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12 Feb 2014, 10:00
| FROM Veritas Prep Admissions Blog: How Multitasking Can Hurt Your GMAT Score: Part II |
 If you read part 1 of this article you know that multitasking can result in attention difficulties and problems with productivity. You may not think that all of this talk about decreased productivity and being distracted would apply to the GMAT; after all there is no chance to update your Facebook status and “tweet” during the test right? So this must have no impact. However, when it does come time to concentrate on just one thing – for example, the GMAT – researchers have found that multitaskers have more trouble tuning out distractions than people who focus on one task at a time. Research shows that multitasking makes it very difficult for a person to focus, damages the short-term memory, makes it hard to sort the relevant from the irrelevant, and can slow down the transition from one task or way of thinking to another. I have found that GMAT students who are multitaskers get bored very easily while studying or taking practice tests! Multitasking is all about being distracted and that can become addicting. I have actually found that confirmed multitaskers find the relative silence of the test room disturbing, they find the requirement to focus on just one thing until it is completed oppressing, and they are often, in a word, bored. Let’s face it; sentence correction and coordinate geometry are not the most exciting things in the world, especially not to a brain addicted to constant stimulation. For years, I have been interested in the problems caused of multitasking, but it was a story on National Public Radio’s “Science Friday [Talk of the Nation]” that inspired me to write this article. It seems that science has become even more emphatic about the subject over the past few years. Dr. Clifford Nass, Professor of Communication at Stanford said this, “The research is almost unanimous, which is very rare in social science, and it says that people who chronically multitask show an enormous range of deficits. They’re basically terrible at all sorts of cognitive tasks, including multitasking.” Multitaskers are bad at everything – including multitasking! Imagine that. It is as if playing tennis made you less physically fit and, indeed, a worse tennis player. Even emotions are impacted… There is another impact of multitasking that surprised me, a change in emotions. Doctor Nass said, “We can look at use of the front part of the brain called the prefrontal cortex. We can look at even things like emotion management. There’s evidence that high multitaskers have difficulty with managing their emotion. So this really spans everything we do, because after all, thinking is about everything we do.” That is a pretty big deal. If multitaskers do have trouble controlling their emotions then this might mean more anxiety on test day, more fear, and more frustration at not being able to focus. The professor went on to say, “So we have scales that allow us to divide up people into people who multitask all the time and people who rarely do, and the differences are remarkable. People who multitask all the time can’t filter out irrelevancy. They can’t manage a working memory. They’re chronically distracted. They initiate much larger parts of their brain that are irrelevant to the task at hand. And even – they’re even terrible at multitasking. When we ask them to multitask, they’re actually worse at it. So they’re pretty much mental wrecks. Wow! Mental Wrecks! And he is describing many of the working professionals in the United States and hundreds of millions of people worldwide. It seems that you can gain an advantage over your competition (on the GMAT and in life) by simply learning to focus on one thing at a time. In Part 3 of this article you will find practical solutions to help you stop multitasking and build your ability to focus. If you 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! David Newland has been teaching for Veritas Prep since 2006, and he won the Veritas Prep Instructor of the Year award in 2008. Students’ friends often call in asking when he will be teaching next because he really is a Veritas Prep and a GMAT rock star! Read more of his articles here. |
12 Feb 2014, 16:00
| FROM Veritas Prep Admissions Blog: 7 Ways to Score Above 700 on the SAT Reading Section |
 “NOT READING!” I can hear the cries of thousands of young SAT test takers as they get to this section of their SAT. “This section is impossible! And subjective! And you can’t study for it!” Dear student, you are wrong on all accounts! Not only is this section as objective as any other section of the SAT, but it can also be dominated like the other sections by taking into advisement a few simple steps: 1. Learn Vocabulary You just have to learn it. The fill in the blank section is essentially just vocabulary questions. You have to be able to identify what the sentence is saying and be able to put in a placeholder word that means something similar to the word you are looking for, but then you have to be able to pick which word fits and which don’t. There is just no shortcut on this one. LEARN THE WORDS. It will also help you on the passage related questions as it will help you to better understand what you are reading. 2. Read Actively & Look for the Main Idea! Now if I remember myself as a young, high school student, I would have read this second step and scoffed. “Of course you have to read actively!” I would have thought in my most condescending ‘I know everything’ way, but this step is actually very important. It’s all about ATTITUDE. If you approach the passage with the attitude that reading is STUPID and the SAT is STUPID and I wish I didn’t have to do this STUPID work, then you will treat the passage like it is boring and unnecessary. If, however, you approach the passage with the thought, “I bet I will learn something interesting in this passage,” it is much more likely that you will engage in the material and try to understand it (which is really the whole point, right?). Let’s look at an example: “The delicate tightrope that the Chinese government is attempting to walk between encouraging and punishing creativity is framed perfectly in the plight of artist and political dissident Ai Wei Wei. Though he is considered one of the most important artistic figures in the Middle Kingdom, Ai Wei Wei and his family have also been the subjects of numerous jailings, governmental attacks on their patriotism, and general harassment.” How interesting! I can only imagine what it must be like to be a political dissident in a country like China. Now that I am engaged I can more easily pick out what is important in this first paragraph. It seems like the first paragraph is mostly about Ai Wei Wei being lauded (praised) for his progressive art, but lambasted (criticized) for his progressive politics. I think we have a main idea! Let’s go to the line specific questions. 3. Answer Line Specific Questions as You Go Our first line specific question asks: “In the lines 3-5 in the sections, “Though he is considered…general harassment.” the author is most likely trying to: a) Question the stance of the Chinese government on internet censorship b) Lament the difficulties of being an avant garde artist. c) Highlight the differences between how Ai Wei Wei is viewed as an artist and as an activist d) Contrast artistic merit with political usefulness e) Criticize the authoritarian practices in China Now, the reasons that we answer these questions as we go are that the material is fresh in our minds, and that we can’t get distracted by other information in other parts of the passage. Later in this passage, there will be a discussion of the internet and the government, but it’s not in this section so we can already throw out choice (a) and pat ourselves on the back for not being distracted by it. 4) THE ANSWER IS ALWAYS IN THE PASSAGE This is the phrase I repeat to my students more than any other when first teaching about the reading section of the SAT. Reading questions are not OPINION questions they are FACT questions and must be supported by actual words from the passage. If the content of the answer choice is not mentioned, or specifically implied by the passage, the answer choice is wrong. 5) Use Every Word to Help You Every word in the answer must be correct in order for the answer choice to be correct so we should examine every word of our choices for clues. I find first words of answer choices to be particularly helpful in questions where we are asked what the author or the passage is doing. Start by asking yourself “does this section of the passage primarily…” and then insert the first word of the answer choice. “Does this section primarily question? Or lament? Or Highlight? Or contrast? Or criticize?” 6) Attack Wrong Answer Choices We already did this with choice (a), now let’s try it with the others. This section really doesn’t lament anything, nor does it really criticize. BUT WAIT. The author doesn’t really criticize Chinese practices but he or she could mean this in a critical way, right? WRONG. 7) COULD = WRONG In the words of the great Yoda, “Do or do not, there is no try.” Similarly, there is no “could be.” Something either is or it isn’t. The author does not criticize Chinese practices with this part of the passage, nor does he or she contrast between “artistic merit” and “political usefulness.” “Merit” and “usefulness” are actually wholly absent from this section. Thus, we are left with only answer (c). The author DOES highlight differences in how Ai Wei Wei is treated as an artist and as an activist (OUR MAIN IDEA REMEMBER) so answer choice (c) is 100% true. This section can feel like the hardest to master for some students, but it is as concrete as any other section of the SAT. If you use these steps and don’t fall asleep or zone out, you can master the reading section and ace the SAT. Happy reading test master-ers! Check out related articles here: 5 Ways to Score Higher in Math and 5 Ways to Score Higher in Writing. 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. |
13 Feb 2014, 12:00
| FROM Veritas Prep Admissions Blog: Forget Your Prior Knowledge When Solving GMAT Critical Reading Questions |
