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02 Mar 2020, 15:00
| FROM Manhattan GMAT Blog: Mastering Memorization Techniques |
 “I’m Bad at Memorization” and Other Lies You Tell Yourself Did you know that your ability to memorize and recall information is not only a skill, but also an improvable one? Most people are born with approximately the same ability to memorize information. If you’re fluent in a language, any language, you’ve memorized at least tens of thousands of words that you can instantly recall and use. So why is it so hard to remember what the cube of five is? Or to remember that before you start reading a sentence correction sentence, you should take a glance first at the answer choices? How Memorization Works Memories come from an electrical impulse within the brain. Each time you recall the same memory, you strengthen the pathway that impulse uses. In a way, these impulses are similar to muscles. The more you use them, the stronger they get. This is why so many of the memorization techniques focus on repetition. However, memory is more complex than that. When you first learn something, it takes a significant amount of concentration and effort. As you continue to practice it, it becomes more natural and less deliberate. “Practice makes perfect” comes from the idea that you should do something again and again until it’s second nature. The problem is that many learners attempt to memorize by reading the same thing over and over. Yes, it is true that repetition is key. But re-reading and repetition are not equivalent. It’s possible that re-reading will work for you. But the odds are not in your favor. How to Memorize Information If repetition is the key to memorization, but repetition is not enough to help you memorize, what should you do? Redefine repetition. Reading over and over is not particularly useful, but recalling information is. The best way to strengthen memory pathways is to continue to bring the thing you are trying to remember to the front of your mind, not through reading it again, but through forcing yourself to remember it. That means you should read something on paper only as much as you need to. Then, without looking at the paper, ask yourself to repeat the information in your mind again and again until you can remember it without trying. Ideally, you should wait until you have almost forgotten that information, then ask yourself to remember it. Each time, you should be able to recall it a little faster and more clearly, so you can wait a little longer before testing yourself again. This is why flashcards are used as a memorization aid. Instead of re-reading notes, flashcards give a prompt that forces the learner to recall, rather than reread, particular information. They are particularly effective when used with something like the Leitner System, which encourages frequent review of information that is hardest to recall, while reviewing information that is somewhat easier to recall less often. Again, the goal is to almost forget, then to force yourself to remember. How to Apply Memorization on the GMAT If the GMAT were a vocabulary test, then rote memorization might be enough to get you through. However, it’s not enough to simply learn facts; you must also apply them to new situations designed to challenge you. The application of particular memories is a skill. Saying you “just need more practice” is both a little bit true and not as helpful as it could be. Practice is only helpful if you’re practicing good habits. If you make a mistake, recognize the mistake, then go on to continue making that mistake, all that changes is your level of frustration. Instead, prioritize the indications that a certain strategy or fact should come to the forefront of your mind. One way to think of these indications is in an “if…then” framework. You can remember good habits more easily by learning that “If you see X, then you will do Y.” Here are a few examples of good habits using triggers you’re likely to see on test day:
UP NEXT: “I’m Bad at Grammar” And Other Lies You Tell Yourself 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.  Emily Madan is a Manhattan Prep instructor located in Philadelphia, Pa. 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. Check out Emily’s upcoming LSAT courses here. The post Mastering Memorization Techniques appeared first on GMAT. |
03 Mar 2020, 07:00
| FROM Manhattan GMAT Blog: Top 3 GMAT Study Mistakes (and How to Fix Them) |
 GMAT Study Mistake #1: Not Creating and/or Following a Study Plan “Read books, practice problems, take test.” This, I’m sad to say, is not a study plan. This is…really just a series of facts. A plan is actionable (these statements are not). Creating a good plan means you should never need to ask, “Am I doing the right things?” You already know! The right things were part of your plan. A GMAT study plan includes the following elements:
The GMAT is a test of your management skills, including time management. For the quantitative section, you can spend about 2 minutes per question to reach the end of the section. For verbal questions, you only have about 1 minute 20 seconds per question. While you can master content without taking CATs, knowing that you can complete a problem is a far cry from knowing that you can complete a problem in 2 minutes or less. CATs will help you master timing on the exam, as well as learn the strategies you should use to catch up if you’re falling behind in a section. Still not convinced? Read this article, “Everything You Need to Know about Time Management, Part 1.” GMAT Study Mistake #3: Not Setting an Official Test Date “I’ll study until I’m ready” is a common adage I hear from students. I always ask, “How will you know when you’re ready?” I can practically guarantee that you will not wake up one sunny morning thinking, “Today is the day that I will ace the GMAT.” Even if that morning does arrive – you won’t get into the testing center without an appointment. One of the greatest gifts you can give yourself is a deadline. This will help you to set daily and weekly study goals and it will increase the likelihood that you hold yourself accountable to those goals. Procrastination is much less appealing with a looming deadline on the calendar than without one. When setting your test date, consider your study plan, application deadlines, and personal/professional schedule. Choose a date that allows you to study sufficiently (150+ hours), occurs about 2 months before applications are due so you can re-test if needed, and doesn’t fall in the midst of hectic times for your personal or professional schedule. RELATED: How and When to Register for the GMAT 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.  Tiffany Berkebile is Manhattan Prep instructor located in Los Angeles, California. She realized her personal love of teaching while getting her M.A. in Communication Studies and teaching undergraduate college courses. She has over 10 years of experience teaching including ESL (she also speaks Spanish). While not tackling the GMAT, Tiffany enjoys doing Logic Puzzles, reading, and thinking about nerdy topics like space travel and how the pioneers lived. The post Top 3 GMAT Study Mistakes (and How to Fix Them) appeared first on GMAT. |
05 Mar 2020, 14:00
| FROM Manhattan GMAT Blog: How to Take a GMAT Practice Test |
 While you study for the GMAT, you should take a practice test every 1-3 weeks. Here’s how to get started and how to get more out of every GMAT practice test you take. Which GMAT practice test should you take? You can take either an official practice test from the same folks who write the GMAT, or a third-party test, like the ones we’ve written here at Manhattan Prep. An official GMATPrep practice test is the closest you’re going to get to the real test-day experience. The test looks and feels like the real thing, and the questions are official (albeit retired) ones. The GMAC hasn’t revealed whether its practice tests use the same scoring algorithm as the real GMAT; however, at the very least, they were created by the same organization and should ostensibly be similar. The downside to the official practice tests is that it’s harder to learn from them afterwards. The problem explanations are weak to nonexistent, and they don’t give you as much data to analyze as many third-party practice tests. That doesn’t mean you can’t effectively review a GMATPrep test! It just means that the analysis won’t be at your fingertips instantly. For that reason, I recommend taking third-party practice tests during most of your GMAT study process, in order to really dig into the results and analyze your strengths and weaknesses. Then, take a couple of official practice tests in the weeks prior to test day, with your final practice test being a GMATPrep test one week before the real thing. Which GMAT practice tests are the best? This question can mean two different things:
The second question is harder to answer. It’s really tough to get good data about whether any practice test accurately predicts scores. Various people have tried to compile this data, but only the GMAC has access to both the official score data and the practice test data that you’d need to do a full analysis. As far as I can tell, they haven’t revealed it. Even if the data were to show that a practice test gave inaccurate scores, there are a number of complicating factors: the test day environment is different from the practice test environment, and this affects people in different ways. A test that gives inflated scores on average may or may not do the same in your specific case. For more, see this article on why your official score might be lower than your practice scores. I recommend that you use your practice test scores primarily to track trends, test different approaches (like doing the sections in a different order), and get a very broad sense of whether you’re likely to score in your goal range. That’s really all you need to know before test day, even if it might be nice to have a perfect prediction of your score! If you’ve just scored a 700 on any reputable practice GMAT, you definitely have the skills to earn a 700 on test day. If you score a 640 when you start with Verbal and a 710 when you start with Quant, you should probably start with Quant on test day, even if you don’t end up scoring exactly 710. Your GMAT practice test-taking environment matters Don’t dive into your practice test immediately. Prepare your environment first. Make certain that you won’t be interrupted while taking your practice GMAT. Sit at a desk or table in a quiet, unstimulating room. (If you plan to wear the provided headphones or earplugs on test day, do so during your practice test as well.) Prepare a snack and a drink to have during your break; otherwise, don’t eat or drink while taking the practice test. Put your phone and electronics, other than the computer you’re using for the test, out of the way. And close any other programs running on that computer so you won’t be distracted. If you’re taking a Manhattan Prep course, you should have already received a “yellow pad” that’s just like the one you’ll take notes on during test day. Use it while you take your practice test! If you’re not taking a course, you can also purchase the yellow pad here. Before you begin, take a few minutes to quietly reflect on your goals for the practice test. Articulate two or three SMART goals. By the way, achieving a specific score isn’t a SMART goal, since it isn’t “attainable”: you only directly control your choices and your behavior, not your score. Focus on what you’ll actually do during the practice test, not on the results. For instance, you might want to guess on more problems or use timing benchmarks. How to take a GMAT practice test If your main goal is to estimate your score, then take the whole test realistically. Back in the day, when the essays and IR section always came first, that included taking those two sections to simulate the fatigue you’d feel on test day. Nowadays, since you can do those sections at the end of the test, you don’t necessarily have to do them on every practice test. (Do them at least once or twice before test day, though, so you know what you’re doing before you get there!) No matter what, definitely take both the Quant and Verbal sections, and take them using only the amount of time you’ll be allotted on test day. Do your best to finish each section in its entirety. Don’t pause the test, extend your break time, or take any additional breaks. That’s how you’ll get the best possible estimate of your real GMAT score. If your main goal is to practice test-taking skills, a practice test may not even be what you need! If what you really need is to work on Sentence Correction, only a third of the Verbal section will really be helpful: the rest might be a waste of your time and a waste of a practice test. Practice tests are valuable, but be clear about what they’ll actually help you practice: when you take one, you’re working on staying alert and attentive, managing boredom, fatigue, and anxiety, and switching quickly between different topics and concepts. Those are important skills to practice, but they aren’t the only skills you need to ace the GMAT. What to do after your GMAT practice test After you finish a practice test, take a break: you’ve earned it. A practice test produces mental, and even physical, fatigue. Don’t beat yourself up over the score if it isn’t what you hoped for. A score on a practice test, whether good or bad, is valuable data that will help you decide where to go next. In a day or two, it’s time to start reviewing! In the meantime, here’s some guidance on how to do a fantastic job of reviewing GMAT problems. If you take each practice test effectively, and review it effectively, you can expect to learn a lot from each one you take. Tips for reviewing GMAT practice problems:
[b]  Chelsey Cooley is a Manhattan Prep instructor based in Seattle, Washington. [/b]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. Check out Chelsey’s upcoming GMAT prep offerings here. The post How to Take a GMAT Practice Test appeared first on GMAT. |
10 Mar 2020, 13:00
| FROM Manhattan GMAT Blog: Should I get an MBA? |
 This post was written by Nisha Trivedi, an mbaMission Senior Consultant. Do I really need an MBA? These days, with the U.S. economy booming and more and more jobs (particularly in tech) seeming to value work experience over an advanced degree, people are starting to question whether business school is the best route to where they want to go professionally—whether it is truly worth the investment. We would argue that an MBA can definitely add a great deal to both your professional and personal growth. Here are some key reasons to consider pursuing the degree: Top 9 Reasons to Get an MBA Reason to get an MBA #1: Incomparable Instruction in “Hard” Business Skills Although you can technically acquire basic business knowledge and skills (e.g., financial analysis, applying strategic frameworks, interpreting balance sheets) via online courses and books, the depth and intensity with which you learn in an immersive MBA program far surpasses what is possible through any other venue. For example, the first-year core curriculum at some top programs has even been referred to as “boot camp”—the course work is rigorous, extensive, fast paced, and, for some, truly grueling. In addition, some schools teach via the “case method,” in which students tackle real-world business problems by putting themselves in the shoes of the major decision makers (e.g., CEO, CFO, head of marketing) and providing analysis-based recommendations on how the firm involved should proceed. As students engage with and challenge one another on their assumptions and conclusions in the classroom, faculty members facilitate the discussions. Sometimes, the actual protagonist(s) of the case will even come to class to share what actually happened. No book or online course can offer that kind of experience. If you really want to understand business and “speak the language” of various functions within a company, the most powerful way to do so is via business school. Reason to get an MBA #2: Valuable Training in “Soft” Business Skills Business school graduates often say that some of the most important takeaways from their MBA program relate to “softer” skills, such as leadership, teamwork, and people management. As a fellow Michigan Ross MBA recently told me, “The soft skills I learned in ‘Leadership Development’ [class] have made earning the trust and support of my colleagues much easier each time I’ve transitioned to a new organization.” Such courses prepare you to address interpersonal questions and situations that can be critical to your success at work: How do you influence cross-functional team members over whom you have no authority? How do you negotiate for a favorable outcome, such as a higher salary? How do you collaborate effectively with individuals who have different backgrounds, perspectives, and ideas? In business school, you not only get instruction in ways to approach these kinds of issues, but you also have the opportunity to practice what you learn before you find yourself in a real workplace environment that could entail serious legal, financial, or professional repercussions. Reason to get an MBA #3: Hands-On Learning Opportunities Most, if not all, of the top business schools offer classes, programs, and projects in which small teams of students work directly with companies and nonprofits around the world to solve actual business problems the organizations are facing, in real time. As a result, they get firsthand insight into how these firms operate, while also making excellent insider connections. Sometimes, students then parlay their engagement with the sponsor company into a summer internship or even a full-time position after graduation. Some recent hands-on projects at one of the leading MBA programs include building practical go-to-market strategies for Microsoft to effectively engage with university students, recommending to Marriott International how to increase revenues from spa services in the Asia-Pacific region, and developing a business model for a therapeutic food product that treats severe malnutrition in Rwanda. In addition to providing valuable exposure to both business issues and people, these hands-on opportunities help participants learn to deal with something they are bound to face later in their careers: managing through ambiguity. Often, leaders must make decisions based on vague or incomplete information. By navigating the challenges of client engagements as an MBA student, you will develop the capabilities you will need to handle similar situations successfully in your own firm down the line. Reason to get an MBA #4: Aid in Changing Careers Although making a significant career change on your own is possible, it is unquestionably difficult. Doing so via business school is not just easier but common. As an admissions consultant, I have worked with a field engineer turned investment banker, a nonprofit director turned operations consultant, and an engineer turned product manager. And one of my own MBA classmates switched from NFL player to consumer product marketer. The core MBA curriculum (covering finance, economics, marketing, operations, strategy, etc.) helps students develop overall business acumen, which is particularly essential for those who enter business school from nontraditional backgrounds or who have experience in only one or