Blog#instructor/344">Check out Emily’s upcoming GMAT courses here</a>. Your first class is always free!</em></p> <p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog/gmat-grammar-weekly-fanboys/">GMAT Grammar Weekly: FANBOYS</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat">GMAT</a>.</p> ]]></content:encoded> </item> <item> <title>GMAT Critical Reasoning Problems: Arguments That Tell You Why</title> <link>https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog/gmat-critical-reasoning-problems-arguments-that-tell-you-why/</link> <dc:creator><![CDATA[Chelsey Cooley]]></dc:creator> <pubDate>Fri, 08 Jan 2016 16:13:59 +0000</pubDate> <category><![CDATA[Critical Reasoning]]></category> <category><![CDATA[For Current Studiers]]></category> <category><![CDATA[GMAT Prep]]></category> <category><![CDATA[GMAT Resources]]></category> <category><![CDATA[GMAT Study Guide]]></category> <category><![CDATA[How to Study]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Verbal]]></category> <category><![CDATA[b-school]]></category> <category><![CDATA[business school]]></category> <category><![CDATA[critical reasoning problems]]></category> <category><![CDATA[GMAT]]></category> <category><![CDATA[GMAT prep]]></category> <category><![CDATA[gmat strategy]]></category> <category><![CDATA[gmat study tips]]></category> <category><![CDATA[GMAT Verbal]]></category> <category><![CDATA[gmat verbal critical reasoning]]></category> <category><![CDATA[GMAT Verbal Practice]]></category> <category><![CDATA[how to solve critical reasoning problems]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Strategy]]></category> <category><![CDATA[study tips]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Tips]]></category> <category><![CDATA[verbal]]></category> <category><![CDATA[verbal critical reasoning]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/?p=10824</guid> <description><![CDATA[<p>There are really only a dozen different Critical Reasoning problems in the Official Guide to the GMAT. The test writers recycle the same basic argument structures over and over, and they use the same right answers over and over, too. Even though the topics change — an argument might be about school funding the first […]</p> <p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog/gmat-critical-reasoning-problems-arguments-that-tell-you-why/">GMAT Critical Reasoning Problems: Arguments That Tell You Why</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat">GMAT</a>.</p> ]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignleft size-full wp-image-10825" src="https://cdn2.manhattanprep.com/gmat/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2016/01/blog-gmatargument.png" alt="Blog-GMATArgument" width="676" height="264" srcset="https://cdn2.manhattanprep.com/gmat/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2016/01/blog-gmatargument.png 676w, https://cdn2.manhattanprep.com/gmat/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2016/01/blog-gmatargument-300x117.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 676px) 100vw, 676px" />There are really only a dozen different Critical Reasoning problems in the Official Guide to the GMAT. The test writers recycle the same basic argument structures over and over, and they use the same right answers over and over, too. Even though the topics change — an argument might be about school funding the first time you see it, and industrial efficiency the next — you can sometimes recognize the underlying structure, outsmart the test, and earn some well-deserved points on the Verbal section.</span><span id="more-10824"></span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">One example to be familiar with is the “tell me why” argument. When you see one of these arguments, it’ll probably be part of a </span><b>Weaken the Argument </b><span style="font-weight: 400;">or </span><b>Find the Assumption</b><span style="font-weight: 400;"> Critical Reasoning problem. First, the author describes a phenomenon that he or she has observed. Then, in the conclusion, the author speculates on what </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">caused</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> the phenomenon. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Here are some examples:</span></p> <p><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">There’s no toilet paper in the bathroom. My roommate must not have bought any. </span></i></p> <p><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">Ever since the new toll was enacted on the interstate, I’ve seen less traffic on my way to work in the mornings. The toll must have led some drivers to start commuting by public transit rather than by car. </span></i></p> <p><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">A deficiency of Vitamin D has been shown to contribute to illness. Adequate exposure to sunlight is necessary for the human body to produce sufficient Vitamin D. However, in Seattle, where there is little natural sunlight for much of the year, residents report rates of illness that are no higher than the national average. It’s clear that after residing for some time in a