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10 Jun 2014, 10:00
| FROM Veritas Prep Admissions Blog: School Profile: Academics, Athletics, and Eating Houses at Davidson College |
 Davidson College, a private liberal arts college, is located in Davidson, North Carolina about 20 miles north of Charlotte. Ranked #36 among Veritas Prep Elite College Rankings, Davidson is part of the 24-school Charlotte Area Education Consortium. The college was founded in 1837 by the Presbyterian Church on the property of Revolutionary War General William Lee Davidson, after whom it was named. The 665-acre campus sits in the center of Davidson and is home to under 2,000 undergraduate students. Davidson College is consistently ranked among the top ten liberal arts schools in the nation, and has graduated 23 Rhodes Scholars. In keeping with the philosophy of interdisciplinary learning, it offers 25 majors, which may be combined with 17 minors or 17 concentrations. The campus is currently undergoing a physical transformation to create an academic neighborhood of learning spaces that will foster a new model for liberal arts education. Davidson also offers students self-instruction in five languages, 17 off-campus programs, and both domestic and international summer internships. The school’s reputation for academic rigor combined with an uncompromising grading system attracts competent, confident, and competitive students. Talented professors are both approachable and reasonable; if the pressures become too great, expect them to work with you. Small class sizes encourage both personalized attention and relationship building. Over half the Davidson students opt for a semester of learning abroad. The school’s Honor Code allows for student-scheduled exams that are not proctored. Campus social life at Davidson centers around the Alvarez College Union, which overlooks the Wildcat football stadium. Most student activities and events happen there. Ninety-five percent of students live on campus in above average student dorms and apartments; students can petition to live off campus, but few choose this option. There are over 200 student organizations to participate in on campus, including those that support racial and gender diversity. Over 50% of Davidson students receive financial aid supported by a generous Davidson Trust; it is one of the first colleges to eliminate student loans as part of financial aid. The campus drug policy is strictly enforced, and violations often result in suspension or expulsion. Wednesday nights and weekends are popular party times for students who drink alcohol. Greek life is expressed primarily in eating houses and two sororities for women and eight fraternities for men; a high percentage of female students are associated with either sororities or eating houses. Davidson is a community with close ties to the college. Many residents either run small businesses, where chains are largely panned, or are employed by the college. Don’t expect a Starbucks or McDonalds, although on Wednesdays there are shuttles from campus to Walmart. During breaks students can also catch campus shuttles to the airport. The small town atmosphere is warm and welcoming, and the community embraces Davidson students. They are also quick to offer jobs and internships to students. Everything is within walking distance of campus. Davidson offers a temperate climate most of the year, the exception being the summer and early fall when it is hot and humid. Charlotte is the closest city for a weekend getaway. The NCAA Division I Wildcats compete on 10 men’s teams and nine women’s teams. Nearly a quarter of the students participate in one of these competitive sports. The Wildcats football and wrestling teams are part of the Southern Conference, but all other sports are part of the Atlantic Ten Conference. The school boasts amazing athletic success for their size. Davidson teams have accumulated 27 conference championships, been to eight NCAA tournaments, and have unbeaten conference records in football, men’s and women’s soccer, volleyball, and men’s basketball. Over 61 professional athletes have come out of Davidson College. The brand new state-of-the-art $15 million Vance Athletic Center has been designed and approved; construction will begin at the end of the fundraising phase. The center, attached to Baker Sports Complex, will provide increased access to practice, training, and wellness activities for all students. Tradition at Davidson is an important part of the college culture. The Honor Code, signed by each incoming freshman, is its centerpiece. The written pledge to not “lie, cheat, steal or commit any unethical act” is a celebrated tradition that joins new students with the college community. The annual Freshman Cake Race has been a tradition since 1934 to encourage fitness. The winner gets an entire cake to himself/herself, baked by Davidson community members. Midnight Scream is held at midnight the night before finals when students open their dorm windows and scream at the top of their lungs to release the stress of all that studying. Flickerball, a variation of football, and Spring Frolics, a campus music and party affair are also now among Davidson traditions. This college is suitable for the liberal arts student looking for an academic challenge and a warm embrace. We run a free online SAT prep seminar every few weeks. And, be sure to find us on Facebook and Google+, and follow us on Twitter! Also, take a look at our profiles for The University of Chicago, Pomona College, and Amherst College, and more to see if those schools are a good fit for you. By Colleen Hill |
10 Jun 2014, 13:36
| FROM Veritas Prep Admissions Blog: The Key to Crafting Your MBA Application |
Business schools receive applications from a wide variety of people from very diverse backgrounds. Because there are no strict requirements about what you have done (only that you have indeed done something), business schools entertain hopeful applications from just about every career field imaginable. Still, most applicants to business school come from what’s considered “traditional” industries and functions. In fact, from the chart below compiled at the Veritas Prep home office, you will see something you may not have noticed on your own. The overwhelming majority of the accepted applicants to top business schools in recent years (70%) have come from just four professional fields: Consulting, Finance, Sales/Marketing, and Management. This fact contains both good news and bad news for applicants. The good news is, if you find yourself in this majority, you will have little difficulty convincing an admissions committee you are going to be fully committed to b-school. You will also not have to stretch much (if at all), to demonstrate aptitude (at least from the perspective of transferrable skill or potential for success in school or business). The bad news for the majority applicants, is that there is obviously a great deal of competition in these buckets, and schools are forced to turn away qualified applicants each year because they simply do not desire to fill their entire class with Consultants and Bankers. There is also good and bad news for those in the other 30%. The numbers are clearly lower here, so standing out is not as difficult, and because schools like to diversify their student body makeup, according to this research, they consistently draw at least 30% of them from these other groups. Perhaps the most interesting group of all is the tiny slice of the pie known as “other,” which essentially implies a “non-traditional” background for business school. I have seen applicants in this category coming from just about every background imaginable: ranch-hand, medical doctors/pharmacists, professional musicians or athletes, even a train conductor! Often I see the most insecure applicants in this bunch, which on one hand is ridiculous, since it’s often these quirky, unique backgrounds which end up getting someone into b-school. The key is passion. Business schools would much rather matriculate a driven, passionate student who is 100% committed to their goals and has a clear plan to achieve them, vs. someone with a tried-and-true business experience under their belt, but who lacks ambition and vision. Finding the thread between what you have done already and what you hope to achieve post MBA is the most critical piece of the equation for non-traditional applicants. The GMAT can also really help folks without a traditional background, since it is the only real apples to apples comparison tool the schools have to rate you against a traditional applicant. The long and the short of it is, if you are in the “other” category, you should focus on doing well on the GMAT and also on relating your story in a compelling way which ties everything together. If you want to talk to us about how you can craft a strong application, call us at 1-800-925-7737 and speak with an MBA admissions expert today. Click here to take our Free MBA Admissions Profile Evaluation! As always, be sure to find us on Facebook and Google+, and follow us on Twitter! Scott Bryant has over 25 years of professional post undergraduate experience in the entertainment industry as well as on Wall Street with Goldman Sachs. He served on the admissions committee at the Fuqua School of Business where he received his MBA and now works part time in retirement for a top tier business school. He has been consulting with Veritas Prep clients for the past six admissions seasons. See more of his articles here. |
11 Jun 2014, 09:00
| FROM Veritas Prep Admissions Blog: SAT Tip of the Week: Understanding Incorrect Answer Choices |
 Anyone who really wishes to achieve success on the SAT should not only be able to identify what makes up a correct answer, but also what makes an incorrect answer. The anatomy of an incorrect answer choice is not as complex as one might expect and gives students an important tool in selecting the correct answer choice: the power to eliminate all the other, less deserving options. The most common characteristic of an incorrect answer choice is the fact that it cannot possibly be correct given the context of the problem. This is a tip that can help with all sections of the SAT. An incorrect answer choice often cannot possibly be correct. In math, that often means a choice that is way to large or too small, an equation that does not accomplish the goal that is stated by the equation, or the answer is otherwise unfeasible in context. For instance, say the question was as follows: “A taxi charges d dollars for the first two miles and c cents per quarter mile for every mile after the first two. Which equation describes cost of a taxi ride of n miles in dollars.” A) dn – c/8(100) B) cd + 4n-8/200 C) d + (4cn-8c)/100 D) d + 100cn/4 E) 4cd(n-2) – 100 This is about as complicated as these types of problems come, but it is essentially the same as any problem which has an initial cost which is added to a dependent additional cost. Looking at the problem, we notice that the cost d is added to the mile dependent cost, which is some combination of the other terms listed in the problem. With just that knowledge we can eliminate all but two of the answer choices! Choices (A), (B), and (E) either do some strange calculation with the initial cost d, or subtract the additional cost from d. Both of these circumstances would be next to impossible if there is an initial cost being added to another cost. Thus, we only have to choose between choice (C) and choice (D). We can easily find the right answer by plugging in real numbers and checking which choice yields a correct answer. We can also see that answer choice (D) seems to be multiplying the cost in cents by 100, which, if the trip was 6 miles and the charge per mile was 25 cents, would make the taxi cost an additional $3750! This seems impossible, and leaves only the correct answer choice, (C). The biggest factor that makes a reading answer choice incorrect is the fact that it is not discussed in the passage. By far the most repeated question I ask my students is “where is this answer stated or implied in the passage?” If something is not stated or can not be reasonably implied by the passage, it CAN NOT be the answer choice. I have begun having my students write the exact words referenced from the passage on their answer sheets to see which answer choice is closest in meaning to the statement taken directly from the passage. More often than not, the correct answer choice is nearly identical in meaning (though usually not identical in its wording) to the selection from the passage. The answer is almost always directly stated in the passage, the few times that this is not the case, the wrong answers are so glaringly NOT stated in the part of the passage being referenced that only one answer choice is even remotely possible. The incorrect answer choices in the writing section are either sentences that contain