two business areas. Elective courses then provide specialized knowledge across functions and industries. In addition, via professional clubs (e.g., Consulting Club, Investment Management Club, Marketing Club), aspirants to certain careers gain in-depth exposure to what potential jobs actually entail, connect with companies of interest through career treks and conferences, and learn how best to apply to and interview with industry-specific recruiters. These resources enable business school students to effectively bridge the gap between their past experience and their future goals. Reason to get an MBA #5: Incomparable Job Search Resources Whether MBA students are looking to change careers completely or just attain a better position in their current industry, their program’s career services office offers extensive resources, support, and firm access that will help them do so much more easily than they could on their own. These offices provide assistance with resume and cover letter preparation, advice about which jobs to consider, access to exclusive job postings, and the opportunity to do targeted mock interviews with highly trained representatives. In addition, the career services offices maintain relationships with recruiters from some of MBAs’ most sought-after firms, and these individuals come to campus to interview students for internships and full-time positions. These are definitive job search advantages you cannot get elsewhere. Reason to get an MBA #6: Opportunities for International Exposure These days, business is increasingly global, and its leaders must have strong cross-cultural understanding to succeed. The top business schools give students valuable opportunities to gain the exposure and tools they will need to be able to collaborate with colleagues around the world or conduct business abroad. These include semester-long exchange programs with programs outside the United States, courses that involve one to three weeks working on-site with international company partners, international job treks, and one- to two-week global study trips, through which students collaborate directly with a non-US firm to address a global business problem. These programs instill in students a global mind-set that is far more profound than what can be gained from a brief work trip or personal travel. Reason to get an MBA #7: Entrepreneurial Support If you dream of starting your own venture, business school will provide access to all the key elements you need for your best shot at success. In addition to the foundational business principles you gain from the program’s core curriculum, entrepreneurship-specific courses teach you what is involved in establishing an entirely new company. Among your classmates, you will find other aspiring entrepreneurs with whom you can network or possibly even join forces to start a venture together. In addition, many top MBA programs have on-site Entrepreneurs in Residence with whom you can meet to seek input and advice as needed. Most leading business schools also have annual entrepreneurship competitions that not only allow you to test the merits of your business idea and receive targeted feedback from experienced entrepreneurs but that also pay out thousands of dollars in prize money with which to fund your venture. And more and more programs are establishing business incubators to assist students with forming and launching their companies. Other opportunities include internships with early-stage companies, presentations and workshops by successful entrepreneurs, and chances to pitch your venture idea to school-affiliated venture boards for potential seed funding. In short, business school can greatly facilitate the process of turning your vision into a reality. Reason to get an MBA #8: An Expansive Network The old expression “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know” is especially applicable to the world of business and your potential success within it. Business books and online courses may teach key concepts, but they provide very few, if any, new contacts (who may not be any better connected than you are). As an MBA student, however, you gain literally hundreds of contacts the minute you step on campus in the form of your classmates, not to mention those students in the classes before and after yours. And the immersive nature of business school—late-night group study sessions, group projects, team case competitions, conferences, social events—helps to forge tight bonds among students. You are also automatically connected with the entire alumni network of not only your business school but also its parent institution, which can number into the hundreds of thousands and include individuals all around the globe. Later, you can connect regularly with fellow graduates in your area through your local alumni organization and can interact through online databases and school-specific Facebook and LinkedIn groups. These contacts come in especially handy when one is seeking professional opportunities: many people I know are in their current positions because former MBA classmates or alumni passed along their resumes or gave them the inside scoop on job openings. Reason to get an MBA #9: Incredible Memories MBA students inarguably work hard on their studies and job searches, but they “play” just as hard. Many business school alumni even refer to their MBA experience as a “two-year vacation.” All the top programs offer fun, unique, once-in-a-lifetime experiences that you simply could not have elsewhere. Imagine traveling to the Galapagos Islands for a week with 50 classmates or taking over Aspen, Colorado, for a long skiing and partying weekend with 150 or more fellow students. How about participating in a fund-raiser in which the most successful student gets to throw a pie in the face of an esteemed member of the school’s administration? Or perhaps you would enjoy performing in a schoolwide comedy show that lampoons life at your business school (aka “Follies”). Wine clubs, hockey leagues, casino nights, tailgate parties, international food and culture festivals, treks abroad, bar crawls, intramural competitions, chili cookoffs—the list goes on and on, and these activities provide more than just a refreshing break from the routine and work of earning an MBA; they create extraordinary memories and tight friendships among students that will last a lifetime. Clearly, pursuing an MBA can be a valuable—and enjoyable—next step on your professional path. But ultimately, only you can decide whether attending business school is the best way for you to reach your professional and personal goals. You must weigh what you could gain from the degree with the time and financial investment that earning one requires. RELATED: MBA Career Paths: What Are You Going to Do? 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.  After being accepted to four top MBA programs—including New York University’s Stern School of Business, the UCLA Anderson School of Management, and the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University—Nisha Trivedi ultimately chose to earn her degree from the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business. There, she focused on brand management and was an active member of the Marketing Club, organizing mock internship interviews for her peers during her first year and serving as the club’s vice-president of communications during her second year. Her BA in communications from the University of Pennsylvania and deep interest in understanding the consumer inspired her to initially pursue a career in marketing research, which led her to positions at Time Inc., Rosetta, and KPMG LLP in New York City, but after business school, Nisha worked for several years in brand management in San Francisco at Big Heart Pet Brands (now part of The J.M. Smucker Company). She most enjoys creating brand positioning and crafting tailored messaging that speaks to consumers’ needs—a skill she applies in helping her clients “market” themselves to their dream MBA programs. In addition to assisting her clients in a one-on-one capacity, Nisha is active on the mbaMission message boards, responding to questions and profile evaluation requests, and has authored several articles on the MBA admissions process for Poets&Quants. mbaMission is the leader in MBA admissions consulting with a full-time and comprehensively trained staff of consultants, all with profound communications and MBA experience. mbaMission has helped thousands of candidates fulfill their dream of attending prominent MBA programs around the world. The post Should I get an MBA? appeared first on GMAT. |
18 Mar 2020, 14:00
| FROM Manhattan GMAT Blog: Coronavirus GMAT Accommodations & Updates |
 At Manhattan Prep, we’ve been closely monitoring the effects of COVID-19 in our communities. This is an immensely difficult time and our top commitment is to the health and safety of our students, employees, and the community. We know that COVID-19 is deeply disrupting your life right now, and it has the potential to delay your long-term goals for your career and education. You can still study effectively, though, and it’s also fine to delay your studies if needed—the GMAT isn’t going anywhere and neither are we. To that end, we want you to know that we’re here for you. Here are ways we’re working to help you continue to achieve your goals, even in these tough circumstances:
Thanks and stay healthy, The Manhattan Prep Team Study Advice & Recommended Resources GMAT & STUDYING:
If you think you need only a few more weeks to be ready, then we’re going to need to stretch that out over a longer period. If you feel a little burned out, take a break for a few days—you’re not going to forget everything in half a week or even a week and your brain could use the rest. And you don’t need to maintain a 12-15 hour weekly study schedule; aim for ~8-ish hours instead (still enough to give you forward momentum). Take about 2 weeks to do what you’d planned to do in 1 week. If, on the other hand, you’re not burned out and want to study more intensively, go for it. If you are planning to take the test in later April or May: You’re also likely going to need to stretch out your studies a bit more than you’d planned. Assume you’re not going to take it until May at the earliest. In addition, once testing resumes, there will be increased demand, so it may be harder to schedule—if you have the flexibility, you may want to wait until June / the summer. See the advice in the prior section for how to stretch out your studies. If you are planning to take the test in June or later: At the moment, you don’t need to do anything differently—keep following your plan. We’ll see later whether an adjustment is needed. WORK/STUDY/PLAY-FROM HOME:
The post Coronavirus GMAT Accommodations & Updates appeared first on GMAT. |
19 Mar 2020, 07:00
| FROM Manhattan GMAT Blog: How to Get Into a Top Business School |
 This post was written by Debbie Choy, an mbaMission Senior Consultant. As an admissions consultant, I am asked frequently, “How do I get into a top business school?” Many candidates believe schools want a certain “type” of candidate—perhaps one with a stellar GMAT score or a certain kind of job. Yet, in my seven years of admissions consulting, I have seen candidates with all kinds of backgrounds receive offers from top business schools. In my experience, schools are not looking for a “type.” Rather, they are looking for a diversity of industry experience, functions, countries of origin, ethnic backgrounds, and also personal interests. As you approach the upcoming MBA application process, consider the following ideas to help you be successful. Should I retake the GMAT? If your GMAT score is below the reported average at your preferred school, there is still time to do something about it. The GMAT is one component of your profile you can still change. Consider retaking the GMAT or taking an online course to beef up your weak areas. Many candidates take the GMAT more than once to get the score they want. There is no penalty or stigma attached to re-taking the test. In addition, if you have not engaged with community organizations since college, it is never too late to start. Look into organizations for which you are personally passionate. For example, if you are an animal lover, consider volunteering at an organization such as the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA). If you are into fashion, organizations such as Dress for Success have locations nationwide. Make your business school application stand out Although you do not have to be the best at everything you do, you should be different (meaning different in a good way!). Beyond doing what you can to shore up your profile, also be sure to show the admissions committee (AdCom) what unique perspectives you can bring to the school. This would primarily be conveyed in your application essays. Therefore, structure your essays so that you highlight your best strengths and stories. For example, how might your experiences working for a Midwestern manufacturing company bring a different perspective to your application? Go beyond the resume Share your personal story of how you got where you are today. Do not be afraid to mention your vulnerabilities. For example, what challenges did you face in your job? What personal failures or disappointments did you encounter? Show the AdCom that you did not have a smooth path to success; explain how you struggled, stumbled, picked yourself up, and improved. Make your application well-rounded The good news is that the AdCom reviews your profile holistically; its decision will be based on more than your statistics. So, be sure to show the committee as much of yourself as you can. At the end of the day, there is no single path to acceptance at a top business school. When you stand with your classmates on the first day of orientation and hear each other’s stories, you may find, to your surprise, that each person has followed a unique path to get there. RELATED: Should I Get an MBA? 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.  Fluent in both Mandarin and Cantonese, Debbie Choy earned her MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and has been helping clients pursue their own MBA ambitions through mbaMission for seven application seasons. She was a management consultant with Booz & Co. and an investment analyst with JP Morgan before attending business school. After graduating, she worked in product marketing in the medical technology industry—developing an expertise in the planning and execution of product launches, product line management, and marketing strategy—and was actively involved in recruiting MBAs for her employer. Debbie also led an MBA recruiting program focused on the top programs for a fast-growing health care company, presented at career fairs, and directly interviewed candidates. As a co-founder of ALIST Magazine, which showcases Asian American corporate leaders and success stories, she oversaw a team of six staff writers and produced the column “Women At Work.” Debbie, who grew up in Singapore, graduated cum laude from Vassar College with a BA in international studies and rounds out her language skills by also speaking conversational French. mbaMission is the leader in MBA admissions consulting with a full-time and comprehensively trained staff of consultants, all with profound communications and MBA experience. mbaMission has helped thousands of candidates fulfill their dream of attending prominent MBA programs around the world. Take your first step toward a more successful MBA application experience with a free 30-minute consultation with one of mbaMission’s senior consultants. The post How to Get Into a Top Business School appeared first on GMAT. |
19 Mar 2020, 15:00
| FROM Manhattan GMAT Blog: Getting Past a GMAT Score Plateau |
 Is your GMAT score stuck? Are you starting to wonder whether to stop studying for the GMAT? If you’re in this situation, but you don’t have the score you want, try following this plan first. Improving Your GMAT Score If your score isn’t going up, and you’ve taken more than a couple of practice tests (or official tests), that means you’re making the same mistakes more than once. There are only so many different types of problems on the GMAT, and there are only so many different mistakes you can make. If you’re at a score plateau, you’re revisiting old mistakes. It also means that what you’re doing now isn’t effective. I left that statement somewhat vague on purpose, because “what you’re doing” could refer to a couple of different things. It’s possible that what you’re doing while you take the GMAT isn’t effective. It’s also possible that what you’re doing while you study isn’t effective. Or, it could be both. You might also need to shake things up a bit. Maybe you’re mentally fatigued and suffering from GMAT burnout. If your attitude towards the GMAT is one of stress, boredom, pessimism, anxiety, dread, fear, etc., you can’t just study your way out of it. Something has to change. What follows is my plan for getting past a score plateau. It’s going to take at least two weeks of hard work on your part. And I can’t guarantee that it will work! But it’s based on everything I’ve learned so far about how to study for the GMAT. Build your personalized GMAT Study Guide To try to blast through the GMAT plateau, you’re going to choose five things to focus on each week. Since everyone has different needs and goals, I’ll give you a list to pick each of these five things from. However, everybody’s plan will include the same basic elements:
GMAT Score Improvement Tip #1: Learn one new mindset-related skill From this list, choose one thing to do for the next week. You can make your choice based on what you think you need the most, or you can choose randomly! All of these suggestions will help you with the GMAT, so there isn’t just one right choice. Just don’t try to do more than one of them. One thing that makes this plan work is that it lets you focus on just a few things for a little while, and takes some of the pressure off to do everything all at once!
You’ve picked one way to master your mindset. Now, choose one test-taking skill to perfect over the next week, by picking one of the following exercises.
From the following list, choose one new thing to do for the next two weeks. Again, only pick one of these things! We’re trying to shake up your study habits, not completely burn you out.
Here’s a (non-exhaustive) list of high-value GMAT Quant content. Choose one of these areas, and really master it this week. Even if you already understand the topic fairly well, you have a week to become an expert. Start by reading a good chapter or article, or watching a video, about the topic: if you have the Manhattan Prep strategy guides or access to GMAT Interact, that’s a great place to start. Then, use the Official Guide to do practice problems on that topic. Finally, review all of those problems thoroughly and write about them in your problem log. For bonus points (not redeemable on the GMAT!), you can also create a cheat sheet for the topic.
Here’s another list, this time for Verbal! A lot of people focus way too much on Quant, to the detriment of their overall GMAT score. If you have a certain overall score goal in mind, and you’ve plateaued while mostly studying Quant, this is your excuse to focus on Verbal for a little while. Pick one of these topics, and approach it this week in the same way described in the previous section.
