{"id":2312,"date":"2010-02-10T12:19:46","date_gmt":"2010-02-10T20:19:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/?p=2312"},"modified":"2013-03-25T21:15:23","modified_gmt":"2013-03-26T04:15:23","slug":"veritas-prep-gmat-tips-expect-the-worst-and-it-wont-be-so-bad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/veritas-prep-gmat-tips-expect-the-worst-and-it-wont-be-so-bad\/","title":{"rendered":"Veritas Prep GMAT Tips: Expect the Worst, And It Won’t Be So Bad"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brian Galvin is the Director of Academic Programs at Veritas Prep, where he oversees all of the company\u2019s <\/em>GMAT preparation<\/em><\/a> courses.<\/em><\/p>\n

Murphy\u2019s Law dictates that \u201canything that can go wrong, will go wrong\u201d, which is a fairly pessimistic way to look at life, but seems to hold true in many situations.\u00a0 The GMAT is one of them, but for a different reason than simply cruel circumstance.\u00a0 If there is a formula that you struggle to apply correctly, or a mistake that you tend to make, chances are you\u2019ll see it on test day.\u00a0 The reason? The GMAT is written specifically to carry a high degree of difficulty, and to prey on the mistakes that you tend to make when you\u2019re not thinking clearly and deliberately.\u00a0 If you\u2019ve identified a concept or question type as something that concerns you, the authors of the test probably have done so on a larger scale, recognizing that such a concept is apt to elicit mistakes, and using it to do so.<\/p>\n

To combat this trend on the GMAT, pay attention to these trouble spots and slow down to double check your logic when you do.\u00a0 Often times, the concept isn\u2019t nearly as difficult as is the rapid application of it, and if you manage to proceed with a little caution you can quickly identify the author\u2019s bait and navigate around it.\u00a0 Consider the mathematical statement:<\/p>\n

There are twice as many apples as bananas.<\/p>\n

When you see a statement like this on the GMAT, your first inclination is to turn it in to math as quickly as possible so that you can use it in calculation.\u00a0 While this is certainly an important step, your concurrent compulsion is likely to write down the numbers and variables in order, leading you to:<\/p>\n

2A = B<\/p>\n

Here, you should pause to think the statement through logically.\u00a0 Because the statement gives you a ratio, and not and equation (an equation would need to have \u201c=\u201d , or a literary equivalent like is, separate two quantities; in this case the term \u201care\u201d precedes all values), you can\u2019t simply jot down the numbers in sequence.\u00a0 If you double-check your statement for logic, you\u2019ll note that, if there are twice as many apples as bananas, you could possibly have:<\/p>\n

2 apples, 1 banana<\/p>\n

Well, this wouldn\u2019t work with the equation that you were inclined to write before.\u00a0 If you plug in 2 for A and 1 for B, you\u2019d end up with 4 = 1, which is obviously untrue.\u00a0 However, if you go back to your potential values above, it should be clear that, if you multiply the number of bananas by 2, you\u2019d equal the number of apples:<\/p>\n

A = 2B<\/p>\n

This is the correct expression, but the authors of the GMAT know that half, if not more, of GMAT examines will at least flirt with, or use, the incorrect expression 2A=B.\u00a0 Because of that, know that the answer choice at which you would arrive with the incorrect equation will certainly appear as one of the choices.\u00a0 The test knows how you think, and if you don\u2019t take care to correct those easy-to-make mistakes, it will punish you.<\/p>\n

More important than the punishment, however, is the fact that, often, all you need to do to combat these mistakes is identify that you\u2019re approaching a trouble spot and pause to think logically before you commit to a speed-induced mistake.\u00a0 Track your mistakes in practice so that you can identify them on the test, and you\u2019ll avoid most of these common pitfalls.<\/p>\n

Read more GMAT tips on the Veritas Prep blog<\/a>. Ready to sign up for a GMAT course? Enroll through GMAT Club and you\u2019ll not only save up to $180 (use discount code GMATC10<\/strong>), but you\u2019ll also get access to all 30 of GMAT Club\u2019s GMAT practice tests! Get more info here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"GMAT<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Brian Galvin is the Director of Academic Programs at Veritas Prep, where he oversees all of the company\u2019s GMAT preparation courses. Murphy\u2019s Law dictates that \u201canything that can go wrong,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":101,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2312","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2312","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/101"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2312"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2312\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17646,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2312\/revisions\/17646"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2312"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}