glaring errors, as in the improving sentences and paragraphs sections, or are parts of sentences that are underlined but do not contain errors, as in the identifying sentence errors section. The trick with finding the impossible choices on the writing section, is understanding that there are really only a finite number of types of errors that are common on the SAT. Let’s look at an example. “Just behind the the new school house in town are a row of corn stalks which seems to rise up out of the ground as if summoned by some unknown force towards the sky. No Error.” In this case, the impossible answer choices are choices that could not contain an error common to the writing section of the SAT. The first underlined section is simply a combination of an adverb and a preposition, which are fine to combine, as in “Jim was just inside the door.” An error here would be next to impossible. The third underlined portion is an infinitive verb (any verb in the form of “to ‘verb’”) which would most likely be incorrect if it was acting as a conjugated verb. This one is fine since it follows the conjugated verb “seems”. The only common SAT error that could be present in the fourth underlined portion is an idiomatic error with the phrase “rise…as if summoned by”. We can check this construction by trying to build another similar construction. Could you say “He spoke as if possessed by the devil” or “He moved as if drugged by some powerful narcotic”? Both of those are fine (though they seem unfamiliar because they are in the passive voice). This leaves only the second underline portion which contains a verb. The only real problems possible here are conjugation and agreement problems. Everything is in the present tense, so the conjugation is fine, but what subject does the verb “are” refer to? By golly, it refers to “a row”! It should be “IS a row” instead of “are a row.” By understanding what errors are likely in a section of a a sentence, it is much easier to determine which choices could not possibly contain errors and which errors to check for in the ones that could contain errors. Understanding incorrect answer choices is very helpful in finding correct answer choices. Often by learning to eliminate the impossible choices, it becomes much easier to spot the choices that are possible and to score at the highest level on the SAT. Happy studying. Plan on taking the SAT soon? We run a free online SAT prep seminar every few weeks. And, be sure to find us on Facebook and Google+, and follow us on Twitter! David Greenslade is a Veritas Prep SAT instructor based in New York. His passion for education began while tutoring students in underrepresented areas during his time at the University of North Carolina. After receiving a degree in Biology, he studied language in China and then moved to New York where he teaches SAT prep and participates in improv comedy. Read more of his articles here, including How I Scored in the 99th Percentile and How to Effectively Study for the SAT. |
12 Jun 2014, 11:00
| FROM Veritas Prep Admissions Blog: How Would You Solve This Data Sufficiency GMAT Question? |
 The question format least familiar to most prospective GMAT students is unquestionably Data Sufficiency. As a test exclusive (it has a no trade clause) question type, it is unlikely that you have come across such a question without having at least glanced at a GMAT prep book. However the format is completely logical. The question is asking when do you have sufficient data to answer a question, be it “always yes”, “always no” or “specific value x”. The enemy is uncertainty; any definitive answer will suffice to answer the question and move on to the next hurdle. As anyone who’s actively studying for the GMAT knows, you must determine whether you have sufficient data with each statement separately, and then possibly combine them if you still have not determined sufficiency. This leads most assiduous students to spend most of their time determining the relationship between the statements and the question stem. If the question were true (which it always must be), would that guarantee one specific answer? Would such a definitive answer be guaranteed if I used the other statement instead? What if I used both statements? Allow me to pose one more rhetorical question: what happens when the exam throws a spanner in the works? The exam is designed to zigzag to avoid always asking questions in the same way. Sometimes these winding paths lead to counter-intuitive questions, which can confound unprepared test takers. One such tactic is to provide too much information (#TMI) so that test takers get perplexed as to what they’re supposed to solve. Let’s look at an example that isn’t particularly difficult, but can cause students to feel stress and spend undue time on a question they inherently know how to solve: If the average (arithmetic mean) of the five numbers x, 7, 2, 16 and 11 is equal to the median of the five numbers, what is the value of x? (1) 7 < x < 11 (2) x is the median of the five numbers (A) Statement 1 alone is sufficient but statement 2 alone is not sufficient to answer the question asked. (B) Statement 2 alone is sufficient but statement 1 alone is not sufficient to answer the question asked. (C) Both statements 1 and 2 together are sufficient to answer the question but neither statement is sufficient alone. (D) Each statement alone is sufficient to answer the question. (E) Statements 1 and 2 are not sufficient to answer the question asked and additional data is needed to answer the statements. Looking at the question, we are being asked to solve for x. One specific value is needed here, as a range of values would be useless. Ignoring the statements, a lot of information is provided in the question stem. The average of the five numbers is also the median of the same numbers, so it behooves us to put them in order to give loose boundaries on x. The question specifically doesn’t put them in order for us to not necessarily see the limits as easily. In order, the set would be {x, 2, 7, 11, 16}. Once we have an ordered set, we can easily solve for x. The first hint is that the mean and the median are the same, which we know to be true for sets that are equally spaced. That isn’t very helpful here as the spacing is not even between the four elements we already have, much less when we introduce x, but it’s a natural place for our thinking to initially go. The next step might be to use the logic that x is also the mean of the set, which can be solved algebraically or logically within a couple of steps. Using algebra, we know that the sum of the five terms is equal to the average times the number of terms. We can then set up the equation: (x+2+7+11+16)/5=x Which can then be mathematically combined: (36+x)/5=x Multiplying both sides by 5 to eliminate the denominator: (36+x)=5*x Moving x to the same side: 36=4*x Thus: 9=x We can also get the answer using logic, especially since the GMAT usually gives integers in this situation, so you only have a couple of values of x to plug in to find that it must be 9. At this point, after a four step algebraic problem or a couple of educated guesses, we have done everything necessary to correctly answer this problem. (Gasp!) We have, in fact, solved the value of x without using either statement! I know the answer must be 9 from the information given uniquely in the question stem (is that answer choice F?) After solving the question, let’s look at the two statements and see which of the five answer choices we should select. Statement 1 tells us that x is between 7 and 11. This was given in the question stem because the x was the median. In other words, statement 1 doesn’t give any new information, so it seems that it’s somewhat superfluous (TMI?). However, the question format specifically asks: “If statement 1 were true, could we solve for x”? And the answer is that, yes, absolutely we can solve that x is 9 if statement 1 were true. The fact that we can solve it without statement 1 doesn’t invalidate that we can solve it with statement 1. Specifically, statement 1 alone is sufficient to answer the question, which narrows the possible correct answers to A and D. Statement 2 tells us that x is the median of the five numbers, which is the same information as statement 1. Statement 2 thus implies statement 1, and whatever the answer to statement 1, the same will hold for statement 2. The answer on such questions can thus only be D or E, since both statements give redundant information. Since statement 1 was true, statement 2 must also be true. Thus, each statement alone is sufficient, which is a verbatim transcript of answer choice D. In actuality, you can solve this question without using either statement, but that option is not valid in Data Sufficiency. It’s not so much do I need the statement, but rather if the statement were true, would that guarantee the uniqueness of the answer. Since either statement alone guarantees one definitive answer, the answer must be D. On test day, you don’t want to waste undue time or second guess yourself if the question pattern isn’t exactly what you expect. Understand the rules of the game and approach each question logically. Those two tenets should be sufficient to get the right answer, even if you feel that the question has given you TMI. Plan on taking the GMAT soon? We have GMAT prep courses starting all the time. And, be sure to find us on Facebook and Google+, and follow us on Twitter! Ron Awad is a GMAT instructor for Veritas Prep based in Montreal, bringing you weekly advice for success on your exam. After graduating from McGill and receiving his MBA from Concordia, Ron started teaching GMAT prep and his Veritas Prep students have given him rave reviews ever since. |
13 Jun 2014, 17:00
| FROM Veritas Prep Admissions Blog: GMAT Tip of the Week: GMAT Scoring Is Like The World Cup |
 If you’re like…probably most human beings this week, you’re at least aware and likely excited for the 2014 World Cup, which began this week in Brazil. As this article is being written, in fact, the 2010 finalists, Spain and the Netherlands, are doing battle in the event’s third game (congratulations to Brazil and Mexico, winners of the first two). And if you’re streaming this game or others at work or if you’ve taken days off to enjoy, you can learn quite a bit from what’s going on in these early group-stage games – lessons that can help you better understand the GMAT scoring system and better plan your test-day and study strategies. How? There are two major parallels: It doesn’t matter how prepared you are for the finals; you have to get there Take Spain and the Netherlands today – two of the world’s most elite sides. If the game doesn’t end in a draw, one of these sides will have “wasted” an entire match with no points to show for it, meaning that it will face must-win (or at least cannot-lose) situations in its remaining two contests against Australia and Chile. Each team has the potential to advance back to the final, but neither is immune from the “mundane” group stage. A team that loses in today’s game will have its work cut out for it well before the tournament rounds begin…much like you’ll see on the GMAT. On the GMAT, many would-be-Spains – students shooting for the 700+ stratosphere – have spent months preparing, attacking challenge problem after challenge problem, learning obscure formulas and math shortcuts to help them save time for that monster word problem or geometry exercise. But the GMAT scoring algorithm can be fickle – much like World Cup group play, the “easier” questions may preempt you from ever seeing the bigger “games” that you’ve prepared for. When you miss easier questions, the system has substantial reason to doubt your ability – not just that “you aren’t as smart as we thought you were” but even “and maybe your ability is even lower than this question might have indicated”. So the system shows you a slightly easier question, assessing your “floor” and wasting one valuable question that might otherwise have been an opportunity for you to prove yourself worthy of an even higher challenge. Silly mistakes hurt you twice – they reduce your score in the moment *and* they prompt the system to check your ability on even-easier questions. So your top-end ability might not matter much at all if you don’t “survive pool play” and successfully navigate those problems that may seem beneath you. So what does that mean? You simply MUST get questions right if you can get them right – you can survive a slip-up or two but if you rush through the “easier” questions and make careless mistakes you run the risk of staying mired in that band of difficulty toward the lower end of your ability range, never earning enough opportunities to really test yourself on those extremely-challenging problems you’ve practiced. So make sure that you don’t leave yourself a leaky floor as you push to raise your ceiling – if you make mistakes in practice, address