If you’ve followed along until this point, you should have a list of five things to do this week. For now, ditch everything else you’re doing to study for the GMAT. After all, you’re trying to shake things up, try something new, and stop making the same old mistakes. Create a study calendar for the next week, making sure to include whichever mindset technique you’re going to try out. Then, for the next week, focus just on those five things and trust the process. The following week… do it again! You can repeat any or all of your five choices, or try something totally new. At the end of the two weeks, it’s time to take another practice test. You might be surprised to find that your score has gone up. If so, you now have some new things to incorporate into your process as you get back into your regular study routine. If not: you’ve still gotten some good data. You now know a couple of things that don’t work out very well for you, and you should, at the very least, be feeling refreshed and intellectually curious. If you try this, let us know about it in the comments! I’d love to hear how you make this plan your own, and whether it helps you bust through a tough GMAT score plateau. RELATED: Top 3 GMAT Study Mistakes (And How to Fix Them) 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. [b] Chelsey Cooley is a Manhattan Prep instructor based in Seattle, Washington. [/b]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. Check out Chelsey’s upcoming GMAT prep offerings here. The post Getting Past a GMAT Score Plateau appeared first on GMAT. |
20 Mar 2020, 07:00
| FROM Manhattan GMAT Blog: How to Review GMAT Practice Questions |
 I got a really interesting question from one of my students this week: “What do you look for in our GMAT review logs?” Backing up a bit: I teach GMAT classes. Every week, my students do GMAT practice questions for homework. Instead of asking them to turn in their scratch paper, I ask my students to create a spreadsheet where they log every one of these practice questions, which I call a “review log.” In addition to logging the quantitative data (problem number, time spent, right vs. wrong, etc.), I ask my students to write notes in three different categories: (a) “What went well?,” (b) “What didn’t go well?,” and (c) “What do I want to remember for next time?” I also tell them that any discussion of accuracy or time is irrelevant unless it’s tied to content, so for example, “I got this problem right” is not an acceptable answer to “What went well?” On the other hand, “Noticing that I could divide both sides by x since I was told x≠0 allowed me to get this problem right” is a very good answer. There’s one other thing I look for too though, and it’s a little less obvious. I look for future applicability of the notes. This is probably best demonstrated through example, so let me give you a fairly straightforward example of a sentence correction problem that I’ve pared down to two choices instead of the usual five: GMAT Practice Question 1: Xavier drove to the store and bought the last bunch of bananas in the produce section. (A) store and bought (B) store, buying Not much suspense here: (A) is the superior option. And because you likely came up with that answer quickly, you may be tempted to also make your notes quickly and be done with it. But before you move on, remember to think about future applicability. To help explain what I mean, I asked some of my students to write a review log entry on this problem. Here were their notes: Student #1: “I noticed the difference between using ‘and’ and just using a comma, and the ‘and’ was better. I have definitely seen differences like this before, so I will make sure to keep an eye out for and vs. comma in the future, since it was helpful in this problem.” Student #2: “I correctly thought about meaning while doing this problem. The word ‘and’ in the first choice is creating a list of things that Xavier did, while the word ‘buying’ starts a modifier. I know that comma + -ing modifiers are usually adverbial. So I tried to figure out whether this is a list of things that Xavier did, or whether buying bananas describes how Xavier drove. It’s definitely the first, not the second, so (A) is correct. Next time I see “and” vs. comma + -ing, I will check whether the list or the modifier makes more sense to use in that situation. A couple comments: first, Student #2 did not just pull all of this info directly from her brain. She actually asked for a copy of the “All the Verbal” book that we provide our course students while she was working so that she could look up the “Modifiers” subchapter where -ing modifiers are discussed, a subchapter that she had clearly seen before. She wanted to make sure she was remembering the rule correctly before committing it to her spreadsheet. Second, there’s nothing incorrect about student #1’s notes: everything he wrote is true, and he is right to say that this kind of difference between answer choices will probably show up again. All that said, you can probably see where I’m going with all of this. The last thing I did as part of this exercise was give each student a second problem: GMAT Practice Question 2: Yvonne kicked the football and launched it 50 meters down the pitch. (A) football and launched (B) football, launching Which student do you think got it right? Go read student #1’s notes; nothing there prepared him for this second problem. In fact, he got this one wrong, because he just figured that the version with “and” was right the first time, so he just went for that one again. Student #2, on the other hand, thought about the meaning being created by each choice, and noticed that the phrase “launching it 50 meters” actually is additional info about Yvonne’s kick, and is not just an additional item in a list of things that Yvonne did. And by the way, if you’re an American like I am, you might not know that much about this kind of football, so that phrase after the comma is helpful because it makes it clear that 50 meters is a very strong kick (i.e. a “launch”). So (B) is the better choice here, which student #2 realized because her notes from the first problem had more future applicability. The takeaway here is that every GMAT problem you study needs to prepare you in some way, however small, for a future problem that you’ll actually see on the real test, and if it doesn’t, you’ve wasted your time. I won’t lie to you: creating notes with future applicability takes extra work. You have to read problem explanations multiple times. You will have to use your books as reference tools. You will probably spend 5 times as long reviewing the problem as doing the problem in the first place. You won’t get through nearly as many problems each day. But the future applicability of your review process is what really makes a difference on test day, and it’s what I look for in my students’ review logs every single time. NEXT: Getting Past a GMAT Score Plateau 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.  Ryan Jacobs is a Manhattan Prep instructor based in San Francisco, California. He has an MBA from UC San Diego, a 780 on the GMAT, and years of GMAT teaching experience. His other interests include music, photography, and hockey. Check out Ryan’s upcoming GMAT prep offerings here.The post How to Review GMAT Practice Questions appeared first on GMAT. |
23 Mar 2020, 16:00
| FROM Manhattan GMAT Blog: My GMAT Was Cancelled. Now What? |
 As you no doubt know by now, many GMAT testing centers are currently closed as a result of the pandemic. How do you keep getting ready for the GMAT despite not knowing when you’ll actually be able to take it? I had a class that ended on March 10th; many of my students had already booked their exams and are now finding themselves in the unenviable position of having to extend their studies for a potentially indeterminate length of time. I’ll be sharing with you the same thoughts that I shared with them. First: We’ll keep our blog and other communication channels updated, but you can also go straight to the source: the mba.com website. Both our page and the official one will keep you up to date on test center closures (and, eventually, reopenings) and any other news that will help you to plan. I’m really stressed out right now. Me, too. Even in the best of times, it’s stressful to get ready for these kinds of exams—and of course you’re even more stressed right now. (It’s also normal to feel like you shouldn’t be stressed out about this when there are much bigger things going on in the world…even though you are still stressed out about it.) Take a deep breath, as deep as you can. Breathe through your nose (so that it takes a long time) and let it out slowly. Loosen up your clenched abdominal muscles. Your plan has changed, yes, but you can still move forward in general. I’ll address various scenarios below but first I have a question for you: Do you have more time on your hands right now or less time? If your work or family commitments mean that you have a lot less time to think about the GMAT right now, I’d recommend one of two paths: Postponement or Maintenance Mode. What’s Postponement? Put your GMAT studies 100% on hold until you have the bandwidth to think about this again. Don’t give it a second thought—you have my permission. I’ve already recommended this to one of my students, based on that person’s circumstances. And what about Maintenance Mode? This is for those who are too busy right now but think they will be able to pick back up in a month or so and don’t want to lose the progress they’ve made. Don’t try to learn new material or even improve your existing skills; your goal during these weeks is not to get better. Your goal is simply not to lose skills. If you choose Maintenance Mode, plan to spend about 3 to 4 hours a week studying. Try a few of each problem type (timed!)—this is a great time to re-do some problems from your error log. Do some skill drills out of Foundations of Math or Foundations of Verbal, as needed. Review flash cards. One more note: The world has changed and it makes sense to reevaluate your prior decisions in light of that. Think back to whenever you made the decision to study for the GMAT this year. If you’d known then what you know right now, would you still have chosen to take the GMAT now? If the answer is no or probably not, then rip the bandaid off: Skip Maintenance Mode and go straight to Postponement. You can pick things up again later this year or next year. What if, instead, you have the same time—or even more time—to focus on the GMAT now? Read on. I was planning to take the exam this summer or fall. Carry on. At the moment, you don’t need to worry about planning anything any differently than you would have if you had taken the GMAT last year at this time. I was going to take the exam in the next month or two. What do I do now? You likely fall into one of two broad categories. Category 1: I think I need more time… If you’d already been thinking that you could use more time, then assume you won’t take the exam before May or June and make a plan to lift your score or rededicate yourself to your studies, just as you would have done in normal times. It’s common for people to push back their original test date. Category 2: I was feeling good; I was almost ready to go… If, on the other hand, your score is about in the range that you want and you were almost ready to go, then we have to talk about how to stretch out your studies—even though you don’t know exactly how long you need to take. It’s annoying. But humans have a pretty good track record of adapting. We’ll figure this out. As of this writing, GMAC’s website is showing some appointments available in later April and in May, depending on location. If you haven’t already booked (or re-booked) your appointment, go ahead and register. (Yes, it’s possible that your new date will have to get pushed out, but it’s still a good idea to have a date to give you something to work toward.) (Yes, it’s possible that your new date will have to get pushed out, but it’s still a good idea to have a date to give you something to work toward.) What do I do with the extra time? The general study path for everyone is to work at improving your skills (and, therefore, your score) until you get yourself up into your desired scoring range. Then, spend the last 10 to 14 days training to “peak on game day”—like an athlete trying to peak on the day of the gold-medal match. We’re not going to change that Game Planning period—it’ll still be your last 10 to 14 days. We’re going to add your extra time to the “Lift My Score” period. Let’s say that you’d originally planned to take the real test in 3 weeks but you’ve rescheduled for 6 weeks from now, so you’ve got an additional 3 weeks of study time. You’ll still reserve your final 2 weeks for game planning, leaving you 4 weeks of primary study time. What do you do with that 4 weeks? If you are in Category 1 (need more time) First, think about why you need more time. If you’ve found that your prior study hasn’t been as effective as you’d like, or you weren’t studying as much as you’d intended, use this as an opportunity to rededicate yourself to your studies. What wasn’t working for you before? What can you do differently in the coming weeks to help yourself work better? Ask friends, fellow students, and teachers for advice as well. Next, two to four weeks is enough time to do one full Lift My Score cycle. One cycle consists of taking a practice test, analyzing it to categorize your strengths and weaknesses (more below), and then making a 2-3 week study plan based on your analysis. Start by, analyzing the data from your most recent practice test (if it’s been more than 3-4 weeks, you may want to take another) and figure out what your priorities should be right now. Put everything into one of three buckets:
If you are in Category 2 (pretty good to go already) If you’ve been studying, say, 12 to 15 hours a week, one option is to cut your time in half—that is, spread that time out over two weeks instead. You can still make real progress in 6 to 8 hours per week. Alternatively, intersperse some Maintenance Mode weeks with your full study weeks to stretch the time out. So take a Maintenance Mode week this week (and maybe practice some mindfulness to get some equilibrium back into your life), then do a full study week next week. What if this stretches further than that? It’s true that it might. Nobody can predict how this is going to play out—and it’s likely to play out in different ways in different locations. I’m a planner by nature, so I fully get the urge to want to have the path all mapped out. Sometimes, though, it’s good to plan just for what we know right now and to defer decisions that can be deferred. Make your best call now and, once we know what’s actually happening in a few weeks, we’ll adjust as needed. (Feel free to tell me about your situation and ask me for my opinion on our forums.) I’ll repeat something I said earlier. We’re human. We’re going to figure this out. Now go do a GMAT problem and then teach it to your cat, dog, partner / roommate / child, or anyone you can get to listen to you on Facetime. Good luck and happy studying! RELATED: Coronavirus GMAT Accommodations and Updates 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.  Stacey Koprince is a Manhattan Prep instructor based in Montreal, Canada and Los Angeles, California. 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. Check out Stacey’s upcoming GMAT courses here. The post My GMAT Was Cancelled. Now What? appeared first on GMAT. |
24 Mar 2020, 06:00
| FROM Manhattan GMAT Blog: My GMAT Was Canceled. Now What? |
|
As you no doubt know by now, many GMAT testing centers are currently closed as a result of the pandemic. How do you keep getting ready for the GMAT despite not knowing when you’ll actually be able to take it? I had a class that ended on March 10th; many of my students had already booked their exams and are now finding themselves in the unenviable position of having to extend their studies for a potentially indeterminate length of time. I’ll be sharing with you the same thoughts that I shared with them. First: We’ll keep our blog and other communication channels updated, but you can also go straight to the source: the mba.com website. Both our page and the official one will keep you up to date on test center closures (and, eventually, reopenings) and any other news that will help you to plan. I’m really stressed out right now. Me, too. Even in the best of times, it’s stressful to get ready for these kinds of exams—and of course you’re even more stressed right now. (It’s also normal to feel like you shouldn’t be stressed out about this when there are much bigger things going on in the world…even though you are still stressed out about it.) Take a deep breath, as deep as you can. Breathe through your nose (so that it takes a long time) and let it out slowly. Loosen up your clenched abdominal muscles. Your plan has changed, yes, but you can still move forward in general. I’ll address various scenarios below but first I have a question for you: Do you have more time on your hands right now or less time? If your work or family commitments mean that you have a lot less time to think about the GMAT right now, I’d recommend one of two paths: Postponement or Maintenance Mode. What’s Postponement? Put your GMAT studies 100% on hold until you have the bandwidth to think about this again. Don’t give it a second thought—you have my permission. I’ve already recommended this to one of my students, based on that person’s circumstances. And what about Maintenance Mode? This is for those who are too busy right now but think they will be able to pick back up in a month or so and don’t want to lose the progress they’ve made. Don’t try to learn new material or even improve your existing skills; your goal during these weeks is not to get better. Your goal is simply not to lose skills. If you choose Maintenance Mode, plan to spend about 3 to 4 hours a week studying. Try a few of each problem type (timed!)—this is a great time to re-do some problems from your error log. Do some skill drills out of Foundations of Math or Foundations of Verbal, as needed. Review flash cards. One more note: The world has changed and it makes sense to reevaluate your prior decisions in light of that. Think back to whenever you made the decision to study for the GMAT this year. If you’d known then what you know right now, would you still have chosen to take the GMAT now? If the answer is no or probably not, then rip the bandaid off: Skip Maintenance Mode and go straight to Postponement. You can pick things up again later this year or next year. What if, instead, you have the same time—or even more time—to focus on the GMAT now? Read on. I was planning to take the exam this summer or fall. Carry on. At the moment, you don’t need to worry about planning anything any differently than you would have if you had taken the GMAT last year at this time. I was going to take the exam in the next month or two. What do I do now? You likely fall into one of two broad categories. Category 1: I think I need more time… If you’d already been thinking that you could use more time, then assume you won’t take the exam before May or June and make a plan to lift your score or rededicate yourself to your studies, just as you would have done in normal times. It’s common for people to push back their original test date. Category 2: I was feeling good; I was almost ready to go… If, on the other hand, your score is about in the range that you want and you were almost ready to go, then we have to talk about how to stretch out your studies—even though you don’t know exactly how long you need to take. It’s annoying. But humans have a pretty good track record of adapting. We’ll figure this out. As of this writing, GMAC’s website is showing some appointments available in later April and in May, depending on location. If you haven’t already booked (or re-booked) your appointment, go ahead and register. (Yes, it’s possible that your new date will have to get pushed out, but it’s still a good idea to have a date to give you something to work toward.) (Yes, it’s possible that your new date will have to get pushed out, but it’s still a good idea to have a date to give you something to work toward.) What do I do with the extra time? The general study path for everyone is to work at improving your skills (and, therefore, your score) until you get yourself up into your desired scoring range. Then, spend the last 10 to 14 days training to “peak on game day”—like an athlete trying to peak on the day of the gold-medal match. We’re not going to change that Game Planning period—it’ll still be your last 10 to 14 days. We’re going to add your extra time to the “Lift My Score” period. Let’s say that you’d originally planned to take the real test in 3 weeks but you’ve rescheduled for 6 weeks from now, so you’ve got an additional 3 weeks of study time. You’ll still reserve your final 2 weeks for game planning, leaving you 4 weeks of primary study time. What do you do with that 4 weeks? If you are in Category 1 (need more time) First, think about why you need more time. If you’ve found that your prior study hasn’t been as effective as you’d like, or you weren’t studying as much as you’d intended, use this as an opportunity to rededicate yourself to your studies. What wasn’t working for you before? What can you do differently in the coming weeks to help yourself work better? Ask friends, fellow students, and teachers for advice as well. Next, two to four weeks is enough time to do one full Lift My Score cycle. One cycle consists of taking a practice test, analyzing it to categorize your strengths and weaknesses (more below), and then making a 2-3 week study plan based on your analysis. Start by, analyzing the data from your most recent practice test (if it’s been more than 3-4 weeks, you may want to take another) and figure out what your priorities should be right now. Put everything into one of three buckets:
If you are in Category 2 (pretty good to go already) If you’ve been studying, say, 12 to 15 hours a week, one option is to cut your time in half—that is, spread that time out over two weeks instead. You can still make real progress in 6 to 8 hours per week. Alternatively, intersperse some Maintenance Mode weeks with your full study weeks to stretch the time out. So take a Maintenance Mode week this week (and maybe practice some mindfulness to get some equilibrium back into your life), then do a full study week next week. What if this stretches further than that? It’s true that it might. Nobody can predict how this is going to play out—and it’s likely to play out in different ways in different locations. I’m a planner by nature, so I fully get the urge to want to have the path all mapped out. Sometimes, though, it’s good to plan just for what we know right now and to defer decisions that can be deferred. Make your best call now and, once we know what’s actually happening in a few weeks, we’ll adjust as needed. (Feel free to tell me about your situation and ask me for my opinion on our forums.) I’ll repeat something I said earlier. We’re human. We’re going to figure this out. Now go do a GMAT problem and then teach it to your cat, dog, partner / roommate / child, or anyone you can get to listen to you on Facetime. Good luck and happy studying! RELATED: Coronavirus GMAT Accommodations and Updates 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. Stacey Koprince is a Manhattan Prep instructor based in Montreal, Canada and Los Angeles, California. 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. Check out Stacey’s upcoming GMAT courses here. The post My GMAT Was Canceled. Now What? appeared first on GMAT. |
17 Apr 2020, 09:00
| FROM Manhattan GMAT Blog: The GMAT Online: What to Expect |
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You can take the GMAT online! The test will be available from Monday April 20th until (at least) Monday June 15th; GMAC, the organization that makes the GMAT, will reevaluate the timeline as we get closer to June. I’ll be taking the GMAT Online myself on April 20th (the first day it’s available) and will update this post in the 24 hours after that. In the meantime, here’s what we already know. So…what’s up with this online whiteboard? Really? I’m starting here because this is what everybody’s talking about. For test security reasons, GMAC isn’t allowing us to use physical scratch paper. We have to use an online whiteboard tool during the test. I understand why they’re doing this, and I can even appreciate it at one level. I don’t want anyone stealing questions and selling them to other people—that cheapens my score and all of my hard work. I also don’t want business schools deciding that they’re going to “discount” scores for tests taken online because the security is more lax. So, at that level, I’m really glad that GMAC takes test security very seriously. But…I’m also pretty nervous about taking the test with this online whiteboard thing. I’m not great with technology; I’m really not sure how much it’s going to affect my ability to take the test. It’s true that I’ve been teaching online for many years and I’ve gotten pretty good at drawing on a whiteboard with my finger on a trackpad—but the pace of class is slower and less relentless than problem after problem after problem on the test. Here’s the great news: My coworkers are awesome. Our dev team, in particular my colleagues Brian Kennedy, Sam Cross, and Irman Ahmetovic, built a replica of the GMAT Online’s whiteboard tool so I can practice! And you can, too. We’ve put the tool in all of our Atlas syllabi, including our free GMAT Starter Kit syllabus. If you’ve got any type of Atlas syllabus, the Manhattan Prep online whiteboard tool is already waiting for you on the CAT exam page. Note: You have to be logged in already for that link to work. (If you don’t yet have an Atlas account, sign up for a free account and you’ll get access to both the online whiteboard and a free practice CAT exam.) I only have four days to practice before I have to take the GMAT Online and I’m worried that it’s not going to be quite enough time. I’d recommend that you give yourself more like one to two weeks of daily practice—but I’ll update this recommendation after I take the test on Monday and see what it’s like. Maybe it will be better than I’m thinking. (In fact, I’ve played with our whiteboard tool for a couple of hours now, and there is at least one big thing that’s actually better than physical scratch paper.) When can I take the GMAT Online? From Monday April 20th to Monday June 15th, the GMAT Online will be available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. (I’m signed up for noon eastern time on Monday.) Test-takers who are approved for extended time (1.5x or 2x) or extended breaks will be able to take the exam starting in early to mid-May (exact date still to be announced). A live proctor will monitor your exam. You will need to give the proctor control over your computer and you will be video- and audio-recorded for the entire exam. You can find more on tech requirements later in this post. At this time, you can take the GMAT Online only once. This exam will not count toward the maximum-5-tests-in-12-months limit or the 8-test lifetime limit. If the GMAT Online continues past June 15th, it’s possible that GMAC will revisit the only-one-online-test restriction. You’ll pay $200 (a $75 discount from the regular price in the US) to take the GMAT Online. Your fee also allows you to report your scores to up to 5 schools. For the GMAT Online, you do not have to choose those 5 schools in advance of your test; you can choose them after you see your scores. (More on this in a bit.) I’d already signed up for an in-person exam but it was canceled. If you are currently registered for an in-person exam, you cannot directly transfer that registration to the online exam, but you can cancel your in-person exam (for a full refund) and then separately register for the GMAT Online. Is the test itself the same? The GMAT Online is mostly the same, but the AWA (essay) section has been dropped. The three other sections—Quant, Verbal, and Integrated Reasoning—haven’t changed at all and the scoring is also the same (though of course you won’t get an essay score). Everyone will take the second of the three possible test orders: You’ll start with Quant, then go straight into Verbal. Then, you’ll get a 5 minute break and finish up with Integrated Reasoning. The total test time will be about 2 hours 45 minutes, including the break. GMAC also says to expect about 10 to 15 minutes for the check-in and test security process at the beginning, so plan for a 3-hour testing experience. When will I get my scores? You won’t get to see your scores at the end of the test, as is usually the case for the GMAT; instead, you’ll receive your scores via email about a week after the test. You can wait until you receive your scores to choose the five schools to which you want to send those scores, without paying anything extra. You also won’t get to choose to keep or cancel your scores—you have to keep them. But, in a recent webinar, GMAC also said that these scores will be kept in a separate database from the usual score database for exams taken in a testing center and that you can give schools access specifically to your GMAT Online scores. It’s possible that this might mean that you can choose whether to release these scores, after you’ve seen them—that is, you might be able to decide to choose no schools for your GMAT Online scores and, separately, to choose schools to receive your “taken in a test center” scores (assuming you have scores from a test-center-based GMAT). I hope this is the case but I’m not sure. I’ve sent in a question to GMAC and will update you when I hear back. How is the GMAT Online actually going to work? You can take the exam on a Mac or PC. You’ll need a webcam with speaker audio; you can’t use a headset or earbuds. You can’t use a second monitor, a tablet with stylus, or any other external device. Here’s a full list of the system requirements. You’ll have to show that you’re in a room alone, and software will be listening for any sounds that might indicate the door is opening, someone is walking by, someone else is talking, etc. If they detect anything, they may ask you to pan your webcam to prove that nobody is in the room with you. If a security breach is detected, your test will be ended and your score canceled. Except for the break, you have to stay within the webcam’s field of view for the entire exam. If you leave the field of view, your test will be ended and your score canceled. If you do have a tech issue during the exam, you can talk or chat to your proctor at any time. GMAC has said that there is some resilience built into the platform; if you are briefly disconnected or your machine freezes, for example, your exam will be able to continue from the point at which you were interrupted. If a continuation is not possible (e.g., you lose power for an extended time), GMAC’s security team will review the recording; assuming that the tech issue is verified, the test-taker will be allowed to test again for free. (In this case, you will have to start again from the beginning—this is no different than the test center losing power and you having to come back on a different day.) A Future Case Study Coming to a B-School Near You? Big picture: GMAC is very clearly calling this an interim, temporary measure. Some of the restrictions in fact seem designed to encourage most people to wait until they can get back into a regular testing center. You would expect a company that is losing lots of revenue to this pandemic to want everyone to start using the service and paying money immediately. Right? But that is really not the approach that GMAC seems to be taking. If anything, they appear to want only those who truly need to take the exam right now to take it. I respect that they’re not willing to loosen test security, even though I am torn because I’m really nervous about the online whiteboard. So let us be your guinea pigs. We’ll have more for you about everything after we’re able to take the exam ourselves next week. Wish me and my colleagues luck! And if you think that you will or may take the GMAT Online, start practicing with the whiteboard tool, a little bit every day. Make today your first day. Good luck and happy studying! RELATED: How to Use the GMAT Online Whiteboard Tool for the GMAT Online (link coming soon!) 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. Stacey Koprince is a Manhattan Prep instructor based in Montreal, Canada and Los Angeles, California. 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. Check out Stacey’s upcoming GMAT courses here. The post The GMAT Online: What to Expect appeared first on GMAT. |
17 Apr 2020, 09:00
| FROM Manhattan GMAT Blog: How to Use the GMAT Online Whiteboard Tool for the GMAT Online |
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Have you heard that you’re not going to be able to use physical scratch paper when you take the GMAT Online? Yes, it’s true; you have to use an online whiteboard for all of your scratch work. But here’s one piece of great news: You can practice with the whiteboard ahead of time. Our amazing tech team replicated the online whiteboard tool used to take the GMATTM Online Exam so you can practice in advance of the test. If you have any type of syllabus with us, including a free syllabus, you’ll find the tool already on your CAT exam page. If you don’t have a syllabus, sign up for a free account and you’ll get access. We’ll be taking the exam as soon as it’s available and will update our recommendations when we know more. Right now, we recommend spending at least a week—ideally, closer to two—practicing daily with the whiteboard tool before you take the exam. One caveat: Our team replicated the tool from a single screen shot released by GMAC, the organization that makes the test. We’ve built it on the same open source platform as the real thing, so we think it’s pretty close, but we’ll know for sure after we take the GMAT Online on April 20th, the first day it’s available. As we have more information, we’ll update the tool and this post. Ready to get started? If you already have a syllabus of ours, log in and navigate to the CAT exam page or just click this link (you have to be logged in already for this link to work). If you don’t have a syllabus with us, create a free account, log in, and that link will work for you, too. (You get one free CAT exam with a free account.) How the whiteboard works Let’s go! Here’s a short primer that explains how to use each tool, in order from top to bottom and left to right; you can also watch me using the tools. You’ll probably use the Pen and Text tools the most. Tool How to Use  Pencil. (Called Pen in GMAC’s screen shot.) Write or draw anything you want. You can choose a thickness; set it to one of the smaller settings. You can also change colors.  Eraser. You can choose a thickness; set it to the greatest setting.  Line. Draw straight lines. Can also make dashed lines and arrows. Use when it’s important to have perfectly straight lines; otherwise, just use the pen tool. Time management is A Thing.  Rectangle. Use for geometry or when you want to make a box or grid.  Circle. Use for geometry or Venn diagrams.  Text. Use this for notes on Verbal and IR, for constraints on math problems. If you have a relatively straightforward equation, it may be faster to type it than to write it out.  Polygon. (Called Free Shape in the GMAC screen shot.) This tool is a little harder to use, but if you like it, use it to make triangles or other shapes that aren’t circles or rectangles.  Pan. (Called Move in the GMAC screen shot.) The whiteboard is very large (it appears to be infinite!). This allows you to pan around—eg, look at timing guidelines you wrote at the top, or keep panning down / right as you answer more questions.  Eyedropper. (Called Color Selection in the GMAC screen shot.) Ignore.  Change the color of your drawing or writing.  Fill a shape with a certain color. Unlikely that this will be useful.  Change the background color of the whiteboard. Choose your desired color at the beginning. Probably ignore after that.  Undo a change or redo. If you accidentally delete something, you can bring it back. If you make a mistake or have a stray mark on the screen, undo it.  The whiteboard size appears to be very large / effectively infinite. First, zoom out, draw a quick grid to organize your work for that section, and then zoom back in to start your first problem. You can essentially do all of your scrap work on a single “sheet” of paper. We’ll have more specific recommendations after we take the exam ourselves.  Clear the entire whiteboard at once. Unlikely to use this during a section (more on this below), though we’ll have a better opinion after we take the exam. Tips for getting the most out of the whiteboard tool As we learn more about the exam—especially after we’ve taken the real thing—we’ll add more strategies for using the whiteboard. Here’s what we have so far. (Any reference to a specific tool will capitalize the name of the tool.) First, plan not to Clear the whiteboard during one entire section of the exam. This allows you to jot down some notes or set up a timing grid at the beginning and not lose that info as you continue through that section. You can drag the whiteboard around, so when you don’t need it, just drag it out of the way and concentrate on the problem text on the screen. Pull it back over when you do want to use it. Time management and organization Zoom Out all the way. Grab the Pen and draw a grid on screen. (I’m going to describe it in words right now, but we’ll have a graphic for you early next week.) Draw three horizontal lines, splitting the screen roughly evenly into four horizontal sections. Then draw seven vertical lines, again splitting the screen into roughly eight equal vertical sections. You’ve now got an 8 by 4 grid, or 32 spaces, for your 31 quant problems. Go to the bottom right corner (stay Zoomed Out). At the bottom right, write 0. Move one column to the left and write 8; move another column to the left and write 16. Keep going, counting up by multiples of 8, until you get to the first column, which you’ll label 56. You’ve just recreated our usual Yellow Pad time management strategy that you may have already been practicing for an in-person exam. Finally Zoom In to the upper left corner of your grid—you’ll need to use a combination of Zoom and Pan as you Zoom In—until you have one “cell” or working space showing on your whiteboard. Start working on your first problem. When you’ve finished that first problem, use Pan to move down one “cell” to do your second one. When you get to the bottom of that column, check your time, then move up to the top of the next column. Note: It definitely takes some practice to get used to how the Zoom and Pan features work. Concentrate on the Pen and Text Tools Most of your scratch work will use these two tools. The balance of your time will depend on whether you feel more comfortable writing or typing in this thing—I’m doing a mix of both. I’m typing words, of course, and I’m also using it for “straightforward” math (for example, x = 3 or a linear equation such as 3x + y = 42). When the math is more annoying, I grab the Pen tool. Using color I’m still playing around with the color feature. There are some interesting possible uses, but I also then have to change the color, which takes an extra second, so I’m not sure I’ll bother. I’ll have a final verdict in a few days, but here are some things I’m trying out:
You can use the whiteboard while taking one of our practice CATs. Be sure to choose test order #2: Quant, Verbal, Integrated Reasoning. Skip the Essay section. Don’t take a break between Quant and Verbal. Take a 5-minute break between Verbal and Integrated Reasoning. My colleagues are also practicing with the whiteboard tool, so we’ll powwow next week after a few of us take the official test and have more for you soon. (I’m scheduled for noon on Monday—the first day.) In the meantime, get some practice in every day—I’m already feeling somewhat better about it after having used the whiteboard for just a couple of days. Good luck! RELATED: The GMAT Online: What to Expect 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. Stacey Koprince is a Manhattan Prep instructor based in Montreal, Canada and Los Angeles, California. 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. Check out Stacey’s upcoming GMAT courses here. The post How to Use the GMAT Online Whiteboard Tool for the GMAT Online appeared first on GMAT. |
28 Apr 2020, 05:23
19 May 2020, 14:00
| FROM Manhattan GMAT Blog: 5 GMAT Math Problems You Can Solve Without Doing Any Math |
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[img]https://cdn2.manhattanprep.com/gmat/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2020/05/gmat-math-problems-solving-1024x536.png[/img] [b]What’s the point of [url=https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog/whats-tested-on-gmat-math/]GMAT Math[/url]? It’s often used as a proxy for testing something else entirely.[/b] Here’s a question I love to ask at the beginning and end of the GMAT classes I teach: “What do you think the GMAT is really testing you on?” In the first class, I tend to get a lot of responses about math and reading skills. By the last class, when I ask the exact same question, I tend to get many more responses about time-management, decision-making, pattern-recognition… and all kinds of other things that don’t really have anything to do with math or verbal skills. Sure, it’s in your interest to brush up on your quant, grammar, and all the content on the GMAT. But beneath all of that, most GMAT test-takers discover that there’s something else going on that’s more important than a content checklist. Take math on the GMAT, for example. If the test-makers were really interested in testing your pure quant skills, they could certainly concoct a test with some calculus or advanced statistics on it. Instead, they opted to cap the content at around 10th-grade level material covered in any high school math class. I recently retook the SAT exam as an adult after years of teaching the GRE and GMAT. (Sometimes you’ve got to do strange things when you’re a test prep instructor. What can I say?) I discovered I actually had to re-learn content for that test that I’d forgotten because the GRE and GMAT don’t test it. I’m not going around doing math for fun in my spare time, so I’m honestly pretty rusty on anything beyond the GMAT and GRE. I don’t think that makes the GMAT an easier test than the SAT, though. As a long-time high school teacher, I’ve occasionally slipped some problems from the GMAT into my 10th-grade classroom as a thinking exercise. I found that even though my students knew the content, they were baffled about how to solve the problems. The GMAT is hard. But it’s not hard because the level of math content is high. It’s hard because the test-makers are using high-school math as a proxy for testing all that other stuff: your pattern-recognition, your decision-making, your ability to spot easy and hard ways to do something. It’s probably a big reason why business schools want you to take the test in the first place. It’s definitely part of why my high-schoolers struggle with those questions: these are skills that don’t get fully strengthened until later in life. And it also gives us the ability to do something kind of fun: solve the problems without actually doing any of the math at all. If you realize that “high school math” is just a disguise for all that other stuff, you can often strip away the math and do the problems without it. Below I’ve listed 5 problems that you can solve without actually doing the math. GMAT Math-less Math Tip #1: Eliminate the crazy ones and test whatever remains. Here’s a GMAT Problem-solving question. Glance at the answer choices. Try to find at least one crazy one that couldn’t possibly be correct. [img]https://cdn2.manhattanprep.com/gmat/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2020/05/gmat-math-problem-1024x779.png[/img] Answer choice E would triple the length of one side! Even without fiddling with the other side, we’d already have tripled our area, but with an increase on the width too, we’re way off the charts. Answer choice D doubles the length of the 100 foot side on the left. That alone would double the area. Increasing the other side as well just pushes this one further over the edge. Both of these answer choices can be eliminated without doing the math—just by noticing the scale of the increase. With three answer choices remaining, here’s another tip—it’s often easiest to think about the one in the middle as a benchmark. How about 50? Would that be too much? Too little? Or just right? If you can answer that question, you’ve solved the problem by elimination and you don’t actually need to calculate any areas. Our original area would be 100 x 150. If we increased each side by 50, the new area would be 150 x 200. Write that the other way around and the change is easier to see: 200 x 150 If you compare those two expressions, you’ll notice that they’re identical—except we’ve doubled the 100 portion. That should double your area. B is therefore correct and we don’t actually have to try any of the others. Here’s the cool thing about this strategy. Compare it with what the “textbook math” would have looked like: The initial area was 100 x 150 = 15,000. Double that and you get 30,000. Set up some algebra (100 + w)(150 +w) = 30,000… and you’re in for a world of hurt. That creates a quadratic with huge coefficients. Even with a lot of practice solving these things, it took me a while to get it this way. I’d argue that not only can we solve this problem without doing the math, but that doing the math is the trap they’ve set for us. GMAT Math-less Math Tip #2: Leave it to the lemmings. There’s a whole question type on the GMAT practically built upon the idea that you don’t actually have to do the math. In Data Sufficiency questions, you only have to determine: “can it be done?” Take a look at this one, for example: [img]https://cdn2.manhattanprep.com/gmat/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2020/05/gmat-math-problem-2-1024x737.png[/img] A) Statement (1) ALONE is sufficient, but statement (2) alone is not sufficient B) Statement (2) ALONE is sufficient, but statement (1) alone is not sufficient C) Both statements TOGETHER are sufficient, but NEITHER statement ALONE is sufficient D) EACH statement ALONE is sufficient E) Statements (1) and (2) TOGETHER are NOT sufficient If you hate doing algebra or solving word problems, don’t fret, you don’t actually have to do either here. Just think about what you have and what you want. We know our friend Arturo spent a total of 12,000 on his home costs. As a New Yorker, this makes me insanely jealous, by the way. That’s just a few months rent in a studio apartment in my city. *sigh* Anyway, here’s the info they gave us: 12,000 = Total of Mortgage + RE Taxes + HO Insurance And here’s the question: how much of that was real estate taxes? Before you look at the statements, think about what you’d need to solve it. If we knew what part of the pie chart was made up of RE taxes, we’re golden. If we had any kind of information that could allow us to make an equation, we hypothetically could do so. (And we actually will not, because… that’s not the point of data sufficiency.) As soon as you realize it can be solved, leave that to the underlings. You’re training for a management position, right? The goal here is to figure out whether the problem can be solved, and then pass it off to the army of calculator-wielding workers ready to do your bidding. The first statement tells us: (RE taxes and HO insurance) = 33 ⅓ % of Mortgage We might be able to set up an equation to determine how much he spent on mortgage payments, but RE taxes and HO insurance are inconveniently lumped together. Even if we could find a dollar value for how much they cost together, we wouldn’t know if that was 99% tax and 1% insurance… or vice versa.) This statement is insufficient on its own. The second statement tells us: RE Tax = 20% of (Mortgage + HO insurance) This one looks like a mirror image of the first statement, but notice how the real estate tax isn’t lumped together with anything else here. We could hypothetically set up some proportions, create an equation, and solve for that piece, so this one is sufficient. The answer is B. By the way, if you want to go one step further, that’s fine: Mortgage insurance + HO insurance = x RE Tax = .2x .2x + x = 12,000 But if you are going down this road, stop there. You could solve for x. And x would give you the real estate tax. Leave it to the lemmings rather than finish the math yourself. Seconds are precious here, and we’ve got other problems to get to! GMAT Math-less Math Tip #3: When the GMAT talks to you like a robot, restate the question like a human being would say it. Here’s an interesting question. By the way, if the percent of test-takers who answered it correctly is an indication, it’s brutally difficult. [img]https://cdn2.manhattanprep.com/gmat/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2020/05/gmat-math-problem-3.jpg[/img] A) Statement (1) ALONE is sufficient, but statement (2) alone is not sufficient B) Statement (2) ALONE is sufficient, but statement (1) alone is not sufficient C) Both statements TOGETHER are sufficient, but NEITHER statement ALONE is sufficient D) EACH statement ALONE is sufficient E) Statements (1) and (2) TOGETHER are NOT sufficient Similar to the prior two questions, this one can be done without any math. Stranger yet, I don’t think there is a way to do it that does involve math. The difficulty here is in ripping through the robotic jargon to figure out what on Earth they’re asking for in the first place. Once you understand that, the concept is simple: “Min” means pick the smallest. “Max” means pick the biggest. In other words: min(big number, small number) = small number max(big number, small number = big number They want to know min(10, w). There are really two scenarios here. If w is 10 or larger, our answer is 10. If w is the smaller of the two numbers, we need to know what w is. With that in mind, take a look at each statement. (1) w = max(20, z) In other words, w is the bigger out two things, 20 or z. We don’t know how big z is, but it doesn’t really matter. If it’s bigger than 20, we don’t really care. If it’s smaller than 20, then w is 20. Either way, w is bigger than 10, so we have our answer. Both scenarios put w at 20 or larger… so min(10, w) has got to be 10. Now take a look at the second statement: (2) w = max(10, w) The logic is a little strange here, but hear me out: If w was smaller than 10, then it would be the bigger out of w and 10… which would make it 10. That doesn’t make any sense. If w is the bigger out of 10 and w, it has to be at least 10. Similar to the first statement, we don’t really care exactly what w is, because the problem is already solved. w is at least 10, so min(10, w) has got to be 10. Because either statement is sufficient to answer the question, the answer to this question is D: EACH statement ALONE is sufficient Before you move on to the next question, reflect a little bit about the devious mind that wrote this question. They’re literally just asking you to identify the bigger or smaller out of two things. And yet, the question hides that behind strange notation and discussions of integers. It’s like a team of mathletes trying to exclude anyone that doesn’t understand their arcane language. I think a big key to getting this question is refusal to be intimidated by that jargon. There’s actually not much hiding behind it. Speaking of what lurks behind the curtain… GMAT Math-less Math Tip #4: Sometimes there really is no math at all behind the Wizard’s Curtain. Here’s one that certainly looks like a math problem. The fractions and addition symbol are practically begging you to grab some paper and start finding a common denominator. But hold on one second and ask yourself whether you really need to do that. [img]https://cdn2.manhattanprep.com/gmat/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2020/05/gmat-math-problem-4.jpg[/img] Notice the phrase “closest to.” If you ever see that (or any synonyms like “approximately”), the test makers are giving you a hint that you don’t need to solve. Estimation is fine. In fact, you probably shouldn’t actually solve it. By the way, you need to have some math ideas in your head to be able to estimate, but you don’t necessarily need to put them into action. Here’s a quick key: 0 divided by anything is 0 As denominators get bigger, fractions get smaller. A fraction divided by a fraction tells you to flip and multiply. In other words, dividing something by ⅕ is the same thing as multiplying it by 5. Now take those ideas and jump back to the question above. Answer choice E goes out the window immediately. There’s no zero on top of this fraction. ⅞ is pretty close to 1. 1/9 is tiny. Add them together and we should get something close to 1. 1 divided by ½ means that the top of our fraction is going to get doubled. That’s pretty close to answer choice A, which ends up being correct. Compare that with the textbook math: ⅞ + 1/9 = 63/72 + 8/72 = 71/72 Now take that and divide it by ½ 71/72 [img]https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/2.4/72x72/2797.png[/img] 1/2 = 71/72 x 2/1 = 142/72 Reduce that by dividing top and bottom by 2: = 71/36 And we’re at a dead end. We could pull out long division and start getting into decimals, or we could revert to what we should have done in the first place: estimate. The top of the fraction is pretty much double the bottom part, so the answer is approximately 2. It makes me sweat thinking about all of the time that could have been wasted doing arithmetic here. Notice the theme? If they give you some annoying math to do, find a way to do anything else instead. GMAT Math-less Math Tip #5: Each elimination earns you a fraction of a point. Check this one out: [img]https://cdn2.manhattanprep.com/gmat/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2020/05/gmat-math-problem-5.jpg[/img] The strategies discussed in this article don’t just apply to the easy question on the test. In fact, this one is a doozy. That said, I think we can still spot at least two answers to rule out immediately. There is a lot of hot garbage thrown at you in this question, meant to distract you from the issue at hand: we’re mixing two mixes together, each one with a certain amount of ryegrass, and we’re given the overall percent of ryegrass that comes out. Not that you ever did this in college, but imagine this problem was talking about mixing a vile drink—say high-proof shot and a low-proof liqueur. A shot has a much higher percent alcohol than the liqueur. When we mix the two together, the percent alcohol is somewhere between the two. In this problem, we’ve got a high-ryegrass mixture (X) and a low-ryegrass mixture (Y). When we mix the two together, our percent ends up somewhere in between. Just like the vile drink concoction, the end result is swayed by the strength and size of each component that goes in. Picture it on a line: [img]https://cdn2.manhattanprep.com/gmat/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2020/05/gmat-math-problem-6-1024x329.png[/img] Which do we have more of? Well, our overall mixture looks a lot more like Y, so there’s got to be more Y than X. X is less than half of the mixture, so it needs to be less than 50% of the total. Conveniently, that eliminates two answer choices: D and E If you want to go a little deeper in your elimination on this problem, label the gaps like so: [img]https://cdn2.manhattanprep.com/gmat/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2020/05/gmat-math-problem-7-1024x507.png[/img] Think about the skew here. Are we almost entirely tipped toward substance Y? No, it’s more like ⅔ the way over. So X has got to be more than 10 percent of the mixture. And if you noticed that we’re dealing with thirds here, there’s only one answer choice it could be: B) 33% If that feels like a stretch, don’t worry about it. Like I mentioned before, this is a monstrously tough problem. That said, consider what happened with each elimination you made. Each question on the GMAT has 5 answer choices. That means, of course, that a random guess has a 20% chance of being right. You can think of guesses as earning you ⅕ of the credit of solving a problem on average. Now think about how that math changes if you’re able to eliminate some obviously wrong answers. Eliminate one answer and you have a ¼ chance of guessing correctly—25% Eliminate two answers and your odds are 33% Eliminate three and you’re at 50% In other words, you earn 20% of the credit by guessing randomly. And you earn an additional 5%, 8%, and 17% of the credit for the question with each respective elimination. I do think this is a problem where you can eliminate yourself all the way to the correct answer. But I also think that this level of elimination was tough to do. If you were able to figure out which substance you had more of, though, you got your odds to 33% on this question. And if you realized answer choice A was too heavily skewed, you got yourself to 50%. That last nudge is a tough one, and if you’re able to make it, great! But if not, you’ve already drastically increased your guessing odds. [b]To Sum it up…[/b] In case any of you are wondering, these problems are closer to the norm than to the exception. When writing this blog entry, I opened my Official Guide and began listing out potential problems I could write about. After I filled 3-4 pages with a list of around 50 problems and the ways to do them without math, I just had to cut myself off. I’d encourage you to skim through your Official Guide and hunt for some of your own. Even if you theoretically could do the math, it’s a good exercise to think about ways you could avoid it. And if I do see you in the first session of a trial GMAT class, I’ll be sure to ask you what problems you found and what you think they’re really testing you on. Now get out there and avoid some math! [b]Don’t forget that you can attend the first session of any of our online GRE courses absolutely free. We’re not kidding! [/b][url=https://www.manhattanprep.com/gre/classes/free/][b]Check out our upcoming courses here[/b][/url][b].[/b] [img]https://www.manhattanprep.com/gre/wp-content/uploads/sites/19/2020/01/tom-anderson-gre-hacks.png[/img] [url=https://www.manhattanprep.com/instructors/tom-anderson/][b]Tom Anderson[/b][/url][b] is a Manhattan Prep instructor based in New York, NY.[/b] He has a B.A. in English and an M.S. in education. Tom started his teaching career as a New York City Teaching Fellow and is currently a Math for America Fellow. Outside of teaching the GRE and the GMAT, he is an avid runner who once (very unexpectedly) won a marathon. [url=https://www.manhattanprep.com/gre/classes/#instructor/53]Check our Tom’s upcoming GRE prep offerings here.[/url] The post [url=https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog/math-problems-without-math/]5 GMAT Math Problems You Can Solve Without Doing Any Math[/url] appeared first on [url=https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat]GMAT[/url]. |
15 Jun 2020, 21:00
| FROM Manhattan GMAT Blog: EMBA vs. MBA: What’s the difference? |
