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16 Jun 2020, 07:00
| FROM Manhattan GMAT Blog: EMBA vs. MBA: What’s the difference? |
 Did you know that we offer an Executive Assessment Masterclass? In one weekend, we’ll give you the tools you’ll need to ace the EA and take your career to the next level. At some point in their career, many professionals decide to pursue a business degree. And these aspiring candidates often wonder, “Would I be a better candidate for an Executive MBA or a traditional MBA?” You may be pondering this issue yourself as you try to make the right decision to advance your career. In this post, we present some of the fundamental differences between the EMBA and MBA to help you clarify your options. EMBA vs. MBA Difference #1: Years of Experience As the term “executive” would imply, Executive MBA, or EMBA, programs are intended and specifically designed for individuals with advanced managerial experience. Although what exactly defines “executive experience” can differ from school to school, most programs offer some basic guidance about what they seek, often stipulating a minimum number of years of experience and offering an expected range of 12–15 years. (Be sure to check each school’s website for specific requirements.) On the other hand, students at traditional MBA programs tend to have an average of five to six years of experience, though in some rare cases, schools even admit new or emerging college graduates who have no full-time managerial experience at all. Clearly, the expectations for an applicant’s level of professional “seasoning” are quite different, with EMBA programs demanding a more extensive career and a more profound background. EMBA vs. MBA Difference #2: Quality of Experience Both EMBA programs and traditional MBA programs value diversity of experience, which goes beyond simply “time served.” If you are applying to an EMBA program, do not expect that an acceptance letter is guaranteed just because you have achieved the school’s expected years or level of experience. EMBA programs generally want to see evidence of advanced and increasing leadership and responsibility—managing people, overseeing budgets, making strategic decisions. In short, EMBA admissions committees want people who are already making a noticeable impact in the workplace. In contrast, traditional MBA programs are more lenient on this point; the schools are essentially wagering that you have the drive and potential to develop into a strong leader and to have a clear impact in the future. EMBA programs expect that kind of development to have already occurred and want to help you fill any voids you might have in your skill set so that you can reach an even higher level of achievement. EMBA vs. MBA Difference #3: Sponsorship MBA students who are “sponsored” have all or part of their business school tuition paid by their current employer. Sponsorship is both more common at and more valued by EMBA programs; the vast majority of traditional MBA applicants do not have such support. For example, 58% of Columbia Business School’s EMBA Class of 2017 had either full or partial sponsorship, and the Wharton EMBA website claims that approximately 70% of its applicants are fully or partially sponsored. In some ways, sponsorship is seen as an indicator of potential and can facilitate an admissions decision. By offering to pay a candidate’s full tuition and allow him or her time away from work to study, a firm is telling the admissions committee, “We believe in this applicant!” That said, if you plan to pursue an EMBA and do not have firm sponsorship, you can take comfort in knowing you are not alone—after all, 42% of Columbia’s most recent EMBA class succeeded without it! EMBA vs. MBA Difference #4: Structure Most leading U.S. MBA programs require roughly 21 months of full-time study, starting in late summer or early fall. EMBA programs have various start dates, program lengths, and expectations for commitment. Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business, for example, offers two EMBA programs: a 19-month weekend program that meets in Durham, North Carolina, on alternating Fridays and Saturdays, and a 16-month Global EMBA program that involves four different global residencies as well as distance learning. So whereas traditional MBA programs can generally be compared on a relatively apples-to-apples basis, EMBA programs need to be considered more individually. Be sure to examine each option carefully to understand how it would fit into your work and even personal life, given that travel (including international!) may be required. Although we have outlined a few major differences between these types of programs, one aspect remains the same: whether you enroll in an EMBA program or a traditional MBA program, you will graduate with an MBA degree. Some candidates worry that because an EMBA does not require a full-time commitment, the degree is not well regarded, but this could not be further from the truth—and clearly, the companies sponsoring EMBA students would disagree. From an institutional perspective, the EMBA and the MBA represent the same standard of educational excellence and academic achievement. You just need to determine which one is right for you. Have you decided on an EMBA? Sign up for our efficient and comprehensive Executive Assessment Masterclass!  mbaMission is the leader in MBA admissions consulting with a full-time and comprehensively trained staff of consultants, all with profound communications and MBA experience. mbaMission has helped thousands of candidates fulfill their dream of attending prominent MBA programs around the world. Take your first step toward a more successful MBA application experience with a free 30-minute consultation with one of mbaMission’s senior consultants. Click here to sign up today.The post EMBA vs. MBA: What’s the difference? appeared first on GMAT. |
16 Jun 2020, 14:00
| FROM Manhattan GMAT Blog: Math on the Executive Assessment |
 The Executive Assessment (EA) shares a lot of roots with the GMAT, GMAC’s flagship graduate business school exam. In certain ways, the Executive Assessment feels almost like the GMAT on steroids—it’s even more stereotypically GMAT-like than the GMAT itself, if that’s possible. One of those ways has to do with the way in which you can solve math problems. Most of the same math content areas are tested on the Executive Assessment, but a higher proportion of released Executive Assessment problems share a certain characteristic: You can use general “Fast Math” principles to make your job much easier—and you can do even more with the overall Fast Math idea on the Executive Assessment. Here’s the overall idea: Don’t do math that you don’t have to. Don’t do math until you have to. Before you actually do something you think you need to do, lay it out and ask yourself what the best path is through the math—giving heavy consideration to estimation and other shortcuts. Let’s try some problems out and see how this really works! All problems in this series are from the free problem sets that appear on the official Executive Assessment website. EA Math Practice Question #1 Give yourself two minutes to complete this first problem. As of September 2017, it appeared as question 2 in the free online Quant Problem Solving problem set. The table below represents the combined net income of all United States companies in each of five sectors for the second quarter of 1996. Which sector had the greatest net income during the first quarter of 1996?  (A) Basic Materials (B) Energy (C) Industrial (D) Utilities (E) Conglomerates Got your answers? Even if you’re not sure, guess—that’s what you want to do on the real Executive Assessment, too, so practice that now (even if your practice consists of saying, “I have no idea, so I’m randomly picking B!”). Ready? Let’s do this! The first order of business is to understand what the question wants and what the table tells you. There are 5 sectors. Each one shows a certain net income for the second quarter and then a percent change from the first quarter. What’s the significance of a negative vs. positive percent change? Think in terms of real business. If your division had a net income of 4.83 billion this quarter, but that represents a –26% change from last quarter…then last quarter was better and this quarter your boss might not be very happy. Okay, now what do they want to know? Which sector had the greatest net income in the first quarter… hmm. So we’re going to have to backwards-engineer this somehow. Start by jotting down the starting point for each sector and whether that one was higher or lower in the first quarter: BM: 4.83, –26%….Q1↑ E: 7.46, +40%…….Q1 ↓ I: 5, –1%……………..Q1 ↑ U: 8.57, +303%..Q1 ↓ C: 2.07, +10%…….Q1↓ They want to know which one was the highest once we back out the numbers. Sector C is already the lowest by far and it was even lower last quarter, so it’s not that one. Eliminate answer (E). Sector I only went down by 1% in the second quarter, so basically it was still at about 5 in the first quarter. Call that your baseline point and test the other answers against it. Was Sector BM above or below 5 in the first quarter? The 4.83 figure reflects about a 25% decline from the previous quarter.  If 4.83 represents about a 25% decline from Q1, then it represents about 75% of Q1. Use this to estimate the value for Q1: If the 4.83 figure is about 75%, then what would 25% be? You would divide 75% by 3 to find 25%, so do the same with the value 4.83. 4.83 is kind of annoying to divide. Try a number that seems like it’s in the ballpark, like 1.5. (1.5)(3) = 4.5, so the value is around 1.5 (but really a little larger). The 1.5 estimate, then, is on the low side. Keep track of that.  Then, multiply by 4 to find 100%: (1.5)(4) = 6. The value is really a little larger than 6, since 1.5 is a low estimate. Therefore, sector BM, at 6+, was more than sector I, at 5; eliminate answer (C). Your new baseline point is 6+. Test the remaining answers against this number. The other two sectors were both lower in Q1. For sector E, 7.46 reflects a 40% increase from Q1. What if the starting number for this sector were 6? What would a 40% increase be? 6 + 40% of 6 To find 40%, find 10%, then multiply by 4. Then add your starting point of 6 back in: (6)(0.1) = 0.6 (0.6)(4) = 2.4 6 + 2.4 = 8.4 If Q1 were 6, then this sector would have been at 8.4 in the second quarter. It wasn’t; it was only at 7.46. Sector E, therefore, was not as high as sector BM, so eliminate choice (B). Finally, sector U started at 8.57, but that represented a whopping 303% increase over Q1! If you started at 6 and increase that number by 300%, it would be way over 8.57. Sector U also must have started lower than 6, so eliminate choice (D). The Basic Materials sector is the last one standing. The correct answer is (A). You could have done all of the above with very precise calculations—but that’s really annoying when you don’t have access to a calculator or Excel. Note that you didn’t actually have to make very precise calculations because the problem was set up to allow you to estimate even though it didn’t tell you that you could. The beauty of the Executive Assessment is that this is a business test, not a math test. They’re not interested in knowing whether you can do precise math calculations on paper. They’re interested in knowing whether you have a general number sense that allows you to reason your way to a conclusion—we call that the “back of the envelope” approach. All my boss really needs to know is which division did best last quarter, not what the exact numbers were, so I can just do a quick-and-dirty approach that addresses the big picture. Key Takeaways for Executive Assessment Fast Math (1) You often don’t need to calculate exact values. Look for opportunities to estimate and do back-of-the-envelope calculations wherever possible. (2) You’re going to need to practice that! First, you need to get yourself into the mindset that the Executive Assessment isn’t a math test and you actually aren’t just trying to calculate, calculate, calculate. Second, you’re going to need to spend time thinking about how to back-of-the-envelope something in various different situations. (3) Turn that knowledge into Know the Code flash cards:  EA Math Practice Question #2 Here’s another Executive Assessment problem from the official free practice set (this one is labeled #3 in the PS set on the Executive Assessment website, as of September 2017): According to the table below, the number of fellows was approximately what percent of the total membership of Organization X?  (A) 9% (B) 12% (C) 18% (D) 25% (E) 35%” Before we dive in, what principles do you remember from our discussion of the first Executive Assessment problem? Think about it. Keep thinking about it. Don’t read below yet. Okay, here are some things I remember.  Don’t do math unless / until I have to. If I do have to do some calculations, lay things out first, then look at everything to decide what the best path is (and to see whether I can spot any shortcuts!). These principles are reflected in the below graphic:  When a new Executive Assessment problem first pops up, I glance: What have I got, big picture? Without reading the full text, I can see the following things: a table…with some fairly annoying numbers. Also, the answers are percentages, so this is a percent problem of some kind. The annoying numbers are making me wonder whether I’ll be able to estimate. I’m going to keep an eye out for that possibility as I go to my next step, Read. Yep, it’s a percent problem. What do they want? Jot it down.  Don’t start solving yet! Go to the second row: Reflect & Organize.  Glance at the Fellows number. Annoying. And then the total? I have to add that up. Ugh. Look at the answers again. The bottom three are decently far apart—estimation would probably be close enough. (A) 9% (B) 12% (C) 18% → 20% = 1/5 (D) 25% → 25% = 1/4 (E) 35%” → 33.3% = 1/3 But answers (A) and (B) are both around 10%…hmm. I know! If it does seem to be between those two, then I can estimate whether the number is greater than 10% or less than 10%—that’s not a hard estimate to make. Great, now that I actually have an angle to solve, I can go ahead and do the work. Oh, wait, one more annoying part to consider: adding up the five numbers to get the total. I only need to estimate, so I can estimate the individual numbers, first of all. I can also try to put them together into “pairs” that add up to “nice” numbers. Okay, let’s do this. The first one is 78, which is almost 100. Look for another number that would “pair” well with 100: how about Associate Members, at 27,909? Add them up to get about 28,000, a “nice” number. Any others?  9,200 and 2,300 equal 11,500, another nice-ish number. That leaves 35,500—oh, let’s pair that with 11,500 to get an even 47k. Then add in the 28k to get about 75k. Nice! Now, the top of the fraction is the 9,200 number. Maybe 9k is close enough. What’s 9k / 75k? Or 9 / 75? Reflect for a moment again. Dividing that fraction is kind of annoying. I’m trying to find a percent. Percent literally means “of 100”—wouldn’t it have been nice if the fraction had already had 100 on the bottom? SO annoying that it doesn’t… Hmm… Is there any way to get that number on the bottom to be 100 instead of 75…? What did we do with that 75% in the first problem (in the first installment of this series)? Go back and take a look. (Seriously, go look! See what, if anything, you can figure out on your own before you keep reading.) To go from 75% to 100%, take the 75% figure, divide by 3 to get 25%, then multiply by 4 to get 100%. BUT, if I’m going to do that with the bottom of the fraction, then I have to do the same thing to the top of the fraction. I can manipulate a fraction in any way that I like as long as I do the same thing to the top and the bottom. So, take 9, divide by 3 to get 3, then multiply by 4 to get 12. Boom! The new fraction is 12 / 100. Look at the answers—we have an exact match at 12%. The correct answer is (B). What did you learn on this Executive Assessment problem? Think about your takeaways before you read mine. Key Takeaways for Executive Assessment Fast Math (1) You often don’t need to calculate exact values. Look for opportunities to estimate and do back-of-the-envelope calculations wherever possible. (2) Different problems might have some shortcuts in common; when you learn something on one problem, look for opportunities to apply that learning on different-but-similar-in-some-way problems. The 75% → 100% thing doesn’t require a table or even necessarily a story. It doesn’t even need to be 75% to start—it just requires you to know that you’re trying to get to 100% from a number that’s a little annoying. (3) Turn that knowledge into Know the Code flash cards:  EA Math Practice Question #3 Our final practice question is labeled #4 in the PS set on the Executive Assessment website as of September 2017. “The regular price per can of a certain brand of soda is $0.40. If the regular price per can is discounted 15 percent when the soda is purchased in 24-can cases, what is the price of 72 cans of this brand of soda purchased in 24-can cases? “(A) $16.32 “(B) $18.00 “(C) $21.60 “(D) $24.48 “(E) $28.80” What did you think about this problem? I found it pretty annoying. I mean, sure, I didn’t find it crazy hard to find the 15% discount off of $0.40: 10% of 0.40 is 0.04… another 5% is half of that, or 0.02… so the discount is $0.06… and the discounted price is $0.34 And then I want to buy 72 cans, so it’s just (72)(0.34)…aaagh, but I don’t have a calculator. I refuse to do that out the long way. Seriously! There’s got to be an easier way. Picture this: You’re standing in the convenience store. You want to buy this soda. You’ve just figured out that it’s going to cost you $0.34 a can…and you know you want 72 cans…but you don’t have a calculator on you (your phone died) and you don’t even have pen and paper. Also, you forgot your credit card. (It’s been a long day.) So how are you going to figure out whether you have enough cash on you to buy all 72 cans? That’s not a rhetorical question. Close your eyes, picture yourself there, and try to figure out what you’d do. Thinking? Thinking? Okay, here’s my idea. In the real world, I wouldn’t literally need to calculate to the penny—I’d just need to estimate to make sure I have enough cash. But this is a math test and the answers are down to the penny…so don’t I have to calculate exactly here? Glance at the answers. If the answers had been of the variety $10.01, $10.02, $10.03…, then yes, I’d have to calculate to the penny. But they’re not. They’re each at least a couple of dollars apart, so I can estimate. How? Let’s see. It’s going to cost me $0.34 to buy one can. How many could I buy for a dollar? I can get 3 cans (basically—technically, it’ll cost me $1.02 for 3 cans, but close enough!). So 3 cans for $1…how many do I want again? Oh yeah, 72 cans. So that’s going to cost me about 72 / 3 = $24. Oh. Look at the answers. There’s only one that’s close—answer (D). Done! You can also, by the way, do this same estimation from the math I set up before I got frustrated by my lack of a calculator: (72)(0.34). Just look at it in a different way, now that you’ve realized you can estimate. Since 0.34 is about 1/3, you’re just taking about one-third of 72…it’s the same math! $24. What we just did is classic back-of-the-envelope math. You don’t need an exact number—you just need a quick-and-dirty, good-enough estimate. We certainly weren’t allowed to do that on math tests in school, but the Executive Assessment is not a math test. Well, yes, it is, somewhat. But not in the way that you’re used to from school. We do have to know various math formulas and rules, but the Executive Assessment is really mostly interested in how well you can reason about math. After all, in the real world, you’re never going to be forced to do math on paper without the benefit of Excel or a calculator. But you are going to need to be able to think about mathematical concepts and draw conclusions—not in the “what’s the answer to this math problem” sense, but in a “what should we do about this problem that our division is facing?” sense. So, while the Executive Assessment looks a whole lot like a traditional math test, it really isn’t at all. Most of the time, you can get to the answer through a combination of strategic approaches, like the back-of-the-envelope approach discussed above. That’s what you’re looking to learn and practice as you study for this exam. Key Takeaways for Executive Assessment Fast Math (1) You often don’t need to calculate exact values. Look for opportunities to estimate and do back-of-the-envelope calculations wherever possible. (2) If the numbers in the problem or answers (or both!) seem annoying, there’s probably an opportunity to estimate somewhere. Also, get in the habit of glancing at the answers to see how far apart they are (when they’re just plain numbers)—the farther apart they are, the better the opportunity to estimate. (3) Turn that knowledge into Know the Code flash cards:  *Executive Assessment 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 Math on the Executive Assessment appeared first on GMAT. |
17 Jun 2020, 07:00
| FROM Manhattan GMAT Blog: Math on the Executive Assessment |
|
The Executive Assessment (EA) shares a lot of roots with the GMAT, GMAC’s flagship graduate business school exam. In certain ways, the Executive Assessment feels almost like the GMAT on steroids—it’s even more stereotypically GMAT-like than the GMAT itself, if that’s possible. One of those ways has to do with the way in which you can solve math problems. Most of the same math content areas are tested on the Executive Assessment, but a higher proportion of released Executive Assessment problems share a certain characteristic: You can use general “Fast Math” principles to make your job much easier—and you can do even more with the overall Fast Math idea on the Executive Assessment. Here’s the overall idea: Don’t do math that you don’t have to. Don’t do math until you have to. Before you actually do something you think you need to do, lay it out and ask yourself what the best path is through the math—giving heavy consideration to estimation and other shortcuts. Let’s try some problems out and see how this really works! All problems in this series are from the free problem sets that appear on the official Executive Assessment website. EA Math Practice Question #1 Give yourself two minutes to complete this first problem. As of September 2017, it appeared as question 2 in the free online Quant Problem Solving problem set. The table below represents the combined net income of all United States companies in each of five sectors for the second quarter of 1996. Which sector had the greatest net income during the first quarter of 1996? (A) Basic Materials (B) Energy (C) Industrial (D) Utilities (E) Conglomerates Got your answers? Even if you’re not sure, guess—that’s what you want to do on the real Executive Assessment, too, so practice that now (even if your practice consists of saying, “I have no idea, so I’m randomly picking B!”). Ready? Let’s do this! The first order of business is to understand what the question wants and what the table tells you. There are 5 sectors. Each one shows a certain net income for the second quarter and then a percent change from the first quarter. What’s the significance of a negative vs. positive percent change? Think in terms of real business. If your division had a net income of 4.83 billion this quarter, but that represents a –26% change from last quarter…then last quarter was better and this quarter your boss might not be very happy. Okay, now what do they want to know? Which sector had the greatest net income in the first quarter… hmm. So we’re going to have to backwards-engineer this somehow. Start by jotting down the starting point for each sector and whether that one was higher or lower in the first quarter: BM: 4.83, –26%….Q1↑ E: 7.46, +40%…….Q1 ↓ I: 5, –1%……………..Q1 ↑ U: 8.57, +303%..Q1 ↓ C: 2.07, +10%…….Q1↓ They want to know which one was the highest once we back out the numbers. Sector C is already the lowest by far and it was even lower last quarter, so it’s not that one. Eliminate answer (E). Sector I only went down by 1% in the second quarter, so basically it was still at about 5 in the first quarter. Call that your baseline point and test the other answers against it. Was Sector BM above or below 5 in the first quarter? The 4.83 figure reflects about a 25% decline from the previous quarter. If 4.83 represents about a 25% decline from Q1, then it represents about 75% of Q1. Use this to estimate the value for Q1: If the 4.83 figure is about 75%, then what would 25% be? You would divide 75% by 3 to find 25%, so do the same with the value 4.83. 4.83 is kind of annoying to divide. Try a number that seems like it’s in the ballpark, like 1.5. (1.5)(3) = 4.5, so the value is around 1.5 (but really a little larger). The 1.5 estimate, then, is on the low side. Keep track of that. Then, multiply by 4 to find 100%: (1.5)(4) = 6. The value is really a little larger than 6, since 1.5 is a low estimate. Therefore, sector BM, at 6+, was more than sector I, at 5; eliminate answer (C). Your new baseline point is 6+. Test the remaining answers against this number. The other two sectors were both lower in Q1. For sector E, 7.46 reflects a 40% increase from Q1. What if the starting number for this sector were 6? What would a 40% increase be? 6 + 40% of 6 To find 40%, find 10%, then multiply by 4. Then add your starting point of 6 back in: (6)(0.1) = 0.6 (0.6)(4) = 2.4 6 + 2.4 = 8.4 If Q1 were 6, then this sector would have been at 8.4 in the second quarter. It wasn’t; it was only at 7.46. Sector E, therefore, was not as high as sector BM, so eliminate choice (B). Finally, sector U started at 8.57, but that represented a whopping 303% increase over Q1! If you started at 6 and increase that number by 300%, it would be way over 8.57. Sector U also must have started lower than 6, so eliminate choice (D). The Basic Materials sector is the last one standing. The correct answer is (A). You could have done all of the above with very precise calculations—but that’s really annoying when you don’t have access to a calculator or Excel. Note that you didn’t actually have to make very precise calculations because the problem was set up to allow you to estimate even though it didn’t tell you that you could. The beauty of the Executive Assessment is that this is a business test, not a math test. They’re not interested in knowing whether you can do precise math calculations on paper. They’re interested in knowing whether you have a general number sense that allows you to reason your way to a conclusion—we call that the “back of the envelope” approach. All my boss really needs to know is which division did best last quarter, not what the exact numbers were, so I can just do a quick-and-dirty approach that addresses the big picture. Key Takeaways for Executive Assessment Fast Math (1) You often don’t need to calculate exact values. Look for opportunities to estimate and do back-of-the-envelope calculations wherever possible. (2) You’re going to need to practice that! First, you need to get yourself into the mindset that the Executive Assessment isn’t a math test and you actually aren’t just trying to calculate, calculate, calculate. Second, you’re going to need to spend time thinking about how to back-of-the-envelope something in various different situations. (3) Turn that knowledge into Know the Code flash cards: EA Math Practice Question #2 Here’s another Executive Assessment problem from the official free practice set (this one is labeled #3 in the PS set on the Executive Assessment website, as of September 2017): According to the table below, the number of fellows was approximately what percent of the total membership of Organization X? (A) 9% (B) 12% (C) 18% (D) 25% (E) 35%” Before we dive in, what principles do you remember from our discussion of the first Executive Assessment problem? Think about it. Keep thinking about it. Don’t read below yet. Okay, here are some things I remember. Don’t do math unless / until I have to. If I do have to do some calculations, lay things out first, then look at everything to decide what the best path is (and to see whether I can spot any shortcuts!). These principles are reflected in the below graphic: When a new Executive Assessment problem first pops up, I glance: What have I got, big picture? Without reading the full text, I can see the following things: a table…with some fairly annoying numbers. Also, the answers are percentages, so this is a percent problem of some kind. The annoying numbers are making me wonder whether I’ll be able to estimate. I’m going to keep an eye out for that possibility as I go to my next step, Read. Yep, it’s a percent problem. What do they want? Jot it down. Don’t start solving yet! Go to the second row: Reflect & Organize. Glance at the Fellows number. Annoying. And then the total? I have to add that up. Ugh. Look at the answers again. The bottom three are decently far apart—estimation would probably be close enough. (A) 9% (B) 12% (C) 18% → 20% = 1/5 (D) 25% → 25% = 1/4 (E) 35%” → 33.3% = 1/3 But answers (A) and (B) are both around 10%…hmm. I know! If it does seem to be between those two, then I can estimate whether the number is greater than 10% or less than 10%—that’s not a hard estimate to make. Great, now that I actually have an angle to solve, I can go ahead and do the work. Oh, wait, one more annoying part to consider: adding up the five numbers to get the total. I only need to estimate, so I can estimate the individual numbers, first of all. I can also try to put them together into “pairs” that add up to “nice” numbers. Okay, let’s do this. The first one is 78, which is almost 100. Look for another number that would “pair” well with 100: how about Associate Members, at 27,909? Add them up to get about 28,000, a “nice” number. Any others? 