by Rich Cohen, Rich.C@empowergmat.com www.EMPOWERgmat.com
This series of emails and PMs focuses on situations that many Test Takers face during their studies. The names of the original posters have been changed to protect their identities.
Taking CATs at Regular Intervals is a MUST
Dear Rich,
I'm preparing for the gmat for next 26 days in which I will go through all Manhattan and official guides. I'm not working currently so I’ll be studying as a full time student.
After working through those books, I'll then solve 6 Manhattan Cat's, 90 practice questions and additional practice questions from MBA.com and 4 cats from MBA.com plus gmat write essay practice from mba.com
In summary:
26 days to study manhattan and official guides
13 days for cats which are listed above
1 day before exam relax
Do you have any notes on my plan?
Oberon
Dear Oberon,
If you haven't taken a full-length practice CAT yet, then there's no measure of your "starting position", so there's no way to say how likely you are to achieve your goal in 40 days.
I will offer this though: waiting to take your CATs until the last 2 weeks (AND taking 10 of them during that time) is a TERRIBLE IDEA. Having the necessary time between CATs to do review, learn new material, restudy old material and have some "down time" is a must - in your plan, you do not have enough time between CATs to do much of what is needed.
I recommend that you plan to take 1 CAT/week DURING your 40 days to studying and spread your other planned assignments around those CATs. This will give you a far better chance to "learn from your mistakes" and make the necessary adjustments to how you take the test.
‘Brute Force’ Can Make Solving Certain Quant Questions REALLY Easy
Hi Rich,
Need help in the following question. As per the language of the question (How many years did it take before the number of type A planes left in the Airline's fleet was less than 50% of the fleet) I think answer should be "C". But OA is "D"
A certain airline's fleet consisted of 60 type A planes at the beginning of 1980. At the end of each year, starting with 1980, the airline retired 3 of the TYPE A planes and acquired 4 new type B plans. How many years did it take before the number of type A planes left in the airline's fleet was less than 50 percent of the fleet?
A. 6
B. 7
C. 8
D. 9
E. 10
Percy
Hi Percy,
The prompt mentions that planes retired and acquired at the END of each year. You can create a quick table to track what you're looking for:
Start: 60 A and 0 B
Yr 1: 57 A and 4 B
Yr 2: 54 A and 8 B
Yr 3: 51 A and 12 B
Yr 4: 48 A and 16 B
Yr 5: 45 A and 20 B
Yr 6: 42 A and 24 B
Yr 7: 39 A and 28 B
Yr 8: 36 A and 32 B
Yr 9: 33 A and 36 B
After 9 years, the type A planes were less than 50% of the total.
Final Answer: D
Potential Issue With a Low AWA Score
Rich,
I scored 730 on my gmat but I pretty much bombed AWA. Should I retake the exam or provide an optional way to explain why I got 3.0?
Quinn
Hi Quinn,
Most (if not all) US Business schools expect applicants to score at least a 4.0 on the AWA. Schools also have the option to read your essay.
I can't say for sure how any individual school would interpret your essay score, so you might consider posting this question to an Admissions Expert. My instinct is to say that it could be a problem, but if you have a strong overall application, then it might not matter at all.
GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich
