Events & Promotions
|
|
GMAT Club Daily Prep
Thank you for using the timer - this advanced tool can estimate your performance and suggest more practice questions. We have subscribed you to Daily Prep Questions via email.
Customized
for You
Track
Your Progress
Practice
Pays
Not interested in getting valuable practice questions and articles delivered to your email? No problem, unsubscribe here.
Nov 1912:30 PM EST
-01:30 PM EST
Learn how Keshav, a Chartered Accountant, scored an impressive 705 on GMAT in just 30 days with GMATWhiz's expert guidance. In this video, he shares preparation tips and strategies that worked for him, including the mock, time management, and more
Nov 2007:30 AM PST
-08:30 AM PST
Learn what truly sets the UC Riverside MBA apart and how it helps in your professional growth
Nov 2001:30 PM EST
-02:30 PM IST
Learn how Kamakshi achieved a GMAT 675 with an impressive 96th %ile in Data Insights. Discover the unique methods and exam strategies that helped her excel in DI along with other sections for a balanced and high score.
Nov 2211:00 AM IST
-01:00 PM IST
Do RC/MSR passages scare you? e-GMAT is conducting a masterclass to help you learn – Learn effective reading strategies Tackle difficult RC & MSR with confidence Excel in timed test environment- Nov 23
11:00 AM IST
-01:00 PM IST
Attend this free GMAT Algebra Webinar and learn how to master the most challenging Inequalities and Absolute Value problems with ease. 
Nov 2407:00 PM PST
-08:00 PM PST
Full-length FE mock with insightful analytics, weakness diagnosis, and video explanations!
Nov 2510:00 AM EST
-11:00 AM EST
Prefer video-based learning? The Target Test Prep OnDemand course is a one-of-a-kind video masterclass featuring 400 hours of lecture-style teaching by Scott Woodbury-Stewart, founder of Target Test Prep and one of the most accomplished GMAT instructors.
05 Sep 2020, 11:38
Kudos
Bookmarks
Coaching people who are primarily retaking the GMAT (hence the name) has brought a lot of different insights that I use everyday with clients.
But one of the biggest ones is the importance of PreProcessing in quant questions.
It's not just about a step in the process of answering a question.
It's important because it directly targets the way the test-writers trigger errors among test-takers who are strong in the fundamentals of quant.
Psychometricians play a huge role in creating the GMAT. Just like psychology plays a big role in sports (with the opposition not only playing well but also messing with your head), the test is written to undermine your reasoning skills by messing with your head. The wording of questions is 'leading' -- meaning that it pushes your thinking in a particular direction (one which is not helpful to solving the question). One key way it hurts you is by creating filter in the way you perceive information and making you miss things that you would have otherwise noticed and prioritized.
That's why preprocessing is so important in quant questions. Before you get into answering the question itself, you need to both 1) carefully capture all the information that's available AND 2) preprocess it in ways that are readily obvious. That means things like converting fractions into percents, noting the answer choice formats and reducing fractions to their most reduced formats (there are many more ways to pre process things -- it varies by what type of information a quant question gives you). That gives you an unbiased 360 degree view on the data you're given. And it's done before the test writers used wording to take perspective away from you and narrow your focus in harmful ways.
By preprocessing, you take away one of the biggest 'plays' that the test writers have -- and give yourself a much better chance to find the right answer to harder quant questions. When I'm working with clients who are stuck at a plateau score that's below their target, I run pre processing drills (among 20 other drills) that dramatically impact their ability to 'compete' with the test writers on harder questions.
But one of the biggest ones is the importance of PreProcessing in quant questions.
It's not just about a step in the process of answering a question.
It's important because it directly targets the way the test-writers trigger errors among test-takers who are strong in the fundamentals of quant.
Psychometricians play a huge role in creating the GMAT. Just like psychology plays a big role in sports (with the opposition not only playing well but also messing with your head), the test is written to undermine your reasoning skills by messing with your head. The wording of questions is 'leading' -- meaning that it pushes your thinking in a particular direction (one which is not helpful to solving the question). One key way it hurts you is by creating filter in the way you perceive information and making you miss things that you would have otherwise noticed and prioritized.
That's why preprocessing is so important in quant questions. Before you get into answering the question itself, you need to both 1) carefully capture all the information that's available AND 2) preprocess it in ways that are readily obvious. That means things like converting fractions into percents, noting the answer choice formats and reducing fractions to their most reduced formats (there are many more ways to pre process things -- it varies by what type of information a quant question gives you). That gives you an unbiased 360 degree view on the data you're given. And it's done before the test writers used wording to take perspective away from you and narrow your focus in harmful ways.
By preprocessing, you take away one of the biggest 'plays' that the test writers have -- and give yourself a much better chance to find the right answer to harder quant questions. When I'm working with clients who are stuck at a plateau score that's below their target, I run pre processing drills (among 20 other drills) that dramatically impact their ability to 'compete' with the test writers on harder questions.
Moderator:
