If you are either considering applying or already in the process of applying to business school, you may have come across something called the Business Writing Assessment or BWA. But not everybody needs to do it—keep reading to find out whether you need to and, if so, how to do a great job!

(If you already know you need to do this and are looking for materials to help you prepare, jump down to the final paragraph for instructions on how to download our completely free guide to the Business Writing Assessment.)

What Is the Business Writing Assessment?

The BWA is a 30-minute essay test created by the makers of the GMAT (GMAC) to test a business school applicant’s writing ability. Harvard Business School and MIT’s Sloan School of Management have announced that they will require the BWA for applicants who make it to the interview stage. It’s possible that some other schools will decide to use the BWA in future; check the websites of the schools to which you’re planning to apply to see whether your target schools are also introducing the BWA. (As of today, we haven’t heard of any other major programs announcing that they’ll use the BWA.)

But can’t programs judge my writing ability from my application essays? 

Well, programs can judge someone’s writing ability from those essays, but they don’t necessarily know whether those essays are yours, or your consultant’s, or ChatGPT’s! The BWA is essentially a security check, to make sure that you are the one who wrote your essays. In the past, MBA programs used the GMAT’s essay component (known as the Analytical Writing Assessment, or AWA) for this purpose, but because the GMAT no longer contains this component of the exam, a couple of schools requested that GMAC create a separate writing task. If you take the GRE instead of the GMAT, you will not be asked to take the BWA (the GRE currently has its own writing section; if that changes in future, then you might have to take the BWA).

Is the BWA Required If I Take the GMAT?

Currently, the programs that require the BWA only ask you to take it if you are invited to interview. And even if you are applying to one of the programs that has asked some students to take the BWA, don’t take the BWA unless or until they ask you to do so. No need to burden yourself with yet another task unless you really have to. 

As strange as it sounds, getting asked by programs to take the BWA is actually a good thing because it means you’ve been invited to interview! Interviews are held over the course of a few weeks for each application round, and you won’t need to complete the BWA before the interview, so you will have at least several weeks to prepare for the assessment. And your prep won’t take a lot of time.

How much does the BWA cost?

It costs $30 per attempt. You can attempt it as many times as you want, and you can receive a full refund if you cancel your assessment at least 24 hours in advance.

How Do I Prep for the BWA?

Prepping for the BWA is relatively straightforward, and far less stressful than prepping for the GMAT. Plan to allot between 5 and 10 hours to prepare for the BWA, spread out over two to three weeks. 

For this assessment, you will have 30 minutes to analyze/criticize/evaluate the reasoning of a faulty argument and to organize your thoughts into a short essay response. You will be scored on the relevance of your ideas and the clarity with which you present them. 

Start by breaking down the argument into its conclusion and premises. Evaluate what has been overlooked and what has been assumed. What are the faults with the argument’s logic? How could the argument be strengthened? By the time you get to the BWA, you’ll have already seen many other faulty arguments on the GMAT, so apply the same reasoning skills that you developed when studying for the GMAT.

It is likely that the majority of your prep time will come in the form of practicing how to organize your thoughts into an essay. I recommend planning the general structure of your response ahead of time. If you already have the general framework of your essay, then you can fill in the details based on the specifics of the argument you’re presented with. (See the last paragraph for more in-depth guidance on how to plan the structure of your essay.)

Before you move forward with any prep for the BWA, first determine whether you really need to worry about it. The majority of today’s business school applicants will not be asked to complete this assessment. 

And if a program has asked you to take the BWA, or if you have reason to believe that you will be asked to take it, in that case, use our (completely free) BWA study materials in our Free GMAT Starter Kit (find it in our “Try More for Free” section). We’ll get you ready to do a great job on the BWA—and congratulations on being invited to interview!

Jeff Vollmer is a GMAT and EA instructor with Manhattan Prep; he also serves as a lead curriculum developer. He has scored a 775 on the GMAT and a 172 on the EA.

The post Everything You Need To Know About the Business Writing Assessment (BWA) appeared first on GMAT.

When should I take a practice GMAT?

Practice CATs (or mock GMATs) are very useful for three things:

1. Figuring out your current scoring level
2. Practicing time management and stamina
3. Analyzing your strengths and weaknesses—so you can figure out how to lift your score

The third item on the list is actually the most important. You don’t get better while taking a practice test, in the same way that you don’t learn how to get better at running marathons while you’re running a marathon; you’re literally just trying to survive.

Rather, you learn how to improve in between practice tests by analyzing your performance and using that data to determine your training activities until your next “marathon.” That data on your strengths and weaknesses is what’s going to help you figure out what you need to prioritize between now and your next practice test.

In general, you want to take enough practice exams (plan to take at least 5) but not too many…because, if you don’t give yourself adequate time to improve between mock exams, then you’re just wasting an exam.

Finally, set up your studies in three main phases:

1. Primary Study phase: In this phase, you’re learning everything for the first time. The question types…the math facts and rules…the strategies…the common traps…and so on.
2. Review and Improve phase: You’ve learned everything once and now you’re going to prioritize the “low hanging fruit”—the items that your data analysis indicates are your best opportunities for improvement.
3. Game Day phase: In the last 7-10 days, you’ll be focused on setting yourself up to have a Great Day on Game Day.

This practice test schedule balances all of the above considerations:

Practice CAT #1: Take your first mock test early—within the first week or two of your studies. (I know you’re not ready yet. Take it anyway. I’ll tell you why in a minute.)

Practice CAT #2: Study for about 3-4 weeks before taking your second mock test. Cover maybe one-third to one-half of your primary study materials.

Practice CAT #3 (and maybe #4): Continue your first pass through your primary study materials. Take 1 or 2 more exams in this time period, spaced about 3-4 weeks apart.

Practice CATs 4-5+:  After you have gotten through your primary study materials once, go into Review And Improve mode. Take tests approximately every 2 to 3 weeks in this phase. Some people might only do 1 test in this phase; others may take several.

Practice CATs 6+: In your final 7-10 days, take one last mock exam to set yourself up for a great day on Game Day.

Read on to find out more about each of the steps in this regimen.

Step 1: DO take a CAT at the beginning of your studies

Many people put off taking their first CAT, usually because they haven’t studied yet so they know they won’t do well. But who cares what the score is at this stage? You just started. Your goal is simply to get an experience of the test and to see some data about your strengths and weaknesses.

It’s true that you want to have a basic* understanding of the question types before that first exam, just so that you understand how each one works, but don’t worry about all of the formulas and rules and strategies. Some you already know; others, you don’t. Your first practice test will tell you what you do and don’t know—and you’ll use that information to know where you need to spend more time during your studies.

(*Basic = super basic, like you just know what each type looks like and how it generally works. You do not need to have mastered the question types in any way.)

One note: A lot of people put off their first CAT because they’re feeling significant anxiety about the test. But pushing off that first test will just make you feel more anxious—because you’ll be telling yourself that you’ve studied, so now you should get a better score. That thought process just makes it even harder to take the first test.

Do yourself a favor and take that first test right away. You can honestly tell yourself that your score doesn’t matter because you haven’t even really started studying yet.

