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.

This is not hyperbole. I truly believe that the number one way to raise your score is to have a thorough error log. I have had a number of students who come to me after having gone through most of the Official Guide but who are still struggling to get the scores they want. When I ask, “What do you have to show for doing ALL of these problems?” the answer is often something along the lines of “I’m not sure.” That drives me bonkers! I want you to work smart, not hard. 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.

I’m excited about the problem I have to share with you today in the latest installment of our Know the Code series. ☺ Interest rate GMAT problems can be extremely annoying—you might find yourself spending 4 minutes and still having to guess in the end. So your first decision is whether you even want to tackle these kinds of problems in the first place.

But there are some things you can learn that could make answering interest rate GMAT problems a lot less irritating. Try out this Integrated Reasoning (IR) Two-Part problem from the GMATPrep® free practice exams. (Note: This one is an IR question, but I could absolutely see them testing the same principle on a Quant problem.) 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.

In the previous articles in this series, we developed a critical skill for GMAT probability and combinatorics problems: listing out cases. Let’s start by taking another look at the practice problem from the end of the last article. 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.

Most overlapping sets on the GMAT have two distinct groups. Students take French and/or Spanish (or neither), pianists play either classical and/or jazz (or neither), people like either QDoba and/or Baja Fresh (definitely neither. Chipotle, please)—and for these situations, the familiar, double-set matrix approach works best. Read more

Guess what? 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! If you haven’t seen the earlier installments yet, please start with part 1 and work your way back to me here.

We’ve talked about how to create sets of GMAT problems and how to set your time limit. We haven’t yet discussed what you need to learn from one of these sets before you try another one. 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.

In the previous article in this series, we introduced two big ideas about GMAT probability and combinatorics:

1. Most people find them counterintuitive.
2. The best way to get past that is to list the possibilities.

In this article, we’ll focus more on #2. How do you list out the possibilities in a GMAT probability or combinatorics problem? Let’s try it on a simple probability problem. Read more

Guess what? 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, we talked about all of the basics of creating practice problem sets. Today, we’re going to talk about how to create larger sets that really mimic the GMAT testing experience. (If you haven’t read the first part yet, do start there.)

What are my goals for these larger sets of GMAT problems?

When you’ve made it through your primary review of all study materials (all question types and content areas), you’re ready to start doing larger problem sets: 8, 12, 16. (I’ll tell you later why these are all multiples of 4.)

Your goal is two-fold:

—Test (and continue to build) your skills on all this stuff you’ve been studying.

—Practice your overall business-decision-making skills (in other words, practice under conditions that mimic the real GMAT as closely as possible). 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.

There’s a classic brain teaser called the Monty Hall problem. It’s named after the host of an old-timey TV game show, who used it to confound contestants. He’d present each contestant with three closed doors. Behind one door was a new car, and behind the other two doors were goats.

Monty invited the player to pick one of the three doors. Whichever door the player chose, Monty would then open a different one, revealing a goat, not the car. Then, he would offer the player a choice. If the player wanted, he could switch doors, picking the other unopened door. Or, he could stick with the door he picked in the first place. Whichever decision he made, he would win the prize behind the door he chose. Read more

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

The Scenario in Your Head

I feel like I must have taken math in high school. I mean, it was a requirement, right? So, why don’t I remember any of it? Like, nada. No math exists in this brain. I feel like I need to study math on my own before I embarrass myself in a GMAT class. Once I have a solid foundation, then I’ll take a class. Right??

Um, no. There are a few things wrong with that scenario. Your head is lying to you.
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.

‘Ratios?’ You might be thinking. ‘Those are easy. Pretty sure I get those.’

Wait. Let’s pretend I am the eccentric owner of a pet store, and I sell only two types of pets: rabid donkeys and three-legged mountain lions. In my store the ratio of donkeys to lions is 3:7. What do you know?

‘….That for every 3 donkeys you have 7 lions. Thanks for all the information, weird guy, should I get an external hard-drive so I can back all that up?’

Okay, drop the sarcasm, reader of my invention. When the GMAT gives you a ratio, it actually contains a boatload of information. Take a second and brainstorm what else you can figure out about this pet store. Anything at all.
Read more