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Manhattan GMAT Online Marketing Associate
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Ace the GMAT Essay? No, Thanks!
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25 Jan 2017, 12:01
25 Jan 2017, 12:01
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| FROM Manhattan GMAT Blog: Ace the GMAT Essay? No, Thanks! |
 Did you know that you can attend the first session of any of our online or in-person GMAT courses absolutely free? We’re not kidding! Check out our upcoming courses here. We all know that the GMAT essay is scored separately and that the schools don’t care as much about the essay score. We also know we have to write the essays first thing, before we get to the more important Quant and Verbal sections (or even IR), so we don’t want to use up too much brain-power on the essay. Still, we can’t just bomb this section; the schools do care about the essay somewhat. So how do we do a good enough job without expending so much energy that we’re negatively affected during the multiple-choice portion of the test? We need to develop a template, an organizational framework on which to hang our writing. The template will not, of course, tell us exactly what to write. For that, we need the actual essay prompt, which we won’t see until we take the test. We can, however, determine how to organize the information ahead of time, as well as the general kinds of messages we need to convey at various points throughout. The template should tell us:
As a general rule, essays should have either four or five paragraphs total. The first paragraph is always the introduction, the last paragraph is always the conclusion, and the body (middle) paragraphs are for the examples we choose to use. Each paragraph should contain certain things; these are listed in the below sections. The information does not need to be presented in the given order below, though; just make sure that each paragraph does contain the necessary information in some sort of clear and logical order. In addition, the information listed below is the minimum necessary info; you can certainly add more where appropriate. Brainstorming First, read the essay prompt. It will look / feel just like the Critical Reasoning arguments we see on the Verbal portion of the test, so tackle it in the same way! The argument will most closely resemble Assumption Family arguments, so find the conclusion and make sure you understand how the author is trying to support his / her conclusion. Next, brainstorm any assumptions* that you can think of and jot these down (or type them into the essay response area). *Note: if you haven’t started studying CR Assumption Family questions yet, assumptions are unstated pieces of information that the author is assuming must be true in order to draw his/her conclusion. Next, articulate flaws. Any assumptions are automatically flaws, because the author hasn’t established that those assumptions are, in fact, true. You may also think of other flaws along the way. Finally, pick your two or three best flaws; these will form the basis of your essay. This whole process should take roughly 3 to 4 minutes. Many people find this the hardest part of writing an essay; you can practice by opening up the essay chapter of your Official Guide book and simply brainstorming for one essay prompt. Don’t write the whole essay—just do the brainstorming portion once a day (only 5 minutes out of your day!) for a week or two and you’ll become much more skilled at this step. First Paragraph
The first paragraph should also contain a thesis statement. The thesis is typically one sentence and conveys to the reader your overall message or point for the essay that you wrote. For the argument essay, you can write most of your thesis sentence before you get to the test! You already know that the argument will contain flaws, and that you will be discussing how those flaws hurt the author’s conclusion. Guess what? That’s always your thesis! “While the argument does have some merit, there are several serious flaws which serve to undermine the validity of the author’s conclusion that XYZ.” DON’T USE THAT EXACT SENTENCE. They’re going to get suspicious if hundreds of people use the same sentence. (Besides, that’s my sentence. Come up with your own!  ) Note the opening clause: While the argument does have some merit. This is what’s called acknowledging the other side. We don’t say, Hey, your argument is completely terrible! There’s nothing good about it at all! We acknowledge that some parts may be okay, or some people may feel differently, but our position is that the flaws are the most important issue (that is, our thesis is the most important thing). Notice one other thing that I don’t say: I don’t say I think. I state my thesis as though it is fact and reasonable people surely agree with me. That’s a hallmark of a persuasive essay. Finally, the first paragraph needs to introduce whatever examples we’re going to use in the body paragraphs below. Don’t launch into the examples fully; that will come later. Do, though, mention the two or three flaws that you plan to discuss in the essay. Body Paragraphs Each flaw gets its own paragraph, so you’ll write either 2 or 3 body paragraphs of 4 to 6 sentences each. (I personally pick my 2 best flaws, so I write 2 body paragraphs. Remember, we just need to be good enough!) Your goal here is to support your thesis statement. In each paragraph:
While it’s certainly true that chopping half of your payroll will reduce costs, it doesn’t necessarily follow that the company will become more profitable! That loss of personnel may negatively impact revenues, reduce productivity, hurt morale of the remaining employees, and so on. The author is assuming that no such adverse effects will result from this action; that’s a flaw in his/her thinking. The author of such an argument could bolster the claim by, for example, presenting evidence that half of the employees are truly dead weight and firing them wouldn’t affect the company adversely. (Don’t worry about whether this is likely, whether such evidence actually exists, or even whether this is the best way to improve profitability. Your job is only to strengthen the author’s existing argument a little bit. If the author could actually produce evidence showing that there wouldn’t be adverse effects from such layoffs, then his conclusion would be strengthened. Period.) Conclusion Paragraph
Before you go into the real test, you should have a fully developed template, so that all you have to do is come up with your two examples, and then hang your words onto your framework. This doesn’t mean pre-writing and memorizing actual sentences, but do know in general the kinds of points you want to make in each paragraph. Practice with the above as a starting point until you develop something with which you’re comfortable. Don’t forget to leave some time to proof your essay; it’s okay to have a few typos, but systematic errors will lower your score.  Can’t get enough of Stacey’s GMAT expertise? Attend the first session of one of her upcoming GMAT courses absolutely free, no strings attached. Seriously.  Stacey Koprince is a Manhattan Prep instructor based in Montreal, Canada and Los Angeles, California. Stacey has been teaching the GMAT, GRE, and LSAT for more than 15 years and is one of the most well-known instructors in the industry. Stacey loves to teach and is absolutely fascinated by standardized tests. Check out Stacey’s upcoming GMAT courses here. The post Ace the GMAT Essay? No, Thanks! appeared first on GMAT. |
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Know the GMAT Code: Story Problems
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25 Jan 2017, 12:01
25 Jan 2017, 12:01
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| FROM Manhattan GMAT Blog: Know the GMAT Code: Story Problems |
 Did you know that you can attend the first session of any of our online or in-person GMAT courses absolutely free? We’re not kidding! Check out our upcoming courses here. How are the GMAT test writers going to hide information in plain sight and get you to fall into traps? Try out this problem in our Know the Code series and then we’ll dig in to figure out what’s going on. Note: this one’s from the GMATPrep© free practice problems. “*A certain group of car dealerships agreed to donate x dollars to a Red Cross chapter for each car sold during a 30-day period. What was the total amount that was expected to be donated? “(1) A total of 500 cars were expected to be sold. “(2) 60 more cars were sold than expected, so that the total amount actually donated was $28,000.” (If you are new to Data Sufficiency, start here and come back to this article later.) Ready?  1-second Glance. DS. Wall of words! Story—will need to translate. Read. Put yourself in the story. You’re coordinating all of these donations. This group agreed to donate x dollars per car sold during a certain period. Then, there’s some curiously-worded language: they’re asking for the amount expected to be donated. That’s weird—what would a problem normally ask for? Most problems would ask for the amount that was actually donated. So, presumably, the amount actually donated does not match the amount expected to be donated. We’ll need to keep these two different amounts straight, so factor this into your notes. Jot. $x / car C = # of cars expected Total expected donation = xC Reflect. Briefly: what could change in this scenario to create a difference between total