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Brian Galvin is the Director of Academic Programs at Veritas Prep, where he oversees all of the company’s GMAT prep courses.
The writers of the GMAT are masters of human psychology -- as you work through practice questions, how often do you return to your errors and ask yourself "how could I have made that mistake again?" Well, the reason is that you’re just predisposed to doing so -- we all are -- and the writers of the test know it.
One way that the writers commonly tap in to our inefficiencies as thinkers is that it’s well known that human beings are suckers for things that end in "-st." We want to be the best, make the most, drive the fastest, pay the least, and come in first. Don’t tell your client that your proposal is a good option; say to her that it’s the best, or the safest, and you’ll be much more likely (the most?) to win that contract. We think in terms of superlatives so often that we tend to see them when they don’t even exist.
Consider the following question (which appears courtesy of the Graduate Management Admissions Council):
About two million years ago, lava dammed up a river in western Asia and caused a small lake to form. The lake existed for about half a million years. Bones of an early human ancestor were recently found in the ancient lake-bottom sediments that lie on top of the layer of lava. Therefore, ancestors of modern humans lived in Western Asia between two million and one-and-a-half million years ago.
Which one of the following is an assumption required by the argument?
(A) There were not other lakes in the immediate area before the lava dammed up the river.
(B) The lake contained fish that the human ancestors could have used for food.
(C) The lava that lay under the lake-bottom sediments did not contain any human fossil remains.
(D) The lake was deep enough that a person could drown in it.
(E) The bones were already in the sediments by the time the lake disappeared.
Now, as you think back to the stimulus, ask yourself to paraphrase the conclusion. Do you come up with "the earliest modern humans lived in Western Asia between two million and 1.5 million years ago?" Many will, but in doing so you’re inferring the superlative term "earliest" or "first" -- the actual conclusion only states that human ancestors lived in that period at that time; we don't need them to be the first, only to have existed.
If you inferred that "first" superlative in there, you're apt to select answer choice C -- far and away the most popular incorrect choice. After all, if there were human fossils beneath the lake-bottom sediments, that would mean that the fossils in those sediments are not evidence of the earliest humans. But, because we're not tasked with proving that those humans were the first -- only that they existed -- it doesn’t matter whether there were people there before them, and C is therefore incorrect.
Choice E is correct -- if the bones were not in the lake sediments when the lake disappeared (1.5 million years ago, the end of our time period in which we need to prove that humans lived), our argument doesn't hold. However, people often prefer choice C because: 1) it comes before E, and has already captured their fancy; and 2) it speaks to our innate predisposition toward "-st" words.
Know this about the GMAT -- it will take advantage of your "delusions of grandeur" as you attempt to go "from better to best." Make sure that you make decisions based explicitly on what the test says, and be aware of your tendencies to want to go farther.
Visit veritasprep.com to find a GMAT prep class near you. And, remember to use discount code GCLUB385 to save up to $160 on our seven-week GMAT course, available to all GMAT Club members!