One more thing: Always take practice exams under 100% official test conditions. It’s never a good idea to give yourself extra time, pause the test, take longer breaks than allowed, or anything else that won’t be allowed on test day. Don’t tell yourself that you’re “just studying,” so you’re going to break the rules. Train the way you have to play the game on Game Day.

Step 2: During your primary study phase, take 3 to 4 weeks between CATs

Now that you have a handle on your baseline strengths and weaknesses from your first practice test, dive into your primary study materials—your books, videos, or whatever you’re using that will teach you about all of the different question types and content areas tested on the GMAT. Aim to get through between about 1/3 and 1/2 of that primary study material before you take your next practice test.

You’re mostly still in the “learn lots of info” stage right now, so don’t do 8 million practice problems. Every time you learn something new, do a few practice problems to solidify the concepts, but then move on to another topic or question type. You’ll loop back around later to do more intensive practice under test conditions.

When you take your second practice test, still try not to care too much about your score. (I know that’s hard, even though you know you still have a lot to study.) The goal for this second test is two-fold:

1. Get some practice with time management and with the strategies you have learned so far
2. Update your data on your strengths and weaknesses

Dive into the data on this test a bit more deeply than you did on your first test. (Our Free GMAT Starter Kit syllabus provides templates for analyzing your official practice test data, by the way!)

Split the data into two broad groups: Stuff you’ve already studied and stuff you haven’t studied yet:

• Already studied: Where did you do well and where do you need more review? For the latter, do you want to review it now or do you want to learn some more new stuff first? For example, if you’re struggling with Graph problems and are feeling a bit burned out, go study some other question types for a week or two and then come back to Graphs. (It’s even ok to leave this until your Review and Improve phase.)
• Haven’t studied yet: Based on this new data, where can you predict that upcoming lessons might be easier or harder for you? Take some notes so that you know where you might need to spend extra time as you continue through your primary studies.

Follow this regimen (ideally about every 3 to 4 weeks) until you’ve made it through all of your study materials once. Most people will take one of two paths:

1. Study about 1/3 of the primary material, then take a CAT, then repeat. In this path, you’ll take 3 CATs during this phase (CATs #2, 3, and 4).
2. Study about 1/2 of the primary material, then take a CAT, then repeat. In this path, you’ll take 2 CATs during this phase (CATs #2 and 3).

DON’T go months without taking a CAT

If you’re human*, you may find yourself dreading taking your next practice test. The impetus is usually anxiety: You’re nervous that you won’t get the results that you want, so you avoid getting any results at all. Alternatively, maybe you think that you’ll study everything and then when you finally take a practice test, you’ll get the score that you want. (*If you’re not human, then allow me to say that I think AI is beautiful and robots will definitely be the best rulers and please remember that I said this when you take over the world.)

Er, excuse me. Assuming you are human, practicing without any semi-recent CAT data is going to cause you to build bad habits (such as spending too much time on a question) and fail to build good ones (such as learning how and when to cut yourself off and guess).

If your last CAT was so long ago that you’re no longer sure what your strengths and weaknesses are under testing conditions, it’s time for another CAT. And bonus: The more CATs you take, the more they will seem routine and the less you’ll dread taking them.

Step 3: Use your final Primary Study phase CAT to launch into your Review & Improve phase

At the end of your first pass through your final study materials, you’ll have taken a CAT (maybe CAT #3 or maybe CAT #4, depending on how you’re organizing your studies).

Analyze this test deeply and use the results to set up a study plan that will carry you just until your next practice test in about 2 to 3 weeks. Prioritize your best opportunities for improvement based on the data from that test.

Do NOT start re-reading or re-watching everything from your primary study phase. “Review” does not mean “do it all again.” Rather, hyper-target your studies according to the data from your most recent exam.

Careless mistakes? Definitely address. Didn’t know something but feel comfortable with that problem’s explanation? Learn how to do it for yourself in future. Totally lost when you review the explanation? Put that problem on your bail list for now; if you see something similar on your next practice test, guess immediately and move on. (After that next test, you can decide whether to study anything on your bail list. But not between now and the next practice test.)

Spend 80% of your time on the areas that you identify as the best opportunities for improvement. Reserve the other 20% of your time for overall review—do and review timed sets of randomly-chosen problems to keep your skills up across the whole test. (Our Dynamic Question Set Builder can help you with that.)

When you feel like you’ve made good progress on the best opportunities from your last practice test, take another practice test. Analyze the new data and repeat the process—identify the best opportunities for improvement and spend the next 2 to 3 weeks going after those opportunities, then take another CAT.

When you get yourself into your goal scoring range on your practice tests (taken under 100% official conditions), it’s time to schedule your official test!

DON’T try to study everything before you take your next CAT

The goal is just to improve on your next test, not to get a perfect score; the GMAT is an adaptive test, so it can just keep getting harder. Study enough that you think you’ve gotten better, then test to see whether you did.

If you do earn a better score, great—now, use the new data to figure out what to prioritize for the next few weeks. And if you don’t, better to know now so that you can take steps to figure out why your studies aren’t translating into a better score. (Maybe you’re messing up your time management or something else that isn’t related to the actual content you were just studying!)

Step 4: Get ready for Game Day

Our GMAT scoring ability is not a single number; it’s a range. When I was getting ready for my last official GMAT, my practice test scores in the last month ranged from 705 to 755. My actual official test score was 745. So how did I set myself up to hit at the top end of my range?

First, in your last 7 to 10 days, shift your mindset. Your goal is no longer to try to lift your scoring range. Rather, acknowledge that your scoring range is what it is—it’s not going to change much in a week. But you can set yourself up to have a Great Day on Game Day and hit at the top end of your scoring range.

Second, take your last practice test about one week before your official test date. Take it at the same time of day as the real test. Go to bed the night before and get up the next morning at the same time you want to go to bed and get up on Game Day. The day before, set up your Game Plan—all of your “test day” strategic decisions:

• What’s on your “bail fast” list? How are you going to recognize those “bad” questions so that you can guess and move on as fast as possible?
• What steps are you going to take if you find yourself more than about 4 minutes behind on your time management? What if you’re 4+ minutes ahead?
• What are your strengths? When is it warranted to invest a little extra time on something? And how will you cut yourself off if it just isn’t working?
• What test order do you want to choose? When do you want to take your break?

When you finish this last practice test, analyze the data—but not in the way that you’ve been analyzing your data so far. Instead, analyze how well your Game Plan worked. Did you get stuck on some problems or rush on others? Did you try to do a problem one way when a different way would have been better? Did you fail to recognize a “bail fast” opportunity? Finally, did you make any careless mistakes?

Spend that last week doing three things:

1. Tweaking whatever you need to tweak so that you execute well on your Game Plan—when you bail, when you keep going, etc.
2. Conducting a general review of the major question types, content areas, and strategies. (The ones that are most likely to be tested! Don’t review every last thing that you’ve ever studied.)
3. Shoring up whatever led to any careless mistakes on that last practice test. (Careless mistakes only! Don’t try to learn new stuff.)

Finally, go to bed and wake up at a consistent time every day that week. If you have trouble sleeping well the night before Game Day (and you might!), you’ll still be ok if you’ve gotten pretty consistent sleep all week.