9,200 and 2,300 equal 11,500, another nice-ish number. That leaves 35,500—oh, let’s pair that with 11,500 to get an even 47k. Then add in the 28k to get about 75k. Nice! Now, the top of the fraction is the 9,200 number. Maybe 9k is close enough. What’s 9k / 75k? Or 9 / 75? Reflect for a moment again. Dividing that fraction is kind of annoying. I’m trying to find a percent. Percent literally means “of 100”—wouldn’t it have been nice if the fraction had already had 100 on the bottom? SO annoying that it doesn’t… Hmm… Is there any way to get that number on the bottom to be 100 instead of 75…? What did we do with that 75% in the first problem (in the first installment of this series)? Go back and take a look. (Seriously, go look! See what, if anything, you can figure out on your own before you keep reading.) To go from 75% to 100%, take the 75% figure, divide by 3 to get 25%, then multiply by 4 to get 100%. BUT, if I’m going to do that with the bottom of the fraction, then I have to do the same thing to the top of the fraction. I can manipulate a fraction in any way that I like as long as I do the same thing to the top and the bottom. So, take 9, divide by 3 to get 3, then multiply by 4 to get 12. Boom! The new fraction is 12 / 100. Look at the answers—we have an exact match at 12%. The correct answer is (B). What did you learn on this Executive Assessment problem? Think about your takeaways before you read mine. Key Takeaways for Executive Assessment Fast Math (1) You often don’t need to calculate exact values. Look for opportunities to estimate and do back-of-the-envelope calculations wherever possible. (2) Different problems might have some shortcuts in common; when you learn something on one problem, look for opportunities to apply that learning on different-but-similar-in-some-way problems. The 75% → 100% thing doesn’t require a table or even necessarily a story. It doesn’t even need to be 75% to start—it just requires you to know that you’re trying to get to 100% from a number that’s a little annoying. (3) Turn that knowledge into Know the Code flash cards: EA Math Practice Question #3 Our final practice question is labeled #4 in the PS set on the Executive Assessment website as of September 2017. “The regular price per can of a certain brand of soda is $0.40. If the regular price per can is discounted 15 percent when the soda is purchased in 24-can cases, what is the price of 72 cans of this brand of soda purchased in 24-can cases? “(A) $16.32 “(B) $18.00 “(C) $21.60 “(D) $24.48 “(E) $28.80” What did you think about this problem? I found it pretty annoying. I mean, sure, I didn’t find it crazy hard to find the 15% discount off of $0.40: 10% of 0.40 is 0.04… another 5% is half of that, or 0.02… so the discount is $0.06… and the discounted price is $0.34 And then I want to buy 72 cans, so it’s just (72)(0.34)…aaagh, but I don’t have a calculator. I refuse to do that out the long way. Seriously! There’s got to be an easier way. Picture this: You’re standing in the convenience store. You want to buy this soda. You’ve just figured out that it’s going to cost you $0.34 a can…and you know you want 72 cans…but you don’t have a calculator on you (your phone died) and you don’t even have pen and paper. Also, you forgot your credit card. (It’s been a long day.) So how are you going to figure out whether you have enough cash on you to buy all 72 cans? That’s not a rhetorical question. Close your eyes, picture yourself there, and try to figure out what you’d do. Thinking? Thinking? Okay, here’s my idea. In the real world, I wouldn’t literally need to calculate to the penny—I’d just need to estimate to make sure I have enough cash. But this is a math test and the answers are down to the penny…so don’t I have to calculate exactly here? Glance at the answers. If the answers had been of the variety $10.01, $10.02, $10.03…, then yes, I’d have to calculate to the penny. But they’re not. They’re each at least a couple of dollars apart, so I can estimate. How? Let’s see. It’s going to cost me $0.34 to buy one can. How many could I buy for a dollar? I can get 3 cans (basically—technically, it’ll cost me $1.02 for 3 cans, but close enough!). So 3 cans for $1…how many do I want again? Oh yeah, 72 cans. So that’s going to cost me about 72 / 3 = $24. Oh. Look at the answers. There’s only one that’s close—answer (D). Done! You can also, by the way, do this same estimation from the math I set up before I got frustrated by my lack of a calculator: (72)(0.34). Just look at it in a different way, now that you’ve realized you can estimate. Since 0.34 is about 1/3, you’re just taking about one-third of 72…it’s the same math! $24. What we just did is classic back-of-the-envelope math. You don’t need an exact number—you just need a quick-and-dirty, good-enough estimate. We certainly weren’t allowed to do that on math tests in school, but the Executive Assessment is not a math test. Well, yes, it is, somewhat. But not in the way that you’re used to from school. We do have to know various math formulas and rules, but the Executive Assessment is really mostly interested in how well you can reason about math. After all, in the real world, you’re never going to be forced to do math on paper without the benefit of Excel or a calculator. But you are going to need to be able to think about mathematical concepts and draw conclusions—not in the “what’s the answer to this math problem” sense, but in a “what should we do about this problem that our division is facing?” sense. So, while the Executive Assessment looks a whole lot like a traditional math test, it really isn’t at all. Most of the time, you can get to the answer through a combination of strategic approaches, like the back-of-the-envelope approach discussed above. That’s what you’re looking to learn and practice as you study for this exam. Key Takeaways for Executive Assessment Fast Math (1) You often don’t need to calculate exact values. Look for opportunities to estimate and do back-of-the-envelope calculations wherever possible. (2) If the numbers in the problem or answers (or both!) seem annoying, there’s probably an opportunity to estimate somewhere. Also, get in the habit of glancing at the answers to see how far apart they are (when they’re just plain numbers)—the farther apart they are, the better the opportunity to estimate. (3) Turn that knowledge into Know the Code flash cards: *Executive Assessment 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 Math on the Executive Assessment appeared first on GMAT. |
17 Jun 2020, 07:00
| FROM Manhattan GMAT Blog: How to Prep for the Executive Assessment |
 Are you figuring out how to study for the Executive Assessment (EA) exam? TheExecutive Assessment was launched in March 2016 to provide a more streamlined version of the GMAT for Executive MBA (EMBA) candidates—but it has grown and is now used for someregular MBAs and other business Master’s programs. First, I’m going to assume that you’re already familiar withthe basics of the Executive Assessment—if not, go read that post I just linked and then come back. I can wait. Next, if you are alreadyfamiliar with the GMAT, then you can jump-start your understanding of the EA by taking a look at a separate post that covers thedifferences between the GMAT and the EA. There aren’t many differences, but they are important. (If you aren’t already familiar with the GMAT, don’t bother to read this post.) Here’s what we’ll cover in this post:
What do I need to learn for the Executive Assessment? You’ll need to learn a decent number of things—many of which will actually be useful in grad school. You’ll need to learn (relearn, really) certain math concepts, principles, and formulas. You’ll also need to learn some grammar (but it’s not too bad). Of course, you’ll need to learn how the EA works, including the different question types (as well as the best ways to approach them) and how to manage your time during the test and make the bestexecutive decisions you can to get the score you need. And you’ll also need to know how to prioritize your studies and set up a good study plan for yourself. Overall, I’d really view your test preparation as your first grad school course. Use this time to get yourself back into a study routine and work out all of the kinks before school starts. Also, just FYI: A majority of your study materials will actually be built for the GMAT, since very few EA-specific study materials exist. (Why? Business case: Right now, only about 5,000 EA exams are given every year. There’s just not enough of a market yet for companies to spend a ton of development money making EA-specific materials. Even the official test makers have not yet published any physical books—all official study materials are digital-only.) It’s fine to use GMAT materials because all of the question types and the vast majority of the content areas are identical; more on this later. What Executive Assessment study materials are available? There are a number of really good resources that you’ll want to use as you get ready for this test. If you take a course, that course should include study materials and a syllabus with specific homework assignments (we have one here at Manhattan Prep). If you study on your own, make sure to take time in the beginning to put together your own syllabus and gather your study resources. The official test makers (GMAC) sell avariety of official study tools, including 4 practice exams (sold in packs of 2), as well as an online bank of 300 practice problems—100 problems for each of the three sections of the exam: Integrated Reasoning (IR), Quant, and Verbal. They also sell an extra tool with 50 IR problems (but not Q or V). If you are familiar with Official Guide books from the GMAT or other grad school exams: There is no equivalent book for the EA. I would definitely get at least 2 practice exams and I’d say most people will want all 4. The 300-problem online bank is also excellent—I highly recommend it. I think most people will be fine with those 300 problems, so I wouldn’t buy the extra IR-only tool to start. But it’s nice to know that it’s there if you want more IR practice. Your official materials will be your practice, but that won’t typically be how you’ll learn how to get better. For that, you’re going to need some materials from test prep companies. I’m obviously biased, so you’ll need to do some research yourself, but I’ll tell you what we’ve got.
