The GMAT tests basic concepts like the distance-rate-time formula, triangles, circles, angles, factoring, exponents, subject-verb agreement, basic English grammar that you see everyday—these are all topics you covered in high school or earlier.

There’s nothing to be intimidated about. The GMAT is not a test of how well you understand economics or if you have what it takes to start a business. It does not measure your business savvy, EQ, IQ, or future success.

There’s a lot of material on the exam but you already know most of it. You just need to review the concepts and learn the sneaky ways the GMAT guys try to trick you on the exam. You definitely need to think but it’s not rocket science.

So why, then, do people find the GMAT so tough?

Because the test is largely psychological. Athletes who condition themselves for long marathons, intense tennis matches, or any activity that requires strong mental toughness know what I’m talking about. Heck, preparing for the exam itself is rigorous. Do you have the determination and discipline to follow a study plan that will help you get the results you want? Do you have the right attitude towards learning that will help you absorb as much material in as little time as possible?

The exam itself is definitely like an intense marathon. You plow through question after question. The adaptive nature of the exam messes with your mind even further as you might wonder how you just did on the previous question when you are all of a sudden given a very easy question.

Did I mention logistics? Did you clear out your bladder before the exam? Do you tend to get nervous right before the exam and mentally freeze up? Do you have quick lunch plans in mind that won’t force you to rush to the bathroom? Are you accustomed to waking up early in the morning with an alert mind by the time of your exam so you can process a marathon of questions? Are you able to budget the last few days before the exam so you do not have to go to work and deal with the stress there? Are you fully focused as you go into the exam??–assuming no girlfriend/boyfriend issues, employer issues or family issues that might interfere with your mental state.

Too many people underestimate the psychological aspects of the GMAT exam. You should pay particular attention to these psychological aspects during the last week before the exam.

Visualize Success

Imagine: It’s test day–the real deal. Not a practice exam. You’ve walked by or driven by your test center a few days earlier so you know what it looks like. You imagine yourself walking into the test center. You know your test is in front of a computer at one of those testing centers. Visualize yourself going through the directions on the computer.

Spend at least five minutes at a time imagining different details about taking the test. Visualize yourself spotting sentence structures based on keywords or commas. Visualize yourself checking for X & Y consistency for SC questions or recognizing a Data Sufficiency Percent vs. Actual Number question. You know what to look for and where the pitfalls are (multiple % data points without any actual number data points are useless if they ask you a “how many” question).

Your visualization scene doesn’t need to be the same each time, but you need to tap into a sense of accomplishment, calm, and confidence. Do this every morning and before bedtime.

Neurophysiologist researchers at Stanford University (my alma mater) and University of Chicago evaluated the efficacy of visualization. They compared two sets of basketball players. The first group practiced playing whereas the second group only imagined practicing. The players who didn’t physically practice, but visualized peak performance, improved 23 -30 percent in their actual basket-shooting ability, whereas the students who physically “practiced” saw little improvement. (source)

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So the items we have are:
1: fluctuations IN local seismic activity
2: tilting [and blah blah blah] OF the Earth’s crust
3: changing the measured strain ACROSS……[wait a minute! "changing" is used as a VERB here, this is not consistent with "fluctuations" and "tilting" which were used as NOUNS above.
4: varying the electrical properties [AGAIN, "varying" is used as a VERB]

So what we need is the NOUN from of the word “changing” followed by some kind of prepositional word like “IN” or “ON” or “OF”

So going down the answer choices, we see in (B), “changing” is used as an adjective. In (C), “changing” is used as a verb. Only in (D) and (E) we see “changes”–a NOUN, that’s what we want. They are both followed by a prepositional phrase “IN”—”changes IN blah blah blah”

Comparing (D) and (E), (E) seems extra wordy. (D) says the same thing in less words. Notice I do not clearly know what the correct idiom is: “variations in” or “variations among”–but that DOES NOT MATTER.

Hope that helps.

Zeke

Zeke Lee wrote:
xxxxxxx,
Your reasoning is correct. However, notice the word “providing” is underlined in the original sentence.

If you choose answer choice B, you are no longer talking about “the act of providing costs.” The sentence would read: “officials are quick to point out that healthcare benefits costs…”—which does not make sense. It should be “cost” in this case, not “costs.”

Be careful which words are underlined. Hope that helps.

Zeke

Just going through your explanations for this question, you say that “The act of providing” is Singular and we need to have “costs” , But why do we choose D ?
Please explain.

Thanks
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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Let’s look at (1):
What numbers have exactly 2 positive factors? Well, we know 2 has factors: 1 and 2.
Are there any other numbers?
What about 3? 3 has factors: 1 and 3.
So here we have two different possibilities to the question: is n equal to 2?
Because of this ambiguity, we know (1) is no good, so the answer is either (B), (C), or (E).

Now, let’s take a look at (2):
—the keyword in Statement #2 is “ANY”–always be careful when you see absolute words like this.
Say you pick 10 as you did. Factors of 10: 1, 2, 5, 10
The difference between ANY positive factor of n must be odd to satisfy requirement #2.
Well, 10-1= 9 = odd
And yes, 5-2 = 3 = odd
And yes, 2-1 = 1 = odd
and yes, 10 – 5 = 5 = odd

BUT

5-1 = 4 = even
10 – 2 = 8 = even

The keyword ANY makes it extremely difficult to find a number that satisfies statement #2. And the more factors a number has, the more difficult it is. Only with a super small number that only has 2 factors (like the number 2) might this work. Let’s look:
#2: 1, 2
2-1 = 1 = odd

what about 3?
#3: 1, 3
3-1 = 2 = even..

The number must be 2 using statement #2 alone so answer is B. Be wary of words like “any.”

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First you should rephrase the question as I do in Framework #1.

Let’s look at statement #1. What happens when n=2? You should recognize that
if n=2, then the inequality is equal on both sides.
(1/10)^2 = .01 —— so then you get “Is .01< .01?"
You should recognize two points:

1) And you should recognize that as n gets bigger, then we have
a true statement.

2) If n gets smaller, then we get a false statement.

In other words, you can “translate” the ORIGINAL question to asking:
“Is n >2?”

Statement (1) tells us, YES! — [ n > 2 ] —so we know (1) alone is good.

With statement #2, see if you can simplify what statement #2 is saying.
Try values for n: 1, 2, and 3

Try n=1
(1/10) ^ 0 = 1 [anything to the zero power=1]
Continue looking at statement #2 (not the original question yet):
Is 1<.1? No. That means n cannot = 1. Keep that in mind.

Try n=2
(1/10) ^ (1) <.1
Continue looking at statement #2 (not the original question yet):
Is .1<.1? No, they're the same so we're right at the border. That means n cannot = 2

Try n=3
(1/10) ^ 2 < .1
Is .01 < .1? Yes! That means n can = 3

And the higher n is the more this will be true.
So in other words, statement (2) is saying n >2–which is
exactly what statement (1) is saying.

They’re saying the same thing! And we already know (1)
is good–I’m assuming you got 1 as good?
So that means (1) is good, (2) is good –> answer is (D).

So as you say if n is less than 3, then statement (2) is not satisfied so
we can’t pick n less than 3.
Remember you must pick values of n so that the requirements
are satisfied. Once you do that, THEN you answer the question which we
translated before as: “Is n>2?”

To A Higher GMAT Score,