them; if you make them more than once, make a mental note to double and triple check for them on test day. Don’t let silly mistakes – those careless errors that are so easy to write off as “well that was just dumb…I knew that” – hold you back from your true potential. In other words, make sure that you don’t focus so much on tournament play that you find yourself surprised in group play. Sometimes a draw – or even a close loss – is a cause for celebration In World Cup group play, your primary – if not only – goal is to advance to the tournament. Accordingly, going for the win but also exposing yourself to a loss – playing too aggressively on offense that your defense becomes vulnerable – can be wildly problematic. You’ll find some of the most elite teams in the Cup playing very conservative soccer in certain games, playing specifically for the draw and the “guaranteed” points to ensure that they survive the group stage. You’ll also find teams that weren’t predicted to advance becoming thrilled when they draw with a world power like Brazil or Germany, having saved a point when it seemed like none were possible and having slightly-but-significantly outpaced the other two teams in the group. And when there are ties in the standings during group play, the tiebreakers are based on goal differentials, meaning that a 1-nil loss to a world power might be a real triumph if your competitors have lost even worse. Similarly, on the GMAT you may need to play for the “draw” on extremely challenging questions. When a question could easily cost you 3-4 (or more) minutes en route to a guess or mistake, recognizing that it’s safer to play defense – to guess relatively quickly and save your time for the problems that you could get right – is often a smart move. This saves time to ensure that you get the problems within your wheelhouse right, and although it may not seem satisfying in the moment it helps you to avoid those silly mistakes that often come from poor pacing and a need to rush in the end. There are plenty of GMAT lessons to be learned from the World Cup – coaches even instruct players to “form triangles” on the field (ensuring that the ballcarrier has two options at all times) much like you should look to form triangles when geometry problems get difficult – so as you watch these upcoming matches pay attention to the strategy. American audiences are often confused by the happiness of opposing fans at a draw and by the international strategies that seem less than aggressive, but the elite soccer community knows that they produce results. The same is true of a slightly conservative strategy on the GMAT. Are you studying for the GMAT? We have free online GMAT seminars running all the time. And, be sure to find us on Facebook and Google+, and follow us on Twitter! By Brian Galvin |
16 Jun 2014, 10:00
| FROM Veritas Prep Admissions Blog: Understanding Conjunctions on the GMAT |
 We would like to discuss a bit about conjunctions today – just whatever is relevant for GMAT. We will start by defining the kinds of conjunctions, then move on to the different ways in which they are used, and finally, we will see how they can be tested in a question. A Conjunction is a word that connects or joins together words, phrases, clauses, or sentences. There are two kinds of conjunctions: 1. Coordinating conjunctions - Connect two equal parts of a sentence Further, coordinating conjunctions are of two types: Pure Conjunctions – and, but, or, for, nor, yet, so (the first letters of these make the acronym FANBOYS) – try to keep these in mind. Conjunctive Adverbs – These words sometimes act like conjunctions and at other times, as adverbs – accordingly, in fact, again, instead, also, likewise, besides, moreover, consequently, namely, finally, nevertheless, for example, otherwise, further, still, furthermore, that is, hence, then, however, therefore, indeed, thus 2. Subordinating conjunctions – Connect two unequal parts of a sentence e.g. independent and dependent clauses – after, since, when, although, so that, whenever, as, supposing, where, because, than, whereas, before, that, wherever, but that, though, whether, if, though, which, in order that, till, while, lest, unless, who, no matter, until, why, how, what, even though  Things to note about conjunctions: 1. Two independent clauses can be joined by a comma and a pure conjunction. However, a comma by itself will not work to join together two sentences and will create a comma splice! Examples: The rain slashed the town, and the people scurried for shelter. The policeman dodged the bullets, but a bystander was shot. If you omit the conjunctions ’or’ and ‘but’ above, you will create a comma splice. 2. When two independent clauses are joined by a conjunctive adverb we need to insert a semicolon between the two clauses. Note that conjunctive adverbs are not really full conjunctions, and they can’t do that job by themselves. It is the semicolon that does the real job of joining the two independent clauses. Examples: The rain slashed the town; furthermore, the people scurried for shelter. The policeman dodged the bullets; however, a bystander was shot. Note that if we use a comma instead of a semicolon in the examples above, we will create a comma splice. 3. A dependent clause at the beginning of a sentence is introductory, and it is usually followed by a comma. Examples: While the rain slashed the town, the people scurried for shelter. Although the policeman dodged the bullets, a bystander was shot. On the other hand, no punctuation is necessary for the dependent clause following the main clause. Let’s take one of our own questions to understand the application of these concepts: Question: Unlike the previous year’s bidding, the contract was awarded not simply to the firm offering to complete the work on time for the least cost; the thoroughness of the design submission was also factored into the decision. (A) Unlike the previous year’s bidding, the contract this year was awarded not simply to the firm offering to complete the work on time for the least cost; (B) This year, unlike last year, the contract was awarded not simply to the firm offering to complete the work on time for the least cost; (C) Unlike the previous year’s bidding, this year the contract was awarded not simply to the firm offering to complete the work on time for the least cost; (D) Unlike the previous year’s bidding, the bidding for the contract this year was awarded not simply to the firm offering to complete the work on time for the least cost, instead (E) Unlike the previous year’s bidding, the contract’s bidding this year were awarded not simply to the firm offering to complete the work on time for the least cost; Solution: Other than the comparison errors contained in (A) – compares bidding with contract – and (C) – compares bidding with year – we have sentence structure errors. There are two independent clauses here: - the contract was awarded not simply to the firm offering to complete the work on time for the least cost. - the thoroughness of the design submission was also factored into the decision. There are two ways to join them – we can use a conjunction or a semi colon. Options (A), (B), (C) and (E) use a semi colon. Option (D) tries to use a conjunction with a comma but note that “instead” is a conjunctive adverb. It needs a semi colon before it. The use of instead with a comma has created a comma splice. Options (D) and (E) also have meaning errors since they award ‘bidding’ to the firm instead of awarding the ‘contract’ to the firm. (E) is also incorrect in its use of ‘were awarded’. The contract is singular and hence, ‘was awarded’ should be used. Option (B) rectifies all these errors and is the answer! Karishma, a Computer Engineer with a keen interest in alternative Mathematical approaches, has mentored students in the continents of Asia, Europe and North America. She teaches the GMAT for Veritas Prep and regularly participates in content development projects such as this blog! |
16 Jun 2014, 12:00
| FROM Veritas Prep Admissions Blog: Get Your “ACT” Together: Understanding the ACT |
 The ACT is the most popular college admission test taken by students. Doing well on the ACT can get you into the college of your choice, expands your choice of colleges and may also land you more scholarships. Because your performance in the ACT is crucial to your future, you need to be fully prepared before taking the test. Being prepared for test day means first getting to know every section of the ACT — how the questions work, what material is tested, and what the common mistakes tend to be. With that in mind, we have assembled the following infographic to help you fully understand the exam and get your ACT preparation started the right way! (Click on the infographic below to enlarge it.)  Make no mistake about it: Doing well on the ACT takes hours of preparation, and no one book or article will make you an ACT rock star over night. But first make sure that you fully understand the test before you embark on your ACT prep odyssey. We hope this infographic helps! For more tips on acing the ACT and getting into the most competitive universities in the nation, be sure to find us on Facebook and Google+, and follow us on Twitter! By Scott Shrum. |
17 Jun 2014, 10:00
| FROM Veritas Prep Admissions Blog: What Do Top MBA Programs Like Harvard, Wharton, and Booth Look for in Your Application? |
 When deciding to go back to business school, the first thing applicants often do is make a self-assessment of their core qualifications. While things like work experience and career goals can be very subjective, there are two key numbers which like it or not, tend to size up candidates fairly easily, at least from a cursory overview. It’s no big secret that these metrics are the GMAT score and the grade point average. It’s easily argued that the GMAT is the most objective measure of all, since everyone must take the same exam. After all, everyone goes to different colleges and even inside the same college, different majors and even different professors for the same course can impact the final grade outcome. Schools are savvy enough to know if you earned a 3.8 GPA at a top 200 state school, it’s not as impressive as a 3.2 GPA at a top 10 college, but what applicants often fail to recognize, is that some b-schools value certain achievements in this area more highly than others. A good example is Harvard Business School, which like the other ivy league schools, tends to put more emphasis on GPA than they do on the GMAT. While it certainly helps to get a great GMAT score, HBS is not coming up short each year in the area of high scoring applicants and figured out long ago that it’s more difficult to pull off a stratospheric GPA at a rigorous school for four years than it is to study hard over a few weeks or months and nail the GMAT. Perhaps they like that the GPA, unlike the GMAT, can’t be improved upon once it’s posted. You certainly can’t go back and un-do that “C” you earned in calculus or the failing grade you unfortunately got in Lit 101. There is a certain amount of legitimacy to comparing say, engineering students from different programs’ GPAs to each other despite the subjectivity I mentioned before. In this regard, if you have a high GPA from a good school, you are well on your way to gaining the initial approval of a place like HBS. Contrasting this with the Whartons and Chicago Booths of the world, you get a slightly different picture. Schools in this camp, whose programs are highly quantitatively driven and value the kind of math and analytical skills which come in handy on the dreaded math portion of the GMAT test, tend to value a high GMAT score and will let applicants off the hook more often on their GPAs. Their view is that GPA often happened a “long” time ago and are rather subjective anyway, so the GMAT is a better measure of current raw intelligence and aptitude for their curricula. I often tell candidates that for these exact reasons, GPA is largely considered the most flexible raw profile characteristic in one’s application. This is especially true for schools such as Wharton or Chicago. So what’s the bottom line? I hate putting cutoffs in writing, but if you don’t have a 3.6 or better GPA from a good (top 50 at least) college, you should be concerned about HBS and the ivys. Building an alternative transcript may be a good idea. The good news is, if you have something below 3.0, but still went to a rigorous program, the Whartons of the world may still take a look at you, but you will need that GMAT with a 7-handle on it. No 7-handle? HBS won’t be as concerned. Of course if you come up short in both categories, you will find acceptance at a top school much more challenging. Craft a strong application! Call us at 1-800-925-7737 and speak with an MBA admissions expert today. Click here to take our Free MBA Admissions Profile Evaluation! As always, be sure to find us on Facebook and Google+, and follow us on Twitter! Scott Bryant has over 25 years of professional post undergraduate experience in the entertainment industry as well as on Wall Street with Goldman Sachs. He served on the admissions committee at the Fuqua School of Business where he received his MBA and now works part time in retirement for a top tier business school. He has been consulting with Veritas Prep clients for the past six admissions seasons. See more of his articles here. |