How much time do I need to study? This is going to take some effort; the exam is not easy. Neither is grad school, though—and getting ready for this exam will help prepare you for school, too. Plan to spend somewhere between 1 and 4 months getting ready for this exam, depending upon (a) how many hours a week you can devote to your studies, (b) how long it has been since you were last in school (and, in particular, since you last took a math class), and (c) what kind of score you hope to get on the exam. (a) How many hours a week can you devote to your studies?
Setting Up Your Studies Big picture, most people will need to do more work on quant than on verbal or IR to start—just remember that you are going to have to build those skills, too. I’m going to recommend the same general structure that we use in our courses. Begin by gaining a good grounding in the foundational-level material, particularly math topics that you learned when you were 11. Does PEMDAS, aka order of operations, ring a vague bell? Do you remember how to add fractions or solve an equation? It’s deep in your brain somewhere—you just have to remind yourself and do some practice to get the skills back. Give yourself a couple of weeks for this level. (If you take one of our courses, we do build this into the program—but I would recommend signing up for a course that doesn’t start for ~2-3 weeks and then working through as much of the Foundations of Math material as you can before the course starts.) When you need a break from the Quant stuff, familiarize yourself with the different verbal and IR question types and how they work. When you feel okay about your ability to do math on paper again (you don’t have to feel great—just okay), start diving in earnest into the three main strategy guides (IR & Essay, All the Quant, and All the Verbal). Use my earlier guidelines to decide what to prioritize and in what order you want to do things. I don’t recommend doing all of one section of the exam and only then moving on to another section. Your brain actually learns better when you’re moving among topics. (It feels harder that way—but that’s a sign that your brain is actually learning better. It’s like physical activity—you know it was a good workout or game when it actually tires you out a bit.) Plan to study multiple days a week (ideally 4 to 6 days)—it’s far better to do a little every day than to do nothing all week and then try to cram in 6 hours of study on Sunday. Your brain can only learn so much in a day; then it needs to go to sleep and make good memories of everything you learned before you can start to layer more on top. Set up a study calendar that goes something like this: Day 1: Quant (Fractions and Ratios); Verbal (SC) Day 2: Quant (Data Sufficiency); IR (Tables) Day 3: Quant (Percents); Verbal (CR) Day 4: Break Day 5: Quant (review and practice problems); IR (Tables) Day 6: IR and Verbal review and practice problems Day 7: What went well and what needs more work? Set up next week. Plan out specific study appointments (with assignments / topics) for the upcoming week. Have an idea of what you want to do the week after that, but don’t actually plan out the day-to-day until you see how this week goes. You may have to go back over a certain area again—or you may discover that you’re already good at something and can go faster or reallocate some time to a different area. After about a week or two, take a practice test (GMAC sells 4 official practice tests). Spend a couple of days analyzing it after. Pay more attention to the areas you’ve already studied—how did they go? What stuck and what needs a review? For the areas you haven’t studied yet, does your test performance indicate any areas you should prioritize—or de-prioritize? (There are two areas to de-prioritize: The things you’re already good at and the things that you’re really not good at. Don’t spend time learning the hardest material—first, learn the material that’s not as hard for you. You may discover that that gets you to your goal score and you never have to learn the hardest-for-you stuff!) Then, go set up next week’s study plan taking that practice test analysis into account. As you go, continue to take a practice test every couple of weeks—both to gauge how you’re progressing and to help you diagnose your strengths and weaknesses so you can set up an effective study plan for the coming couple of weeks. Practice Under Timed Conditions It’s critically important to do practice problems under test-like conditions, including timing. At heart, the EA is an executive reasoning / decision-making test, even while it tests you on math, logic, and grammar. As you do every day at work, you’re going to have to distinguish between good, mediocre, and bad opportunities and decide how to spend your limited time and mental energy accordingly. Time Management on the Executive Assessment (EA) Each section is 30 minutes long and has either 12 or 14 questions, so you have a bit over 2 minutes, on average, to answer each question. You don’t want to try to answer everything. An average of 2 minutes is just not enough time! I’m actually going to recommend that you plan to bail on 2 or 3 questions per section—guess within the first 15-30 seconds and go spend that precious time elsewhere. If you follow this recommendation, then you can average 2.5 minutes per Quant and Verbal question and a whopping 3 minutes per Integrated Reasoning question. As a reminder, the questions will be split into two panels per section, so you’ll have six or seven problems in each panel. Plan to bail on one question per panel; if you hit a second really annoying problem in one of the panels, give yourself the freedom to bail on one extra question (for a total of three across both panels). Before you go in, have a list of Bail Categories—things you hate and know that you’re not very good at. If you see a question that falls into one of these categories, don’t try to do it. Don’t try to make an educated guess. Don’t even mark it to come back later. Just pick randomly, move on, and forget about this one forever. Bail on these kinds of questions:
What if you’re not sure whether you want to bail? Or maybe you see something that you can do, but you think it will take you longer than average. As you work through any one panel, you’ll be given the option to mark questions to return to later (as long as you are still on that panel). At the end of that panel, you can see a list of any questions you marked and then jump right back to a particular question. This is a great feature as long as you know when and how to use it—and when and how not to use it. First, note that you do need to make a distinction between marking and bailing. When you decide that something isn’t worth doing ever, don’t mark it for later “just in case.” Make the executive decision, put in a random answer, and move on forever. (Do put in a random answer—there’s no penalty for getting something wrong.) Next, when you do decide to mark something, still put in a random answer right now. It’s possible that you might not make it back later, and you don’t want to waste a chance to get lucky. Let’s see how this all plays out section by section. EA Time Management: Integrated Reasoning In IR, bailing on 2 or 3 questions will leave you just 9 or 10 questions to do, so you’ll be answering 4 or 5 questions per panel. You’ll have 30 minutes to do those problems and your goal is to use approximately half the time (15 minutes) for each panel. Now, let’s talk about the ones you do want to mark for a possible later return. First, be stingy. Generally speaking, mark only one per panel; at the most, mark two. You’re not going to have a ton of time left at the end; the last thing you want to do is spend a minute trying to figure out which of 3 marked problems you should actually return to…and then run out of time before you can try any of them. When you mark a question for a possible later return, also put in a random answer right now. You may not actually make it back to this problem later, so it’s better to have a guess locked in, just in case. As I mentioned, there’s no penalty for getting something wrong. Mark these kinds of questions:
The second category is something that is in your brain somewhere, but you’re having trouble pulling up the memory right now. Sometimes, if we set the thing aside for 5 or 10 minutes, our brains will continue trying to figure it out subconsciously and then, when we look at it again, we’ll retrieve the memory: Oh, yeah! This is how to do this problem! How does this play out? The first panel pops up. On your first run through the problems, you’re going to bail fast on one and save one for later, so you’re going to try to answer four. (And maybe you bail on two or save two for later, so you try to answer three.) When you get to the end of the first panel, the test is going to ask whether you’re ready to move to the next one. Glance at the timer, which will be counting down from 30 minutes. How far are you from 15 minutes left? IR questions typically require 2-3 minutes, so we’re going to be pretty strict about timing. If the number is higher than 16, notice how much time you still have before you get to 15, then go to your marked question (or, if you marked two, glance at each quickly and pick one) and get to work. When you’re done, glance at the timer again and decide from there whether to try another problem or to close out this panel and move to the next panel. If you have fewer than 16 minutes left, however, it’s time to move to the next panel. EA Time Management: Verbal and Quant Quant and Verbal will work very similarly, except that you’ll be answering 7 questions per panel rather than 6—so you’ll have a little bit less time per problem, on average. (But Q and V problems are also not as complicated—usually—as IR problems.) Still bail on one problem per panel (and you can bail on one extra in one of the panels). Still mark one problem to come back to (or maybe two). Some Quant and Verbal problems can be answered in 1-2 minutes, so you’ve got a judgment call to make:
If you’re already below the 15-minute mark, give yourself 10 seconds to look at your marked problem. If it falls in the category, “Oh yeah, I remember how to do this now, and it’s something I can do in a minute!” then go for it. Otherwise, move on. If you have more than 15 minutes left, still take a look at your marked problem. If you know how to do it but it’s going to take 2+ minutes, only move ahead if you still have the time to do it and move to the second panel with 15 (or more) minutes left. If you’re blanking on it or you find yourself thinking any variation of, “But I should know how to do this…”—forget about it. Move to the next panel. In sum If you’re coming to the EA from the GMAT, make sure you educate yourself on themajor differences between the two exams. There aren’t many—but you will need to make some adjustments, especially in the area of time management. Plan for a minimum of 4 weeks and probably closer to 6 to 8 (since you have lots of other things going on in your life too, right?). If you need a higher-than-average score or are extra-busy and can’t study much, you may need closer to 3 to 4 months. StudyIR, Verbal, andQuant pretty equally—you’re looking to get fairly even scores across all three sections, as much as possible. If you’re going for an EMBA, your total score goal (as of this writing) is 150+, and if you’re going for a regular MBA, your score goal is 155+—but do some research yourself whenever you are reading this to make sure things haven’t changed. You’re going to want to practice from the official EA tools available—but you’re also going to need some test-prep-company materials to teach you the underlying skills and content for the exam. And you’re going to need to set up a study plan for yourself. Practice time management strategies during practice tests so you’re prepared to make quick decisions about where to spend your brain power on test day. KEEP READING: What the Executive Assessment Really Tests For information about our Executive Assessment Complete Course click here. 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 How to Prep for the Executive Assessment appeared first on GMAT. |
11 Jul 2020, 06:30
09 Sep 2020, 16:00
| FROM Manhattan GMAT Blog: Coronavirus GMAT Updates |
 NOTE: For the most up-to-date information about the GMAT Online and 2020 testing updates, read our breakdown from Manhattan Prep Instructor, Stacey Koprince. At Manhattan Prep, we’ve been closely monitoring the effects of COVID-19 in our communities. This is an immensely difficult time and our top commitment is to the health and safety of our students, employees, and the community. We know that COVID-19 is deeply disrupting your life right now, and it has the potential to delay your long-term goals for your career and education. You can still study effectively, though, and it’s also fine to delay your studies if needed—the GMAT isn’t going anywhere and neither are we. To that end, we want you to know that we’re here for you. Here are ways we’re working to help you continue to achieve your goals, even in these tough circumstances:
Thanks and stay healthy, The Manhattan Prep Team Study Advice & Recommended Resources GMAT Online:
WORK/STUDY/PLAY-FROM HOME:
The post Coronavirus GMAT Updates appeared first on GMAT. |
23 Sep 2020, 13:00
| FROM Manhattan GMAT Blog: What’s Tested on the Executive Assessment? |
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[img]https://cdn2.manhattanprep.com/gmat/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2020/01/mprep-blogimages-wave1-53-e1578975233224.png[/img] The Executive Assessment is made up of three sections: [url=https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat#IR]Integrated Reasoning[/url], [url=https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat#VR]Verbal Reasoning[/url], and [url=https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat#QR]Quantitative Reasoning[/url]. We’ll cover all three in this post. [url=https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog/about-executive-assessment/]the IR score is incorporated into your Total score[/url] (along with Quant and Verbal), so you do have to be well-prepared for IR. As on the GMAT, you will answer 12 IR problems in 30 minutes and you will have access to an on-screen calculator. On the EA, though, you will complete the problems in 2 separate panels of 6 problems each. Within one panel, you can do the problems in any order you like. Some people like to go through first and answer just the ones that seem easy to them, then do a second pass to try the harder ones. You’ll also need to keep track of your timing. At approximately the halfway mark, you’ll want to submit the first panel and start working on the second one; once you do this, you can’t go back to the first panel, so there’s a psychological factor to take into account: the “bail” problem. A “bail” problem is one that you just don’t want to do. (Okay…that’s all of them. But it’s one that you actually are not going to do.) Assume that you’re going to bail on one problem per panel—you’re literally just going to guess in 3 seconds and reallocate that time to other problems in the section. Why? Unless you’re trying to get everything right so you can [url=https://www.manhattanprep.com/jobs/instructor/]teach for us[/url]…you don’t need to get everything right. And standardized tests are notorious for not giving us enough time to answer all the questions to the best of our ability. So rather than spreading 30 minutes across 12 problems, spread that 30 minutes across 10 problems and give yourself a better chance of actually answering a majority of those 10 correctly. There are four IR problem types. If you manipulate and analyze data at your job already, then at least two of these problem types will feel not-too-weird to you: Tables and Graphs. Multi-Source Reasoning (MSR) problems can be a little more complicated, but they are primarily about synthesizing data and information from multiple sources—presumably you already do this on a daily basis at work. [img]https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/12.0.0-1/72x72/1f642.png[/img] The fourth IR type, Two-Part, is a pretty classic “standardized-test” type of problem: You’re asked a multiple-choice problem and have to solve for or find the answer (the twist, as the name Two-Part implies: You have to find two answers for each problem). The more verbal- or analytical-reasoning questions do not require any outside factual knowledge, but you will need some factual knowledge for the more quant-focused questions. The released official IR questions test the following quantitative concepts: [list] [*][b]Arithmetic[/b], including such concepts as PEMDAS and unit conversion, as well as manipulations involving fractions, percents (including interest rate), and ratios.[/*] [*][b]Algebra[/b], including linear equations and formulas / functions / sequences. The latter can sometimes be quite advanced—those are good “bail” questions (guess and move on).[/*] [*][b]Applied[/b] (story) problems, including a lot of statistics (average, weighted average, median, and correlation), as well as some rates & work and general applied story problems (translate and solve).[/*] [*][b]Geometry[/b] includes some very basic “common sense” geometry (e.g., knowing that the square footage of a room can be found by multiplying the length and width). You don’t need to know any “real” geometry formulas / concepts for IR.[/*] [/list] Want to try one? GMAC has posted some official [url=https://www.gmac.com/executive-assessment/prepare/free-official-questions]sample EA problems[/url] on its website. (Note: You have to create a free account in order to access the problems.) Our [url=https://www.amazon.com/GMAT-Integrated-Reasoning-Essay-Resources/dp/1506219675/]Integrated Reasoning & Essay guide[/url] says GMAT on the front cover but actually fully includes EA strategy as well as GMAT strategy in the guide itself. (Every time we talk overall strategy, the book will have two sections: one for EA and one for GMAT. If you use this guide, read the EA part and skip the GMAT part.) [url=https://www.gmac.com/executive-assessment/prepare/free-official-questions]sample Verbal problems[/url]. [b]Sentence Correction (SC)[/b] SC problems are grammar problems: You’ll be given a sentence and 5 answer choices, representing variations on that sentence. You have to say which version of the sentence is the best one—logical, unambiguous, and without any grammar errors. Plan to study all major rules and areas for SC: meaning, sentence structure, modifiers, parallelism & comparisons, and so on. If you’ve never had a solid grounding in grammar (including how to recognize different parts of speech), then you may want to start with something like our[url=https://www.amazon.com/GMAT-Foundations-Verbal-Practice-Manhattan/dp/1506249892] Foundations of Verbal strategy guide[/url] and work your way up to the regular Sentence Correction unit in our[url=https://www.amazon.com/GMAT-All-Verbal-definitive-Manhattan/dp/1506249043] All the Verbal strategy guide[/url]. In that second book, learn the main lessons for the major grammar topics and ignore anything that the book says is more advanced or more rarely tested (especially in the advanced chapters found in the All the Verbal Companion ebook that comes with the physical book). The sample SC questions posted on GMAC’s site are skewed a little toward the easier-to-medium side, but they’re a good introduction to the problem type. [b]Critical Reasoning (CR)[/b] CR problems provide you with a short argument or plan and ask you to critique it in some way. You might be asked to do something with the conclusion (strengthen it, weaken it, identify an assumption underlying it). You might be asked to give a conclusion (inference) or fix a problem (explain a discrepancy). The official EA CR questions cover the full range of [url=https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog/how-to-master-every-gmat-critical-reasoning-question-type/]GMAT CR question types[/url], with an emphasis towards Inference and Strengthen questions. There are also a decent number of Weaken, Find the Assumption, and Discrepancy questions. We can’t necessarily assume that the official test will follow these same trends. The GMAT tends to emphasize Find the Assumption and Weaken at about the same rate as Strengthen and Inference, so I would expect something similar to hold true for the EA. If you use the CR unit of our All the Verbal strategy guide, study the whole unit but prioritize Strengthen, Weaken, Find the Assumption, and Inference. The Companion ebook that comes with this strategy guide includes an extra chapter on wrong answer analysis for CR that you might find useful. [b]Reading Comprehension (RC)[/b] This is a classic standardized test problem type: You read several paragraphs of information and then answer several questions about that same passage. So far, our teachers taking the real exam have all been given one RC passage with 4 related questions. We have a small number of data points so far, but we’re assuming that this is the standard pattern and most people will see this. The passages and question types in the EA official tool run the gamut—Science, Social Science, and Business topics, and all of the usual question types. As on the GMAT, Specific Detail and Inference questions are by far the most common, with a smattering of Primary Purpose / Main Idea and various minor types. As with the rest of verbal, use the entire RC unit in our All the Verbal Strategy guide. In short: You can really use everything in the [url=https://www.amazon.com/GMAT-All-Verbal-definitive-Manhattan/dp/1506249043]All the Verbal Strategy guide[/url].