 The GMAT is an exam that students generally study for over a few months, but it can be argued that students have been preparing for it their entire lives. From mastering addition in elementary school to understanding geometric properties and reading Shakespeare sonnets, your whole life has arguably been a prelude to your success on the GMAT. You might not need everything you’ve ever learnt on this one exam, but you will already have been exposed to everything you need to be successful. However, there are times when all the information you’ve spent a lifetime accumulating can hinder you on the GMAT. For example, everyone has been influenced to some degree by their upbringing, their experiences and their personal biases. This is unavoidable, but knowing that many GMAT questions will try to exploit this gap can help you prepare for it. Remember that outside knowledge can only hinder you on the test as everyone has to be able to solve the question with only the information in front of them. Anything less would constitute an unfair advantage of one test taker over another (and be uncivilized). The GMAT is based on logical facts mentioned in the question, not reader bias or preconceived notions formed long before you ever set foot in the test center. However it’s important to understand how our brain takes information and compares it to what we expect to see. Let’s look at a Critical Reasoning question and try to identify the answer choices that are completed with subconscious information from our own preconceptions: From 1994 to 2001, violent crime in New York City steadily decreased by over 50% from a rate of 1,861 violent crimes per 100,000 people in 1994 down to 851 violent crimes per 100,000 people in 2001. Criminologists have partially attributed this drop to proactive policing tactics such as “broken window policing”, wherein city officials immediately fixed small acts of vandalism and, as a result, lowered other types of criminal behavior. During this same period, the rate of violent crime in the United States steadily decreased by 28% (down to 500 violent crimes per 100,000 people). Which of the following conclusions is best supported by the information above? (A) The decrease in the total crime rate in the United States caused the decrease in New York City’s crime rate. (B) New York City spends more per capita on law enforcement than does the rest of the United States. (C) If the rest of the United States were to adopt law enforcement tactics similar to those of New York City, national violent crime rates would continue to fall. (D) Between 1994 and 2001, the violent crime rate in New York City was consistently higher than the national average. (E) The violent crime rate in New York City will soon be below the national average. The first tactic used by the GMAT to bring to mind students’ beliefs is using topics that evoke strong opinions. Many people have strong opinions on crime, based primarily on their first hand experiences. If your sister’s house got broken into last year, you might have very strong opinions on crime that you didn’t have two years ago. When you see topics that evoke strong emotions, the GMAT may be trying to blind side you (so remember to stand your ground). This question is specifically asking about which answer choice is supported by the text, which means that it’s an inference question. The important thing to remember about inference questions is that the answer must always be true. However, the downside is that we can’t easily predict the correct answer because many different choices could all conceivably be correct. We’ll have to approach these one by one and determine whether they always have to be true. Answer choice A states that the decrease in the total crime rate in the United States caused the decrease in New York City’s crime rate. This is a classic causality trap. If the crime rate went down in one place and another place at the same time, is there necessarily causation? Did one cause the other? Were they both caused by some third element? We simply cannot tell with the information provided. Answer choice A is incorrect. Answer choice B postulates that New York City spends more on law enforcement per capita than the rest of the US. This may very well be true, and our brains probably start thinking that this is a likely scenario given that New York is the biggest city in the US, but there is no discussion of this in the text. This is one scenario that your brain might start filling in the blanks for you, but don’t be fooled. Inference questions must always be true, and at best this is “likely” (like a Justin Bieber scandal). Answer choice B is not supported by the information above. Answer choice C hypothesizes about what would happen if the rest of the country adopted the New York City strategy. This is conjecture in its purest form. We don’t know what would happen if the rest of the country followed NYC’s example. (Where’s Miss Cleo when we need her?) The tempting aspect of this answer is that it seems to give a larger context to the passage as a strategy to reduce crime across the country. No such blanket policy was advocated, but our brains sometimes try and make the leap in logic on their own. This answer is incorrect, even if on some level we want it to be relevant. Answer choice D offers that the violent crime rate in New York City was consistently higher than the national average during the timeframe being examined. This plays into our preconceived notion about answer choice B (spending more money per capita) in that New York is a relatively dangerous place. The difference is, in this case, the claim is absolutely backed up by the numbers in the passage. New York City is at 851 incidents per 100,000 people in 2001 whereas the national average is 500 for the same number of people. Clearly New York City was above the average in 2001. Furthermore, since 1994, New York City has decreased by over 50% whereas the national average only dropped by 28%. If NYC dropped by a bigger percentage and still ended up higher than the average, I must have been even higher above the average back in the mid 1990s. Answer choice D must therefore be correct based on actual numbers in the text. Answer choice E again theorizes about what might happen in the future if various things happen (but only if Pisces is in Aquarius). There is no backing for this answer choice in the text, and this hypothetical must also be discarded. The nature of inference questions helps isolate the faulty premises being used on many answer choices designed to confuse and trap test takers. However it’s important to be on the lookout for answers that have purposeful gaps designed to get test takers to fill in with their own opinions. You have spent a lifetime preparing for this test, and your accumulated knowledge from years of experience will help you maximize your score. Just make sure your knowledge doesn’t override what’s written on the page in front of you. 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 Feb 2014, 15:00
| FROM Veritas Prep Admissions Blog: How to Overcome the Disadvantages of Applying to Business School in Round 3 |
 If you have decided you will take the plunge and apply to school in Round three, there are a few things you need to know. First and foremost, you must realize the odds of admission go dramatically down in round three because of the relatively few number of slots that remain. This is simple mathematics—the lower the seat count, the more competitive it is to get one of them—think of it as musical chairs with way more people than chairs. Granted there are fewer applicants in round three vs. rounds two and one, but not nearly so few as to make the ratio of applicants to available seats compelling. Additionally, you must pass the sniff test against those on the waitlist. Granted, schools need all their seats filled, but they will choose the best candidates available, and whether they come from the waitlist or from the third round admit pool is irrelevant to them. So how do you navigate these choppy waters? One thing you must do is to make a very compelling case for why now is the right time to apply to school. Even more than those from the earlier rounds, if you can convince the adcom that the reason you need to start this fall is a strong one, it will help them select you over someone who may appear to have time to wait. This reason is different for everyone, but your job is to make them believe you cannot wait until next year—they will lose you to a competing school, and b-schools hate to lose. Don’t help them push you into round one by giving them a reason why you can wait. Next, you must dig for the attributes in your profile which make you a standout against someone else in your peer group. Ask yourself why you should be chosen vs. the next accountant (or engineer or salesman, etc.) because you are being compared by the admissions committee against others with a similar background. Sure, this is something you should do no matter when you apply, but let’s say for arguments sake, your target school has decided to let one more accountant in for round three—your uniqueness becomes much more of a factor now vs. round one or two, when there were several slots for someone with an accounting background. Finally, you should have your recommenders speak to why now is a good time for you to return to school. Whether it’s because you have climbed as high as you can, or because your contributions have been maximized, it never hurts to have a third party make the case for why now. In case you’re not paying attention, the why now question is super-critical in the third round. Make sure you are building a strong case to convince them to squeeze you in. If you want to talk to us about our round 3 guarantee, 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. |
14 Feb 2014, 12:00
| FROM Veritas Prep Admissions Blog: GMAT Tip of the Week: If You Can't Be With the Sentence You Love, Love the One You're With |