You can reschedule your exam if you really don’t feel ready to take it, but don’t worry about getting an official score that you don’t like. The GMAT allows you to report test sittings individually—so, if you do have a bad official test day, you just won’t report that set of scores to your desired schools. They literally won’t even know that you took the exam that day.

Please DON’T do any of these things when taking GMAT CATs:

• DON’T take a practice test more often than once every 2 weeks. Until you analyze that data and use it to get better, taking another practice test is a waste of time (and a waste of a good test!).
• DON’T take a practice test within 4 days of your official test. You wouldn’t run a full practice marathon a few days before the real thing, right? So don’t tire your brain out within a few days of the test, either.
• DON’T take a practice test, decide you don’t like your score, and immediately take another practice test. Something happened to cause you to get that score you don’t like. Go figure out what it is and address it before you take another test.

Takeaways

Here’s when to take your CATs:

1. Primary Study phase (learn all question types and content areas): Take your first CAT within the first 1-2 weeks of your studies. Every 3 to 4 weeks, take another CAT, for a total of about 3 to 4 CATs in this phase. Every time you take a CAT, analyze it deeply and use the results to help prioritize your studies. Your last CAT in this phase will lead into the next phase.
2. Review and Improve phase (target your studies to lift your score): Analyze your last CAT from your primary studies to determine your “low hanging fruit”—the items that your data analysis indicates are your best opportunities for improvement. Spend 2 to 3 weeks hammering those areas, then take another CAT to get new data. Repeat until your practice scores are in your desired range (ideally!) or your test date is coming up.
3. Game Day phase: In the last 7-10 days, switch your mindset. Focus on setting yourself up to have a Great Day on Game Day. Take one last practice exam during this phase, with a focus on executing on your game plan to hit at the top end of your current scoring range.

Good luck and happy studying!

RELATED: Free GMAT Starter Kit study syllabus

You can attend the first session 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. Stacey has been teaching the GMAT 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 Often Should I Take Practice GMAT CATs? appeared first on GMAT.

In the final two weeks before your official GMAT, your focus needs to shift. You’re no longer trying to lift your scoring level. Instead, focus on hitting your peak performance on Game Day—like an Olympic athlete who’s trying to peak for the gold-medal match.

Your current scoring level isn’t just a single value. It’s actually a range of values—and a pretty wide one, probably about 30 to 60 points, depending on your scoring level. 

On Game Day (the day you take your official test), you could have a great day and hit the top of your range…or you could have a bad day and hit the bottom of your range. So let’s talk about how to hit your peak performance on Game Day! (This post has been updated for the new GMAT.)

Week 1: Develop your game plan

At two weeks out from Game Day, your skills are what they are and your scoring range is what it is. These things are not going to change substantially in the last two weeks. But there’s a lot you can do to increase your chances of scoring at the top end of your current range on game day.

Your mantra for the last two weeks:

I’m no longer trying to increase my skills. Now, I’m trying to minimize mistakes and maximize performance on the things that I already know how to do.

What not to do

You don’t want to hit your trough—your lowest level—on game day. That’s a real risk if you spend the last couple of weeks trying to cram because you’re desperate to add another 100 points before your official test.

The hard truth: It’s very unlikely to improve by 100+ points in two weeks. If that’s your goal, it’s better to postpone your test date. If you can’t postpone your test, then be realistic and lower your goal score to something more reasonable. 

If you’re already within the window where you have to pay a lot of money to reschedule, consider keeping this test date as your first “dry run” and then take the official test again in 6 to 8 weeks, after you’ve had a chance to do more to lift your skills.

What’s a Game Plan?

Your Game Plan is the decision-making plan you’ll use during your test. For example:

• What are you going to do if you find yourself too far ahead of time or too far behind on time? 
• On what types of questions do you want to guess immediately and move on? 
• When are you going to invest a little extra time? 
• How will you know when to cut yourself off and let go of a problem?

You’re also going to review your major strategies, the major content areas, your time management plan, and so on—we’ll get to that a bit later.

Building Your Game Plan

Your Game Plan is a dynamic plan. You perfect it a little bit more every day as you gather more data during your review.

What Does My Gut Say?

First, make a list of your major strengths and weaknesses. Start with the eight GMAT question types, but also drill down further into specific quant content areas (eg, statistics, ratios, and so on) as well as question sub-types (eg, logic problems, inference problems, and so on).

• Strengths: You usually get these right. You’re usually on time (maybe even fast). You feel pretty good about these when you see them.
• Medium: You can get these right, but you do make mistakes sometimes. You may need an extra 30 to 45 seconds at times. You don’t dislike these, though you may not like them either.
• Weaknesses: You often get these wrong even when you spend extra time, or you need an extra minute or more to get these right. These often feel stressful or frustrating.

What Does The Data Say?

Your gut is often accurate—but it is sometimes wrong, so it’s also important to check your data.

Take a full-length official practice test under 100% official test conditions (you can find the official practice tests on mba.com). After you’re done, take a break (your brain needs a little rest after that ordeal!). Then, log into your account on the Manhattan Prep site and find the practice test analysis tracker; it’s linked wherever we assign you a practice test. (If you aren’t in a study program with us, you can find this tracker in the Free GMAT Starter Kit syllabus—which is, as the name implies, completely free. ) 

First, look at your results globally. 

How was your time management?

• Running out of time / rushing at the end:
  • Where did you spend too much time?
  • What action are you going to take if you find yourself > 3 min behind in the section?
• Finishing more than 5 minutes early:
  • Where did you rush too much?
  • What action are you going to take if you find yourself > 3 min ahead in the section?
• Up-and-down timing: On time at the end, but multiple too-slow and too-fast problems throughout the section:
  • On which problems should you have cut yourself off faster so that you don’t have to rush so much on others? How are you going to recognize when to cut yourself off on future, similar problems?

If you are using our time management strategies to manage your time in each section, review those strategies. (That article will also help you to answer some of the questions in the above list.)

How were your mental stamina and nerves?

• Getting tired / making careless mistakes:
  • Where did you spend too much time / mental energy? These problems are hurting your overall mental stamina reserve for the entire test—cut them off next time!
  • What are you going to eat and drink before the test and on your break?
  • What physical activity (e.g., stretching, jumping jacks) will you do before the test and on your break?
  • What stretches can you do during the test / without leaving your chair?
• Too much adrenaline / got nervous or raced through test:
  • What mindfulness mantras or other techniques can you use to manage your performance anxiety on test day? (If you’re in one of our study programs, check the weekly Study Strategy sections for resources; our Free Starter Kit also contains mindfulness resources.)
  • Start building these habits today.

Next, analyze the individual problems, but not in the same way you have in the past. Instead, do this:

Is this a Strength, Medium, or Weakness problem?

1. 1. For Strength and Medium problems: 
      1. Articulate what approach you want to use for each one, in case you see something similar on the real test.
      2. Articulate how you’ll know when things aren’t playing out the way you’d planned—so that you can make a guess and move on.
   2. For Weaknesses: 
      1. Articulate how to recognize these fast, so that you can guess immediately and move on.
      2. You are no longer trying to improve your weaknesses! Acknowledge that they’re weak. Move on.