17 Jun 2014, 18:00
| FROM Veritas Prep Admissions Blog: School Profile: Is Your Character Strong Enough for University of Virginia? |
 The University of Virginia ranks #32 among the Veritas Prep Elite College Rankings. Inspired by Thomas Jefferson, the University was founded in 1819 and opened in 1825, under Jefferson’s guiding principle to “shed light on the public mind.” It was the first university to separate church and state. Located in Charlottesville, one of the most livable cities in the US, the campus is set on property formerly owned by James Monroe. With its Jeffersonian architecture, expansive green space, lush gardens, famous Rotunda and Academical Village, it has been called one of the most beautiful campuses in the country, and is the only university to be designated a World Heritage Site. The University of Virginia has 51 undergraduate degree programs in eleven schools. Additionally, the school offers 81 master’s degrees and 57 PhDs, plus professional degrees in both medicine and law. It has a strong emphasis on humanities, and has produced more Rhodes Scholars than any other state university. Its business and economics programs are well known and highly respected. UVA is among a consortium of elite international research universities called the Universitas 21. The faculty have earned prestigious accolades in several academic circles including a Pulitzer Prize winner and a Nobel Laureate among many others. UVA faculty have been instrumental in Internet networking and astrophysics. Notable faculty and alumni include President, Woodrow Wilson; social and Civil Rights Activist, Julian Bond; Poet Laureate, Rita Dove; author, Edgar Allan Poe; Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, Charles Wright; Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Edward Jones; journalist, Katie Couric; astronaut, Kathryn Thornton; Senator, Robert Kennedy; and many more. This is the school to help you make your personal impact on the world through research, humanities, and science. There are 13 first-year suite-style houses clustered on Alderman Road, or 10 single/double room dorms clustered along McCormick Road. There are also residential colleges grouped by area of study with faculty representatives. There are also five apartment buildings for students. Seniors can apply to live on the prestigious section of campus known as The Lawn, alongside the ten Pavilions housing the university Vice President and Chief Student Affairs Officer, the Academic Deans, and notable University professors. There is a vibrant Greek life with several fraternities and sororities clustered along Rugby Road. The Corner is the section of University Avenue where students gather to unwind in the eclectic mix of shops and restaurants. Social life on “the Grounds,” as they refer to their campus, is such that UVA was rated the top party school in 2012. Charlottesville is a laidback community with a comfortable vibe that attracts artists, musicians, creatives, and professionals. The city’s proximity to the Blue Ridge Mountains also offers students many opportunities for outdoor activities in the splendor of nature. The NCAA Division I Virginia Cavaliers are part of the Atlantic Coast Conference. The Cavaliers are a national powerhouse in nearly every sport with accolades too numerous to mention. Some highlights include over 20 national championships in men’s tennis, soccer, lacrosse, and boxing, women’s rowing, lacrosse, and cross country, and combined track and field. The basketball and football teams have won a number of conference titles. The men’s soccer team holds the most national titles of any team at the University. The football team has produced notable NFL players, the soccer team boasts alumnus Claudio Reyna who was named Player of the Century by Soccer America, and several alumni have earned Olympic medals in various sports. The Cavaliers, also known as Wahoos or ‘Hoos, have long-standing rivalries with Virginia-Tech, the University of North Carolina, and the University of Maryland. Get your orange and navy blue ready, because the University of Virginia is serious about sports. Secret societies, an 1842 Honor Code, unprecedented student governance, prestigious honor societies, and University specific lingo are hallmarks of UVA tradition. In honor of Thomas Jefferson’s commitment to lifelong education, students are not referred to as freshman, sophomores, juniors, and seniors, but rather as first years, second years, third years and fourth years. Third years participate in the annual UVA ring ceremony where they receive their class rings in the presence of their families. Another annual tradition is the Lighting of the Lawn in December for the holidays accompanied by acapella music. Students wear casual dress attire to football games; after UVA scores, students link arms and sway together while singing the school anthem “The Good Old Song.” One of the most unique aspects of the University of Virginia is its long-standing Honor System. The principle behind the system is that students adhere to a code of conduct where they do not “lie, cheat, or steal.” It applies to both academic and personal life on campus and a single violation results in dismissal from the University. Although it is controversial and has been challenged a number of times since the 1990s, it remains in place and several students have been expelled from the University for violations, including some who had already graduated and had their diplomas revoked. If the University of Virginia is on your short-list of schools, make sure that your commitment to character is strong enough to keep you in school. We run a free online SAT prep seminar every few weeks. And, be sure to find us on Facebook and Google+, and follow us on Twitter! Also, take a look at our profiles for The University of Chicago, Pomona College, and Amherst College, and more to see if those schools are a good fit for you. By Colleen Hill |
18 Jun 2014, 10:00
| FROM Veritas Prep Admissions Blog: SAT Tip of the Week: 30 Minute Daily Workout Routine for Your Brain |
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Preparing for the SAT is a lot like working out. In order to maximize results, it’s best to put in a little bit of work everyday. If you are trying to bench-press 300 pounds, you won’t get there in one work out (if you do, you probably have a career in professional weightlifting ahead of you). Similarly, if you are trying to score at the highest level on the SAT, it’s best to prepare with at least a little work each day. Here is a sample five day, thirty minute a day, brain work out plan that will leave you ready for brain swimsuit season (OK, that’s not a thing, but it will leave you ready to attack the SAT). Monday: Monday should be a big vocabulary day. Start by familiarizing yourself with ten to twenty vocabulary words (depending on how soon you will be taking the SAT). Simply look at the words and definitions and repeat each one seven times. A study showed that repeating something seven times is more or less the “magic” number to help something stick in your mind. Quickly test yourself on the word and move on. After learning five words, quiz yourself on the words you’ve learned. Write any words you didn’t get right on a piece of paper. Repeat the previous steps, reviewing each of the five words, until you have familiarized yourself with all the vocabulary. Look at your sheet of paper and go through the words you missed in your first review. When you have successfully recalled all the definitions, go through all the words one more time and write the words you miss on your sheet of paper. Review those missed words one more time and you are done! With even twenty words, this process shouldn’t take more than twenty minutes. With the remaining ten minutes, pick one strategy from the SAT 2400 book that applies to a section you do not feel as strong in and practice using this strategy for five or six problems. That’s it! You have learned some vocabulary and done some practice problems. Drink some water and let your brain rest! Tuesday: Tuesday should be all about practice problems. Take 5 minutes to review your vocabulary then get straight to work. Pick a section you do not feel is your strongest and do the middle ten questions (if you have trouble with many medium questions) or the final ten questions (if you mainly struggle with the hard questions) and apply the strategies from the SAT 2400 book. Try to figure out what type of problem you are dealing with (Is it a math problem where you have to deal with undefined variables that would be easier with real numbers? Or is it a question with an idiomatic preposition error?). Start categorizing these questions so you know how to attack them when you see them. This should take up the remaining twenty five minutes. Wednesday: Take ten full minutes on Wednesday to review vocabulary from this week and previous weeks. Put all the words you don’t know onto a sheet of paper and then review this list. For the next twenty minutes take your second strongest section and time yourself to see if you can complete the final fifteen questions in a section in twenty minutes (If the section is writing, try to do ten improving sentences questions, ten identifying sentence error questions, and all of the improving paragraph problems. If the section is reading, do all the completing sentences questions and a short and a long paragraph with all of the related comprehension questions). Take the final five minutes to check work and see what type of problems you missed. Review any SAT 2400 strategies that apply. Thursday: Do five minutes of vocabulary review followed by a five minute look at some strategies you are not familiar with for your strongest section. Then try to do the final half of the section in ten minutes. Finally, take ten minutes to outline an essay with a complete intro paragraph and topic sentences. Take the final time to check work and look at more strategies. Friday: Test yourself on all vocabulary for about five minutes, then do a complete timed section of the SAT. This should rotate every week so you are practicing a different timed section every Friday. With any remaining time check your answers and review strategies that apply. This may take you over your thirty minutes, but you have the whole weekend to rest, so it might not be the worst idea to take a few extra minutes to check everything over. Voila! There you have it: a prototype for thirty minutes a day of work that will leave you feeling exhausted, but pumped up and ready to take the SAT. This is only an example of what a student could do if he or she had a lot of preparation time. If you have less time (a month or less) it will require more time per day to adequately prepare. The best option would likely be to seek out some private tutoring help or to make a very regimented schedule of a few hours a day. The only caveat to all of this is that it is a VERY good idea to augment daily preparation with a full practice SAT every couple of weeks. My recommendation is if you have two months to prepare, try to take an SAT practice test every month. I would also augment the vocabulary with any new vocabulary words you encounter on the reading sections. This will help to expand your vocabulary knowledge as you encounter words on the test. Good luck, and let’s get SAT ready! Plan on taking the SAT soon? We run a free online SAT prep seminar every few weeks. And, be sure to find us on Facebook and Google+, and follow us on Twitter! David Greenslade is a Veritas Prep SAT instructor based in New York. His passion for education began while tutoring students in underrepresented areas during his time at the University of North Carolina. After receiving a degree in Biology, he studied language in China and then moved to New York where he teaches SAT prep and participates in improv comedy. Read more of his articles here, including How I Scored in the 99th Percentile and How to Effectively Study for the SAT. |
18 Jun 2014, 14:00
| FROM Veritas Prep Admissions Blog: Columbia Business School Application Essays and Deadlines for 2014-2015 |
