A student of mine once emailed me after he took the GMAT. Instead of telling me his score, he wrote, “let’s just say that 4 times my score is a multiple of 88, and 5 times my score is a multiple of 35.”

Can you tell what he got? If not…you may need to work on your GMAT translation skills! Read more

How many GMAT practice tests should you take while studying for the test? GMAT expert Jonathan Schneider weighs in.  Read more

If you’ve ever read any of my articles, then you know how much I harp on the idea that the GMAT is primarily a test of your business decision-making, or executive reasoning, skills. Sure, there’s a bunch of facts and rules you need to know, but you don’t need to be a math or grammar superstar in order to get a good score on the GMAT (even though I know it feels that way sometimes).

You do, though, have to be a GMAT master. Business schools want to know that you are going to be a good executive. You can assess a situation rapidly, noticing positive and negative factors that may affect how you want to move forward in that situation. You make appropriate decisions most of the time and you follow through: if you decide that a particular product line needs to be cut, you make that cut. You don’t dribble in another million dollars because you’re reluctant to let go. In short, you can manage your scarce resources (time, money, people) masterfully.

The GMAT is the same game, though your scarce resources on the test are time and mental energy. As such, it is crucial to approach the test as a series of business decisions, not a school test.

How do you take the test with a business mindset? Glad you asked! Read on. Read more

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

Welcome to part 5 of our series on how to answer every single GMAT problem you’ll ever see. ? If you haven’t already read the earlier installments, start with part 1 and work your way back to me.

Last time, I left you with a Critical Reasoning question from the free questions that come with the GMATPrep® software. Let’s talk about it! Read more

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

Welcome to the fourth installment of our series on how to tackle every single GMAT problem. If you’re joining in the middle, go back and learn about the set of principles that tie together everything we need to do on the GMAT. Then work your way back to this installment.

Here’s our framework again: Read more

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

Welcome to part 3 of our series on how to answer every single GMAT problem you’ll ever see. ? If you haven’t already read the earlier installments, start with part 1 and work your way back to me.

This time, we’re going to test out the process with a GMATPrep® Sentence Correction question from the free exams. Here you go: Read more

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

Last time, I introduced you to a set of principles that tie together everything we need to do on the GMAT.

If you haven’t already read that article, go ahead and do so now. Read more

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

Wouldn’t it be nice to have one common thread among every single GMAT problem you’ll ever do, something you do no matter what kind of problem or content area is being tested?

I’m here to answer your prayers. ? Read more

Now that the new 2016 GMAT Official Guide books are out, I’d like to talk about how to use these problems to get the most out of your study. I also want to talk about what not to do, as a lot of people end up essentially wasting these great study problems (not to mention valuable time!).

What should I NOT do?

Your goal is to learn from the GMAT Official Guide (OG) problems in such a way that, if you see something similar on the real test, you’ll recognize what to do on that new problem.

Keep some things in mind:

1. Your goal is NOT to memorize how to do the problems that you’re studying. You won’t see these exact problems on the test! Can you tell me exactly how to do a particular problem? That’s great. But I care far more whether you can tell me how you know what to do and why you want to take the steps that you take. If you can, then you’ll know how to think your way through a new problem on the real test.
2. Your goal is NOT to try to get everything (or even most problems) right. Sometimes, what you want to recognize fairly quickly is that you should guess immediately and move on. Other times, you want to recognize that your best strategy is to spend some time making an educated guess—and then move on. Still other times, you’ll have to be able to recognize that you initially thought you could do this one but it’s just not happening, so you’ll need to cut yourself off, guess, and move on.

Read more

Distractions are bad. Routine, concentration, and hard work are good. These all seem like common-sense rules for studying, right? Surprisingly (for many people, at least), learning science tells us that these “good GMAT study habits” may actually be hurting your learning process! Read more