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Happy Valentine’s Day, a day when we honor the soulmate, that one special someone, the concept of true love and destiny. Valentine’s Day is about finding “the one” and never letting go, and this day itself is about being with that one you love, your one true destiny. But if you think your destiny includes Harvard, Stanford, or Wharton, your Sentence Correction strategy should be a lot less “Endless Love” and a lot more “Love the One You’re With”. As Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young sing directly about the art of GMAT Sentence Correction: “If you can’t be with the one you love, honey, love the one you’re with.” What do they mean? On GMAT sentence correction you’ll seldom *love* the answer choice you pick. The correct answer choice might not be your knight in shining armor, but instead will be the best of five options. So if you can’t find an answer choice you love, learn to love the one you’re stuck with. Consider this example: So dogged were Frances Perkins’ investigations of the garment industry, and her lobbying for wage and hour reform was persistent, Alfred E. Smith and Franklin D. Roosevelt recruited Perkins to work within the government, rather than as a social worker. A. and her lobbying for wage and hour reform was persistent, B. and lobbying for wage and hour reform was persistent, so that C. her lobbying for wage and hour reform persistent, that D. lobbying for wage and hour reform was so persistent, E. so persistent her lobbying for wage and hour reform, that There’s a good chance that none of these answer choices give you goosebumps or make you blush. You won’t likely love any of them, but you have to pick one so it’s time to love the one you’re stuck with. But as you yearn for an answer choice you love you might remember this common-GMAT-sentence-structure lie from Romeo and Juliet: “Parting is such sweet sorrow that I shall say goodnight till it be morrow.” And think “oh, right – this sentence is trying to set up a ‘critical mass’ structure”: Frances Perkins’ investigations were so dogged that FDR fell in love with her political abilities. In other words, the structure “so dogged…” begs for a “that” to complete that “parting is such sweet sorrow that…” style structure. So only answer choices C and E need apply. Between the two remaining choices, choice E has two advantages going for it: 1) it’s parallel to the first portion of the sentence (So X was Y, so A was B, that); and 2) it “goes somewhere” with the thought that her lobbying was persistent, by adding that “so” to connect with “that” it means that her lobbying was also causal to FDR’s desire to hire her. So choice E is correct. Now, most of us would never write that sentence and very few of us would say that we love that answer choice. But that’s GMAT Sentence Correction – it’s not a search for your soulmate sentence but instead a Bachelor-style game in which you have to eliminate four and live with one. If you’re looking for love in Sentence Correction answer choices, you’re looking in all the wrong places (quant questions might be your thing – there the answer you algebraically dreamed of will usually be right there waiting for you). Sentence Correction is about settling for the best you can find at the time, not about finding perfection. You won’t find the answer choice you love, so part of the game is learning to love the choice you’re stuck with. 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 |
17 Feb 2014, 21:00
| FROM Veritas Prep Admissions Blog: Properties of Absolute Values on the GMAT - Part II |
 We pick up this post from where we left the post of last week in which we looked at a few properties of absolute values in two variables. There is one more property that we would like to talk about today. Thereafter, we will look at a question based on some of these properties. (III) |x – y| = 0 implies x = y x and y could be positive/negative integer/fraction; if the absolute value of their difference is 0, it means x = y. They cannot have opposite signs while having the same absolute value. They must be equal. This also means that if and only if x = y, the absolute value of their difference will be 0. Mind you, this is different from ‘difference of their absolute values’ |x| – |y| = 0 implies that the absolute value of x is equal to the absolute value of y. So x and y could be equal or they could have opposite signs while having the same absolute value. Let’s now take up the question we were talking about. Question: Is |x + y| < |x| + |y|? Statement 1: | x | ≠ | y | Statement 2: | x – y | > | x + y | Solution: One of the properties we discussed last week was “For all real x and y, |x + y| <= |x| + |y| |x + y| = |x| + |y| when (1) x and y have the same sign (2) at least one of x and y is 0. |x + y| < |x| + |y| when (1) x and y have opposite signs” We discussed in detail the reason absolute values behave this way. So our question “Is |x + y| < |x| + |y|?” now becomes: Question: Do x and y have opposite signs? We do not care which one is greater – the one with the positive sign or the one with the negative sign. All we want to know is whether they have opposite signs (opposite sign also implies that neither one of x and y can be 0)? If we can answer this question definitively with a ‘Yes’ or a ‘No’, the statement will be sufficient to answer the question. Let’s go on to the statements now. Statement 1: | x | ≠ | y | This statement tells us that absolute value of x is not equal to absolute value of y. It doesn’t tell us anything about the signs of x and y and whether they are same or opposite. So this statement alone is not sufficient. Statement 2:| x – y | > | x + y | Let’s think along the same lines as last week – when will | x – y | be greater than | x + y |? When will the absolute value of subtraction of two numbers be greater than the absolute value of their addition? This will happen only when x and y have opposite signs. In that case, while subtracting, we would actually be adding the absolute values of the two and while adding, we would actually be subtracting the absolute values of the two. That is when the absolute value of the subtraction will be more than the absolute value of the addition. For Example: x = 3, y = -2 | x – y | = |3 – (-2)| = 5 | x + y | = |3 – 2| = 1 or x = -3, y = 2 | x – y | = |-3 – 2| = 5 | x + y | = |-3 + 2| = 1 If instead, x and y have the same sign, | x + y | will be greater than| x – y |. If at least one of x and y is 0, | x + y | will be equal to| x – y |. Since this statement tells us that | x – y | > | x + y |, it implies that x and y have opposite signs. So this statement alone is sufficient to answer the question with a ‘Yes’. Answer (B) Takeaway from this question: If x and y have the same signs, | x + y | >| x – y |. If x and y have opposite signs, | x + y | <| x – y |. If at least one of x and y is 0, | x + y | =| x – y |. You don’t need to ‘learn this up’. Understand the logic here. You can easily recreate it in the exam if need be. 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! |
18 Feb 2014, 11:00
| FROM Veritas Prep Admissions Blog: School Profile: The University of Pennsylvania and the Toast Zamboni |
 The University of Pennsylvania is located in Philadelphia, the City of Brotherly Love, and began as a charity school in 1740. Under the influence of Benjamin Franklin, the school developed its roots in training students to become leaders in public service, business, and government. The private university has fewer than 10,000 undergraduates and ranks #13 on the Veritas Prep Elite 61 list of colleges. One in nine Ivy League schools, the University of Pennsylvania has a long tradition of academic excellence. The undergraduate program includes three schools: the famed Wharton Business School, the School of Nursing, and the School of Engineering and Applied Science. Students may take classes from any of the three schools, no matter which is their primary school, under the school’s “One University” philosophy. Additionally, students can take classes from any of three other schools in the Quaker Consortium – Bryn Mawr, Swarthmore, and Haverford. The University of Pennsylvania is consistently among the top research universities in the nation and offers students research opportunities in over 165 specialized research centers. Penn also offers six specialized dual-degree programs to undergraduates including management and technology, nursing and health care management, international studies and business, accelerated bio-dental, integrated energy research, and life sciences and management. There are even dual degree programs that allow students to have degrees from separate colleges within the University. Penn offers students on-campus housing in an eleven house system. Each house has four faculty members attached to it that serve as the House Dean, Faculty Master, and two College House Fellows. Within the house system are themed residential programs where students are grouped by affinity. For example, students with a shared interest in science and technology are grouped together in residences. Besides traditional dining halls, Penn offers students Starbucks and Subway among other retailers on campus. Over 90 food trucks and carts dot the campus in Penn’s long tradition of food vending. There are a combined 31 men’s and women’s sports teams at the University of Pennsylvania. This Division I Ivy League school takes great pride in their athletic department. Nearly three-quarters of the students participate in at least one sport. Penn’s football teams have become Ivy League Champions sixteen times, the last being in 2012. The basketball and lacrosse teams are consistently winning teams as well. The Penn Band, 100-member strong and completely voluntary, is one of the most active bands at the college level. The band, once conducted by John Phillip Sousa, enthusiastically performs at football games and other sporting events. They were the first band to ever march in the popular Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Every college has its quirky traditions and Penn is no exception. One oddly school sanctioned tradition is that of throwing toast during football games. At the end of the third quarter of home football games at Franklin Field, students begin a rousing chorus of “Drink a Highball,” which is on a list of school songs students should commit to memory. After the last line, “Here’s a toast to dear old Penn,” students then throw toast onto the track surrounding the football field like thousands of small frisbees. The tradition started in the 1970s and continues to today. Engineering students designed a specialized machine to pick up the toast and other debris after games, which has become fondly named the “Toast Zamboni.” Other traditions include Spring Fling, Ivy Day, Hey Day, and many others. Hey Day is a favorite for juniors at Penn. On this day, juniors gather on Hill Field all wearing the same tee-shirts, styrofoam hats, and carrying canes, for a picnic of hot dogs and pretzels. Students then march around campus to the College Green where the Penn president declares them seniors. In fact, Penn has so many traditions and social opportunities that it has been dubbed “the social Ivy.” If you’re looking for an Ivy League school where students know how to relax and not take themselves too seriously, then the University of Pennsylvania may be just the school for you. 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 to see if those schools are a good fit for you. By Colleen Hill |
18 Feb 2014, 15:00
| FROM Veritas Prep Admissions Blog: 4 Practical Suggestions to Avoid Multitasking and Raise Your GMAT Score |