Did I make any careless mistakes?

1. 1. What was the mistake? 
   2. Why did you make it?
   3. What new habit can you implement that will minimize that type of careless error?
   4. Spend the next two weeks building that new habit.

As you do new problem sets or work from the Official Guide during your review this week, analyze every problem in the same way as described above.

And that’s it in terms of learning from your practice test or your practice problems. In the last two weeks, you’re no longer trying to lift your score / skills to some level you don’t currently possess. Rather, you’re trying to earn every point that you are currently, already capable of earning on the test.

Content and Skill Review: Week 1

As you develop your game plan, you’ll also start your comprehensive review of all of the main problem types, strategies, and content areas tested on the GMAT, with a concentration on those that are the most frequently tested.

Math-based content and skills are tested on the Quant and Data Insights (DI) sections. Verbal-based skills are tested on the Verbal and DI sections. As you review these areas, do practice problems from across all eight GMAT problem types so that you get practice in every format. 

Do timed sets of random practice problems and then review those problems. For Official Guide problems, use our GMAT Navigator random set generator feature or the Official Guide’s online access. For Manhattan Prep problems, use our Dynamic GMAT Question Set Builder.

An important note: Don’t reread chapters in your books. Only go back to your books to look up specific things based on a specific need that you identify while reviewing your practice problems.

Math-Based Content Review

The following math-based content areas are frequently tested on the GMAT:

Do still review the rest of the quant content areas discussed in your books, but give extra attention to things on the “frequently tested” list.

It’s also a good idea to choose a few less-frequently-tested areas as your bail-fast categories. You can literally not review these areas at all; just know enough to recognize the problems fast so that you can guess fast and move on. 

Good candidates for the bail-fast group include: 

• Coordinate plane 
• Combinatorics
• Remainders
• Sequences and functions
• Complicated story problems that are pure algebra (you can’t use real numbers to solve)
• Roman-numeral-format problems
• A problem with 4 variables

The list is not limited to the above! Basically, you can put anything you hate on your bail list as long as it’s a narrow topic/skill area or problem sub-type (ie, it won’t show up on 4+ test problems).

Math-based Strategy Review

These skills are commonly needed throughout the Quant and DI sections and are taught in our All the Quant guide:

The chapters listed introduce or provide additional instruction on these strategies. You’ll also see the strategies used elsewhere in the book, after they’ve been introduced.

Verbal-Based Skills Review

Verbal-based problems don’t test you on formulas or rules that you have to learn before the test starts. Rather, these problems present you with the necessary facts or scenarios and then test you on your comprehension and analytical reasoning skills.

These are the most commonly tested verbal-based skills, all of which are covered in our All the Verbal book:

Note: If you’re already in one of our study programs, you have access to all of our books and online resources, including GMAT Navigator and the Dynamic Question Set Builder. If you aren’t in one of our study programs, our All the GMAT book set also includes those online resources.

Week 2: Test and revise your game plan

One week before your official test, take your very last practice test.

Right before you start the test, review your game plan, including:

• Your time management strategies
  • How you’ll keep track of your time in each section
  • What you’ll do if you find yourself too far ahead or behind on time
• Your bail-fast list
• Where you do—and don’t—want to invest a little extra time
• How you’ll maintain focus during the test (mindfulness mantras, etc.)
• What you’ll eat on your breaks
• How you’ll keep your neck, shoulders, and the rest of your body relatively loose as the test continues

Ready? Take your practice test. Use your game plan. Good luck!

Revise your game plan

When you’re done, review your test solely from the perspective of revising your game plan. 

Don’t try to learn new stuff! Don’t analyze the way you have in the past! Literally just go through the whole game planning process again, asking yourself whether you want to tweak any part of your game plan based on how that test just went.

Maybe you need to add something to your bail-fast list or even move something from your bail list to your Medium list. Go for it!

Maybe you realize that something you thought was a Strength is actually a Medium or vice-versa. Make a note of that; you’ll use that knowledge on test day to make better decisions. 

And think about how to refine the decisions that you made. For example, if a Strength problem is longer/harder than usual, it might be worth an extra 30 or 45-second investment. But if it’s a longer/harder Medium problem? That might push the problem towards guess-fast.

Do NOT try to learn new skills or substantially improve existing skills this week!

Seriously. Well, okay: You can address any careless mistakes. Use the same process as before (what mistake did I make, why did I make it, what new habit can I implement?).

Other than that, though, your skills are what they are. Spend this last week practicing the major question types, content areas, and strategies. Do random problem sets, as you did last week, and review afterwards. Let your problem review guide you on what else you may need to review from your notes or books.

Forgot an exponent rule? Look it up, make a flashcard, do a few Foundations of Math drills to solidify the rule. 

Just did your first Critical Reasoning Assumption problem in a month and feeling a little hazy on that sub-type? Review the strategy just for that question sub-type in your book.

Struggling with how to map out a Multi-Source Reasoning passage on your scratch paper? Retry a few problems you did several weeks (or longer) ago. When you’re done, keep rewriting/revising your scratch work until you feel comfortable with the abbreviations and symbols you’re using and the way in which you’re organizing the information.

As you do this final review, continue to tweak your game plan as needed.

Takeaways for your last two weeks

1. Change your focus during the final two weeks before your GMAT: Your strengths and weaknesses are what they are and your current scoring range is not going to change by test day. Your goal now is to peak on test day and hit the top end of your current scoring range.
2. In the first week, develop your game plan. Know your Strength, Medium, and Weakness problems so that you can make good investment decisions during the test. Know what time management strategies you want to use during the test, including your test-section management and your bail-fast list.
3. Also in the first week, practice the major question types, content areas, and strategies you can expect to need on test day. Do timed, random problem sets. (And when you see something that’s on your bail-fast list…bail fast, just like you want to do on test day!)
4. In the second and final week, test out your game plan on your final practice test and then spend the remainder of that week doing and reviewing practice sets under timed conditions, refining your game plan as you go.

Good luck and happy studying!

RELATED: Free GMAT Starter Kit study syllabus

You can attend the first session 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. Stacey has been teaching the GMAT 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 Last Two Weeks Before Your GMAT appeared first on GMAT.

The GMAT Online allows test-takers to use both a physical whiteboard and an online whiteboard—and there are great reasons to use both, actually. Learn when to use which in this post!

When you take the GMAT Online, you’ll have access to both a physical whiteboard (that you’ll buy yourself) and an online one. The key is knowing when to use which and practicing in advance so that everything goes smoothly on test day. This post has been updated for the new GMAT exam.

When you take an official practice test, you’ll have access to the official online whiteboard. We’ve replicated the official online whiteboard tool to allow you to practice under official test conditions in advance of the test, including the ability to resize the board and place it wherever you want on your test screen. If you have any type of syllabus with us, including our free Starter Kit syllabus, the online whiteboard is already waiting for you. (No MPrep syllabus? Get a free one—just follow that link. You’ll also get a free suite of foundational math study materials.)