 Columbia Business School has released its application deadlines and essays for the 2014-2015 admissions season. Like other business schools, Columbia has done some more trimming to its essays, which we discuss in more detail below. Columbia stands out among top U.S. MBA programs because of its January intake in addition to the more common August/September intake. Columbia’s “J-Term” program allows students to complete their degrees in less than a year and a half, and is ideally suited for applicants who don’t need a summer internship — especially those who plan on returning to the same job or industry, and those who plan on starting their own business. Here are the Columbia Business School application essays and deadlines for the 2014-2015 admissions cycle, followed by our comments in italics: Columbia Business School Admissions Deadlines January 2015 Entry: October 8, 2014 August 2015 Entry (Early Decision): October 8, 2013 August 2015 Entry (Merit Fellowship Consideration): January 7, 2015 August 2015 Entry (Regular Decision): April 15, 2015 Columbia is fairly unique among top business schools since uses a rolling admissions cycle. One way to look at it is that the one truly hard deadline for entry in Fall ’15 is the April deadline. The advice that we normally give regarding admissions deadlines still holds, though: We recommend that you apply early rather than later. Applying as late as March or April means competing for one of the very few seats still open at that point. Also, remember that “Early Decision” means that you’re committing to attend Columbia if you are admitted. If you go back on your word, the worst that can happen is that you lose your deposit, but don’t forget the ethics of the situation: You take away a seat from someone who wants to attend Columbia more than you do. So, only exercise this option if Columbia truly is your first choice. Columbia Business School Admissions Essays Short Answer Question: What is your immediate post-MBA professional goal? (75 characters maximum) Wow! Last year more than one admissions consultant said, “This response can’t get any shorter,” when Columbia asked this same question and gave applicants just 100 characters to work with (down from 200 characters the year before). Now, after the school has chopped 25 characters, we’ll take a risk and say it: It’s hard to imagine this response getting much shorter! Almost regardless of how few characters you have to work with here, your main takeaway is this: Columbia’s MBA admissions team truly just wants a super brief headline about your post-MBA career goals to better understand where you think you want to go with your degree. That’s it. Think of the Short Answer Question as the positioning statement for your short-term career goals. Do you want to be known as the applicant who wants to start a non-profit organization, or perhaps the applicant who wants to sharpen his skills and return to the technology sector as a business leader? Columbia provides some examples on its site, and you’ll see that there’s nothing particularly creative or special about them (e.g., “Work for an investment firm that focuses on real estate.”). Avoid the temptation to get too gimmicky here, but remember that this is the one thing (about your short-term career goals) that you want the admissions committee to remember. Essay Questions:
Think you have what it takes to get into Columbia? Download our Essential Guide to Columbia Business School, one of our 14 guides to the world’s top business schools. If you’re ready to start building your own application for Columbia and other top business schools, call us at 1-800-925-7737 and speak with an MBA admissions expert today. And, as always, be sure to find us on Facebook and Google+, and follow us on Twitter! By Scott Shrum |
19 Jun 2014, 14:00
| FROM Veritas Prep Admissions Blog: Avoiding Traps in GMAT Quant Questions |
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A common mantra at Veritas Prep is that the GMAT is a test of how you think, not of what you know. This shouldn’t be interpreted to mean that you can go into the exam without knowing anything and expect to get a good score. Rather, it means that how you apply concepts is crucial in this exam. You need to have a strong base, like the foundation of a house, but the difficulty is in using the information you have to solve the problem in front of you. As can be expected, different quantitative questions will pertain to different mathematical notions. However some more advanced questions will begin to blur the lines (#BlurredLines) between multiple concepts. A question can ask you to solve an equation using variables from a given shape, incorporating geometry, algebra and even arithmetic concepts in one fell swoop. It’s important to note that all these seemingly disparate topics you’re studying while preparing for the GMAT can be combined into one question. These questions tend to be more difficult, but mostly because they require more steps, and therefore more opportunities to make mistakes. The mathematical concepts don’t have to be any harder on these questions; the simple fact of merging them into a Frankenstein’s monster question can make the problem harder than the sum of its parts. (The question wants you to use your BRAINS). Add to this the time pressure of having to solve such questions in roughly two minutes, and you can imagine how longer questions combining various elements can frustrate even the most experienced student. Let’s review a question and examine the various pitfalls we can fall into: If you select two cards from a pile of cards numbered 1 to 10, what is the probability that the sum of the numbers is less than the average of the pile? (A) 1/100 (B) 2/45 (C) 2/25 (D) 4/45 (E) 1/10 The first hurdle here is interpreting the question. To paraphrase, if I were to choose two random cards, would their sum be less than a certain other number. This is essentially a probability question, as evidenced by the answer choices as fractions. However there are a couple of elements to keep in mind. The first task is to determine the average of the pile. Given 10 numbers, we could simply sum them up and divide by 10, but it’s probably much faster to recognize that the mean of an evenly spaced set is equal to the median of the set. A set with 10 numbers has a median that’s the average of the 5th and 6th elements (Not the Bruce Willis movie). Conveniently, the 5th element is 5 and the 6th element is 6, yielding an average of 5.5. Since we’re dealing with integers, we must now determine the number of possibilities that give a sum of 5 or less. The options are limited enough that we can just reason out the choices. A good strategy is just to assume that the first card is a 1, and figure out what numbers work for the second number. If we pick 1, the next smallest card is 2. Thus the possibility (1,2) works. Similarly, we can see that (1,3) and (1,4) will work. (1,5) is too big, so we can stop there as any other option would only be bigger than this benchmark. It’s worth noting that the question is set up so that there’s no repetition, thus the option (1,1) cannot be considered. If the first card picked is a 1, there are three options that will keep the average below 5.5 (like a Russian judge at the Winter Olympics). Next, supposing that the first card were a 2, there would be the separate option of (2,1). Since the order matters, (2,1) is not the same as the aforementioned (1,2). This is another valid choice. (2,2) is eliminated because of duplication, leaving us only with (2,3) that will also work if the first card is a 2. Since (2,4) is too big, we don’t need to examine any further. That’s two more options to add to our running tally. Continuing, if the first card were a 3, then (3,1) and (3,2) would work. (3,3) is above the average, and it is a duplicate, so it can be eliminated for either reason. That gives us two more options for our running tally. The final option is to start with a 4, giving (4,1). Anything bigger is above the average. Similarly, anything starting with 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 or 10 will be above the average. Only eight options work out of all the possibilities. The question is almost over, but there is one final trap we need to avoid before locking in our answer. The stimulus purported 10 different cards to select. If we were to compile all the possibilities, a natural total to think of would be 100 (10×10). However, since there is no replacement, we’re first selecting from 10 choices, and then from 9 choices. Exactly as a permutation of two selections out of 10, this gives us a total of 90 possible choices. If there are eight options that satisfy the conditions out of 90 choices, then the correct answer must be 8/90, which simplifies to 4/45. Answer choice D. Examining the answer choices, we can see some of the more obvious traps. Compiling eight options out of 100 choices would give us the erroneous 2/25 fraction in answer choice C. Overlooking the lack of replacement would give us 10 total choices (the same eight plus (1,1) and (2,2) out of 100 possibilities, or answer choice E. The exam is designed to ask tricky questions, which means that the answer choices will often be answers you can get if you make a single calculation error or unfounded assumption. Be vigilant until the end of the question, as you don’t want to spend a full two minutes on a complicated question just to falter at the finish line. Questions can have many aspects to consider and many steps to execute, but by continuously thinking in a logical manner, you can solve any GMAT question. Remember that even the longest journey begins with a single step. Plan on taking the GMAT soon? We have GMAT prep courses starting all the time. And, be sure to find us on Facebook and Google+, and follow us on Twitter! Ron Awad is a GMAT instructor for Veritas Prep based in Montreal, bringing you weekly advice for success on your exam. After graduating from McGill and receiving his MBA from Concordia, Ron started teaching GMAT prep and his Veritas Prep students have given him rave reviews ever since. |
20 Jun 2014, 15:00
| FROM Veritas Prep Admissions Blog: GMAT Tip of the Week: The Best GMAT Study Strategy You're Probably Not Using |
 Just because successful people share certain habits does not mean that those habits leads to success. Spend some time teaching successful adults – the pre-MBA crowd with great academic resumes and good work experience, for example – and you’ll see that they often study ineffectively. Watch them complete homework problems and you’ll find the same. What are they doing? They’re learning the problem and not the takeaway. They’re memorizing the skill and not conceptualizing the strategy. They’re treating the back-of-the-book solution as a step-by-step guide and not a reference point. Simply put, they’re learning 1,000 ways to solve 1,000 problems, when all the while the questions that truly matter to them on test day – those 600+ level questions – are questions #1,001, 1,0002, etc. Consider this example from the Official Guide for GMAT Review, one of our favorite to showcase the thought processes required on the GMAT: When positive integer x is divided by positive integer y, the remainder is 9. If x/y = 96.12, what is the value of y? A. 96 B. 75 C. 48 D. 25 E. 12 And here’s the official solution (again appearing courtesy the Official Guide for GMAT Review): The remainder is 9 when x is divided by y, so x = yq + 9 for some positive integer q. Dividing both sides by y gives x/y = q + 9/y. But, x/y = 96.12 = 96.012. Equating the two expressions for x/y gives q + 9/y = 96 + 0.12. Thus, q = 96 and 9/y = 0.12. 