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In the first two parts of this article we learned that multitasking causes a host of problems that can be particularly detrimental to GMAT scores. Research shows that multitasking makes it very difficult for a person to focus, damages the short-term memory, makes it hard to sort the relevant from the irrelevant, and slows down the transition from one task or way of thinking to another. Once you have admitted that you are a multitasker then you are ready to address the problem. It may seem a bit overwhelming to just change the way that you approach your job and your life, so here are some practical suggestions. 1) Distraction-Free Zone All of your GMAT studying needs to be as distraction free as possible. After all this is the area where you are trying to bring the most focus. Turn off every device that you can when you are studying. Force yourself to do without the stimuli that you are used to. Really work hard on the problems in front of you and do not allow yourself the relief of changing the task. The GMAT is over 3.5 hours long. You may not be able to go distraction free for 3 hours right from the start. Why not start with 1 hour blocks? After each hour you can check your devices. Try to increase the time until you reach 2.5 hours with a 10 minute break in the middle. This will build your ability to focus without boredom or distraction. 2) The 20- Minute Rule I am borrowing this one from Stanford’s Dr. Nass (and of course it is similar to the Pomodoro technique which requires you to stay on task for 25 minutes at a time). Dr. Nass applies this to email but I apply it more universally. If you are going to do something – do it for at least 20 minutes straight. There is something about focusing on a task for at least 20 minutes that prevents the problems associated with multitasking. 20 minutes seems to be long enough to actually bring some focus and to get some real work done. If you are checking email – do THAT and ONLY that for 20 minutes. If you are going to use Facebook or Twitter – try to do it all at once (20 minutes should be a whole day’s worth of tweeting). I know that is tough and you might just need to use social media less frequently. The point is to stop channel surfing with your brain. 3) Sports and Hobbies There are times when we naturally practice focus and concentration. A tutoring student of mine plays golf frequently. A round of golf is even longer than the GMAT exam and can require just as much concentration. Especially if smart phones are turned off and only emergency interruptions allowed. Other sports and hobbies require the same focus and are great opportunities to practice NOT multitasking. Gardening, reading, jigsaw puzzles, even just sitting quietly at the beach can help break the cycle of constant stimulation. 4) Do One Thing at a Time This last piece of advice may seem the most obvious given the research quoted above, but it may also be the hardest thing to do. As much as you are able to do so, structure your life and your work so that you are usually doing just one thing at a time. Remember, you might just become 40% more efficient! All of the above advice comes down to one thing: if you allow yourself to become distracted most of the time in your daily life, you will not be able to suddenly focus when practicing for or actually taking the GMAT. Use the GMAT as an excuse to change your life for the better! Stop multitasking now! If you 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! David Newland has been teaching for Veritas Prep since 2006, and he won the Veritas Prep Instructor of the Year award in 2008. Students’ friends often call in asking when he will be teaching next because he really is a Veritas Prep and a GMAT rock star! Read more of his articles here. |
19 Feb 2014, 12:00
| FROM Veritas Prep Admissions Blog: SAT Tip of the Week: Simplify Hard Questions in the Reading Section |
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The Reading Section is often considered the most difficult section of the SAT. Here’s a game-changing tip from a SAT 2400 tutor that’s guaranteed to boost your score. Often, students find the Reading Section to be the trickiest section of the SAT because of the sheer amount of information they have to remember. In an earlier blog post, I discussed how making targeted summaries can help students process the information in a passage. Although this strategy is a lifesaver for many, questions that reference specific details from the passages can still throw students off. These include questions that ask what the author of one passage would think of a quoted line from the other passage, such as the one below:  You, as the student, need to understand the true meaning of the quote from its context in passage 1, as well as what the author of passage 2 would think of that meaning. Before I break down how to quickly solve this question – as well as an even tougher one – take a look at the introductory paragraphs from each passage in this comparison set, as well as the summaries I wrote after reading each of them.   Summary of Main Ideas:
  Summary of Main Ideas:
We know that the author of passage 2 views history as something that is created, and that the tendency of people to ‘repeat it’ often has disastrous consequences (such as the Germans’ decision to go to war). However, we also need to understand what the “crucial navigational instrument” is in order to know what the author of passage 2 would think of it. So, I’ll take a quick glance at sentence 13, read the quote in context, and then rewrite it in my own words. In this case, my substitute is “an important guide”. Now, I ask myself, How does the author of passage 2 think that history differs from being an important guide? My answer here would be that he thinks it is a dangerous and perhaps false guide. With that in mind, I take a look at the answer choices, and easily select A. That question was quite easy – let’s take a look at a harder question.  Just like the last question, I’m going to ‘rewrite’ both quotes into my own words before answering the question. Let’s take a look at the paragraph that includes line 61.  Judging from context, the ‘minority’ consists of those people who realize that history is unreliable. I’d suggest writing a shorthand version down on the test booklet, just above the actual quote. Next, let’s take a look at the paragraph that includes line 19.  Judging from context, the ‘sense of continuity’ means the ‘coherence’ or ‘guidance’ people feel through applying knowledge of history to lessons in their own lives. After writing a shorthand version of that down, I take a look at the question, and ask myself, What would the few people who realize that history is unreliable think about those who believe that knowledge of history makes life less confusing/more coherent? Before I look at the answer choices, I answer, ‘that history does not actually make life more coherent’. That answer easily leads me to the correct answer, E. That’s all there is to it! Next time you’re working on a practice Reading Section, be sure to ‘rewrite’ the difficult quotes within questions. You’ll find that when you are dealing with simpler questions in language that is familiar to you, the correct answer will be much clearer. 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! Here’s another article by Rita on scoring a perfect 2400. By Rita Pearson |
19 Feb 2014, 13:00
| FROM Veritas Prep Admissions Blog: The Symbiosis Between Education and Income |
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It’s no secret that earning a college degree or a graduate degree can lead to a higher-paying job. But do you realize just how big the difference can be? We’ve broken it down to show you what kinds of jobs — and how much pay — you can expect when you earn a degree. You should never choose a major or a line of work solely for the pay, but keep these stats in mind if you’re wondering whether or not you should go back to school. Also, think about costs as you consider pursuing more education. While a higher degree can pay off significantly, it can also come with a high price tag… Your return on investment will not only depend on how much you earn, but how much you have to pay to get that degree. (Click on the infographic below to enlarge it.)  For more valuable information about getting into college and grad school, be sure to find us on Facebook and Google+, and follow us on Twitter! By Scott Shrum. |
20 Feb 2014, 10:00
| FROM Veritas Prep Admissions Blog: 3 Ways to Increase Your GMAT Score to a 760 |
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Everyone who takes the GMAT wants to get a good score. The exact definition of “good” varies from student to student and from college recruiter to college recruiter. However no one can argue that scoring in the top 1% of all applicants can be considered anything less than a good score. Getting into your local university’s business program may not require a terrific score, but it can’t hurt to have one. When I took the GMAT for the first time, I scored a 760. This was significant for me, not only because it was 50 points better than my last practice test, but because it was a score in the 99th percentile. Without this 99th percentile score, I would not work for Veritas Prep and likely would be trying to teach Shakespeare to inner city youths on the mean streets of Montreal! I did not set out to score so highly on the GMAT, but many of the things I’d done in my life led me to be able to do very well on this exam. I’d like to outline three basic things I’d done that you can use as strategies to boost your score into the stratosphere. 1. Multiplication Tables First and foremost, know your multiplication tables. This is math that’s taught to children in elementary school, so although it may seem irrelevant, it is not difficult to learn. Knowing all the products up to 12×12 should take no more than a couple of hours. It’s not necessary to memorize them, but review them and understand how to get to any particular answer quickly (for example 8×9 is 8×10-8 if that’s easier to see). The advantage of this is not only in saving valuable time when math is required, but also in not losing your train of thought. Questions often ask you to do two or three things before getting to the final answer. If you start doing some tedious math calculations in the middle of solving a question, you’re much more likely to get sidetracked and forget what you were looking for. This wastes more time and sometimes causes you to answer the wrong question. Avoid all of these distractions by already knowing the math that is likely to come up multiple times during the quant section. It is also worth knowing the perfect squares past 12×12, as numbers like 152 and 162 come up a lot on the GMAT. You can leverage your knowledge of perfect squares to solve questions that seem extremely difficult on the surface. For example, a question may ask you 212-192, expecting you to identify the difference of squares and reduce the math to the more manageable (21+19) * (21-19), which is 80. However, knowing that 212 is 441 and 192 is 361, you can get the answer without even considering the algebraic identity. 