Here are the official requirements for the physical whiteboard that you buy yourself for the GMAT Online. (If you’re taking it in the testing center, they’ll provide the scratch paper for you. It’ll look like this.) You’ll want to take at least a couple of practice tests using your physical whiteboard to figure out exactly how you want to use it, so buy it soon.

One more thing. Be prepared to take the exam either online or in a testing center. Give yourself full flexibility, just in case.

Requirements for the physical whiteboard

The maximum dimensions of the whiteboard are 12 by 20 inches or 30 by 50 centimeters. It does need to be a dry-erase board and it does have to have a plain white background (no colors or grid lines). Also: Buy a double-sided whiteboard—it’s explicitly allowed and you’ll have double the “real estate” on which to write! (*If you have our Yellow Pad, you can’t use this for the GMAT Online. The Yellow Pad is still used for your scratch paper in the testing center, though, so it’s good practice for that format.)

For the GMAT Online, you can have one eraser and up to two dry erase markers—definitely have two markers on hand for your test and make sure they’re new or almost-new.

Here’s a partial list of what GMAC has said cannot be used—but they reserve the right to deny other things. So look for the largest whiteboard that fits the max size limits, but go super simple after that—white, boring, basic.

How the online whiteboard works

This table lays out how to use each tool, in order as they appear on the screen:

Tool	How to Use
	Pencil / Pen. Write or draw anything you want. Choose one of the smaller thickness settings. The whiteboard will remember your choice.
	Eraser. Choose the greatest setting for thickness. The whiteboard will remember your choice.
	Line. Draw perfectly straight lines, dashed lines, and arrows. Probably won’t need to use much.
	Rectangle. Use when you want to make a box or grid. Probably won’t use much.
	Circle. Probably won’t use much.
	Text. Take notes on longer verbal- or logic-based problem types.
	Ignore. Polygon or Free Shape.
	Pan. Use to move to new white/blank space.
	Ignore. Eyedropper.
	Change the color of your drawing or writing. Probably ignore.
	Fill a shape with a certain color. Probably ignore.
	Change the background color of the whiteboard. Choose your desired color at the beginning. Ignore after that.
	Undo a change or redo. If you accidentally delete something, bring it back. If you make a mistake, undo it.
	Ignore. Zoom in and out. Just use the Pan tool (above) if you need more white space.
	Ignore. Clear everything. Just use the Pan tool (above) if you need more white space.

Top Tips for getting the most out of the online whiteboard

The online whiteboard is great for several reasons:

• Anything you write will stay there for the entire section, even if you close and open the whiteboard. (It will erase before you start the next section.)
• The whiteboard is (effectively) infinite…you always have more space.
• You can type! When you take notes on word-based problems, you can type if you prefer.

Use these facts to your advantage, especially given that your physical whiteboard is pretty limited in size. For example, use the online whiteboard to manage your time for each section (you can read more about this in our Free Starter Kit or in your course materials). And use the online whiteboard to jot down any facts, formulas, or positive mantras you want to remember for this section (but don’t want to clutter up your physical whiteboard).

Placement of your online whiteboard

You can place the whiteboard anywhere on your screen and you can resize it.

When you want to move the whiteboard out of the way, you can either close* it or drag it partially or mostly off screen, your choice. Whenever you want to access that content again, drag it back on screen or open it up again. (*Note: Our browser-based version will erase everything you wrote when you close it. On the real test, though, your content will persist until the end of that test section.)

You’ll do most of your math on your physical whiteboard. Consider, though: There may be times you actually do want to do math on the online whiteboard. Some problems might be easier to solve if you can do the work immediately next to whatever is written on screen—so you don’t have to keep looking up and down while you try to solve. 

For example, you might be working from a table of info. Or the problem might have a lot of numbers to copy down. Maybe you just need to rearrange the numbers to find a pattern—it might be easier to draw or type right next to the problem on the whiteboard than to look up and down repeatedly to copy everything down.

Verbal-based problems are all about finding and crossing off the wrong answers. You can keep track on your physical whiteboard, of course, but you can also do so right on screen most of the time.

Drag the online whiteboard partially off-screen and place it right next to the right-hand end of the answers. Use the pen tool to keep track of your answer evaluations as you go. I use X to eliminate an answer for good and squiggles to mean “come back to this answer in a minute.”

In this example problem from mba.com, I’ve eliminated A, D, and E. I’ve marked B and C as the two possible options that I need to review. (Note: This problem is from the free official problem set on mba.com.)

You can almost always keep track of your answer choice eliminations on screen for CR (from the Verbal section) and Two-Parts (from the Data Insights section). It may not always work as well for RC or Multi-Source Reasoning, because those two problem types take up a lot more real-estate on the screen, making it harder to find a good place for the online whiteboard. Play around with it it to see what you prefer.

I type my notes for the RC passages and MSR tabs and start off each problem with my notes visible on screen. I use my notes to figure out what I need to re-read in the passage / tabs, and then I drag the whiteboard mostly off screen so that I can see the full prompt/text, question, and answer choices all at the same time. Sometimes, there’s enough room to still use the whiteboard for my answer choice eliminations; when there isn’t, I use my physical whiteboard.

When you use the physical whiteboard for your answer eliminations, only write down ABCDE once. Make your markings next to the letters (not on top of them) and erase just the markings after each problem.

Concentrate on the Pen, Text, and Straight Line Tools

Use the pen or line tool when you need to make a grid or table. Use the pen tool to jot down a single number or letter or draw symbols for your answer choice eliminations—anything that’s quick and easy. When you need to take more extensive notes, type using the text tool (or write on your physical whiteboard).

If you find yourself occasionally solving for the wrong thing (especially on math problems), consider jotting down what you’re solving for on the online whiteboard and positioning it near the answers, so that it’s sitting on screen to remind you: Did you just solve for x? Or did you accidentally solve for y? A reminder right next to the answers can help you catch these kinds of mistakes.

Take a Practice CAT to Mimic the GMAT Online

For the most part, practice the way you think you’re going to take the real exam—whether online or in a testing center. But take at least one practice test using the GMAT Online whiteboard requirements and at least one practice test using the testing center scratch paper. That way, if you do have to change your plans at the last minute, you’ll already know how to set up and use your scratch pad for either test format.

Good luck and happy studying!

RELATED: Free GMAT Starter Kit study syllabus

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. Stacey has been teaching the GMAT 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 Focus Online: How to Make the Most of BOTH Whiteboard Tools appeared first on GMAT.

The GMAT is not a math test. It’s also not a “school skills” test. Sure, you have to know certain facts and rules in order to get a good score. But this test is really testing your executive reasoning skills.

You already have executive reasoning skills—use use them every day! Here are some examples:

• You arrive at work in the morning and think about all of the things that you could do that day. You can’t get it all done, so which things will have to wait until this afternoon, or tomorrow, or next week? Which one thing should you start working on first? (And, let’s be honest, what is just never going to get done? )

• You are faced with a list of 20 (or 40… or 100!) unread emails. Which ones do you read first? The oldest ones? The ones from your boss? The ones marked urgent? Are there some that you won’t even click on right now because you know, from the sender’s name or from the subject line, that those emails aren’t very important?
• You have a choice between working on Product X or Project Y. Project Y will result in about 5% more revenue to the company, but Project Y will also take 50% longer. Which do you do?