 Did you know that we offer an Executive Assessment Masterclass? In one weekend, we’ll give you the tools you’ll need to ace the EA and take your career to the next level. At some point in their career, many professionals decide to pursue a business degree. And these aspiring candidates often wonder, “Would I be a better candidate for an Executive MBA or a traditional MBA?” You may be pondering this issue yourself as you try to make the right decision to advance your career. In this post, we present some of the fundamental differences between the EMBA and MBA to help you clarify your options. EMBA vs. MBA Difference #1: Years of Experience As the term “executive” would imply, Executive MBA, or EMBA, programs are intended and specifically designed for individuals with advanced managerial experience. Although what exactly defines “executive experience” can differ from school to school, most programs offer some basic guidance about what they seek, often stipulating a minimum number of years of experience and offering an expected range of 12–15 years. (Be sure to check each school’s website for specific requirements.) On the other hand, students at traditional MBA programs tend to have an average of five to six years of experience, though in some rare cases, schools even admit new or emerging college graduates who have no full-time managerial experience at all. Clearly, the expectations for an applicant’s level of professional “seasoning” are quite different, with EMBA programs demanding a more extensive career and a more profound background. EMBA vs. MBA Difference #2: Quality of Experience Both EMBA programs and traditional MBA programs value diversity of experience, which goes beyond simply “time served.” If you are applying to an EMBA program, do not expect that an acceptance letter is guaranteed just because you have achieved the school’s expected years or level of experience. EMBA programs generally want to see evidence of advanced and increasing leadership and responsibility—managing people, overseeing budgets, making strategic decisions. In short, EMBA admissions committees want people who are already making a noticeable impact in the workplace. In contrast, traditional MBA programs are more lenient on this point; the schools are essentially wagering that you have the drive and potential to develop into a strong leader and to have a clear impact in the future. EMBA programs expect that kind of development to have already occurred and want to help you fill any voids you might have in your skill set so that you can reach an even higher level of achievement. EMBA vs. MBA Difference #3: Sponsorship MBA students who are “sponsored” have all or part of their business school tuition paid by their current employer. Sponsorship is both more common at and more valued by EMBA programs; the vast majority of traditional MBA applicants do not have such support. For example, 58% of Columbia Business School’s EMBA Class of 2017 had either full or partial sponsorship, and the Wharton EMBA website claims that approximately 70% of its applicants are fully or partially sponsored. In some ways, sponsorship is seen as an indicator of potential and can facilitate an admissions decision. By offering to pay a candidate’s full tuition and allow him or her time away from work to study, a firm is telling the admissions committee, “We believe in this applicant!” That said, if you plan to pursue an EMBA and do not have firm sponsorship, you can take comfort in knowing you are not alone—after all, 42% of Columbia’s most recent EMBA class succeeded without it! EMBA vs. MBA Difference #4: Structure Most leading U.S. MBA programs require roughly 21 months of full-time study, starting in late summer or early fall. EMBA programs have various start dates, program lengths, and expectations for commitment. Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business, for example, offers two EMBA programs: a 19-month weekend program that meets in Durham, North Carolina, on alternating Fridays and Saturdays, and a 16-month Global EMBA program that involves four different global residencies as well as distance learning. So whereas traditional MBA programs can generally be compared on a relatively apples-to-apples basis, EMBA programs need to be considered more individually. Be sure to examine each option carefully to understand how it would fit into your work and even personal life, given that travel (including international!) may be required. Although we have outlined a few major differences between these types of programs, one aspect remains the same: whether you enroll in an EMBA program or a traditional MBA program, you will graduate with an MBA degree. Some candidates worry that because an EMBA does not require a full-time commitment, the degree is not well regarded, but this could not be further from the truth—and clearly, the companies sponsoring EMBA students would disagree. From an institutional perspective, the EMBA and the MBA represent the same standard of educational excellence and academic achievement. You just need to determine which one is right for you. Have you decided on an EMBA? Sign up for our efficient and comprehensive Executive Assessment Masterclass!  mbaMission is the leader in MBA admissions consulting with a full-time and comprehensively trained staff of consultants, all with profound communications and MBA experience. mbaMission has helped thousands of candidates fulfill their dream of attending prominent MBA programs around the world. Take your first step toward a more successful MBA application experience with a free 30-minute consultation with one of mbaMission’s senior consultants. Click here to sign up today.The post EMBA vs. MBA: What’s the difference? appeared first on GMAT. |
16 Jun 2020, 08:00
| FROM Manhattan GMAT Blog: EMBA vs. MBA: What’s the difference? |
|
Did you know that we offer an Executive Assessment Masterclass? In one weekend, we’ll give you the tools you’ll need to ace the EA and take your career to the next level. At some point in their career, many professionals decide to pursue a business degree. And these aspiring candidates often wonder, “Would I be a better candidate for an Executive MBA or a traditional MBA?” You may be pondering this issue yourself as you try to make the right decision to advance your career. In this post, we present some of the fundamental differences between the EMBA and MBA to help you clarify your options. EMBA vs. MBA Difference #1: Years of Experience As the term “executive” would imply, Executive MBA, or EMBA, programs are intended and specifically designed for individuals with advanced managerial experience. Although what exactly defines “executive experience” can differ from school to school, most programs offer some basic guidance about what they seek, often stipulating a minimum number of years of experience and offering an expected range of 12–15 years. (Be sure to check each school’s website for specific requirements.) On the other hand, students at traditional MBA programs tend to have an average of five to six years of experience, though in some rare cases, schools even admit new or emerging college graduates who have no full-time managerial experience at all. Clearly, the expectations for an applicant’s level of professional “seasoning” are quite different, with EMBA programs demanding a more extensive career and a more profound background. EMBA vs. MBA Difference #2: Quality of Experience Both EMBA programs and traditional MBA programs value diversity of experience, which goes beyond simply “time served.” If you are applying to an EMBA program, do not expect that an acceptance letter is guaranteed just because you have achieved the school’s expected years or level of experience. EMBA programs generally want to see evidence of advanced and increasing leadership and responsibility—managing people, overseeing budgets, making strategic decisions. In short, EMBA admissions committees want people who are already making a noticeable impact in the workplace. In contrast, traditional MBA programs are more lenient on this point; the schools are essentially wagering that you have the drive and potential to develop into a strong leader and to have a clear impact in the future. EMBA programs expect that kind of development to have already occurred and want to help you fill any voids you might have in your skill set so that you can reach an even higher level of achievement. EMBA vs. MBA Difference #3: Sponsorship MBA students who are “sponsored” have all or part of their business school tuition paid by their current employer. Sponsorship is both more common at and more valued by EMBA programs; the vast majority of traditional MBA applicants do not have such support. For example, 58% of Columbia Business School’s EMBA Class of 2017 had either full or partial sponsorship, and the Wharton EMBA website claims that approximately 70% of its applicants are fully or partially sponsored. In some ways, sponsorship is seen as an indicator of potential and can facilitate an admissions decision. By offering to pay a candidate’s full tuition and allow him or her time away from work to study, a firm is telling the admissions committee, “We believe in this applicant!” That said, if you plan to pursue an EMBA and do not have firm sponsorship, you can take comfort in knowing you are not alone—after all, 42% of Columbia’s most recent EMBA class succeeded without it! EMBA vs. MBA Difference #4: Structure Most leading U.S. MBA programs require roughly 21 months of full-time study, starting in late summer or early fall. EMBA programs have various start dates, program lengths, and expectations for commitment. Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business, for example, offers two EMBA programs: a 19-month weekend program that meets in Durham, North Carolina, on alternating Fridays and Saturdays, and a 16-month Global EMBA program that involves four different global residencies as well as distance learning. So whereas traditional MBA programs can generally be compared on a relatively apples-to-apples basis, EMBA programs need to be considered more individually. Be sure to examine each option carefully to understand how it would fit into your work and even personal life, given that travel (including international!) may be required. Although we have outlined a few major differences between these types of programs, one aspect remains the same: whether you enroll in an EMBA program or a traditional MBA program, you will graduate with an MBA degree. Some candidates worry that because an EMBA does not require a full-time commitment, the degree is not well regarded, but this could not be further from the truth—and clearly, the companies sponsoring EMBA students would disagree. From an institutional perspective, the EMBA and the MBA represent the same standard of educational excellence and academic achievement. You just need to determine which one is right for you. Have you decided on an EMBA? Sign up for our efficient and comprehensive Executive Assessment Masterclass! mbaMission is the leader in MBA admissions consulting with a full-time and comprehensively trained staff of consultants, all with profound communications and MBA experience. mbaMission has helped thousands of candidates fulfill their dream of attending prominent MBA programs around the world. Take your first step toward a more successful MBA application experience with a free 30-minute consultation with one of mbaMission’s senior consultants. Click here to sign up today.The post EMBA vs. MBA: What’s the difference? appeared first on GMAT. |
16 Jun 2020, 15:00
| FROM Manhattan GMAT Blog: Math on the Executive Assessment |
 The Executive Assessment (EA) shares a lot of roots with the GMAT, GMAC’s flagship graduate business school exam. In certain ways, the Executive Assessment feels almost like the GMAT on steroids—it’s even more stereotypically GMAT-like than the GMAT itself, if that’s possible. One of those ways has to do with the way in which you can solve math problems. Most of the same math content areas are tested on the Executive Assessment, but a higher proportion of released Executive Assessment problems share a certain characteristic: You can use general “Fast Math” principles to make your job much easier—and you can do even more with the overall Fast Math idea on the Executive Assessment. Here’s the overall idea: Don’t do math that you don’t have to. Don’t do math until you have to. Before you actually do something you think you need to do, lay it out and ask yourself what the best path is through the math—giving heavy consideration to estimation and other shortcuts. Let’s try some problems out and see how this really works! All problems in this series are from the free problem sets that appear on the official Executive Assessment website. EA Math Practice Question #1 Give yourself two minutes to complete this first problem. As of September 2017, it appeared as question 2 in the free online Quant Problem Solving problem set. The table below represents the combined net income of all United States companies in each of five sectors for the second quarter of 1996. Which sector had the greatest net income during the first quarter of 1996?  (A) Basic Materials (B) Energy (C) Industrial (D) Utilities (E) Conglomerates Got your answers? Even if you’re not sure, guess—that’s what you want to do on the real Executive Assessment, too, so practice that now (even if your practice consists of saying, “I have no idea, so I’m randomly picking B!”). Ready? Let’s do this! The first order of business is to understand what the question wants and what the table tells you. There are 5 sectors. Each one shows a certain net income for the second quarter and then a percent change from the first quarter. What’s the significance of a negative vs. positive percent change? Think in terms of real business. If your division had a net income of 4.83 billion this quarter, but that represents a –26% change from last quarter…then last quarter was better and this quarter your boss might not be very happy. Okay, now what do they want to know? Which sector had the greatest net income in the first quarter… hmm. So we’re going to have to backwards-engineer this somehow. Start by jotting down the starting point for each sector and whether that one was higher or lower in the first quarter: BM: 4.83, –26%….Q1↑ E: 7.46, +40%…….Q1 ↓ I: 5, –1%……………..Q1 ↑ U: 8.57, +303%..Q1 ↓ C: 2.07, +10%…….Q1↓ They want to know which one was the highest once we back out the numbers. Sector C is already the lowest by far and it was even lower last quarter, so it’s not that one. Eliminate answer (E). Sector I only went down by 1% in the second quarter, so basically it was still at about 5 in the first quarter. Call that your baseline point and test the other answers against it. Was Sector BM above or below 5 in the first quarter? The 4.83 figure reflects about a 25% decline from the previous quarter.  If 4.83 represents about a 25% decline from Q1, then it represents about 75% of Q1. Use this to estimate the value for Q1: If the 4.83 figure is about 75%, then what would 25% be? You would divide 75% by 3 to find 25%, so do the same with the value 4.83. 4.83 is kind of annoying to divide. Try a number that seems like it’s in the ballpark, like 1.5. (1.5)(3) = 4.5, so the value is around 1.5 (but really a little larger). The 1.5 estimate, then, is on the low side. Keep track of that.  Then, multiply by 4 to find 100%: (1.5)(4) = 6. The value is really a little larger than 6, since 1.5 is a low estimate. Therefore, sector BM, at 6+, was more than sector I, at 5; eliminate answer (C). Your new baseline point is 6+. Test the remaining answers against this number. The other two sectors were both lower in Q1. For sector E, 7.46 reflects a 40% increase from Q1. What if the starting number for this sector were 6? What would a 40% increase be? 6 + 40% of 6 To find 40%, find 10%, then multiply by 4. Then add your starting point of 6 back in: (6)(0.1) = 0.6 (0.6)(4) = 2.4 6 + 2.4 = 8.4 If Q1 were 6, then this sector would have been at 8.4 in the second quarter. It wasn’t; it was only at 7.46. Sector E, therefore, was not as high as sector BM, so eliminate choice (B). Finally, sector U started at 8.57, but that represented a whopping 303% increase over Q1! If you started at 6 and increase that number by 300%, it would be way over 8.57. Sector U also must have started lower than 6, so eliminate choice (D). The Basic Materials sector is the last one standing. The correct answer is (A). You could have done all of the above with very precise calculations—but that’s really annoying when you don’t have access to a calculator or Excel. Note that you didn’t actually have to make very precise calculations because the problem was set up to allow you to estimate even though it didn’t tell you that you could. The beauty of the Executive Assessment is that this is a business test, not a math test. They’re not interested in knowing whether you can do precise math calculations on paper. They’re interested in knowing whether you have a general number sense that allows you to reason your way to a conclusion—we call that the “back of the envelope” approach. All my boss really needs to know is which division did best last quarter, not what the exact numbers were, so I can just do a quick-and-dirty approach that addresses the big picture. Key Takeaways for Executive Assessment Fast Math (1) You often don’t need to calculate exact values. Look for opportunities to estimate and do back-of-the-envelope calculations wherever possible. (2) You’re going to need to practice that! First, you need to get yourself into the mindset that the Executive Assessment isn’t a math test and you actually aren’t just trying to calculate, calculate, calculate. Second, you’re going to need to spend time thinking about how to back-of-the-envelope something in various different situations. (3) Turn that knowledge into Know the Code flash cards:  EA Math Practice Question #2 Here’s another Executive Assessment problem from the official free practice set (this one is labeled #3 in the PS set on the Executive Assessment website, as of September 2017): According to the table below, the number of fellows was approximately what percent of the total membership of Organization X?  (A) 9% (B) 12% (C) 18% (D) 25% (E) 35%” Before we dive in, what principles do you remember from our discussion of the first Executive Assessment problem? Think about it. Keep thinking about it. Don’t read below yet. Okay, here are some things I remember.  Don’t do math unless / until I have to. If I do have to do some calculations, lay things out first, then look at everything to decide what the best path is (and to see whether I can spot any shortcuts!). These principles are reflected in the below graphic:  When a new Executive Assessment problem first pops up, I glance: What have I got, big picture? Without reading the full text, I can see the following things: a table…with some fairly annoying numbers. Also, the answers are percentages, so this is a percent problem of some kind. The annoying numbers are making me wonder whether I’ll be able to estimate. I’m going to keep an eye out for that possibility as I go to my next step, Read. Yep, it’s a percent problem. What do they want? Jot it down.  Don’t start solving yet! Go to the second row: Reflect & Organize.  Glance at the Fellows number. Annoying. And then the total? I have to add that up. Ugh. Look at the answers again. The bottom three are decently far apart—estimation would probably be close enough. (A) 9% (B) 12% (C) 18% → 20% = 1/5 (D) 25% → 25% = 1/4 (E) 35%” → 33.3% = 1/3 But answers (A) and (B) are both around 10%…hmm. I know! If it does seem to be between those two, then I can estimate whether the number is greater than 10% or less than 10%—that’s not a hard estimate to make. Great, now that I actually have an angle to solve, I can go ahead and do the work. Oh, wait, one more annoying part to consider: adding up the five numbers to get the total. I only need to estimate, so I can estimate the individual numbers, first of all. I can also try to put them together into “pairs” that add up to “nice” numbers. Okay, let’s do this. The first one is 78, which is almost 100. Look for another number that would “pair” well with 100: how about Associate Members, at 27,909? Add them up to get about 28,000, a “nice” number. Any others?  