2. Reading is Fundamental For many people, reading is a passion. It opens our eyes, exposes us to new ideas and interesting theories, but it also exposes us to language and grammar. Regular reading will help improve your score in Reading Comprehension as you will be more skillful at retaining information from passages and understanding the core message. You may not have time to join a book club while studying for the GMAT, but the skills being tested on the exam are similar to those honed as a regular contributor in a book club (just don’t watch the movie instead). Read a passage, or even an entire book, and paraphrase it in your own words. If you can’t, you may not have understood the passage very well. Furthermore, exposure to good writing will also improve your Sentence Correction skills. Reading well-written sentences will spotlight proper grammar and help you avoid some of the recurring errors on the GMAT. Conveniently, two of the best written periodicals are the Economist and The Wall Street Journal, both excellent publications for aspiring business students. Even reading your local paper is better than nothing, but these two magazines are excellent sources of good grammar and effective sentences. You may even learn some interesting tidbits while studying for the GMAT. 3. Approximating Many of my students with mathematical backgrounds feel the need to solve questions with a very high degree of precision. If I were to divide 638 by 402, the quotient would be exactly 1.587. This degree of meticulousness is required in many fields (engineering comes up most often), but on the GMAT, problems often require you to get to the correct answer quickly. One strategy that will help you in a lot of situations is the ability to approximate values. Looking at the two numbers above, it’s about 640 being divided by 400. This can then be thought of as 64 divided by 40, which should give about 1.6. You even know that it has to be a little less because you approximated the dividend upward and the divisor downward. (dog) Numbers can be approximated in many different ways. For example, a question can ask you about the square root of 500. Doing a little math using the rules of algebra, we can simplify this to:  However, we can do better if we know the value of √5. Since 22 is 4, and 32 is 9; we can easily surmise that this value will be approximately 2.2. Multiplying this value by 10 will give us approximately 22 as an answer. Similarly, if we knew that 202 is 400 and 252 is 625, we can figure that √500 is about 22.5 on its own. The approximation method you use can make a difference of a couple of percentage points on the final answer, but the approximation of the answer will still be enough to easily eliminate most if not all of the answer choices provided. Approximations help in all types of quant questions, even geometry. √2 is about 1.4, which helps us on any right angle isosceles triangle. Similarly, you can use 1.7 to approximate √3. This is helpful as it will be the height of any equilateral triangle. The value π often comes up, which is about 3.14 (you can use 3 in a lot of situations). If the perimeter of a circle is 4π, you can figure that this has to be about 12.5, and even knowing that it’s about 12 or 13 will usually be enough to solve the problem. There are many questions on the GMAT where knowing an exact formula will get you the right answer, but approximating the values will get you a very close estimate of the number without having to spend much time on calculations. 760 and Beyond In conclusion, many things will help you get a higher score on the GMAT, but to truly achieve a very high score, you must be at ease with the elements tested on the exam. I was lucky, the exam played directly into my strengths, and I’d spent a lifetime honing the types of skills that would allow me to get a high score. You can circumvent a lot of that preparation time by focusing on the skills that can get you a 99th percentile result. Reading a lot of well written publications will help you tremendously in the verbal section, particularly in Reading Comprehension as well as Sentence Correction (to say nothing of the AWA). In math, the emphasis should be on being comfortable with numbers and mental math. This is polished by knowing the multiplication tables forwards and backwards, as well as being able to approximate most values of square roots, constants and fractions. Approximating values quickly is so useful on the GMAT I even coined an acronym from my name for it: Rapid Offhand Numbers. If you can quickly RON numbers on the GMAT, you’re in good shape to get your score to 760. 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 Feb 2014, 14:00
| FROM Veritas Prep Admissions Blog: 3 Reasons to Wait Until Round 1 to Apply for Your MBA |
 Most of the top U.S. business schools accept students in two or three rounds. Applicants are not always sure in which round to apply, and when they make a decision, they usually underestimate the time it takes to put together a solid application. Applying for an MBA is not like applying for a job. A well-rounded application not only needs quantitative data such as undergraduate grades and test scores, but also needs an accurate depiction of your qualitative traits, which are usually shown through your essays, letters of recommendation, CV and extracurricular activities. A thorough application can be seen as a presentation package to Admissions that should tell a consistent story. When I work with applicants, I tell them to spend time researching but also reflecting, as opposed to solely applying. Ideally, I would start in the January of the year of submitting an application, so to allow roughly 18 months prior to enrollment. Will you be too old to be considered? Not at all! Although some schools do accept younger applicants, Admissions still want to compose a class of individuals who are mature and capable of self-reflection. Having slightly more years of experience is always a plus, as many schools use the case study method of instruction, so having worked in the real world is a pre-requisite for success in the MBA program. Wait until Round 1 and use these 6-9 months before the application deadline to:
If you are still thinking about applying in round 3, take a look at our round 3 guarantee, or 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! This Veritas Prep Head Consultant received a BA in International Economics from UCLA, and went on to the Stanford Graduate School of Business to receive her MBA. Her specialties for helping students include low GMAT score, low GPA, multicultural marketing, and entrepreneurship. |
21 Feb 2014, 10:00
| FROM Veritas Prep Admissions Blog: 5 Ways to Prepare Yourself for the SAT |
 The majority of your work should be finished a week leading up to the exam. You’ve already poured over mountains of vocabulary, towers of practice exams, and piles of practice problems (I love alliteration!). You know your triangles, you know the answer is always in the passage, and you know to check your pronouns for a clear and appropriate referent. Now, the only thing left is to take the actual exam and apply all the knowledge you have spent the last months cultivating. So what should be done the week of the exam to make sure that you apply all your knowledge effectively? 1. Establish a regular sleep cycle. Look, I know with all your clubs, sports, non-profit internships, and *ahem* social engagements, it’s nearly impossible to keep a regular sleep schedule, but the week of the exam this should be a priority. Try to be in bed by eleven or midnight and up by six or seven every day so that the day of the exam you are awake and ready to go. Don’t do anything you don’t usually do on the morning of the exam! If you aren’t a coffee drinker, don’t decide to start drink triple espressos before the big test. 2. Avoid lots of starchy food the morning of the exam. This may sound more like dieting advice than test taking advice, but the two are connected! Your body responds to the intake of lots of white flour or starches like potatoes and white rice by releasing insulin which in turn causes sharp drops in blood sugar levels and thus drops in your energy level. The test is three and a half hours long! The last thing you want is an energy crash half way through. The eventual energy crash from stimulants like caffeine is another reason to avoid chugging coffee right before the exam. 3. Do a few SAT problems every morning when you wake up. Preparing your body and mind to work at the time that the test will occur is a small but critical step you can take to make sure that you are at your absolute best the morning of the SAT. You don’t have to take a full exam every morning, but doing a few problems will establish a pattern of putting your mind in the right place to tackle SAT problems when exam day comes. 4. Avoid “cramming” the night before the exam. Cramming has its benefits. On tests that are primarily information based, cramming can get you through if you have spent a little too much time on your *ahem* social engagements instead of studying, but the SAT is a skills test not an information test. It tests your ability to identify grammatical errors, find information in passages, and solve math problems in creative ways. These are really not skills that you can cram for. At best, you may be able to squeeze in a few extra vocabulary words, but you will almost certainly be much better off getting a good night’s sleep and being alert and ready for the exam than you will attempting to take three practice tests the night before. 5. Psyche yourself up! Tell yourself you are going to do great! This may seem a little hippy-dippy for some students, but there are a large number of studies which demonstrate time and again that people who think that they will do well, actually do better! Giving yourself a little pep talk before the exam may be just the thing that you need to get yourself out of a mindset that can cost you points. DO NOT groan when you get to a math section because “math is my worst subject”. If you have gone through the Veritas Prep SAT 2400 book, worked with a Veritas Prep tutor, or have been reading these excellent blog posts (See? Tell yourself you’re great!), you have all the skills necessary to do wonderfully on the exam. Tell yourself that you are awesome because, more likely than not, if you tell yourself you are great, you will be more likely to act great. None of these steps are a substitute for actual practice in the months leading up to the exam. The brain is most effectively developed by repetition of skills over time, so if you have not learned the techniques to most effectively tackle the SAT, practice and repetition should be your first steps! Get the Veritas Prep SAT 2400 book, get a tutor, and set aside some time to seriously study. If that work is done, these steps will ensure that you are at your best the morning of the exam. You are awesome! Now go BE awesome. 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. |