None of those decisions are easy ones (and most would likely require more information than I gave in my bullets). This complex decision-making is exactly what a good executive needs to be able to do well—and this is what the test writers and business schools actually care about.

The GMAT does test quantitative concepts, yes, but they are tools to allow the exam writers to test you on your decision-making ability.

How does that help me take the GMAT?

The first step is to internalize the fact that they don’t expect you to get everything right, any more than a CEO expects to clear everything in his or her inbox today. You have to prioritize.

A great decision-maker has both expertise and experience: She’s thought about how to make various kinds of decisions, and she’s actually practiced and refined these decision-making processes. While the clock is ticking, she doesn’t hesitate to make a decision and move forward, knowing that she’s going to be leaving some opportunities behind.

In order to do that successfully in the business world, you need to know the company’s goals and objectives, and you have to have a good idea of the kind of impact that various tasks or activities will have on the company. You also have to have a lot of practice in making these decisions and observing the outcomes. There’s never just one right way to make these decisions, so the more exposure you give yourself to how things work, the better you’ll be able to make good decisions in the future.

The same is true for the GMAT: If you know how it works, and you know what kinds of trade-offs to think about when deciding how to spend your time, then you can learn how to make the best decisions to maximize your score.

Okay, how does the GMAT work?

I talk to GMAT students nearly every day who tell me that, when they “know” they can get something right, they might as well take the time to get it right, even when that means running out of time later on. Other times, they feel like they should be able to do something…and so they hang on to it much longer than is wise. (Sound familiar?)

I put “know” in quotation marks in the prior paragraph because, well, you actually don’t know. First, you could make a careless mistake at any time. Second, if you need a lot of extra time to do a problem, then something is not going well. You might still get it right, but your odds go way down if something’s already not going well.

So you need to train yourself away from your “old-school” mindset of trying to get everything right, no matter how long it takes. And you need to train yourself into the “executive” mindset—the same one that you already use in the working / real world today.

What are the best opportunities sitting in front of you? Which ones should you prioritize over the others right now? Which ones should you save for the end (of the test / of your day) and you’ll do them if you have extra time? And which ones are just never going to be worth the investment? (On those: guess, move on, and never look back.)

Here’s another difference between old-school and real-world: At work, if you think that your team is approaching a problem in the wrong way, then you can discuss that and change the mechanism or the scope of the work or whatever it is that you think is off. Try going to your undergrad professor and saying, “I know you assigned us these problem sets, but I think it’d be more productive if we worked in groups on a project instead.”

In school, you just did what the professors assigned. At work, though, you’re supposed to think for yourself. The same is true on the GMAT. For example, a problem might ask you to calculate a certain percentage…but when you glance at the answer choices, you might see this:

(A) 10%
(B) 25%
(C) 40%
(D) 60%
(E) 80%

Does that give you any ideas about how to solve this problem (even though you don’t know what the problem is)?

In school, your prof wouldn’t even give you multiple choice answers. They’d expect you to do all the math to show that you knew exactly how to get to the specific numerical answer. On the GMAT, though, not only are you always going to have answer choices, but the answers themselves will give you important clues about what the test is really expecting right now.

When the percentages are spread that far out, you can just estimate. The answers are literally telling you: Hey, don’t bother actually calculating. I don’t care about the difference between 39% and 40%. I just want to know whether you understand the theory or the big picture well enough to be able to estimate your way to the one correct number out of these five numbers.

Unless you’re working in accounting or similar, that’s going to be more than good enough for your job as well. Is this proposed new product going to add about 10% or about 25% to our bottom line? I don’t care about the exact number—it’s impossible to have an exact number now, anyway. I just want a ballpark figure so we can make a decision about whether to pursue this new product idea.

When approaching the GMAT, don’t just accept what’s put in front of you and do it on rote / old-school. Instead, graduate to the real world. Focus on maximizing your executive reasoning / decision-making skills to succeed on the GMAT.

Graduation Day

How can you graduate to the business mindset? Create a free account on our site and sign up for our Free GMAT Starter Kit (it really is 100% free, no gimmicks). As you work through your study tasks in the starter kit, you’ll be training yourself to make that mental switch and start using your exec mindset to get a great GMAT score.

Happy studying!

Attend the first session of one of our 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 What the GMAT Really Tests appeared first on GMAT.

I’m super excited to announce that our new GMAT On Demand study program, fully updated for the new GMAT Focus exam, is here! The GMAT On Demand program is comprehensive; it covers everything you need to know to get a high score on all three sections of the new GMAT exam.

What is GMAT On Demand?

We built this for people who want to study on their own—but also still want up-to-date lessons from 99th* percentile GMAT instructors. Jeff Vollmer and Stacey Koprince (aka…me) built our new GMAT Focus course curriculum. We recorded the first live Complete GMAT Course that we taught together—so you can “take” our course, without the “live course” cost. (GMAT On Demand costs $850; the Complete Live course is $1,850. It really is a good deal, if I do say so myself. )

*Truth in advertising: Actually, we upped our game a little. Both Jeff and Stacey have scored in the 100th percentile on the official GMAT Focus. (On the old GMAT, the scoring scale topped out at 99th percentile; the new GMAT allows 100th percentile scores.)

We had a ton of fun (along with some stressful days/nights!) both building and teaching this course. We’re excited for you to start using it!

What study resources does GMAT On Demand include?

The study resources include everything that our live course students get—all of our books, the Official Guide, the Official GMAT Practice Exams, our online resources, and more—as well as all of the recordings of our complete live GMAT course.

Also: No need to figure out your own study plan. We’ll give you your full study syllabus, from start to finish. We’ve spread the work out over an approximately 10-week period and assign you exactly what you need to do from all of your resources, step by step.

The one thing GMAT On Demand doesn’t include is live access to instructors—but if you feel comfortable studying on your own, that’s okay. (If you do want live instruction, take a look at our courses and attend a free live trial class.)

Here are the major resources included with GMAT On Demand:

• 25+ hours of in-depth video lessons taught by 99th+ percentile instructors Stacey Koprince and Jeff Vollmer
• GMAT Official Guide (OG) (a $49 value*)
• 6 official GMAT Focus practice exams from mba.com (the 4 paid practice exams are a $130 value*)
• Complete study syllabus with full assignments for every step of your studies
• GMAT Navigator practice tracker with detailed solutions for OG questions
• Manhattan Prep All the GMAT Strategy Guide Set
• Foundations of GMAT Math and Foundations of GMAT Verbal Guides
• GMAT Advanced Quant eBook
• 10 hours of Foundations of GMAT Math workshops
• Test simulation booklet (physical book purchase only)

*Everyone who’s studying for the GMAT should definitely buy the OG and the official practice tests, so we’ve bought them for you and included assignments in the syllabus. That’s $180 you don’t have to spend elsewhere!