9,200 and 2,300 equal 11,500, another nice-ish number. That leaves 35,500—oh, let’s pair that with 11,500 to get an even 47k. Then add in the 28k to get about 75k. Nice! Now, the top of the fraction is the 9,200 number. Maybe 9k is close enough. What’s 9k / 75k? Or 9 / 75? Reflect for a moment again. Dividing that fraction is kind of annoying. I’m trying to find a percent. Percent literally means “of 100”—wouldn’t it have been nice if the fraction had already had 100 on the bottom? SO annoying that it doesn’t… Hmm… Is there any way to get that number on the bottom to be 100 instead of 75…? What did we do with that 75% in the first problem (in the first installment of this series)? Go back and take a look. (Seriously, go look! See what, if anything, you can figure out on your own before you keep reading.) To go from 75% to 100%, take the 75% figure, divide by 3 to get 25%, then multiply by 4 to get 100%. BUT, if I’m going to do that with the bottom of the fraction, then I have to do the same thing to the top of the fraction. I can manipulate a fraction in any way that I like as long as I do the same thing to the top and the bottom. So, take 9, divide by 3 to get 3, then multiply by 4 to get 12. Boom! The new fraction is 12 / 100. Look at the answers—we have an exact match at 12%. The correct answer is (B). What did you learn on this Executive Assessment problem? Think about your takeaways before you read mine. Key Takeaways for Executive Assessment Fast Math (1) You often don’t need to calculate exact values. Look for opportunities to estimate and do back-of-the-envelope calculations wherever possible. (2) Different problems might have some shortcuts in common; when you learn something on one problem, look for opportunities to apply that learning on different-but-similar-in-some-way problems. The 75% → 100% thing doesn’t require a table or even necessarily a story. It doesn’t even need to be 75% to start—it just requires you to know that you’re trying to get to 100% from a number that’s a little annoying. (3) Turn that knowledge into Know the Code flash cards:  EA Math Practice Question #3 Our final practice question is labeled #4 in the PS set on the Executive Assessment website as of September 2017. “The regular price per can of a certain brand of soda is $0.40. If the regular price per can is discounted 15 percent when the soda is purchased in 24-can cases, what is the price of 72 cans of this brand of soda purchased in 24-can cases? “(A) $16.32 “(B) $18.00 “(C) $21.60 “(D) $24.48 “(E) $28.80” What did you think about this problem? I found it pretty annoying. I mean, sure, I didn’t find it crazy hard to find the 15% discount off of $0.40: 10% of 0.40 is 0.04… another 5% is half of that, or 0.02… so the discount is $0.06… and the discounted price is $0.34 And then I want to buy 72 cans, so it’s just (72)(0.34)…aaagh, but I don’t have a calculator. I refuse to do that out the long way. Seriously! There’s got to be an easier way. Picture this: You’re standing in the convenience store. You want to buy this soda. You’ve just figured out that it’s going to cost you $0.34 a can…and you know you want 72 cans…but you don’t have a calculator on you (your phone died) and you don’t even have pen and paper. Also, you forgot your credit card. (It’s been a long day.) So how are you going to figure out whether you have enough cash on you to buy all 72 cans? That’s not a rhetorical question. Close your eyes, picture yourself there, and try to figure out what you’d do. Thinking? Thinking? Okay, here’s my idea. In the real world, I wouldn’t literally need to calculate to the penny—I’d just need to estimate to make sure I have enough cash. But this is a math test and the answers are down to the penny…so don’t I have to calculate exactly here? Glance at the answers. If the answers had been of the variety $10.01, $10.02, $10.03…, then yes, I’d have to calculate to the penny. But they’re not. They’re each at least a couple of dollars apart, so I can estimate. How? Let’s see. It’s going to cost me $0.34 to buy one can. How many could I buy for a dollar? I can get 3 cans (basically—technically, it’ll cost me $1.02 for 3 cans, but close enough!). So 3 cans for $1…how many do I want again? Oh yeah, 72 cans. So that’s going to cost me about 72 / 3 = $24. Oh. Look at the answers. There’s only one that’s close—answer (D). Done! You can also, by the way, do this same estimation from the math I set up before I got frustrated by my lack of a calculator: (72)(0.34). Just look at it in a different way, now that you’ve realized you can estimate. Since 0.34 is about 1/3, you’re just taking about one-third of 72…it’s the same math! $24. What we just did is classic back-of-the-envelope math. You don’t need an exact number—you just need a quick-and-dirty, good-enough estimate. We certainly weren’t allowed to do that on math tests in school, but the Executive Assessment is not a math test. Well, yes, it is, somewhat. But not in the way that you’re used to from school. We do have to know various math formulas and rules, but the Executive Assessment is really mostly interested in how well you can reason about math. After all, in the real world, you’re never going to be forced to do math on paper without the benefit of Excel or a calculator. But you are going to need to be able to think about mathematical concepts and draw conclusions—not in the “what’s the answer to this math problem” sense, but in a “what should we do about this problem that our division is facing?” sense. So, while the Executive Assessment looks a whole lot like a traditional math test, it really isn’t at all. Most of the time, you can get to the answer through a combination of strategic approaches, like the back-of-the-envelope approach discussed above. That’s what you’re looking to learn and practice as you study for this exam. Key Takeaways for Executive Assessment Fast Math (1) You often don’t need to calculate exact values. Look for opportunities to estimate and do back-of-the-envelope calculations wherever possible. (2) If the numbers in the problem or answers (or both!) seem annoying, there’s probably an opportunity to estimate somewhere. Also, get in the habit of glancing at the answers to see how far apart they are (when they’re just plain numbers)—the farther apart they are, the better the opportunity to estimate. (3) Turn that knowledge into Know the Code flash cards:  *Executive Assessment questions courtesy of the Graduate Management Admissions Council. Usage of this question does not imply endorsement by GMAC. Can’t get enough of Stacey’s GMAT mastery? Attend the first session of one of her upcoming GMAT courses absolutely free, no strings attached. Seriously. Stacey Koprince is a Manhattan Prep instructor based in Montreal, Canada and Los Angeles, California. 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. Check out Stacey’s upcoming GMAT courses here. The post Math on the Executive Assessment appeared first on GMAT. |
17 Jun 2020, 08:00
| FROM Manhattan GMAT Blog: Math on the Executive Assessment |
|
The Executive Assessment (EA) shares a lot of roots with the GMAT, GMAC’s flagship graduate business school exam. In certain ways, the Executive Assessment feels almost like the GMAT on steroids—it’s even more stereotypically GMAT-like than the GMAT itself, if that’s possible. One of those ways has to do with the way in which you can solve math problems. Most of the same math content areas are tested on the Executive Assessment, but a higher proportion of released Executive Assessment problems share a certain characteristic: You can use general “Fast Math” principles to make your job much easier—and you can do even more with the overall Fast Math idea on the Executive Assessment. Here’s the overall idea: Don’t do math that you don’t have to. Don’t do math until you have to. Before you actually do something you think you need to do, lay it out and ask yourself what the best path is through the math—giving heavy consideration to estimation and other shortcuts. Let’s try some problems out and see how this really works! All problems in this series are from the free problem sets that appear on the official Executive Assessment website. EA Math Practice Question #1 Give yourself two minutes to complete this first problem. As of September 2017, it appeared as question 2 in the free online Quant Problem Solving problem set. The table below represents the combined net income of all United States companies in each of five sectors for the second quarter of 1996. Which sector had the greatest net income during the first quarter of 1996? (A) Basic Materials (B) Energy (C) Industrial (D) Utilities (E) Conglomerates Got your answers? Even if you’re not sure, guess—that’s what you want to do on the real Executive Assessment, too, so practice that now (even if your practice consists of saying, “I have no idea, so I’m randomly picking B!”). Ready? Let’s do this! The first order of business is to understand what the question wants and what the table tells you. There are 5 sectors. Each one shows a certain net income for the second quarter and then a percent change from the first quarter. What’s the significance of a negative vs. positive percent change? Think in terms of real business. If your division had a net income of 4.83 billion this quarter, but that represents a –26% change from last quarter…then last quarter was better and this quarter your boss might not be very happy. Okay, now what do they want to know? Which sector had the greatest net income in the first quarter… hmm. So we’re going to have to backwards-engineer this somehow. Start by jotting down the starting point for each sector and whether that one was higher or lower in the first quarter: BM: 4.83, –26%….Q1↑ E: 7.46, +40%…….Q1 ↓ I: 5, –1%……………..Q1 ↑ U: 8.57, +303%..Q1 ↓ C: 2.07, +10%…….Q1↓ They want to know which one was the highest once we back out the numbers. Sector C is already the lowest by far and it was even lower last quarter, so it’s not that one. Eliminate answer (E). Sector I only went down by 1% in the second quarter, so basically it was still at about 5 in the first quarter. Call that your baseline point and test the other answers against it. Was Sector BM above or below 5 in the first quarter? The 4.83 figure reflects about a 25% decline from the previous quarter. If 4.83 represents about a 25% decline from Q1, then it represents about 75% of Q1. Use this to estimate the value for Q1: If the 4.83 figure is about 75%, then what would 25% be? You would divide 75% by 3 to find 25%, so do the same with the value 4.83. 4.83 is kind of annoying to divide. Try a number that seems like it’s in the ballpark, like 1.5. (1.5)(3) = 4.5, so the value is around 1.5 (but really a little larger). The 1.5 estimate, then, is on the low side. Keep track of that. Then, multiply by 4 to find 100%: (1.5)(4) = 6. The value is really a little larger than 6, since 1.5 is a low estimate. Therefore, sector BM, at 6+, was more than sector I, at 5; eliminate answer (C). Your new baseline point is 6+. Test the remaining answers against this number. The other two sectors were both lower in Q1. For sector E, 7.46 reflects a 40% increase from Q1. What if the starting number for this sector were 6? What would a 40% increase be? 6 + 40% of 6 To find 40%, find 10%, then multiply by 4. Then add your starting point of 6 back in: (6)(0.1) = 0.6 (0.6)(4) = 2.4 6 + 2.4 = 8.4 If Q1 were 6, then this sector would have been at 8.4 in the second quarter. It wasn’t; it was only at 7.46. Sector E, therefore, was not as high as sector BM, so eliminate choice (B). Finally, sector U started at 8.57, but that represented a whopping 303% increase over Q1! If you started at 6 and increase that number by 300%, it would be way over 8.57. Sector U also must have started lower than 6, so eliminate choice (D). The Basic Materials sector is the last one standing. The correct answer is (A). You could have done all of the above with very precise calculations—but that’s really annoying when you don’t have access to a calculator or Excel. Note that you didn’t actually have to make very precise calculations because the problem was set up to allow you to estimate even though it didn’t tell you that you could. The beauty of the Executive Assessment is that this is a business test, not a math test. They’re not interested in knowing whether you can do precise math calculations on paper. They’re interested in knowing whether you have a general number sense that allows you to reason your way to a conclusion—we call that the “back of the envelope” approach. All my boss really needs to know is which division did best last quarter, not what the exact numbers were, so I can just do a quick-and-dirty approach that addresses the big picture. Key Takeaways for Executive Assessment Fast Math (1) You often don’t need to calculate exact values. Look for opportunities to estimate and do back-of-the-envelope calculations wherever possible. (2) You’re going to need to practice that! First, you need to get yourself into the mindset that the Executive Assessment isn’t a math test and you actually aren’t just trying to calculate, calculate, calculate. Second, you’re going to need to spend time thinking about how to back-of-the-envelope something in various different situations. (3) Turn that knowledge into Know the Code flash cards: EA Math Practice Question #2 Here’s another Executive Assessment problem from the official free practice set (this one is labeled #3 in the PS set on the Executive Assessment website, as of September 2017): According to the table below, the number of fellows was approximately what percent of the total membership of Organization X? (A) 9% (B) 12% (C) 18% (D) 25% (E) 35%” Before we dive in, what principles do you remember from our discussion of the first Executive Assessment problem? Think about it. Keep thinking about it. Don’t read below yet. Okay, here are some things I remember. Don’t do math unless / until I have to. If I do have to do some calculations, lay things out first, then look at everything to decide what the best path is (and to see whether I can spot any shortcuts!). These principles are reflected in the below graphic: When a new Executive Assessment problem first pops up, I glance: What have I got, big picture? Without reading the full text, I can see the following things: a table…with some fairly annoying numbers. Also, the answers are percentages, so this is a percent problem of some kind. The annoying numbers are making me wonder whether I’ll be able to estimate. I’m going to keep an eye out for that possibility as I go to my next step, Read. Yep, it’s a percent problem. What do they want? Jot it down. Don’t start solving yet! Go to the second row: Reflect & Organize. Glance at the Fellows number. Annoying. And then the total? I have to add that up. Ugh. Look at the answers again. The bottom three are decently far apart—estimation would probably be close enough. (A) 9% (B) 12% (C) 18% → 20% = 1/5 (D) 25% → 25% = 1/4 (E) 35%” → 33.3% = 1/3 But answers (A) and (B) are both around 10%…hmm. I know! If it does seem to be between those two, then I can estimate whether the number is greater than 10% or less than 10%—that’s not a hard estimate to make. Great, now that I actually have an angle to solve, I can go ahead and do the work. Oh, wait, one more annoying part to consider: adding up the five numbers to get the total. I only need to estimate, so I can estimate the individual numbers, first of all. I can also try to put them together into “pairs” that add up to “nice” numbers. Okay, let’s do this. The first one is 78, which is almost 100. Look for another number that would “pair” well with 100: how about Associate Members, at 27,909? Add them up to get about 28,000, a “nice” number. Any others? 9,200 and 2,300 equal 11,500, another nice-ish number. That leaves 35,500—oh, let’s pair that with 11,500 to get an even 47k. Then add in the 28k to get about 75k. Nice! Now, the top of the fraction is the 9,200 number. Maybe 9k is close enough. What’s 9k / 75k? Or 9 / 75? Reflect for a moment again. Dividing that fraction is kind of annoying. I’m trying to find a percent. Percent literally means “of 100”—wouldn’t it have been nice if the fraction had already had 100 on the bottom? SO annoying that it doesn’t… Hmm… Is there any way to get that number on the bottom to be 100 instead of 75…? What did we do with that 75% in the first problem (in the first installment of this series)? Go back and take a look. (Seriously, go look! See what, if anything, you can figure out on your own before you keep reading.) To go from 75% to 100%, take the 75% figure, divide by 3 to get 25%, then multiply by 4 to get 100%. BUT, if I’m going to do that with the bottom of the fraction, then I have to do the same thing to the top of the fraction. I can manipulate a fraction in any way that I like as long as I do the same thing to the top and the bottom. So, take 9, divide by 3 to get 3, then multiply by 4 to get 12. Boom! The new fraction is 12 / 100. Look at the answers—we have an exact match at 12%. The correct answer is (B). What did you learn on this Executive Assessment problem? Think about your takeaways before you read mine. Key Takeaways for Executive Assessment Fast Math (1) You often don’t need to calculate exact values. Look for opportunities to estimate and do back-of-the-envelope calculations wherever possible. (2) Different problems might have some shortcuts in common; when you learn something on one problem, look for opportunities to apply that learning on different-but-similar-in-some-way problems. The 75% → 100% thing doesn’t require a table or even necessarily a story. It doesn’t even need to be 75% to start—it just requires you to know that you’re trying to get to 100% from a number that’s a little annoying. (3) Turn that knowledge into Know the Code flash cards: EA Math Practice Question #3 Our final practice question is labeled #4 in the PS set on the Executive Assessment website as of September 2017. “The regular price per can of a certain brand of soda is $0.40. If the regular price per can is discounted 15 percent when the soda is purchased in 24-can cases, what is the price of 72 cans of this brand of soda purchased in 24-can cases? “(A) $16.32 “(B) $18.00 “(C) $21.60 “(D) $24.48 “(E) $28.80” What did you think about this problem? I found it pretty annoying. I mean, sure, I didn’t find it crazy hard to find the 15% discount off of $0.40: 10% of 0.40 is 0.04… another 5% is half of that, or 0.02… so the discount is $0.06… and the discounted price is $0.34 And then I want to buy 72 cans, so it’s just (72)(0.34)…aaagh, but I don’t have a calculator. I refuse to do that out the long way. Seriously! There’s got to be an easier way. Picture this: You’re standing in the convenience store. You want to buy this soda. You’ve just figured out that it’s going to cost you $0.34 a can…and you know you want 72 cans…but you don’t have a calculator on you (your phone died) and you don’t even have pen and paper. Also, you forgot your credit card. (It’s been a long day.) So how are you going to figure out whether you have enough cash on you to buy all 72 cans? That’s not a rhetorical question. Close your eyes, picture yourself there, and try to figure out what you’d do. Thinking? Thinking? Okay, here’s my idea. In the real world, I wouldn’t literally need to calculate to the penny—I’d just need to estimate to make