place with minimal natural sunlight, the human body adapts to require a lower level of Vitamin D to avoid illness. </span></i></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Each of these “tell me why” arguments describes an observation, then tries to explain</span><b> why it happened</b><span style="font-weight: 400;">. More interestingly, each of them has the same flaw: what if there was actually a different explanation that made just as much sense? That would hurt the author’s argument. </span></p> <p><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">My roommate bought toilet paper, but forgot to take it out of the car on her way upstairs. That explains why it isn’t in the bathroom. </span></i></p> <p><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">The toll is only in effect during rush hour. The same number of people are commuting by car, but now they’re doing it at different times of the day to avoid being charged. </span></i></p> <p><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">People who live in Seattle often take Vitamin D supplements, so they have the same levels in their bodies on average as people who live in sunnier areas. They don’t get sick because they actually don’t have a Vitamin D deficiency at all. </span></i></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">When one of these arguments is part of a </span><b>Weaken</b><span style="font-weight: 400;"> problem, the right answer will very often give </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">another, better explanation</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;">, or at least suggest that there is one. That means that the right answer can include information that has nothing to do with the argument, at least on the surface! When you see an answer choice that looks “out of scope”, ask yourself whether it might be giving an alternative explanation for the facts. That would make it a good Weakener. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">These arguments also often appear in </span><b>Assumption</b><span style="font-weight: 400;"> problems. In these cases, the right answer may describe something that the author has assumed </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">not</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> to be true. </span></p> <p><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">… assuming that my roommate didn’t accidentally leave the toilet paper in her car. </span></i></p> <p><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">… assuming that people are still commuting to work at the same time of day they did previously. </span></i></p> <p><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">… assuming that people in Seattle don’t use Vitamin D supplements. </span></i></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The arguments themselves don’t say anything about supplements, or about the time of day, or about my roommate’s car, so aren’t these assumptions out of scope? No. By creating a “tell me why” argument, the author is always assuming that the </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">other</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> possible explanations aren’t correct. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Start looking out for “tell me why” arguments on Critical Reasoning, and anticipate how the right answers might look! For practice, try out these Critical Reasoning problems from </span><b>The Official Guide to the GMAT, 2016: </b><span style="font-weight: 400;">48, 69,</span> <span style="font-weight: 400;">90, and 121.</span></p> <hr /> <p><em><strong><a href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/instructors/chelsey-cooley/#" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignleft wp-image-8513 size-thumbnail" src="//cdn2.manhattanprep.com/gre/wp-content/uploads/sites/19/2015/11/chelsey-cooley-150x150.jpg" alt="Chelsey-Cooley" width="150" height="150" /></a></strong></em><em><strong><a href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/instructors/chelsey-cooley/?utm_source=manhattanprep.com%2Fgre%2Fblog&utm_medium=blog&utm_content=CooleyBioGREBlog&utm_campaign=GRE%20Blog">Chelsey Cooley</a> is a Manhattan Prep instructor based in Seattle, Washington.</strong> Chelsey always followed her heart when it came to her education. Luckily, her heart led her straight to the perfect background for GMAT and GRE teaching: she has undergraduate degrees in mathematics and history, a master’s degree in linguistics, a 790 on the GMAT, and a perfect 170/170 on the GRE. Check out Chelsey’s upcoming GMAT prep offerings <a href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/classes/?utm_source=manhattanprep.com%2Fgmat%2Fblog&utm_medium=blog&utm_content=CooleyCoursesLinkGMATBlog&utm_campaign=GMAT%20Blog#instructor/336">here</a>.</em></p> <p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog/gmat-critical-reasoning-problems-arguments-that-tell-you-why/">GMAT Critical Reasoning Problems: Arguments That Tell You Why</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat">GMAT</a>.</p> ]]></content:encoded> </item> </channel> </rss>