A few notes on the resources:

• Your online study syllabus gives you individual assignments, tracks your progress, and allows you to make a star list or to purposely skip certain assignments without dinging your progress percentage.
• The syllabus contains extra Easier and Harder assignments for when you’re struggling or doing really well with a particular topic. You can easily customize your studies based on your own strengths and weaknesses.
• The Foundations of GMAT Math workshops are available to anyone, completely for free. Recordings of the FoM workshops are in the On Demand syllabus; you can also attend live workshops, if you prefer.
• Right now, our books do also contain information for the Classic (old) GMAT exam, but your online syllabus tells you exactly what to study. Just follow your syllabus; it will assign you only what you need to know for the new GMAT—and everything you need to know for the new GMAT.
• Your online syllabus also contains exclusive, hot-off-the-presses digital resources and practice problems built for the new GMAT.

In short, GMAT On Demand will get you ready to take the new GMAT exam (and it won’t waste your time on material that is no longer tested). 

Happy new year, good luck, and happy studying!

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. Stacey has been teaching the GMAT, GRE, and EA 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 New GMAT On Demand Study Program Has Launched! appeared first on GMAT.

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.

A while back, we started a series on Fast Math for the GMAT—here’s the link if you want to start from the beginning.

In our last installment, I gave you two problems to try. We’ve already discussed the first one; here’s the second one again (from the free problem set on mba.com).

The Earth travels around the Sun at a speed of approximately 18.5 miles per second. This approximate speed is how many miles per hour?

(A) 1,080

(B) 1,160

(C) 64,800

(D) 66,600

(E) 3,996,000

What do you think?

Step 1: Understand

Those answers…they are seriously far apart. The first two are “clumped,” then the next two, and that last one is totally different.

We’re definitely going to estimate on this one. Also, just from glancing at the answers, I’m guessing that the correct answer will not be (E). Chances are pretty good that the correct answer will have another “close” answer based on making some small mistake—or based on making the problem just a little harder to estimate.

Jot down the details.

Step 2: What’s the plan?

How do you go from seconds to hours?

60 seconds → 1 minute

60 minutes → 1 hour

So we need 60 twice. But is that…multiplying? Dividing? Glance at the answers again or think it out logically. All of the answers are greater than 18.5, so I must have to multiply. And logically, that makes sense: If I go 18.5 miles in one second, then I should be able to go a lot further in a whole hour.

Okay, now which “clump” of answers is the right clump? 18.5 is a really annoying number, but the clumps are so far apart that I can just call that 20 for now.

(20)(60) = 1,200

Hmm. I still need to multiply by another 60, so answers (A) and (B) are out.

But I’m only multiplying by another 60, so answer (E) is out, too. It’s down to (C) and (D).

If I just multiply by another 60 now…will it be close enough? I’m not sure. I overestimated (from 18.5 to 20) and the two final numbers are pretty close. If the answer is (C), I might think it’s (D) just from the error I introduced in my estimation.

In fact, (1,200)(60) = 72,000. Definitely not good enough. Okay, what should I do next?

The “official” math is this:

(18.5)(60)(60)

The math that I actually did was this:

(20)(60)(60)

Hmm. So I overestimated because I used 20 rather than 18.5. In other words, I overestimated by 1.5—times 60 times 60:

(1.5)(60)(60) = overestimate

The latter two are easy: (60)(60) = 3,600. Oh, and then multiplying by 1.5 is the same thing as increasing something by 50%. So 3,600 + half of 3,600 = 3,600 + 1,800 = 5,400. 

My original “answer” was 72,000 but I overestimated by 5,400.

72,000 minus 5,000-ish, is about 67,000. The actual value should be a little less, since I actually want to subtract 5,400. The answer must be (D) 66,600. Answer (C) is too small.

Key Fast Math Takeaways:

(1) If you think you need to do long division or long multiplication, stop for a moment. Reflect. Even if you have to do partial long division or multiplication, how much do you really have to do?

(2) As we discussed last time, don’t start solving on PS until you’ve looked at those answer choices! Sometimes, they contain very important clues about the most efficient way to solve.

* GMATPrep® 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. 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 More Fast Math for the GMAT (Part 7) appeared first on GMAT.

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 the 6th installment of our Fast Math for the GMAT series!

On these two new problems, we’re going to employ some broader principles than the ones you saw in the earlier installments of this series. I won’t say any more yet—try the two problems from the free problem set available on mba.com and then we’ll talk.

Set your timer for 4 minutes and go!

(A) ³⁄₁₀

(B) ⁷⁄₁₀

(C) ⁶⁄₇

(D) ¹⁰⁄₇

(E) ¹⁰⁄₃

The Earth travels around the Sun at a speed of approximately 18.5 miles per second. This approximate speed is how many miles per hour?

(A) 1,080

(B) 1,160

(C) 64,800

(D) 66,600

(E) 3,996,000

We’ll talk about the first one in this installment and the second one in the next installment. 

Step 1: Understand what’s going on.

Glance: Wow, that fraction in the first problem is ugly! Glance down at the answers, too. Notice anything?

Answers (A) through (C) are less than 1 and answers (D) and (E) are greater than 1. Is there a way to tell whether the correct answer is greater or less than 1? 

Also, Answers (A) and (E) are “mirror images” and so are (B) and (D). That makes sense, because chances are the most common trap answer will be someone solving correctly but just reversing the fraction by accident. Answer (C) doesn’t have a mirror…so if I have to guess, I’m not going to guess that. (And, in fact, if I solve and get (C), I might actually check my work.)

Step 2: Now that you know what’s going on, figure out your plan.

Hmm. Can I tell anything now about whether it’ll be greater or less than 1? The top of the “main” fraction is the number 1. The bottom of the main fraction is 1 + something. That “something” is positive, so the overall fraction is 1 over something bigger than 1.

Is that going to be greater than 1 or less than 1?

1 over (>1) is less than 1. Eliminate answers (D) and (E).

From here, you can just straight up solve. If you’re confident that (C) isn’t going to be right, though, you can also estimate. Why? Because answer (A) is ³⁄₁₀ and answer (B) is ⁷⁄₁₀. Those are pretty far apart—like 30% and 70%.

Look at that thing again. 2 + ¹⁄₃ is about 2 (or close enough!). So just the bottom part of the fraction is about 1 + ¹⁄₂ = ³⁄₂.

And then bring the numerator back in: 1 over ³⁄₂ just means “take the reciprocal,” which is ²⁄₃. 

Which answer is closest? Answer (B), ⁷⁄₁₀. Answer (A) is too far away. Done!

You might be thinking, sure, I see how that works, but the actual math isn’t all that hard…so why not just do it?

Here’s why: When I’m studying I’m not just looking for ways to get this problem right. I’m also looking for legitimate ways to solve the problem using as little time and mental energy as possible—because any time and mental energy saved can be used on other problems in the section.

But if you really want to know, here is the math.

I’m not saying that you shouldn’t solve it this way—but I am saying that you should consider whether there’s a valid path that’s faster / easier…so that you can spend that saved time and mental energy elsewhere.

Key Fast Math Takeaways

(1) You can estimate a lot more than you might think on the GMAT. If the question stem asks for an approximate answer—of course, estimate. But, on PS, also glance at those answers before you begin to solve. Certain characteristics can indicate a good opportunity to estimate.