sure I have enough cash. But this is a math test and the answers are down to the penny…so don’t I have to calculate exactly here? Glance at the answers. If the answers had been of the variety $10.01, $10.02, $10.03…, then yes, I’d have to calculate to the penny. But they’re not. They’re each at least a couple of dollars apart, so I can estimate. How? Let’s see. It’s going to cost me $0.34 to buy one can. How many could I buy for a dollar? I can get 3 cans (basically—technically, it’ll cost me $1.02 for 3 cans, but close enough!). So 3 cans for $1…how many do I want again? Oh yeah, 72 cans. So that’s going to cost me about 72 / 3 = $24. Oh. Look at the answers. There’s only one that’s close—answer (D). Done! You can also, by the way, do this same estimation from the math I set up before I got frustrated by my lack of a calculator: (72)(0.34). Just look at it in a different way, now that you’ve realized you can estimate. Since 0.34 is about 1/3, you’re just taking about one-third of 72…it’s the same math! $24. What we just did is classic back-of-the-envelope math. You don’t need an exact number—you just need a quick-and-dirty, good-enough estimate. We certainly weren’t allowed to do that on math tests in school, but the Executive Assessment is not a math test. Well, yes, it is, somewhat. But not in the way that you’re used to from school. We do have to know various math formulas and rules, but the Executive Assessment is really mostly interested in how well you can reason about math. After all, in the real world, you’re never going to be forced to do math on paper without the benefit of Excel or a calculator. But you are going to need to be able to think about mathematical concepts and draw conclusions—not in the “what’s the answer to this math problem” sense, but in a “what should we do about this problem that our division is facing?” sense. So, while the Executive Assessment looks a whole lot like a traditional math test, it really isn’t at all. Most of the time, you can get to the answer through a combination of strategic approaches, like the back-of-the-envelope approach discussed above. That’s what you’re looking to learn and practice as you study for this exam. Key Takeaways for Executive Assessment Fast Math (1) You often don’t need to calculate exact values. Look for opportunities to estimate and do back-of-the-envelope calculations wherever possible. (2) If the numbers in the problem or answers (or both!) seem annoying, there’s probably an opportunity to estimate somewhere. Also, get in the habit of glancing at the answers to see how far apart they are (when they’re just plain numbers)—the farther apart they are, the better the opportunity to estimate. (3) Turn that knowledge into Know the Code flash cards: *Executive Assessment questions courtesy of the Graduate Management Admissions Council. Usage of this question does not imply endorsement by GMAC. Can’t get enough of Stacey’s GMAT mastery? Attend the first session of one of her upcoming GMAT courses absolutely free, no strings attached. Seriously. Stacey Koprince is a Manhattan Prep instructor based in Montreal, Canada and Los Angeles, California. 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. Check out Stacey’s upcoming GMAT courses here. The post Math on the Executive Assessment appeared first on GMAT. |
17 Jun 2020, 08:00
| FROM Manhattan GMAT Blog: How to Prep for the Executive Assessment |
 Are you figuring out how to study for the Executive Assessment (EA) exam? TheExecutive Assessment was launched in March 2016 to provide a more streamlined version of the GMAT for Executive MBA (EMBA) candidates—but it has grown and is now used for someregular MBAs and other business Master’s programs. First, I’m going to assume that you’re already familiar withthe basics of the Executive Assessment—if not, go read that post I just linked and then come back. I can wait. Next, if you are alreadyfamiliar with the GMAT, then you can jump-start your understanding of the EA by taking a look at a separate post that covers thedifferences between the GMAT and the EA. There aren’t many differences, but they are important. (If you aren’t already familiar with the GMAT, don’t bother to read this post.) Here’s what we’ll cover in this post:
What do I need to learn for the Executive Assessment? You’ll need to learn a decent number of things—many of which will actually be useful in grad school. You’ll need to learn (relearn, really) certain math concepts, principles, and formulas. You’ll also need to learn some grammar (but it’s not too bad). Of course, you’ll need to learn how the EA works, including the different question types (as well as the best ways to approach them) and how to manage your time during the test and make the bestexecutive decisions you can to get the score you need. And you’ll also need to know how to prioritize your studies and set up a good study plan for yourself. Overall, I’d really view your test preparation as your first grad school course. Use this time to get yourself back into a study routine and work out all of the kinks before school starts. Also, just FYI: A majority of your study materials will actually be built for the GMAT, since very few EA-specific study materials exist. (Why? Business case: Right now, only about 5,000 EA exams are given every year. There’s just not enough of a market yet for companies to spend a ton of development money making EA-specific materials. Even the official test makers have not yet published any physical books—all official study materials are digital-only.) It’s fine to use GMAT materials because all of the question types and the vast majority of the content areas are identical; more on this later. What Executive Assessment study materials are available? There are a number of really good resources that you’ll want to use as you get ready for this test. If you take a course, that course should include study materials and a syllabus with specific homework assignments (we have one here at Manhattan Prep). If you study on your own, make sure to take time in the beginning to put together your own syllabus and gather your study resources. The official test makers (GMAC) sell avariety of official study tools, including 4 practice exams (sold in packs of 2), as well as an online bank of 300 practice problems—100 problems for each of the three sections of the exam: Integrated Reasoning (IR), Quant, and Verbal. They also sell an extra tool with 50 IR problems (but not Q or V). If you are familiar with Official Guide books from the GMAT or other grad school exams: There is no equivalent book for the EA. I would definitely get at least 2 practice exams and I’d say most people will want all 4. The 300-problem online bank is also excellent—I highly recommend it. I think most people will be fine with those 300 problems, so I wouldn’t buy the extra IR-only tool to start. But it’s nice to know that it’s there if you want more IR practice. Your official materials will be your practice, but that won’t typically be how you’ll learn how to get better. For that, you’re going to need some materials from test prep companies. I’m obviously biased, so you’ll need to do some research yourself, but I’ll tell you what we’ve got.
How much time do I need to study? This is going to take some effort; the exam is not easy. Neither is grad school, though—and getting ready for this exam will help prepare you for school, too. Plan to spend somewhere between 1 and 4 months getting ready for this exam, depending upon (a) how many hours a week you can devote to your studies, (b) how long it has been since you were last in school (and, in particular, since you last took a math class), and (c) what kind of score you hope to get on the exam. (a) How many hours a week can you devote to your studies?
Setting Up Your Studies Big picture, most people will need to do more work on quant than on verbal or IR to start—just remember that you are going to have to build those skills, too. I’m going to recommend the same general structure that we use in our courses. Begin by gaining a good grounding in the foundational-level material, particularly math topics that you learned when you were 11. Does PEMDAS, aka order of operations, ring a vague bell? Do you remember how to add fractions or solve an equation? It’s deep in your brain somewhere—you just have to remind yourself and do some practice to get the skills back. Give yourself a couple of weeks for this level. (If you take one of our courses, we do build this into the program—but I would recommend signing up for a course that doesn’t start for ~2-3 weeks and then working through as much of the Foundations of Math material as you can before the course starts.) When you need a break from the Quant stuff, familiarize yourself with the different verbal and IR question types and how they work. When you feel okay about your ability to do math on paper again (you don’t have to feel great—just okay), start diving in earnest into the three main strategy guides (IR & Essay, All the Quant, and All the Verbal). Use my earlier guidelines to decide what to prioritize and in what order you want to do things. I don’t recommend doing all of one section of the exam and only then moving on to another section. Your brain actually learns better when you’re moving among topics. (It feels harder that way—but that’s a sign that your brain is actually learning better. It’s like physical activity—you know it was a good workout or game when it actually tires you out a bit.) Plan to study multiple days a week (ideally 4 to 6 days)—it’s far better to do a little every day than to do nothing all week and then try to cram in 6 hours of study on Sunday. Your brain can only learn so much in a day; then it needs to go to sleep and make good memories of everything you learned before you can start to layer more on top. Set up a study calendar that goes something like this: Day 1: Quant (Fractions and Ratios); Verbal (SC) Day 2: Quant (Data Sufficiency); IR (Tables) Day 3: Quant (Percents); Verbal (CR) Day 4: Break Day 5: Quant (review and practice problems); IR (Tables) Day 6: IR and Verbal review and practice problems Day 7: What went well and what needs more work? Set up next week. Plan out specific study appointments (with assignments / topics) for the upcoming week. Have an idea of what you want to do the week after that, but don’t actually plan out the day-to-day until you see how this week goes. You may have to go back over a certain area again—or you may discover that you’re already good at something and can go faster or reallocate some time to a different area. After about a week or two, take a practice test (GMAC sells 4 official practice tests). Spend a couple of days analyzing it after. Pay more attention to the areas you’ve already studied—how did they go? What stuck and what needs a review? For the areas you haven’t studied yet, does your test performance indicate any areas you should prioritize—or de-prioritize? (There are two areas to de-prioritize: The things you’re already good at and the things that you’re really not good at. Don’t spend time learning the hardest material—first, learn the material that’s not as hard for you. You may discover that that gets you to your goal score and you never have to learn the hardest-for-you stuff!) Then, go set up next week’s study plan taking that practice test analysis into account. As you go, continue to take a practice test every couple of weeks—both to gauge how you’re progressing and to help you diagnose your strengths and weaknesses so you can set up an effective study plan for the coming couple of weeks. Practice Under Timed Conditions It’s critically important to do practice problems under test-like conditions, including timing. At heart, the EA is an executive reasoning / decision-making test, even while it tests you on math, logic, and grammar. As you do every day at work, you’re going to have to distinguish between good, mediocre, and bad opportunities and decide how to spend your limited time and mental energy accordingly. Time Management on the Executive Assessment (EA) Each section is 30 minutes long and has either 12 or 14 questions, so you have a bit over 2 minutes, on average, to answer each question. You don’t want to try to answer everything. An average of 2 minutes is just not enough time! I’m actually going to recommend that you plan to bail on 2 or 3 questions per section—guess within the first 15-30 seconds and go spend that precious time elsewhere. If you follow this recommendation, then you can average 2.5 minutes per Quant and Verbal question and a whopping 3 minutes per Integrated Reasoning question. As a reminder, the questions will be split into two panels per section, so you’ll have six or seven problems in each panel. Plan to bail on one question per panel; if you hit a second really annoying problem in one of the panels, give yourself the freedom to bail on one extra question (for a total of three across both panels). Before you go in, have a list of Bail Categories—things you hate and know that you’re not very good at. If you see a question that falls into one of these categories, don’t try to do it. Don’t try to make an educated guess. Don’t even mark it to come back later. Just pick randomly, move on, and forget about this one forever. Bail on these kinds of questions:
What if you’re not sure whether you want to bail? Or maybe you see something that you can do, but you think it will take you longer than average. As you work through any one panel, you’ll be given the option to mark questions to return to later (as long as you are still on that panel). At the end of that panel, you can see a list of any questions you marked and then jump right back to a particular question. This is a great feature as long as you know when and how to use it—and when and how not to use it. First, note that you do need to make a distinction between marking and bailing. When you decide that something isn’t worth doing ever, don’t mark it for later “just in case.” Make the executive decision, put in a random answer, and move on forever. (Do put in a random answer—there’s no penalty for getting something wrong.) Next, when you do decide to mark something, still put in a random answer right now. It’s possible that you might not make it back later, and you don’t want to waste a chance to get lucky. Let’s see how this all plays out section by section. EA Time Management: Integrated Reasoning In IR, bailing on 2 or 3 questions will leave you just 9 or 10 questions to do, so you’ll be answering 4 or 5 questions per panel. You’ll have 30 minutes to do those problems and your goal is to use approximately half the time (15 minutes) for each panel. Now, let’s talk about the ones you do want to mark for a possible later return. First, be stingy. Generally speaking, mark only one per panel; at the most, mark two. You’re not going to have a ton of time left at the end; the last thing you want to do is spend a minute trying to figure out which of 3 marked problems you should actually return to…and then run out of time before you can try any of them. When you mark a question for a possible later return, also put in a random answer right now. You may not actually make it back to this problem later, so it’s better to have a guess locked in, just in case. As I mentioned, there’s no penalty for getting something wrong. Mark these kinds of questions:
The second category is something that is in your brain somewhere, but you’re having trouble pulling up the memory right now. Sometimes, if we set the thing aside for 5 or 10 minutes, our brains will continue trying to figure it out subconsciously and then, when we look at it again, we’ll retrieve the memory: Oh, yeah! This is how to do this problem! How does this play out? The first panel pops up. On your first run through the problems, you’re going to bail fast on one and save one for later, so you’re going to try to answer four. (And maybe you bail on two or save two for later, so you try to answer three.) When you get to the end of the first panel, the test is going to ask whether you’re ready to move to the next one. Glance at the timer, which will be counting down from 30 minutes. How far are you from 15 minutes left? IR questions typically require 2-3 minutes, so we’re going to be pretty strict about timing. If the number is higher than 16, notice how much time you still have before you get to 15, then go to your marked question (or, if you marked two, glance at each quickly and pick one) and get to work. When you’re done, glance at the timer again and decide from there whether to try another problem or to close out this panel and move to the next panel. If you have fewer than 16 minutes left, however, it’s time to move to the next panel. EA Time Management: Verbal and Quant Quant and Verbal will work very similarly, except that you’ll be answering 7 questions per panel rather than 6—so you’ll have a little bit less time per problem, on average. (But Q and V problems are also not as complicated—usually—as IR problems.) Still bail on one problem per panel (and you can bail on one extra in one of the panels). Still mark one problem to come back to (or maybe two). Some Quant and Verbal problems can be answered in 1-2 minutes, so you’ve got a judgment call to make:
If you’re already below the 15-minute mark, give yourself 10 seconds to look at your marked problem. If it falls in the category, “Oh yeah, I remember how to do this now, and it’s something I can do in a minute!” then go for it. Otherwise, move on. If you have more than 15 minutes left, still take a look at your marked problem. If you know how to do it but it’s going to take 2+ minutes, only move ahead if you still have the time to do it and move to the second panel with 15 (or more) minutes left. If you’re blanking on it or you find yourself thinking any variation of, “But I should know how to do this…”—forget about it. Move to the next panel. In sum If you’re coming to the EA from the GMAT, make sure you educate yourself on themajor differences between the two exams. There aren’t many—but you will need to make some adjustments, especially in the area of time management. Plan for a minimum of 4 weeks and probably closer to 6 to 8 (since you have lots of other things going on in your life too, right?). If you need a higher-than-average score or are extra-busy and can’t study much, you may need closer to 3 to 4 months. StudyIR, Verbal, andQuant pretty equally—you’re looking to get fairly even scores across all three sections, as much as possible. If you’re going for an EMBA, your total score goal (as of this writing) is 150+, and if you’re going for a regular MBA, your score goal is 155+—but do some research yourself whenever you are reading this to make sure things haven’t changed. You’re going to want to practice from the official EA tools available—but you’re also going to need some test-prep-company materials to teach you the underlying skills and content for the exam. And you’re going to need to set up a study plan for yourself. Practice time management strategies during practice tests so you’re prepared to make quick decisions about where to spend your brain power on test day. KEEP READING: What the Executive Assessment Really Tests For information about our Executive Assessment Complete Course click here. Stacey Koprince is a Manhattan Prep instructor based in Montreal, Canada and Los Angeles, California. 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. Check out Stacey’s upcoming GMAT courses here. The post How to Prep for the Executive Assessment appeared first on GMAT. |
11 Jul 2020, 07:30
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Hi Generic [Bot],
Here are updates for you:
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Tuck at Dartmouth
AGSM at UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA RIVERSIDE
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