21 Feb 2014, 17:00
| FROM Veritas Prep Admissions Blog: GMAT Tip of the Week: Synchronizing Twizzles in Critical Reasoning |
 As the Sochi Olympics enter their final weekend, we all have our lists of things we’ll miss and not miss from this sixteen-day celebration of snow and ice. We’ll almost all miss the hashtag #sochiproblems, the cutaway shots of a scowling Vladimir Putin, the bro show of American snowboarders and TJ Oshie, and the debate over whether the skating judges conspired to give Russia the team gold and the US the ice dancing gold. And almost none of us will miss Bob Costas’s pinkeye, aggressive interviews designed to make Bode Miller cry, prime time events that lasted well past bedtime for a school night, and the way that announcers for figure skating so critically point out potential deductions and problems even while these athletes do unconscionably amazing things on thin blades on ice. But we can learn from those skating announcers. They’re critical because the job demands it, because the untrained eye doesn’t recognize those ever-important subtleties that take otherwise amazing performances and separate the gold from the bronze. Much like a good Critical Reasoning test-taker has to notice those subtle-but-significant flaws that make otherwise-valid arguments fail, skating judges and announcers make their money by noting those tiny flaws. That’s the way the game is played. So your job on Critical Reasoning questions is essentially to be a figure skating announcer – you need to notice those subtle flaws. In skating, sometimes the twizzles aren’t perfectly synchronized; in Critical Reasoning, too, sometimes the premises and conclusion aren’t perfectly synchronized. As an example, try this problem: The team of Schleicher and Sun should win the gold medal in ice dancing. After all, they were leading after the short program and they skated the long program with fewer mistakes than any other pair. Therefore, they should end up with the highest overall score. The argument above relies on which of the following assumptions? (A) None of the judges will allow bias to affect their scoring decisions. (B) Schleicher and Sun also skated the short program with fewer mistakes than any other pair. (C) Schleicher and Sun did not make any noticeable mistakes in either the short or the long program. (D) Factors other than their number of mistakes do not affect a pair’s overall score. (E) Schleicher and Sun’s twizzles were perfectly synchronized. On the surface, the argument above may make a lot of sense. But look at the way that the major premise (“they skated the long program with fewer mistakes”) and the conclusion (“they should end up with the highest overall score”) are not synchronized. “Fewest mistakes” isn’t the same thing as “highest score”. If you’ve been watching the Olympics, you might bring in that knowledge that degree of difficulty plays a factor, as often does the difficulty toward the latter half of the long program. But even if you didn’t have that outside knowledge – which you won’t have on most GMAT CR questions – you should see that the premise and conclusion are not synchronized. They don’t talk about the same thing, even though it’s close. And *that* is the blueprint for most Strengthen/Weaken CR questions – when the premise and conclusion aren’t quite synchronized, when they leave a little room in between them because they’re not talking about the exact same thing, that’s where you know you can be critical. That’s where the deductions lie. In this question, that leaves D open as a correct answer. Since “Number of mistakes” is part of – but not necessarily all of – the scoring of a pair’s routine, choice D exploits that little lack of synchronization. More important is the lesson – just as the television announcers are quick to point out unsynchronized twizzles, you should train yourself to notice those little lacks of synchronization between premise and conclusion. Often this can happen when:
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 |
24 Feb 2014, 10:00
| FROM Veritas Prep Admissions Blog: An Official Question on Absolute Values |
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Now that we have discussed some important absolute value properties, let’s look at how they can help us in solving official questions. Knowing these basic properties can help us quickly analyze the question and arrive at the answer without getting stuck in analyzing different ranges, a cumbersome procedure. First we will look at a GMAT Prep question. Question 1: Is |m – n| > |m| – |n|? Statement 1: n < m Statement 2: mn < 0 Solution 1: Recall the property number 2 Property 2: For all real x and y, |x – y| >= |x| – |y| |x – y| = |x| – |y| when (1) x and y have the same sign and x has greater (or equal) absolute value than y (2) y is 0 |x – y| > |x| – |y| in all other cases So if m and n have the same sign with |m| >= |n|, equality will hold. Also, if n is 0, equality will hold. If we can prove that both these conditions are not met, then we can say that |m – n| is definitely greater than |m| – |n|. Statement 1: n < m We have no idea about the signs of m and n. Are they same? Are they opposite? We don’t know. Also n may or may not be 0. Hence we don’t know whether the equality will hold or the inequality. Statement 1 alone is not sufficient to answer the question. Statement 2: mn < 0 Since mn is negative, it means one of m and n is positive and the other is negative. This also implies that n is definitely not 0. So we know that m and n do not have the same sign and n is not 0. So under no condition will the equality hold. Hence |m – n| is definitely greater than |m| – |n|. Statement 2 alone is sufficient to answer the question. Answer (B) Let’s look at one more question now. Question 2: If xyz ≠ 0, is x(y + z) >= 0? Statement 1: |y + z| = |y| + |z| Statement 2: |x + y| = |x| + |y| Solution 2: xyz ≠ 0 implies that all, x, y and z, are non zero numbers. Question: Is x(y + z) >= 0? If we can prove that x(y + z) is not negative that is x and (y+z) do not have opposite signs, we can say that x(y + z) is positive or 0. Looking at the statements given, let’s review our property number 1: Property 1: For all real x and y, |x + y| <= |x| + |y| |x + y| = |x| + |y| when (1) x and y have the same sign (2) at least one of x and y is 0. |x + y| < |x| + |y| when (1) x and y have opposite signs The two statements give us equalities which means that the relevant part of the property is this: |x + y| = |x| + |y| when (1) x and y have the same sign (2) at least one of x and y is 0. We are also given in the question stem that x, y and z are not 0. Hence, given |x + y| = |x| + |y|, we can infer that x and y have the same sign. Statement 1: |y + z| = |y| + |z| This implies that y and z have the same signs. But we have no information about the sign of x hence this statement alone is not sufficient. Statement 2: |x + y| = |x| + |y| This implies that x and y have the same signs. But we have no information about the sign of z hence this statement alone is not sufficient. Using both statements together, we know that x, y and z have the same sign. Whatever is the sign of y and z, the same will be the sign of (y+z). Hence x and (y+z) have the same sign. This implies that x(y + z) cannot be negative. Hence we can answer our question with a definite ‘yes’. Answer (C). Mind you, both these questions can get time consuming (even though they aren’t really tough) if you don’t understand these properties well. You can certainly start your thinking from the scratch, arrive at the properties and then proceed or resort to more desperate measures such as number plugging but that is best avoided in DS questions. 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 Feb 2014, 16:00
| FROM Veritas Prep Admissions Blog: Should I Apply for My MBA in Round 3 or Wait Until Round 1? |
 Round three is commonly thought of as the most competitive round, where applicants vie for the few remaining seats in coveted programs along with some of the most highly qualified candidates of the season. Because these well qualified candidates know they will be desirable to the adcoms, they often wait until the last possible minute, since there appears to be a correlation between highly successful business achievers and the lack of free time on their schedules to complete applications.These are the people you love to hate: 750 GMAT with no prep and a list of work accomplishments as long as your arm. In fact, round three can be so intimidating, you may even be weighing the decision to wait until August to try for early admit or round one at your target school. With round one applications set to be released in July, it can be tempting to spend the next six months improving your GMAT score or taking that international assignment at work. After all, the chances of admission will go up for round one, and having more work experience can’t hurt, right? There is more to consider here. While yes, having more work experience can indeed be a plus, if you feel you have the perfect amount of preparation, prolonging your application may not help and could actually hurt you. What if you fail to have a successful year? What if the promotion does not materialize or worse, you find yourself passed over or even slipping in your performance? There is definitely a window in which both you and your target schools will likely find you “best positioned” to return to school, and waiting through that window may set you back. One key to a successful application is to convince the adcom that the time is right for you to apply. Will you be able to make that same argument next year? If the answer is dubious, you may want to consider applying in the third round. You can always reapply in round one, just remember the adcom will want to hear what you have done to improve your profile, and with only six months between round three and round one, this may be a challenge to demonstrate. Recognizing the maddening considerations, one strategy may be to divide your target list into parts. Go ahead and apply to a couple of schools in round three, then save a couple more for round one, plus your reapplication. Create a strategy for profile improvement which may include increasing your GMAT score, taking a class or two to prepare for school, or volunteering in your community/leading a group. If you have a plan, you will likely be far less stressed about the process and also less disappointed if you are denied admission in round three. If you want to talk to us about our round 3 guarantee, 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. |