(2) What kinds of characteristics? The most common one is simply answers that are spread out. You can also usually estimate when the answers fall on either side of some “dividing line”—for example, some are greater than 0 and some are less than 0. Some are more than ¹⁄₂ and some are less than ¹⁄₂ (that one is especially good for probability questions!). And so on.

Are you ready? Read on for Part 7 of the Fast Math series!

* GMATPrep® 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. 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 More Fast Math for the GMAT (Part 6) appeared first on GMAT.

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 fifth installment of our Fast Math series. (Miss any earlier ones? Start here.)

Make your life easier on the GMAT: Do less Math. (Yes, with a capital-M. ) I use Math-with-a-capital-M to mean formal, textbook math. 

Sure, you’re going to have to do some textbook math on the GMAT, but it’s really not a math test. Business schools don’t expect you to have to do paper math in b-school or the real world. Rather, they’re testing how you think about math. And thinking about math in the real world is a lot different than textbook, school-based math.

For one thing, the correct answer on the GMAT is never actually a number or a math term. The correct answer is just (A), (B), (C), (D), or (E). How you get to that correct letter doesn’t matter in the slightest.

Okay let’s dive into our 5th Principle for Fast Math!

Principle #5: Know when to use fractions, or decimals, or percents

Peyman ate ¹⁄₅ of the chocolates, Rishi ate ¹⁄₄, and Sharmad ate ¹⁄₂. What fraction of the chocolates are left over for me?

(These are students from one of my classes. Hi!!)

There’s a reason why fractions, decimals, and percents are always taught together: They are just different forms of the same number. For example, 60% = ⁶⁄₁₀ = 0.6.

You already know all that, right? So what’s my point?

Different math operations can be easier to do with one of these forms than another. Your job is to know which kinds of things are easier to do in which form.

In the problem above, I have to add together three fractions.

But wait! Adding fractions is super annoying because we have to find common denominators. There are three fractions with three different denominators. Ugh!

It’s easier to add numbers in percent or decimal form. For example:

Only 5% of the chocolates are left for me.

Oh, wait, they asked for the fractional amount left. That’s okay; convert back! If you have your common conversions memorized, then you already know that 5% = ¹⁄₂₀. If not, do this:

5% = ⁵⁄₁₀₀ = ¹⁄₂₀

What skills did I need to have to do the above?

(1) I had to recognize that adding (or subtracting) is easier in percent or decimal form.

(2) I had to convert the fractions. On another problem, this might have been annoying, but this one had “nice” fractions. This wasn’t just luck! You’ll find that, on the GMAT, they’re going to set these shortcuts for the people who are trying to find them.

(3) I had to remember to convert back to fractional form. But this was worth it to avoid having to find common denominators!

And, often, you don’t even have to do that last step. The answers might be so far apart that I can tell which one must be right. Is 5% equal to ¹⁄₂₀, ¹⁄₁₀, or ¹⁄₅? I know it’s not ¹⁄₁₀ or ¹⁄₅, so it must be ¹⁄₂₀.

Alternatively, the answers might actually be in percent form! Glance at them before you solve—that would be a great clue to convert over to percents right away. 

Or the problem might be written in such a way that I’m calculating the actual number of chocolates left over, so I don’t have to convert to fractions again at the end. Let’s say they asked how many chocolates were left and they told me that Rishi ate 10 chocolates (along with all of the original info). Rishi ate 25%, so 25% = 10 chocolates. Therefore, 100% = 40 chocolates, and my 5% would amount to 2 whole chocolates. Yum.

(By the way, if you feel comfortable manipulating percentages, you could go straight from 25% = 10 to 5% = 2. Think about how that shortcut works. And remember principle #1: Don’t do math till you HAVE to.)

Okay, now that you know that, think for a moment: If the problem requires you to multiply, which form do you want to use? Fractions, decimals, or percents?

When multiplying, it’s easier to use fractions for the same reason that we didn’t want to use fractions to add. When you have numerators and denominators, you can simplify before you multiply, making the numbers easier to combine. The same is true for division. For example:

What is 0.25 divided by 0.375?

Ugh. Okay, here we go.

Same as before: (1) Recognize that you want to use the fraction form. (2) Know your conversions. (3) Convert and solve.

As you continue to practice fraction-decimal-percent problems, think about where else you can make your life easier by putting the number in a different form.

Join us next time for more Fast Math!

NEXT: More Fast Math for the GMAT (Part 6)

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. 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 FAST Math for the GMAT (Part 5 of 5) appeared first on GMAT.

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.

We’re up to part 4 of our series on Fast Math for the GMAT. If you’re seeing this for the first time, start with part 1 and work your way back here.

Let’s dive right in.

Principle #4: Estimate…and not just when they tell you to

And that brings us to awesome estimation. Some problems ask you straight up, “Approximately how far has the train gone when…” When they tell you that you can estimate, always do so! But even when they don’t, you may be able to estimate. 

While solving, train yourself to glance at those Problem Solving answer choices periodically to see how far you really need to go. The correct answer isn’t the actual number…the correct answer is just A, B, C, D, or E. Who cares how you get there?

In general, if you have numerical answer choices that are decently far apart, you can often estimate at some point in the problem⎯possibly right from the beginning or possibly a little farther in, depending upon the nature of the problem and how far apart the answers are.

Also, how rough can your estimation be? Again, glance at those answers. The farther apart they are, the more loose you can be. You’ll need to practice this, like any skill, so that you know how far is too far. As you gain experience, you’ll start to understand both when and how much you can confidently estimate your way to the answer.

Have you bought the Official Guide yet (from the official makers of the GMAT)? If so, open it up to the Problem Solving chapter and start scanning down the answer choices until you find some that look decently far apart, or look for the word approximately in the question. Then see whether (and how) you can estimate.

As you get better, add some variations into the mix. For instance, one problem might have these five answers:

(A) −2

(B) −1

(C)   0

(D)   1

(E)   2

These answers don’t look all that far apart…but you may still be able to estimate! Two are negative, two are positive, and one is 0. If you can estimate enough to tell that the answer must be negative, then you have a 50/50 shot at getting this right, even if you don’t have enough time or don’t know how to do the problem for real.

Or maybe you’ll see this mix of answers on a problem involving proportions, probabilities, or similar:

(A)   ¹⁄₅

(B)   ¹⁄₃

(C)   ¹⁄₂

(D)   ³⁄₅

(E)   ²⁄₃

Can you estimate enough to tell whether the proportion or probability should be more or less than half? Let’s say that you can tell that it’s less than half. The choice is then between (A) and (B). Choice (A) is only 20%, while choice (B) is about 33.3%. Next, see whether the details of the problem allow you to estimate whether the value will be less than or more than 25%. If you can tell that, you’ll know whether the answer is (A) or (B). (And, if not, you’ve still narrowed it down to two answers.)

Start looking everywhere for opportunities to estimate⎯certainly estimate when the problem asks for an approximate answer, but estimate wherever it’s reasonable to do so, even if the problem doesn’t explicitly tell you that you can estimate.

Join us next time for the 5th installment of our Fast Math series.

KEEP READING: FAST Math for the GMAT (Part 5)

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. 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 FAST Math for the GMAT (Part 4 of 5) appeared first on GMAT.