[url=https://www.gmac.com/executive-assessment/prepare/free-official-questions]sample Quant problems[/url]. The single biggest difference is that geometry* has been removed from the EA. But, yes, I had to add an asterisk there. Did you know that, among mathematicians, coordinate plane is considered algebra, not geometry? (I learned this in high school…but I completely forgot until it came up again for the EA.) So it’s true that geometry is not on the EA…but since coordinate plane is really algebra, it can show up on the EA. I find that a little annoying, but I was heartened to see that, of the 100 quant questions in the EA official tool, exactly one is a geometry problem. So I went into my EA just assuming that I would ignore any coordinate plane questions I might see—and I didn’t see any at all. (I do, of course, know geometry, since I also teach the GMAT, but I wanted to take the EA in the way that I’m advising my students to take it.) I have had students see a geometry problem, but I haven’t (yet) had anyone tell me that they’ve seen more than one. So, best guess, you’ll see either 0 or 1 coordinate plane problem…so decide whether that is worth any of your precious study time. I personally would not study it and would just make that one of my bail questions (more about this in[url=https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog/how-to-study-for-the-executive-assessment-ea-part-2/] part 2[/url]). If you’ve studied for the GMAT and are familiar with the strategies Choose Smart Numbers, Work Backwards, and Test Cases, you can definitely use these strategies on the EA, too. You also can (and should!) estimate—I found I was able to do this even more than on the GMAT. As far as the rest of the quant material, the EA appears to test everything else that the GMAT tests. If you’re using our books to study, I would emphasize the following: [list] [*] [url=https://www.amazon.com/GMAT-Foundations-Math-Practice-Manhattan/dp/1506207642][b]GMAT Foundations of Math[/b][/url] Nearly everything! [url=https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.amazon.com/GMAT-Foundations-Math-Practice-Manhattan-dp-150624923X/dp/150624923X/ref%3Ddp_ob_title_bk&sa=D&ust=1600868590008000&usg=AFQjCNFydhgysAshMnsdVWwIQEiGYMh7LQ]We use this book heavily[/url] in our[url=https://www.manhattanprep.com/executive-assessment/] EA live course[/url]. You can skip geometry entirely or look just at coordinate plane, if you want. Otherwise, do learn the rest of this guide. (Although the title says GMAT, everything in this guide applies to the EA with the exception of most of the geometry topics.)[/*] [*] [url=https://www.amazon.com/GMAT-All-Quant-definitive-Manhattan/dp/1506248543][b]All the Quant[/b][/url] [url=https://www.amazon.com/GMAT-All-Quant-definitive-Manhattan/dp/1506248543]This book[/url] is split into 5 units by major content area. Within each unit, there are also strategy chapters—how to do Data Sufficiency, for example, or a series on Arithmetic vs. Algebra. Do all of the strategy chapters in every unit except for geometry.[/*] [/list] For math topics, I’ll list the specific areas within each unit that are most likely to show up on the EA. [b]Unit 1: Fractions, Decimals, Percents, and Ratios[/b] [list] [*]Fractions[/*] [*]Percents[/*] [*]Ratios[/*] [*]For an extra-high quant score: Digits and decimals[/*] [/list] [b]Unit 2: Algebra[/b] [list] [*]Exponents[/*] [*]Roots[/*] [*]Linear equations and combos[/*] [*]The basics of inequalities and max/min[/*] [*]For an extra-high quant score: Quadratics and formulas[/*] [/list] [b]Unit 3: Word Problems[/b] [list] [*]Translations[/*] [*]Statistics (average, median, weighted average)[/*] [*]Rates[/*] [*]For an extra-high quant score: Work and overlapping sets[/*] [/list] [b]Unit 4: Number Properties[/b] [list] [*]Divisibility and prime[/*] [*]Odd, Even, Positive, Negative[/*] [*]For an extra-high quant score: Probability and/or combinatorics—but only if you like these topics[/*] [/list] [b]Unit 5: Geometry[/b] [list] [*]Nothing, unless you like coordinate planes (but nothing more than that!)[/*] [/list] The [url=https://www.amazon.com/GMAT-All-Quant-definitive-Manhattan/dp/1506248543]All the Quant[/url] guide comes with an accompanying ebook containing advanced math topics—no need to study any of them. Good luck and happy studying! [b]NEXT: [/b][url=https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog/executive-assessment-prep/]How to Prep for the Executive Assessment[/url] [b]For information about our Executive Assessment Complete Course [/b][url=https://www.manhattanprep.com/executive-assessment/][b]click here[/b][/url][b].[/b] [url=https://www.manhattanprep.com/instructors/stacey-koprince/?utm_source=manhattanprep.com%2Fgmat%2Fblog&utm_medium=blog&utm_content=KoprinceBioLinkGMATBlog&utm_campaign=GMAT%20Blog][img]https://cdn2.manhattanprep.com/gmat/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2015/06/stacey-koprince-150x150.png[/img][/url] [b][url=https://www.manhattanprep.com/instructors/stacey-koprince/?utm_source=manhattanprep.com%2Fgmat%2Fblog&utm_medium=blog&utm_content=KoprinceBioLinkGMATBlog&utm_campaign=GMAT%20Blog]Stacey Koprince[/url] is a Manhattan Prep instructor based in Montreal, Canada and Los Angeles, California.[/b] 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. [url=https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/classes/?utm_source=manhattanprep.com%2Fgmat%2Fblog&utm_medium=blog&utm_content=KoprinceCoursesLinkGMATBlog&utm_campaign=GMAT%20Blog#instructor/86]Check out Stacey’s upcoming GMAT courses here[/url]. The post [url=https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog/executive-assessment-test/]What’s Tested on the Executive Assessment?[/url] appeared first on [url=https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat]GMAT[/url]. |
24 Sep 2020, 13:00
| FROM Manhattan GMAT Blog: The Official Guide 2021 Review and Highlights |
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[img]https://cdn2.manhattanprep.com/gmat/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2020/09/untitled-design-2.png[/img] GMAC published the 2021 edition of its Official Guide series in late June and we’ve got all of the highlights for the main guide. [b]Is it worth buying?[/b] Definitely. I wouldn’t study for the GMAT without using at least the main official guide (OG) book. There are four books in all: [list] [*]The GMAT Official Guide (aka, the main OG): Contains more than 1,000 problems across all three multiple-choice sections of the exam (Quant, Verbal, and Integrated Reasoning) as well as dozens of sample essay prompts.[/*] [*]The GMAT Official Guide Quantitative Review: Contains more than 350 Quant problems that do not appear in the main OG.[/*] [*]The GMAT Official Guide Verbal Review: Contains more than 350 Verbal problems that do not appear in the main OG.[/*] [*]GMAT Official Advanced Questions: Contains 300 hard Quant and Verbal problems that do not appear in any of the other OGs.[/*] [/list] The main OG contains so many problems that I find most students don’t need the Quant and Verbal-only books, but they’re available if you want more. If you’re going for a 700+ kind of score, then you may also want the Advanced OG (but start with the main OG unless your score is already in the upper 600s). [b]How is it different from the prior edition (Official Guide 2020)?[/b] There are 92 new problems: [list] [*]32 Problem Solving[/*] [*]10 Data Sufficiency[/*] [*]19 Critical Reasoning[/*] [*]31 Sentence Correction[/*] [/list] There are no new Reading Comprehension passages or problems. In addition, one Critical Reasoning question was removed from the book, so the total number of CR problems increased by 18, not 19. No other problems were removed from the book. GMAC did remove the Diagnostic Test chapter, which contained 100 problems, but you still have access to all of these problems at their [url=https://www.efficientlearning.com/gmat/]Efficient Learning[/url] online platform (you get access to this platform for 1 year with your purchase of the book). You’ll find the 100 Diagnostic problems in the “Online Exclusive” problem bank, and you’ll have access to a number of Integrated Reasoning practice problems that are also available only online. And, as a bonus, the online platform contains all of the problems that are printed in the book; you can create problem sets (more on this below), practice time management, and track certain performance metrics. There’s one interesting new feature this year: digital flash cards to help you study. I haven’t tried them yet so can’t tell you whether they’re good, but I’m a big fan of flash cards in general. They’re great for anything you need to memorize—facts, formulas, and what I call Know the Code takeaways. These takeaways come in the form “When I see _____” (on the front side of the flash card) and “I’ll think / do ______” (on the back side of the flash card). For example: When I see a comma which vs. comma –ing difference in the answers on an SC problem, I’ll think “modifiers” and figure out what the modifier is referring to. If you’re debating between buying OG2020 and OG2021, I’d go for 2021. You’ll have all of the same problems that are in OG2020, plus 92 additional, brand-new problems as well as access to the new flash cards. [b]How should I use the OG in my studies?