9 = 0.12y y = 9/0.12 y = 75 Now…you can try to memorize that solution, or memorize “Dividend = divisor(quotient) + remainder,” but in doing so you’re likely missing the point of this question. Similarly, if this comes up in a class, you can, like many, copy down all the mathematical steps to review later. But again you’re likely missing the point – you won’t see *this* exact setup on the GMAT, but you will see this concept of “Reverse Engineering” in which they provide you with several (but not all) “outputs” of a mathematical operation (here the result of the division and the remainder) and ask you to find your way back to some of the “inputs” (here the divisor, y). What you *really* need to take away from this problem is that overall concept – the GMAT likes to test mathematical operations out-of-order through Reverse Engineering – and a strategy to attack future problems. We’d suggest: STRATEGY: Try a simple problem with the same operation and small, easy-to-use numbers to remind yourself how the operation works. If you have, say, 11 divided by 4, you know how that works: 2, remainder 3 2 and 3/4 2.75 Now you take that small problem and relate it to the bigger one – in the bigger one they gave you the integer-plus-decimal result (96.12 looks like 2.75) and the remainder (9, which performs the role of the remainder of 3 in our smaller problem). How do those two relate? In our smaller problem we divided 3 by the divisor of 4 to get to the decimals of .75. In the larger, then, do the same thing – take the remainder of 9 and divide by the divisor y, and that will equal the decimals .12. So: 9/y = .12 9 = .12y 900 = 12y (and then since you don’t have a calculator you can do the math in small chunks) 450 = 6y 225 = 3y 75 = y So what’s the difference in the approaches/takeaways? The written solution isn’t written specifically to “teach” but rather to explain, to justify the validity of the right answer. And many students study in class the same way – they copy the steps and hope to remember them as a step-by-step “how to” manual. But in doing so you just learn how to solve this particular problem, you don’t give yourself bigger strategies to attack plenty of future problems. And let’s be frank here – the last few steps (going from 9/y = 0.12 to solving for y) aren’t where the difficulty lies…if you can’t perform that math by the time test day comes around, you’re not getting anywhere near your goals. Basic linear algebra and multiplication/division are muscle memory…there’s no shame in being rusty at first, but you need to get that up to speed through repetition and practice. What makes this problem difficult is its abstract setup and the reasoning required to make it concrete and get it going – precisely the portion that the written solution glosses over, and sadly the portion that many students fail to notate when they’re learning the problem, in favor of copying down the steps to finish the calculation at the end. The most valuable thing that you can do as you study is learn strategies and concepts – not mere skills and formulas. But we’ve been trained through schooling that you can typically copy down what the teacher did, repeat those steps over and over again, and spit them back on the test and do well. That’s what successful people have often done to succeed – it’s just that the GMAT is different. Everyone taking the GMAT has already demonstrated that they can memorize and regurgitate – they’ve all graduated high school with solid grades and gotten at least almost done (if not totally done) with college doing much of the same. So how should you study? -Of course brush up on your basic skills, but don’t leave it there -Look for bigger-picture takeaways every time you do a problem. What made the problem difficult? How was it similar to other problems you’ve seen? What strategies would help to set it up properly or avoid the trap answer? This is where good instructors and lessons can make a huge difference. -Focus your notetaking and energy on the takeaways and strategies, and then worry about the steps through practice. -Use the written solutions as references, not as how-to manuals. Written solutions often have to choose between “technically accurate” and “practically helpful” and usually choose accuracy; they’re very often not the best way to think about a problem, or the most scalable way to do multiple problems. Watching many GMAT students study, it’s striking how often they copy down steps or flip to the back of the book, memorizing and copying instead of thinking and conceptualizing. The GMAT is a reasoning/concept test, not a fact/skill test. Make sure that you focus on the takeaway and not just the steps, and your next step will be to take away that unofficial score report with a big number on it. |
23 Jun 2014, 11:00
| FROM Veritas Prep Admissions Blog: Easy (A)/(B) Trap in Data Sufficiency Questions on the GMAT |
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We know that ‘Easy C’ is a common trap of DS questions – have you wondered whether there could be trap called ‘Easy A/B’ such that the answer would actually be (C)? Such questions also exist! The point is that whenever you feel that the question was way too simple, you might want to take a step back and review. GMAT will try every trick in the trade to delineate you. Let us show you a question which looks like an easy (A) but isn’t: Question: 25 integers are written on a board. Are there at least two consecutive integers among them? Statement 1: For every value in the list, if the value is increased by 1, the number of distinct values in the list does not change. Statement 2: At least one value occurs more than once in the list. Solution: Let’s first review the information given to us here: 25 integers are written on the board – we don’t know whether they are all distinct. We want to know if there is any pair of consecutive integers among them. Let’s look at the statements: Statement 1: For every value in the list, if the value is increased by 1, the number of distinct values in the list does not change. It is easy to fall for statement 1 and think that it is sufficient alone. Say, if any single value is increased by 1 and it doesn’t match any other value already there in the list, it means that there are no consecutive integers, doesn’t it? Well, no! But we will talk about that in a minute. Let’s first look at why we might think that statement 1 is sufficient. Say, the numbers are: 1, 5, 8, 10, 35, 76 … If you increase 1 by 1, you get 2 and the list looks like this: Now the numbers are 2, 5, 8, 10, 35, 76 … Note that the number of distinct integers is the same. Had there been two consecutive integers such as 1, 2, 8, 10, 35, 76 … If we increase 1 by 1, the list would have become 2, 2, 8, 10, 35, 76 … – this would have decreased the number of distinct integers. You might be tempted to say here that statement 1 alone is sufficient. What you might forget is that when you increase a number by 1, one distinct integer could be getting wiped out and another taking its place! It may not occur to you that the case might be different when one value occurs more than once, but statement 2 should give you a hint. Obviously, statement 2 alone is not sufficient but let’s analyze what happens when we take both statements together. Since statement 1 doesn’t tell you that all values are distinct, statement 2 should make you think that you need to consider the case where one value occurs more than once in the list. In that case, is it possible that number of different values in the list does not change even though there is a pair of consecutive integers? Say the numbers are 1, 1, 2, 8, 10, 35, 76 … Now if you increase 1 by 1, the list would look like 1, 2, 2, 8, 10, 35, 76 … Here, the number of distinct integers stays the same even when you increase a number by 1 and you have consecutive integers! In this case, if there were no consecutive integers, the number of distinct integers would have increased. Hence if the numbers are not all distinct and the number of distinct numbers needs to stay the same, there must be a pair of consecutive integers. This tells you that statement 1 is not sufficient alone but both statements together answer the question with a ‘Yes’. Answer (C) Takeaway – Just as when you get an easy (C), you must check whether the answer could be (A) or (B), when you feel that the answer is an easy (A) or (B), you might want to check whether the other statement gives some relevant data and is necessary. Karishma, a Computer Engineer with a keen interest in alternative Mathematical approaches, has mentored students in the continents of Asia, Europe and North America. She teaches the GMAT for Veritas Prep and regularly participates in content development projects such as this blog! |
24 Jun 2014, 12:00
| FROM Veritas Prep Admissions Blog: Build a Stronger Application for Business School |
 It’s not uncommon for students to have an academic transgression in their undergraduate experience. Perhaps you failed your introductory computer programming course as I did, or just never got your mind around all those esoteric English courses or math courses. Even if you graduated with a decent GPA, unless you had a perfect record, you likely have something you can point to in college that you wish you could do over. While you can’t go back and literally do it over again, you do have the opportunity now to build what some refer to as an “alternative transcript,” which can help mitigate the poor performance of the past and reassure the admissions committee you now have what it takes to succeed in a rigorous curriculum. Building an alternative transcript simply means taking classes at a local school or university, either on a for-credit or not-for-credit basis and doing well, which in turn will yield a documented record which you can include in your business school applications to help demonstrate your aptitude either in something you did not do well on in your past, or perhaps did not take at all. A common example is calculus. Lots of folks either did poorly in college calculus or didn’t even take it, and since most business schools want you to show up having taken calculus, you can make some progress with admissions if you pursue it on your own before you apply. Some people use an alternative transcript to take business courses which they feel will help them be prepared for business school. For students who were liberal arts majors, for example, building an alternative transcript with accounting, finance or statistics courses can not only demonstrate aptitude but also show them you are really serious about being ready for school. The real benefit of building an alternative transcript is that it actually does help you show up to b-school more confident and ready to tackle the curriculum. You are paying a lot for school, so getting the most out of it sometimes means putting something in ahead of time. If you decide to build an alternate transcript, do it wisely. Make sure you are taking courses that will be valuable to the schools to which you are applying and will give you the kind of credibility you are seeking. While online courses can sometimes be a fine choice, be careful in general about where you gain the credentials, since schools will give you more acknowledgement for taking courses from an accredited, known school vs. a correspondence course, for example. Additionally, make sure you are taking courses which are appropriately difficult. If you have a low quant score on the GMAT and are trying to demonstrate your math skills, simply taking an introductory math course at the local community college will likely not earn you any points and be a waste of time and money. Ultimately, you must demonstrate you have the academic chops to make it through two years of quantitative and analytical coursework at the graduate level. GMAT scores are good indicators of aptitude, and doing well in courses you are able to take before you matriculate can go a long way as well. Craft a strong application! Call us at 1-800-925-7737 and speak with an MBA admissions expert today. Click here to take our Free MBA Admissions Profile Evaluation! As always, be sure to find us on Facebook and Google+, and follow us on Twitter! Scott Bryant has over 25 years of professional post undergraduate experience in the entertainment industry as well as on Wall Street with Goldman Sachs. He served on the admissions committee at the Fuqua School of Business where he received his MBA and now works part time in retirement for a top tier business school. He has been consulting with Veritas Prep clients for the past six admissions seasons. See more of his articles here. |
24 Jun 2014, 16:00
| FROM Veritas Prep Admissions Blog: School Profile: Community is Number One at the University of Notre Dame |