25 Feb 2014, 18:00
| FROM Veritas Prep Admissions Blog: School Profile: The Innovation and Diversity of Brown University |
 Brown University is ranked number seventeen on the Veritas Prep College Ranking list. The quaint campus of this research school is located in the middle of the historic town of Providence, Rhode Island. Brown was founded in 1764 making it the seventh oldest school in the U.S; it offers a wide variety of degrees in seventy concentrations. This university is known for having the spirit of openness; they have proven this on more than one occasion, starting with becoming the first school to accept students from all religious backgrounds. Innovation is in their nature from faculty to students; they showcased this in 1970 with the development of a new curriculum plan now known as the Brown curriculum. Attending Brown University will give you a well-rounded education allowing many students to succeed on a global level. At Brown, students are required to take ownership of their own academic career; this was done by eliminating the set core requirements for all Brown students. They are now able to design a curriculum plan that is specific to their goals and aspirations. There are more than forty academic departments that offer about two thousand courses each year, making concentration requirements easy fit in the various student designed academic plans. Brown has an extensive library system that greatly improves the success of their students. With a multitude of services and programs designed for student success from public service to career development, Brown is dedicated to giving their students a plethora of resources to help them prosper. At Brown university global learning is a top priority, and this is shown thorough study abroad programs as well as international collaborations. Brown University is dedicated to giving their students a comfortable and close-knit campus life. All student residence halls are surrounded by plush grassy scenery and well-designed courtyards. There are many different housing options for upperclassmen; they can even choose to house by themselves or with friends in a suite or apartment. First year students are required to room with one other person chosen at random in small fifty to sixty person housing units. Brown also gives their students choices such as housing in single-sex and quiet units as well as houses geared towards specific interests, like technology or art. The town of Providence is a main part of campus life at Brown; rich with historic homes and buildings, it is a visually stunning place to take in when enjoying a long walk or bike ride. Filled with culture, there are many galleries, top notch restaurants, shops, and entertainment for students to enjoy. On campus there are two main dining halls, many snack carts, and almost a dozen eateries. The social life Brown offers is immense, with a large variety of student organizations, events, activities, performances, exhibitions, and so on. On this campus every day is unique, giving students a chance to experience something new that ignites their passions. The athletics at Brown University are spectacular; approximately nine hundred students participate in thirty-seven sports teams. Unlike many other universities, women’s athletics are vast at Brown, with them making up twenty of the varsity sports teams. They’re ranked number one in the nation for their collegiate athletic program for women and fourth in the nation as a whole. Aside from varsity sports there are over fifteen intramural teams to participate in as well as a state-of-the-art fitness center that offers courses in everything from martial arts to yoga. Brown is committed to giving their students the equipment to live happy, healthy, and productive lives. Brown University is a diverse and cultured school located in a historic town that wants to enrich young minds to be great additions to the world. They are committed to giving freedom to each individual student while encouraging them to grow by getting to know each other. This is highlighted by their promotion of interfaith dialogue between students while offering each religion the chance to express themselves openly through resources like the Manning Chapel. This forward thinking university has great traditions combined with a lot of fun while expanding the minds of their students. When you start your education at Brown University, you enter through the Van Wickle Gates located on the Quiet Green. Welcomed by the Brown community, you will be begin your academic journey; just as you came in, you will exit Brown University through those same gates celebrated by friends, family, and alumni. This is a tradition and rite of passage for every Brown student. Just make sure you only pass through at these two times, or it is said you will be cursed with bad luck. During your time at Brown you will experience many long-standing and joyous traditions because Brown is more than a university, it is a close-knit community. 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 to see if those schools are a good fit for you. By Colleen Hill |
26 Feb 2014, 11:00
| FROM Veritas Prep Admissions Blog: SAT Tip of the Week: 4 Ways to Score Above 2200 |
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Picture in your mind the kind of person that gets a 2200 or above score on the SAT. You are probably picturing some Harvard bound wunderkind who attended the finest prep schools and excelled at all of them, or perhaps a bookish recluse whose entire life has been spent pursuing academia. Friends, I am not those people, but I still managed to score in the 99th percentile on the SAT. I’m not a genius (ask the neighbors whose mailbox I destroyed because I was in reverse when I thought I was in drive), and I had a relatively normal upbringing in the public schools of North Carolina. I also did not do particularly well on the PSAT, which is generally an indicator of strength on the SAT. So how is it that I scored above a 2200 on the SAT and only took it ONCE? I’m glad you asked (I know you didn’t ask, and I, in fact, asked, but just go with it, OK?) 1. Learn A LOT of Vocabulary My English teacher my sophomore year was a tough cookie. She had us reading multiple books in A WEEK sometimes and assigned us 25 vocabulary words every week that we had to know backwards and forwards. By the end of her class I had memorized something like 750 vocabulary words. At the time I thought she was a demonic monster sent to destroy my young adulthood, but when I sat down to take the SAT I knew EVERY WORD. Many intelligent professionals wouldn’t know every word on the SAT, but I was prepared. I was OVER prepared, but it sure did pay off in the completing the sentence section of the SAT. Vocabulary is also super useful for the reading comprehension section. A lot of the “difficult” passages on the SAT just use hard language. If you can understand the words used, you can understand the passage. 2. Review Math Basics The math on the SAT is sometimes tricky, but it is NEVER complex. You aren’t ever asked to do calculus or geometric proofs. You aren’t even asked to do complicated algebra involving imaginary numbers. All you have to do is basic Algebra, geometry, and a pinch of probability. That’s really it. Many of you are finding derivatives or analyzing distribution curves in statistics, but none of that stuff is really that useful on the SAT, which is why many advanced students feel unprepared for the Math section. My Junior year I was behind the geniuses in math, meaning I was taking a pre-calculus course instead of calculus, but my teacher was extremely thorough in reviewing all the math concepts we would need going forward. We reviewed area and probability. We reviewed graphing linear functions and understanding sets and sequences. We reviewed the stuff on the SAT! We were also forced to do something that I make ALL my students do, which is break down word problems to figure out what they are actually asking. Many students know the skills, but have trouble translating word problems to equations and concepts. This exercise prepared me for just that. Oh, and we weren’t allowed to use a calculator for the entire year. 3. Learn to Work without a Calculator Technically, you do not need a calculator for the SAT. Everything that is asked can be done with paper and pencil. Because of this, the SAT rewards people who can work without a calculator. The biggest place this is evident is working with fractions. Students fear fractions like the plague and have become so used to their calculators that they don’t feel comfortable leaving answers as fractions. The SAT LOVES to leave answers as fractions. It also loves to make problems that can really only be solved by working with the fractions. If you do not consider yourself strong at working without a calculator, now is the time to get strong. Calculators are great for checking arithmetic to make sure you don’t make careless errors (I am the king of this, ask my students), but when first dealing with the problem, DO NOT just try to plug equations into your calculator. The test wants you to work without it and will reward you for being able to. 4. Clearly Identify What a Passage is about and What Pieces of Language are Accomplishing The reading section is all about figuring out what the passage is ABOUT and what the passage is DOING. The vast majority of questions on the reading section ask about why language is used, what its purpose is, and re-contextualizing ideas presented in the passage. All you need to know to be able to do this is what the passage is about and what the individual sections being referenced are doing. This is easier said than done, but the clearest way to answer the first question is to ask what the “pitch-line” of the article is. When a friend asks “What was that movie about?” You have no problem giving a quick answer. If someone asks me what “Star Wars” is about, the “pitch line” is that it is a coming of age story about a boy who has to restore a world controlled by an evil empire. The events of the movie aren’t what it is, they are what happens in it. Similarly the main idea is what the article is, not the individual things it discusses. Does it make an argument in favor or against something? Or tell a story? Or discuss some aspect of a topic? Deciding this will help you to understand the passage as a whole. You can then repeat this process for line specific questions to identify what the individual pieces of language are doing. Just remember, the answer is always in the passage and supported by the piece of language being analyzed. Success on the SAT isn’t just for geniuses. It is a series of skills and information that can be learned and practiced. If I can score above a 2200, so can you! 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. |