[/b] If you’re using our study materials, we’ve classified all of the OG problems by problem type and by chapter / content area from our books. Anyone can access these classification lists by creating a free [url=https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/resources/]Atlas GMAT Starter Kit[/url] account on our website. You’ll find the OG problem lists under Official Guide Resources on the left-hand menu bar. (The Starter Kit has a bunch of other free resources as well, FYI.) I would also take a look at this blog series on [url=https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog/practicing-sets-of-gmat-problems-mimic-the-real-test-part-1-of-3/]creating your own problem sets[/url]. You’ll use the problems in different ways during different stages of your studies and that series explains what to do when. [b]Are there any trends in the new problems?[/b] There are a lot of really interesting new problems! I can’t, unfortunately, show any of them to you (copyright law…), but I’ll tell you what I think about some of them and you can look them up yourself in your own copy of the book. Quant Overall, I noticed a ton of stories and a lot of opportunities to logic something out or to estimate. There are also some pure math problems, but there is a definite trend around the ability to think logically about math. (And I love that because it makes the test a lot easier to take—once you train yourself to think logically about math. Bonus: That ability will help you in b-school and at work.) There were also some beautiful traps—the test writers really are masters at figuring out how to tempt us to go down the wrong path. (Seriously, I consider them artists in this way!) Here are a few of my favorite Problem Solving and Data Sufficiency problems that are new to OG 2021. When you have your copy, try the problems first and then read what I thought. PS #94 [list] [*] [list] [*]Summary: Gives us kilometers per hour and asks for the answer in miles per hour (along with another calculation).[/*] [*]Why I like it: The middle answer is the answer if you don’t convert to miles (ie, it’s a trap!). From there, you can eyeball to tell whether the answer should be greater or less than that trap value, so that gets you down to two answers. And you can use common Fraction Decimal Percent (FDP) conversions (0.625 = 5/8) and estimation to get down to the single correct answer without too much trouble.[/*] [/list] [/*] [/list] PS #117 [list] [*] [list] [*]Summary: What I call a Wall of Text (WoT) problem. Complicated story with data for each month of an entire year—and you do actually need to calculate profit for the whole 12 months.[/*] [*]Why I like it: You can balance groups of months and just find the aggregate difference. For example, for 3 months, you lose $32K per month and for 3 months you gain $36K per month. For each pair of win-loss months, then, you gain $4K, so total you gain $12K, which represents your profit for 6 months of the year. Keep going from there to get your answer.[/*] [/list] [/*] [/list] PS #259 [list] [*] [list] [*]Summary: This is the hardest of the new-to-2021 PS problems. It’s a parallelogram, part of which is split into a triangle and they want to know what fraction the triangle represents of the rest of the parallelogram (not the whole thing).[/*] [*]Why I like it: The diagram is drawn to scale, so you know immediately that (A) can’t be correct (too big) and (E) is almost certainly too small. Down to three answers in like 5 seconds. Next, eyeball the triangle as a fraction of the whole parallelogram. That’s about 1/4…but that’s not what they asked. And, hey, that value is in the answers, so cross it off. There are only two answers left, one greater than 1/4 and one less than 1/4. Logic it out: If the triangle as a fraction of the whole parallelogram is 1/4, then the triangle has to be a greater fraction of just part of the parallelogram, since part of the parallelogram is smaller than the whole parallelogram. Done.[/*] [/list] [/*] [/list] DS #488: This is my favorite one of them all! This looks like an easier problem but it’s one of the highest-numbered in the chapter…and for good reason. [list] [*] [list] [*]Summary: Another WoT (wall of text) problem but the question seems really easy: What’s the discounted price of the second shirt?[/*] [*]Why I like it: Take your time on understanding the story. If you spot what this thing is really asking, the solution is straightforward. If you don’t, you’ll almost certainly fall into a trap. The discounted price of the second shirt is the same as the cost to manufacture the shirt. The story literally describes selling the shirt at cost! One of the two statements gives you the manufacturing cost outright and the other statement is useless by itself—once you know that you’re looking for the manufacturing cost.[/*] [/list] [/*] [/list] Verbal In the Critical Reasoning chapter, 11 of the 19 new problems were Strengthen or Weaken. These two types are quite frequent on the real test. My favorite of the new problems is a Weaken (details below). Each Sentence Correction problem tests multiple grammar rules, as always. I noticed a lot of sentence structure issues, parallelism and comparisons, and some really interesting issues around meaning. Here are a few of my favorite new problems. When you have your copy, try the problems first and then read what I thought. CR #707 [list] [*] [list] [*]Summary: Some people want to limit the amount of homework assigned to kids under the age of 12. But the average homework time for students of this age is only about 30 minutes per night, so the argument’s author disagrees and doesn’t think it’s necessary to limit homework. The question asks us to weaken the author’s conclusion.[/*] [*]Why I like it: The correct answer is so hard to spot! You actually have to bring in an understanding of statistics, so this is a great amalgamation of verbal and math skills. We accept as true the author’s statement that the average homework time for this group is ~30 minutes. But could it still be the case that some percentage of these students have hours of homework a night, even though the average for all students is only 30 minutes? Yes—if other students in this group have almost no homework at all, so that the average still comes out to ~30 minutes. And that’s what the correct answer establishes: that a lot of these students have very little homework (so a small subset of the total would have quite a bit of homework).[/*] [/list] [/*] [/list] SC #854 [list] [*] [list] [*]Summary: The sentence structure of the original sentence is similar to this: “Although cats, sleeping all day in the heat of summer, by nighttime they begin to prowl around in the dark, hunting for prey.” The actual sentence is of course longer and more complicated, so it hides the fact that the opening Although clause has no verb.[/*] [*]Why I like it: This is a great introduction to overall sentence structure issues—all four wrong answers create “illegal” sentence structures and can be eliminated for that reason. It’s a great lesson in how to look at the overall sentence structure (vs. zeroing in on one specific / tiny / nitpicky grammar issue).[/*] [/list] [/*] [/list] SC #867 [list] [*] [list] [*]Summary: The sentence structure of the original sentence is similar to this: “Although when a cat grooms itself, it can cough up a small hairball, it will not choke the cat, (ignoring the rest of the original sentence because it doesn’t matter for my example).” The first pronoun it refers to the cat but the second pronoun it refers to the hairball. Because you’re already primed to think that it = cat after the first instance, it’s confusing when you get to the second it. The cat will not choke the cat?[/*] [*]Why I like it: In the notes I took just after I tried this one for the first time, the first thing I wrote was “Clever.” I had to read the opening part of the sentence twice to understand what it was actually trying to say. What expands several hundred times? Presumably not the fish (imagine a trout expanding to the size of a whale…not going to happen!), so it must be the slime. (And the later, non-underlined portion of the sentence confirms this interpretation—but I hadn’t gotten there yet.) The fact that I couldn’t initially understand the meaning actually indicates the problem with this sentence: It’s ambiguous. The correct answer needs to be a lot more clear.[/*] [/list] [/*] [/list] [b]Anything else?[/b] That’s it! But I will repeat what I said at the beginning. Don’t consider studying for the GMAT without getting yourself a copy of the OG. If you already have a copy of the 2020 edition, it’s not necessary to purchase the new edition. But if you don’t yet have a copy, I’d recommend getting OG 2021. Good luck and happy studying! [url=https://www.manhattanprep.com/instructors/stacey-koprince/][img]https://cdn2.manhattanprep.com/gmat/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2015/06/stacey-koprince-150x150.png[/img][/url] [b][url=https://www.manhattanprep.com/instructors/stacey-koprince/?utm_source=manhattanprep.com%2Fgmat%2Fblog&utm_medium=blog&utm_content=KoprinceBioLinkGMATBlog&utm_campaign=GMAT%20Blog]Stacey Koprince[/url] 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. [url=https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/classes/?utm_source=manhattanprep.com%2Fgmat%2Fblog&utm_medium=blog&utm_content=KoprinceCoursesLinkGMATBlog&utm_campaign=GMAT%20Blog#instructor/86]Check out Stacey’s upcoming GMAT courses here[/url].[/b] The post [url=https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog/the-official-guide-2021/]The Official Guide 2021 Review and Highlights[/url] appeared first on [url=https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat]GMAT[/url]. |
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