actually donated and total expected to be donated? The amount, $x, donated per car sold could change; maybe the dealerships change their pledge? It could also be the case that they expect to sell a certain number of cars in the given period, but they might end up selling a different number. Let’s look at the first statement. “(1) A total of 500 cars were expected to be sold.” This is half of the equation but indicates nothing about the dollar amount donated per car. Without any information about the money, it’s impossible to figure out the total amount that was expected to be donated. Statement (1) is insufficient; eliminate choices (A) and (D). “(2) 60 more cars were sold than expected, so that the total amount actually donated was $28,000.” Here’s where it gets interesting. The information here is more convoluted—be careful. If C is the # of cars expected to be sold, then the actual number of cars sold is C + 60. If the per-car donation is still $x, then we can write a new formula for the amount actually donated—and this figure is provided in the statement, too! Total amount actually donated = ($x / car)(number of cars actually sold) 28,000 = x(C + 60) This information is for the actual amount donated, not the expected amount—and the problem asks for the expected amount. Can you do anything with this to figure out x and C? There is another formula, but that one has three variables: T = xC, where the T is the total expected donation. There isn’t a way to manipulate the two equations to solve for a single numerical value for T. Statement (2) is not sufficient; cross off answer (B). Finally, put the two statements together. Now, you have C = 50 and 28,000 = x(C + 60). Plug in and you can solve for x. (Don’t actually solve—this is DS!) If you have x, can you do anything else? Yes! Statement (1) still tells you C! Multiply those two together to get the desired value: T = xC. The correct answer is (C). When you go through this solution, the question seems pretty straightforward. But it would be easy, during the stress of the test, to fall into a couple of different traps. First, if your notes aren’t totally clear about the “expected” stuff vs. the “actual” stuff, it would be easy to conclude that statement (2) is sufficient on its own, leading you to incorrect answer (B). That’s where the Reflect stage is so important—if you can establish ahead of time that these two scenarios exist, you’ll be more likely to keep the information straight when you get to statement (2). Second, once you do put the two statements together, you have to do a sort of double-loop: first, you use the two statements to realize that you can solve for x, and then you have to remember that one of those two pieces of information actually did give you C in the first place. The trap: you already used the given information from the two statements and, since there isn’t anything new elsewhere to use, you think that that’s it—you can find x, but that’s not enough by itself. How to avoid that trap? Two things. First, write out your work fully and carefully. Second, know what you need to find before you start to solve. If you have C = 50 written right there, clearly, on your scrap paper and you’ve just said to yourself, “The two together will be sufficient if I can find both C and x,” then you can say to yourself right up front, “Oh, I already have C! Great, all I need to do is find x.” When the two statements together give you x, voila: you’re done. Key Takeaways for Knowing the Code (1) For story problems, put yourself in the story. Pay attention to unusual language cues and take the time to Reflect on what they mean. That 15 or 30 seconds is well spent if you avoid traps or careless mistakes later on! (2) Write everything down carefully. Before you evaluate a piece of information, remind yourself what you would need to find in order to say that the info is sufficient. (3) Turn any knowledge you gain into Know the Code flash cards:  * GMATPrep® questions courtesy of the Graduate Management Admissions Council. Usage of this question does not imply endorsement by GMAC. Can’t get enough of Stacey’s GMAT mastery? Attend the first session of one of her upcoming GMAT courses absolutely free, no strings attached. Seriously. Stacey Koprince is a Manhattan Prep instructor based in Montreal, Canada and Los Angeles, California. Stacey has been teaching the GMAT, GRE, and LSAT for more than 15 years and is one of the most well-known instructors in the industry. Stacey loves to teach and is absolutely fascinated by standardized tests. Check out Stacey’s upcoming GMAT courses here. The post Know the GMAT Code: Story Problems appeared first on GMAT. |
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When Will I Be Ready to Take the GMAT?