 Number 39 in the Veritas Prep Elite College Rankings is the University of Notre Dame. This private research university is wholeheartedly dedicated to its Catholic roots; it embraces a philosophy that holds religion and science in equal regard, and stands for “values in a world of facts.” The college, founded in 1842, is located on a 1,250-acre beautiful park-like campus outside South Bend, Indiana. The Gothic architecture on campus conveys the school’s devotion to tradition, and as new facilities are added, they’re blended into the existing architectural design. New construction is guided by sustainability principles with several buildings being LEED certified. The overall campus design includes a number of outdoor sacred spaces for contemplation and communing with nature. In 2011, Travel + Leisure magazine listed it one of the most beautiful campuses in the country. Notre Dame is academically rigorous and traditionally puts more weight on teaching and learning than research. That said, the college has recently received a $75 million gift dedicated to advanced research in science and technology. There are currently 19 research cores on campus dedicated to everything from chemical synthesis and drug discovery to tree genetics to computer aided molecular design. In keeping with the spirit of The Fighting Irish, research projects are often referenced by desired outcome, and prefaced with the word, “Fighting.” For example, recent research has focused on Fighting: To Cure Prostate Cancer, or Fighting: For Ethical Use of Technology. Notre Dame is one of twelve universities in the world chosen to partner with UNESCO in an effort to conserve World Heritage Sites. After the groundwork of First Year Studies, students can choose from among schools of Arts and Letters, Business, Science, Engineering, and Architecture. Students can go on to graduate studies in law, architecture, and business at Notre Dame. The college of Arts and Letters has 20 departments and 33 majors, Mendoza College of Business offers four degree programs and earned honors as best undergraduate business school in 2010, the College of Science offers six degrees and its pre-professional program boasts more acceptances to medical schools than any university in the U.S., the College of Engineering has five departments and eight degree programs, and the School of Architecture offers one Bachelor of Science degree, plus all third-year students study abroad in Rome. The most popular majors are finance, political science, and psychology. There will be no mistaking the influence of Catholicism on campus at Notre Dame. Of the nearly 8,500 undergraduate students, 80% are Catholic. Each of the 29 residence halls have chapels, and most have priests and/or nuns in residence. There are over 100 masses conducted on campus during each school week, and every classroom has a crucifix hanging from the wall. The crown jewel of the campus is the grand Basilica of the Sacred Heart, and behind it the Grotto. There are numerous religious statues and figures adorning campus, including the “Touchdown Jesus” mosaic on the 14-story Hesburgh Library. Community is central to Notre Dame campus life; students often comment on forums about the welcoming campus atmosphere and close-knit community. Eighty percent of students live on campus, and the campus residences are the hub of social life. There is no Greek life at Notre Dame, but students typically stay in the same dorm for all four years, which contributes to the strong sense of community. Legends, the on campus restaurant and pub, hosts a variety of music and entertainment events including concerts, comedy, karaoke, and more. The four-story LaFortune Student Center, a.k.a. LaFun, is another hub of student activity on campus. If you’ve never heard of Notre Dame’s Fighting Irish football team, you just aren’t paying attention to college sports. The NCAA Division I athletic program, which is part of the Atlantic Coast Conference, fields 21 men’s and women’s varsity teams in all, but is most famous for the football team. The football team plays some ACC opponents, but they remain part of the Division I Football Bowl Subdivision, the top level of college football. Notre Dame has more All-Americans than any other FBS team. They’ve also produced at least seven Heisman Trophy winners, and have more national championships than any other FBS team. They’ve accomplished this level of excellence while consistently having the most Academic All-Americans and one of the highest student-athlete graduation rates. Notre Dame has also had some of the most famous college football coaches—Knute Rockne, Ara Parseghian, and Lou Holtz, to name a few. The school has amassed a number of ACC titles over the years in other sports. Students are also heavily invested in intramural sports on campus. Most Notre Dame traditions revolve around the football program. Traditions include the cheers of the Irish Leprechaun mascot and the cheerleaders, Friday Tunnel, The Irish Guard march into the stadium, the cheers and songs from the Alma Mater student section of the stadium, and the tunnel entrance of the team before the game. If you’re looking for a school where community is number one, values are as important as knowledge, and partying is a low priority, Notre Dame could be your school. We run a free online SAT prep seminar every few weeks. And, be sure to find us on Facebook and Google+, and follow us on Twitter! Also, take a look at our profiles for The University of Chicago, Pomona College, and Amherst College, and more to see if those schools are a good fit for you. By Colleen Hill |
25 Jun 2014, 10:00
| FROM Veritas Prep Admissions Blog: SAT Tip of the Week: Basic Grammar for Subjects, Verbs, and Descriptive Phrases |
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For those of us who grew up speaking English as our native language, grammar can be somewhat of an afterthought. We take for granted that the linguistic constructions that we use when we are arguing with our parents or flirting with a prospective prom date employ a regimented structure that we may not realize we are using. Basic understanding of piecing a sentence together is necessary for really taking that grammar score to the next level. Let’s take a look at some of the basic grammatical elements that make up our language. Subjects And Verbs At the most basic level, a sentence is a subject and a conjugated verb. “I ran.” “We lost.” In each case there is a noun which is associated with some conjugated verb. Sometimes the subject is hard to spot. Let’s look at an example SAT sentence with an error. “Before the dawn of man, but not before the dawn of life itself, there was creatures who was able to survive in a world with a completely different chemical composition than the world we live in now.” Where is the subject in the above sentence? As we can see, the subject can be rather tricky to spot when there are a lot of other grammatical pieces and less common sentence structures around. Before we delve into what the subject is, why don’t we talk about what the subject isn’t. Descriptive Phrases There are many different varieties of descriptive phrases (prepositional phrases, introductory elements, appositives, etc.), but the essential definition for descriptive phrases is a piece of language that can be removed without affecting the core structure of the sentence. That is to say, a phrase that can be removed without making the sentence incomplete. The granddaddy of all descriptive phrases is the prepositional phrase. A prepositional phrase is simply a phrase that begins with a preposition. The phrases, “Before the dawn of man” and “not before the dawn of life itself” and “in a world…live in now” are all prepositional phrases and can be removed without making the sentence grammatically incomplete. If we read the sentence without these phrases, it reads, “There was creatures who was able to survive.” As we can see, this is still a complete sentence, albeit an incorrect one. Can we find the subject now? It’s still a little difficult to nail it down because of the construction, “There was…”. This is what is called an expletive construction. An expletive construction is an inversion of the normal subject-verb sentence structure which employs the word “there” and a conjugated verb of “to be” (is, are, was, were, etc.) to emphasize something in existence. “There are three books on the table,” is a expletive clause. If I were to write this as a subject-verb sentence, it would read, “Three books are on the table.” The subject, then, are the books, since they are the objects on the table. So in our original sentence, the subject is “creatures” and the verb “was” has to agree with that subject, which it does not. The sentence should read: “Before the dawn of man, but not before the dawn of life itself, there were creatures who were able to survive in a world with a completely different chemical composition than the world we live in now.” For Advanced Users The final type of construction we see in this sentence is a “who” phrase. Who, Whom, That, and Which, phrases are descriptive phrases that provide some descriptions for another noun in the sentence. “Who” is used to describe subjects of a sentence, whereas “Whom” is used to describe objects of a sentence. “This is the person who I was telling you about (subject = “person”).” “My friend knew Albert Einstein, whom we all admired (subject = “my friend”and object = “Albert Einstein”).” “That” is used for restrictive clauses, or descriptions that are necessary for specifying the object being discussed, whereas “Which” is used for non-restrictive clauses, or clauses that can be removed and have the specificity of the noun in question remain. I get that this is confusing so lets look at some examples. “This is the gun that killed Abraham Lincoln (“that killed Abraham Lincoln” restricts which gun we are discussing. Without this phrase the sentence reads “This is the gun,” which could be any gun.)” “The gun that killed Abraham Lincoln, which is housed in the private collection of a wealthy history enthusiast, is valued in the millions (“which…enthusiast” does not restrict which gun we are discussing, it simply gives further information about this gun).” The “That-Which” distinction can be very tricky, but the real takeaway is that these phrases describe a noun and can be removed without affecting the grammatical structure of the sentence. This is very useful when checking for subject-verb agreement in the main clause of the sentence. The other takeaway is that if a new verb is introduced in these kinds of phrases, it must either agree with some new subject or the noun being described by the phrase. “He is the kind of person who can always get you out of a jam. (“can” must agree with “who,” which is referring to the subject “He”).” “This is the one piece of advice that I have remembered from childhood. (the verb “have remembered” must agree with the new subject “I”).” Though discussing grammar can seem tedious, it is amazing how quickly these restrictions become apparent when we open our eyes to them. By learning more about the rules that govern our language, we can not only become better SAT students, but better able to understand the rules that are hard wired into our language. Happy studying! Plan on taking the SAT soon? We run a free online SAT prep seminar every few weeks. And, be sure to find us on Facebook and Google+, and follow us on Twitter! David Greenslade is a Veritas Prep SAT instructor based in New York. His passion for education began while tutoring students in underrepresented areas during his time at the University of North Carolina. After receiving a degree in Biology, he studied language in China and then moved to New York where he teaches SAT prep and participates in improv comedy. Read more of his articles here, including How I Scored in the 99th Percentile and How to Effectively Study for the SAT. |
25 Jun 2014, 14:00
| FROM Veritas Prep Admissions Blog: Predicting the USA's World Cup Chances Tomorrow Using Integrated Reasoning |
 By this time tomorrow, the results will be in: will the United States have survived the Group of Death with Germany, Portugal, and Ghana? Or will Portugal’s late equalizer from Sunday have yanked the dream of Elimination play from the Yankees? A lot is riding on the concurrent USA vs. Germany and Portugal vs. Ghana matches tomorrow as all four teams have the potential to advance to the knockout stage of this year’s World Cup. So much is at stake, actually, that some of the greatest minds in the world have dedicated time to breaking down all the possibilities; Nate Silver’s website gives the US a slightly better than 75% chance of moving through, with those possibilities including: -An outright win against Germany -A draw with Germany (around which a popular conspiracy theory is growing, given that a draw puts both teams through) -A close loss to Germany with a Portugal win (but not blowout) over Ghana -A close loss to Germany with more overall goals scored in the tournament than a victorious Ghana Given all the situations – all requiring math, encompassing all the permutations available and including probabilities…all GMAT-relevant terms – some of these great minds have put together helpful infographics that can shed light on the scenarios…and help you study for the GMAT’s Integrated Reasoning / Graphics Interpretation section. How? Consider this infographic (click to enlarge):  This graphic has a lot of similarities to some you may see on the Integrated Reasoning section of the GMAT. It’s a “unique graphic” – not a standard pie chart, bar graph, line graph, etc. – so it includes that “use reasoning and logic to figure out what’s happening” style of thinking that you’ll almost certainly find on at least one Graphics Interpretation problem. And like many GI problems on the GMAT – even those classic bar graphs, etc. – this one has a potentially-misleading scale or display if you’re not reading carefully and thinking critically. Most notably: If Nate Silver is right (as he usually is) and the US is better than a 3-1 favorite to advance, why is there so much red on this graph?! And here’s where critical thinking comes into play: 1) What’s more likely – that both Germany and Ghana win 4-0, or that they each win 1-0? Soccer history tells us that 4-0 wins are quite rare, but 1-0 wins are fairly common. The blue Germany 1-0 / Ghana 1-0 box, though, is the same size as the red 4-0/4-0 box, making the scale here a little misleading. This graph does not incorporate probability into its cell size, so it treats all outcomes as equally likely, therefore skewing the red-vs-blue dynamic. On Integrated Reasoning, you may well have to consider a chart’s scale and determine whether it can accurately be extrapolated into something like probability! 