Why such a long period of time?

Expensive $1500 prep programs revolve around 12-16 week courses that eat up your Saturday afternoons. 12-16 weeks!

I’ve never taken a sub-atomic physics class before, but trust me–there’s a TON more difficult material in a 9 week sub-atomic physics class than there could possibly be on the GMAT.

Most of the concepts on the GMAT were covered in high school. You’ve seen all this material before! So all you really need to do is to review high school math and writing and maybe learn a few new concepts. You’d also need to familiarize yourself with the various ways the GMAT guys try to trick you on the exam.

So given that most people study 3-6 months for this exam that covers high school level material, why then is the average GMAT score in the low 500s? Seems like a perfectly legitimate question!

At first, I thought the only two reasons were
1) the material is very difficult
2) the test is very tricky

But it wasn’t until my two friends came out of the exam that I realized there’s actually a THIRD reason.
You see, my two friends came out of the exam disappointed with their scores.

The prep book was full of grammatical terms like participial phrase, dependent clause, and subjunctive.
It would take me forever to understand what those terms mean.

They spend their time learning these useless fancy grammar terms. The critical reasoning section was also filled with these weird terms I did not understand.

After a few minutes of being confused by this observation, I quickly fell asleep as my eyes wandered across the pages and pages of the book. It was just way too easy for me to lose focus.

The quant section of the prep book put me to sleep and the explanations were very unclear. Part of it was that I’m a visual learner–there’s only so much I can learn by reading a book.

It was clear to me that part of the reason my two friends didn’t do well on the exam was the ineffective approach of the prep resources they used. These prep books used confusing words. They taught concepts–which are important–but they were missing something important–an efficient thought process. So what happened was my two friends understood all the concepts, but they didn’t know how to think through exam questions in a time-pressured environment.

During my two weeks of intense, marathon-like studying, I didn’t waste my time on “concepts” and instead developed an efficient thought process with frameworks that help me identify what is being tested.

I eventually showed my friends my thought process and they retook the exam with success. You can read more about our story.

So back to the original question: Why do most people study GMAT for 3-6 months?

1) the material is very difficult
2) the test is very tricky
3) confusing, inefficient studying techniques

The material is difficult, but it’s not impossible. Yes, the test is very tricky so understanding the ways the GMAT guys try to trick you is important.

Today I’m really excited to talk with my friend Jennifer Tang, a Kellogg MBA just entering her first year. She tells us about how life has been after taking the GMATs and before entering one of the nations’ top MBA programs.

Jennifer is perhaps one of the younger members of her class but her drive to succeed and background as a nationally ranked chess player speak volumes. We weren’t able to get in an audio clip of our conversation, but here’s the transcript:

1)How does it feel to be going to business school? Do you think your emotions are any different from what they were when you were about to enter Stanford?

2)How are you spending your summer before you begin your adventurous ride at Kellogg Business School?

3)From the day you decided to do the MBA til now, there must’ve been some moments that made you second guess yourself and question what you’re doing. Perhaps you were stuck on application essays or frustrated with GMAT studying. Tell us about it.

4)One good reason people pursue the MBA is for a change in lifestyle and career prospects. What kind of lifestyle changes and career prospects were you looking for when you took the GMAT and filled out your application essays?

5)Are there any specific events or programs you are looking forward to as you return to school? Classes? Trips?

6)Lastly, do you have any comments for our students regarding GMAT prep? Perhaps on mental preparation or coming into the test with the right mindest?

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
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