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30 Jan 2017, 10:01
30 Jan 2017, 10:01
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| FROM Manhattan GMAT Blog: When Will I Be Ready to Take the GMAT? |
 Did you know that you can attend the first session of any of our online or in-person GMAT courses absolutely free? We’re not kidding! Check out our upcoming courses here. How long do I need to study for the GMAT? When will I be ready? How much time per week do you think I need to invest? These are the questions I get over and over and over, particularly from students who haven’t started studying yet. They’re usually trying to figure out whether or not they can manage class, and they’re on the verge of a mild freak out. You want the quick, bullet-point answer? OK, here ya go. We offer a nine session class (typically once a week), and we say you’ll probably want 2-3 weeks following the class to finish up studying. That’s assuming that you do all of the homework, and that’s also assuming that the homework takes you five to ten hours to complete between sessions. Now, here’s the longer answer that you’re not going to like. I can’t answer those questions for you. Like, at all. Everybody is different and there is no magic bullet, one-size-fits-all plan to studying for the GMAT. I can make a prediction for you based on your current life schedule and your previous academic habits. But what it really comes down to is: How much do you want it? Seriously. That’s the number one determining factor of how long it will take. If you’re not sure that you want to go to B-school and you’re just checking out your options, chances are, you’ll drop out of class. Truly. It happens all the time. And that’s okay! But why invest a lot of time, money, and effort towards something that you maybe would give a 3 on a scale of 1 to 10? If that’s you, that’s cool. Stop reading now and go grab a latte with all the money you’ll save from not taking class at the wrong time. We’ll be here for you when you’re ready. If, however, you know you want to make this life change, then here are some questions to help you figure out when you’ll be ready: Do you have a full-time job? If so, it’s going to be relatively harder for you to find time and energy. Therefore, it will take you longer to study. For example, you might study after work 2-3 times a week for an hour and a half, and once on the weekend. You MUST give yourself days off – from both work and studying – or you will burn out. You might end up needing several months after class is over to catch up on homework and feel ready. Have you not done math since 11th grade? If you’re out of college and you haven’t done math for a while, it will take you longer to study. You’ll need to invest a lot of time up front learning foundational math skills. What I DON’T recommend is trying to study math on your own first before enrolling in a class or getting a tutor. I’ve seen people do that a million times, and 990,000 of them end up giving up and not taking the GMAT at all. (Figure out that percentage as a quick math check!) Math is too overwhelming, and frankly, too complicated to teach yourself! You need someone to guide you EVEN MORE at the beginning. Once you have your foundation, you can work on it on your own. But that will take time. Probably more than that 5-10 hours a week I quoted you up top. Do you have family obligations? Kids? Friends? Relationships? Refer to question #1. Life takes time and energy, so again, it will take you longer to study. But, the good news is, these people who take your time and energy, can also GIVE you time and energy, through their love and support. Make sure you tell the right people what you’re doing and how they can help. Very often, family members and friends don’t even know what a challenge it is to go from a 560 to a 720, and so they don’t understand what you need. Spell it out for them. Set your study schedule and have them help you stick to it! And on the flip side, don’t tell those family members or friends who won’t actually support you. You know who those people are. Just be ready to side-step them for the next few months. Now, if you don’t have a job, are independently wealthy, are a math genius, and don’t have any obligations that eat up your time — tell me how you did that because clearly I am living the wrong life!! The truth of the matter is that most of you reading this will answer yes to one (or more!) of these three questions, so take heart that you are all in the same boat. Thousands of people manage to find the time to study and do well on the test every year, and you can be one of them. Take the anxiety you feel about finding that time, and channel it into creating a study schedule that is realistic and that you can stick to. If you’re not sure how to do that, start here. Know that the road will be at least several months long, or possibly even a year long. And that’s okay. But go into it with realistic expectations. This will be hard and it will take a while. But if you really want it, it will be worth it. Want some more GMAT tips from Elaine? Attend the first session of one of her upcoming GMAT courses absolutely free, no strings attached. Seriously.  Elaine Loh is a Manhattan Prep instructor based in Los Angeles, California. She graduated from Brown University with a degree in Psychology and a desire to teach others. She can’t get enough of standardized tests and has been a test prep tutor and teacher for over half her life. Check out Elaine’s upcoming GMAT courses here. The post When Will I Be Ready to Take the GMAT? appeared first on GMAT. |
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