26 Feb 2014, 15:00
| FROM Veritas Prep Admissions Blog: What is the GMAT? |
 After more than a decade of being in business, Veritas Prep has worked with tens of thousands of people who need to take the GMAT for one reason or another. But few actually take the time to truly understand what the GMAT is all about, or why they’re really taking it (aside from the fact that it’s required for admissions to their desired graduate school). So, first of all, let’s define it. G.M.A.T. stands for the General Management Admissions Test, and was created by the General Management Admissions Council (GMAC) in 1954. The GMAT is the primary entrance exam for business school and a handful of other graduate schools such as masters programs in finance and accounting. Before we delve into the format of the GMAT and the essential techniques and strategies we teach our students to master the test, let’s consider why this exam even exists in the first place. The answer is two-fold: [*]The GMAT is the single best way for schools to predict your potential for success in the classroom…more so than your undergraduate GPA, your prior work experience or any other accomplishments and accolades. In other words, it tests your ability to handle the rigorous workload you should expect in business school (especially on the quantitative side).[/*] [*]Professional recruiters use your GMAT score as a foundation to gauge your mental agility and critical reasoning skills. Especially for students targeting top schools, just getting in isn’t enough. When recruiters come on campus they rank students based on their GMAT scores, and those with the highest marks inevitably get the best jobs.[/*] [/list] Now that we understand the higher level reasoning for why the GMAT exists, let’s think about what the GMAT tests. On paper, there are four sections of the GMAT: [*]The Analytical Writing Assessment (AWA) essay[/*] [*]Integrated Reasoning[/*] [*]Quantitative Reasoning[/*] [*]Verbal Reasoning[/*] [/list] We will break each of these sections down in more detail shortly, but before we do, it’s important to make one thing clear: The GMAT is a reasoning test more than it is a content test (hence the word “reasoning” at the end of each section title). Dr. Larry Rudner, Chief Psychomatrician at the GMAC, states it quite well (and we paraphrase); “We made the GMAT about math and grammar because it has to be about something. But we are not testing your ability to memorize rules or factor an equation. The GMAT is really concerned with higher-order thinking skills.” So, what exactly are higher-order thinking skills? They are the top four tiers of Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives (think of it as the food pyramid for learning):  Most of your middle and high school days were spent building the foundation of your pyramid – memorizing vocabulary words, mathematical formulas, etc. So, business schools expect you to already know the basic content of the test. Thus the GMAT’s true focus is on the higher levels of the pyramid. While those levels rely on some base knowledge (remembering), that knowledge is only the basis for the questions, which will test your understanding, ability to apply, and in most cases, your ability to analyze and create. So while content knowledge is required in order to showcase those abilities, the GMAT is not a content-based exam. Simply memorizing (remembering) information does not guarantee you a high score. In order to succeed, you need to study the higher-order thought processes; you must understand and be able to apply. Simply put, the GMAT is a test of how you think, not what you know. Now that you know why the GMAT exists and what it’s really testing, let’s take a look at how the test is structured:  It is important to note that every test taker receives three official scores from their GMAT. The overall score (ranging from 200-800) is tallied from the Quantitative and Verbal Reasoning sections only. The Integrated Reasoning section has its own score on a scale of 1-8 and the Analytical Writing Assessment is graded on a scale of 0.0-6.0. We commonly hear students proclaim that they need a 700 or higher to get into their dream schools; which is oftentimes true in that their target schools have a median GMAT score in the 700-range, but that is just a snapshot of the entire test. Do not overlook the AWA and Integrated Reasoning sections because they are still an important indicator of your ability to succeed in school. Especially as data behind the Integrated Reasoning section begins to pile up, your IR score will become increasingly more important. So, whether you’re a fresh-faced Noob just starting your GMAT preparation or a seasoned veteran in search for a boost to an existing score, it’s important to take a step back and think about why the GMAT even exists and what it’s really testing. This doesn’t mean you have to stare at the stars and ponder the Galilean concepts. Just listen to what the people who write this test say about it. Then think logically about how you can best apply yourself during your studies to maximize your own score. For deeper insight into the science behind this test, read GMATology. 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! |
26 Feb 2014, 21:00
| FROM Veritas Prep Admissions Blog: What Is the GMAT? |
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After more than a decade of being in business, Veritas Prep has worked with tens of thousands of people who need to take the GMAT for one reason or another. But few actually take the time to truly understand what the GMAT is all about, or why they’re really taking it (aside from the fact that it’s required for admissions to their desired graduate school). So, first of all, let’s define it. G.M.A.T. stands for the General Management Admissions Test, and was created by the General Management Admissions Council (GMAC) in 1954. The GMAT is the primary entrance exam for business school and a handful of other graduate schools such as masters programs in finance and accounting. Before we delve into the format of the GMAT and the essential techniques and strategies we teach our students to master the test, let’s consider why this exam even exists in the first place. The answer is two-fold: [*]The GMAT is the single best way for schools to predict your potential for success in the classroom…more so than your undergraduate GPA, your prior work experience or any other accomplishments and accolades. In other words, it tests your ability to handle the rigorous workload you should expect in business school (especially on the quantitative side).[/*] [*]Professional recruiters use your GMAT score as a foundation to gauge your mental agility and critical reasoning skills. Especially for students targeting top schools, just getting in isn’t enough. When recruiters come on campus they rank students based on their GMAT scores, and those with the highest marks inevitably get the best jobs.[/*] [/list] Now that we understand the higher level reasoning for why the GMAT exists, let’s think about what the GMAT tests. On paper, there are four sections of the GMAT: [*]The Analytical Writing Assessment (AWA) essay[/*] [*]Integrated Reasoning[/*] [*]Quantitative Reasoning[/*] [*]Verbal Reasoning[/*] [/list] We will break each of these sections down in more detail shortly, but before we do, it’s important to make one thing clear: The GMAT is a reasoning test more than it is a content test (hence the word “reasoning” at the end of each section title). Dr. Larry Rudner, Chief Psychomatrician at the GMAC, states it quite well (and we paraphrase); “We made the GMAT about math and grammar because it has to be about something. But we are not testing your ability to memorize rules or factor an equation. The GMAT is really concerned with higher-order thinking skills.” So, what exactly are higher-order thinking skills? They are the top four tiers of Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives (think of it as the food pyramid for learning): Most of your middle and high school days were spent building the foundation of your pyramid – memorizing vocabulary words, mathematical formulas, etc. So, business schools expect you to already know the basic content of the test. Thus the GMAT’s true focus is on the higher levels of the pyramid. While those levels rely on some base knowledge (remembering), that knowledge is only the basis for the questions, which will test your understanding, ability to apply, and in most cases, your ability to analyze and create. So while content knowledge is required in order to showcase those abilities, the GMAT is not a content-based exam. Simply memorizing (remembering) information does not guarantee you a high score. In order to succeed, you need to study the higher-order thought processes; you must understand and be able to apply. Simply put, the GMAT is a test of how you think, not what you know. Now that you know why the GMAT exists and what it’s really testing, let’s take a look at how the test is structured: It is important to note that every test taker receives three official scores from their GMAT. The overall score (ranging from 200-800) is tallied from the Quantitative and Verbal Reasoning sections only. The Integrated Reasoning section has its own score on a scale of 1-8 and the Analytical Writing Assessment is graded on a scale of 0.0-6.0. We commonly hear students proclaim that they need a 700 or higher to get into their dream schools; which is oftentimes true in that their target schools have a median GMAT score in the 700-range, but that is just a snapshot of the entire test. Do not overlook the AWA and Integrated Reasoning sections because they are still an important indicator of your ability to succeed in school. Especially as data behind the Integrated Reasoning section begins to pile up, your IR score will become increasingly more important. So, whether you’re a fresh-faced Noob just starting your GMAT preparation or a seasoned veteran in search for a boost to an existing score, it’s important to take a step back and think about why the GMAT even exists and what it’s really testing. This doesn’t mean you have to stare at the stars and ponder the Galilean concepts. Just listen to what the people who write this test say about it. Then think logically about how you can best apply yourself during your studies to maximize your own score. For deeper insight into the science behind this test, read GMATology. 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! |
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