2) This graph only expands “__________ side wins” into scores for three teams: Germany, Ghana, and Portugal. Why doesn’t it do so for the USA, or include the goals scored in a US-Germany tie? Likely because this graph is designed for an American audience, and the American side’s “what if?” scenarios are the same for *all* wins – if the US wins, it finishes #1 in the group and moves on – and for draws, in which the US would finish second. It’s only if the US loses that any other situations matter – by how much did the US lose? what was the score of the other match? – so in order to save space and draw attention to the meaningful “what ifs” this graph treats all US > Germany scenarios with one column. Which works for the purpose of this graph, but leads to another really misleading takeaway if all you’re looking at is blue vs. red – the blue columns for the US are wildly consolidated (and it’s all noted correctly so it’s not “wrong”), so you have to read carefully and think critically in order to understand what the graph truly displays. Note that this is in no way a “misleading graphic” – it’s a well-constructed infographic to talk about all the possibilities that could happen and change US fortunes tomorrow. It’s just that the maker of the graphic chose to display the valid information in a certain way, one that may mislead the eye if the user is not being careful and thinking critically. That’s also very true of GMAT Integrated Reasoning – the graphics you see will be valid and meaningful, but you’ll need to read them carefully and think logically to avoid making assumptions or drawing flawed conclusions. And as this graphic shows, sometimes your mind’s initial reaction needs to be checked by some critical thinking. So when you see Graphics Interpretation problems on the GMAT Integrated Reasoning section, be careful. What may seem obvious or too-good-to-be-true (like, it hurts to say, a 2-1 lead into the 95th minute) may require that little extra attention to detail to gain the result that you’re looking for, the one that gets you through to the next stage where you want to be. Are you studying for the GMAT? We have free online GMAT seminars running all the time. And, be sure to find us on Facebook and Google+, and follow us on Twitter! By Brian Galvin |
26 Jun 2014, 12:00
| FROM Veritas Prep Admissions Blog: Connect the Sentence Correction Dots and Succeed on the GMAT |
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Studying for GMAT sentence correction questions can seem like a primer on grammatical rules. This is because any given phrase could have a pronoun issue, or a verb agreement issue, or even a logical meaning issue. Most GMAT preparation involves at least some amount of time on the specific issues that are frequently tested on the GMAT. There is, however, one important rule that must always be adhered to and that cannot be easily pigeonholed. This rule should cross your mind on every single sentence correction problem you may see, and is often overlooked when speeding through practice questions. Quite simply: the underlined portion of the phrase must work seamlessly with the rest of the sentence. You may wonder why such a simple rule is often overlooked. The problem is often one of perspective. When evaluating five different choices, it is easy to concentrate on the differences among the options given and ignore the rest of the world (like watching Game of Thrones). Whichever choice you select must merge effortlessly with the rest of the sentence. If it doesn’t, the answer choice selected cannot possibly be the correct answer. It’s surprisingly easy to overlook this aspect of sentence correction. However, there’s a simple strategy to combat this inertia: (i.e. There’s an app for that) we must ensure to pay special attention to the first and last words of the underlined portion. These are the connector words that link the sentence fragment back to the rest of the sentence. It’s possible that there is only one such word if the underlined portion is at the beginning or at the end. As long as the whole sentence isn’t underlined (which brings a whole different set of problems to the table), pay attention to the connector word(s) and any syntax that must be respected. Let’s look at a typical Sentence Correction question to illustrate the point: To Josephine Baker, Paris was her home long before it was fashionable to be an expatriate, and she remained in France during the Second World War as a performer and an intelligence agent for the Resistance (A) To Josephine Baker, Paris was her home long before it was fashionable to be an expatriate (B) For Josephine Baker, long before it was fashionable to be an expatriate, Paris was her home (C) Josephine Baker made Paris her home long before to be an expatriate was fashionable (D) Long before it was fashionable to be an expatriate, Josephine Baker made Paris her home (E) Long before it was fashionable being an expatriate, Paris was home to Josephine Baker Since I’ve spent three paragraphs discussing the perils of ensuring that the underlined portion flows flawlessly with the rest of the sentence, let’s start the discussion there. The underlined portion ends with a comma, and then there’s immediately an “and she” that we cannot modify. This means the subject of the underlined portion must unequivocally be “Josephine Baker”, lest we not have a clear antecedent for the pronoun. Let’s look at the answer choices one by one and eliminate them if they do not make logical and grammatical sense until only one remains. The original answer choice “To Josephine Baker, Paris was her home long before it was fashionable to be an expatriate“ doesn’t work because the sentence contains a modifier error. The sentence is also set up so that Paris seems to be the subject, making the “she” pronoun unclear (is this referring to Paris Hilton, perhaps?) This sentence is grammatically incorrect, and the transition into the rest of the sentence highlights this discrepancy. Moving on, answer choice B “For Josephine Baker, long before it was fashionable to be an expatriate, Paris was her home” suffers from the same ambiguity. We can mentally strike out the modifier “long before it was fashionable to be an expatriate” as it adds nothing to the grammatical structure of the sentence. This leaves us with “For Josephine Baker,…, Paris was her home, and she…”. This time the pronoun should refer back to Paris, clearly incorrect. In the best case this sentence is hopelessly unclear, and in the worst case it’s inadequate and unnecessary (Some would argue that’s another Paris Hilton reference). Answer choice C “Josephine Baker made Paris her home long before to be an expatriate was fashionable” actually works fairly well with the rest of the sentence. However it’s often the first answer choice to be eliminated because of the phrasing “long before to be an expatriate”, which is clearly wrong. The underlined portion must gel with the rest of the sentence, but that is not the only criterion that matters. Answer choice D “Long before it was fashionable to be an expatriate, Josephine Baker made Paris her home”, seems to work. It puts the modifier at the beginning of the sentence and clearly identifies Josephine Baker as the subject. The rest of the sentence flows naturally from this sentence. D should be the correct answer, but we should still eliminate E for completion’s sake. Answer choice E “Long before it was fashionable being an expatriate, Paris was home to Josephine Baker” recreates the same problem that’s pervaded this sentence since answer choice A. This sentence clearly has Paris as a subject, and everything after the comma naturally refers to Paris. Answer choice E is incorrect, cementing our decision that answer D is correct (Final answer, Regis). On sentence correction problems, it’s very easy to get so enthralled by the underlined text that you ignore the rest of the sentence. While the underlined portion is the most important part, focusing exclusively on those words makes you lose perspective and gives you a fishbowl mentality (Orange Is the New Black style). The words that aren’t underlined may be indispensable to selecting the correct answer, especially the connector words that link the underlined text back to the rest of the sentence. To see the big picture, sometimes you have to make sure to connect the dots. Plan on taking the GMAT soon? We have GMAT prep courses starting all the time. And, be sure to find us on Facebook and Google+, and follow us on Twitter! Ron Awad is a GMAT instructor for Veritas Prep based in Montreal, bringing you weekly advice for success on your exam. After graduating from McGill and receiving his MBA from Concordia, Ron started teaching GMAT prep and his Veritas Prep students have given him rave reviews ever since. |
26 Jun 2014, 13:00
| FROM Veritas Prep Admissions Blog: Exciting News From GMAC About Your Test Day Experience |
 In an announcement that should be quite welcome for all GMAT examinees, the Graduate Management Admissions Council has changed a policy. Now: GMAT examinees will be able to preview their unofficial scores before deciding whether to report or cancel them. No longer, then, will examinees need to try to predict their score based on how the GMAT “felt” (a tricky proposition, since a computer-adaptive test is designed such that very few examinees make it to the end of the exam feeling particularly good about their performance). You’ll have the real data in front of you to decide whether it’s a score you would be proud to have on your record, or whether you’d rather hide that score and take the GMAT again in search of a higher one. But make sure to read the fine print – this policy has a few key items that you’ll want to know before you take the exam: *You will have 2 minutes, upon viewing your scores, to decide whether you want to report those scores or have them cancelled. *If you do not choose to accept your scores within that 2-minute period, they will be automatically cancelled. Make sure that you actively select “keep/report scores” so that they are not cancelled due to inactivity!!! *If you decide later, within 60 days, to reinstate your cancelled scores, you can do so for a $100 fee. *Before you decide, you’ll see your Integrated Reasoning, Quant, and Verbal scores (and overall); AWA scores will still not be included on unofficial score reports. GMAC has published its own blog post with some pointers on what this new policy means for you. What is Veritas Prep’s take? What the new score policy means for you: 1) Know what score range you’re willing to accept, and make that decision before you go to the test center. After a full-length GMAT, your mind will be a little fried for that final 2-minute decision. Have a plan ahead of time. 2) When in doubt – if you hit that gray area of a score that you don’t love but don’t hate – don’t cancel. Schools still only care about your top score, a sentiment that made this decision possible for GMAC. While your gray area score may not be ideal, there’s no guarantee that you’ll exceed it on your next try, so you may still want it for your applications. And if you do exceed it on your next try, having a gray area score on your report won’t hurt you at all. 3) Maybe our favorite feature of this whole thing: even if you do have a rough outing on the GMAT, seeing your scores before you cancel allows you to learn from the performance. Make a quick mental note of your score breakdown even if you’re going to cancel, and then use that to compare to your practice tests and expectations. One huge downside to the sight-unseen cancellation of scores to date has been that you never knew whether you were cancelling a good score – or just a good section – or not. Here you may not love your verbal score but you might learn that a quant section that felt rocky was actually your highest score to date. Or you may see that you felt really strong on one section but as it turns out that was the one that hurt you. Either way, seeing your score before you cancel is helpful in game-planning your retake strategy. 4) Relax. The best part of this news is that there’s one less variable to contend with on test day. There’s no chance that you’ll have to carry a dismal score on your record for the next five years, or that you’ll inadvertently cancel a 700. This news is great for you – your job is ever-more to go in and do your absolute best on each section, and then see where the score shakes out. One piece of pressure has been removed, so use that to your confident advantage! Are you studying for the GMAT? We have free online GMAT seminars running all the time. And, be sure to find us on Facebook and Google+, and follow us on Twitter! By Brian Galvin |
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