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  • Set of GMAT Verbal Questions – Practice With These

    Hi Zeke,

    Just joined gmatpill and found the sentence correction portion very helpful. I took the GMAT prep and had difficulties with the following SC questions. Can you please help explain?. If the answers to these questions are available on the gmatpill website, please let me know so that you don’t have to reinvent the wheel.

    1. According to public health officials, in 1998 Massachusetts became the first state in which more babies were born to women over the age of thirty than under it.
    A. than
    B. than born
    C. than they were
    D. than there had been
    E. than had been born

    My thought process on this is :

    more x than y

    more babies were born to women over the age of thirty than babies were born to women under the age of thirty

    so I thought c would be the best choice “they = babies” and “were born = were”
    Obviously wrong since the answer is choice A. Please help explain.

    GMAT Pill: You should be grouping it like this.
    more babies were born to (women over the age of thirty) than (women under the age of thirty).
    You are not comparing babies. Youa re comparing who they babies were born to–specifically women over 30 vs women under it).

    2. A mixture of poems and short fiction, Jean Toomer’s Cane has been called one of the three best novels ever written by Black Americans—the others being Richard Wright, author of Native Son, and Ralph Ellison, author of Invisible Man.

    A. Black Americans—the others being Richard Wright, author of Native Son, and Ralph Ellison, author of Invisible Man
    B. Black Americans—including Native Son by Richard Wright and Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
    C. a Black American—including Richard Wright, author of Native Son, and Ralph Ellison, author of Invisible Man
    D. a Black American—the others being Richard Wright, author of Native Son, and Ralph Ellison, author of Invisible Man
    E. a Black American—the others being Richard Wright’s Native Son and Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man

    This one I got right (E) but I was unsure between B and E. Can you please help explain why B is wrong?

    GMAT Pill: The entire Black American ethnicity did not write the book. It was a single Black American (who is kind of representing the entire ethnicity in the context of this sentence). Since only one specific Black American wrote it–you cannot say “black Americans”–you have to say “a Black American.”

    3. The budget for education reflects the administration’s demand that the money is controlled by local school districts, but it can only be spent on teachers, not on books, computers, or other materials or activities.

    A. the money is controlled by local school districts, but it can only be spent
    B. the money be controlled by local school districts, but it allows them to spend the money only
    C. the money is to be controlled by local school districts, but allowing it only to be spent
    D. local school districts are in control of the money, but it allows them to spend the money only
    E. local school districts are to be in control of the money, but it can only spend it

    This I was a bit lost on, my answer was A, but the official answer is B.

    GMAT Pill: You cannot “demand someone is controlled”
    You “demand someone to control or to be controlled”
    You say “I want you to do this”
    You do not say “I want you is controlled”

    So: “demand the money [to] be controlled} is right.

    4. In 1997, despite an economy that marked its sixth full year of uninterrupted expansion with the lowest jobless rate in a quarter century, the number of United States citizens declaring themselves bankrupt has jumped by almost 20 percent, at 1.34 million.

    (A) declaring themselves bankrupt has jumped by almost 20 percent, at
    (B) declaring themselves bankrupt jumped by almost 20 percent, to
    (C) who declared themselves bankrupt has jumped by almost 20 percent, to
    (D) who declared themselves bankrupt jumped almost by 20 percent, at
    (E) to declare themselves bankrupt jumped almost by 20 percent, at

    I knew the underlined portion had to end with “to”. But then I was torn between b and c, I chose C “who declared” seems more consistent with the overall (past) tense of the sentence. but the answer is B. Is the key on the words “has jumped (c)” vs “jumped (b)”?.

    GMAT Pill: You have to use “jumped” instead of “has jumped.”
    “Jumped” is used in the past.
    “Has jumped” is used for something that happened in the past but is still happening.
    For example, if the sentence began with: “since 1997, blah blah blah…the number of citizens has jumped”–then this is ok because you are comparing 1997 up until now.

    However, the sentence begins with “In 1997, blah blah blah..the number of citizens jumped”—so it has to be in the past tense “jumped”–not “has jumped.”

    Table of Contents | See Pricing

    Verbal Videos: Sentence Correction | Critical Reasoning | Reading Comprehension
    Quant Videos: Problem Solving | Data Sufficiency


  • Don’t Be Like This GMAT Student

    A lot of GMAT Pill students have been doing real well and we’re hearing lots of good GMAT stories.

    But there are some students who are not speaking up about their awesome GMAT scores!

    I accidentally emailed this student and this is when he finally reveals how much he improved on his GMAT.

    email 056 Dont Be Like This GMAT Student

    You see, this student went from 630 to 720. He definitely reached his target zone for a top MBA program. But we wouldn’t have known if we hadn’t accidentally emailed this student!

    We can’t hold you accountable, but if you do well, we (as teachers) would like to hear about your successes!

    Regarding essay editing services, we don’t currently offer that but may soon in the future.

    For now, we do offer resume editing service for your MBA application.

    So don’t be shy–all it takes is a quick thank you email.

    Tell Us Your GMAT Success!

    As a reward for telling us how well you do with a video testimonial about your GMAT success (30 seconds – 1 minute) and GMAT Pill Review that we can use, we are willing to reward you with a free resume edit (worth $225) or basic feedback for your application essays.

    Send your thank you notes and/or video testimonials to: support@gmatpill.com

    Table of Contents | See Pricing

    Verbal Videos: Sentence Correction | Critical Reasoning | Reading Comprehension
    Quant Videos: Problem Solving | Data Sufficiency

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  • GMAT Prep Question in Problem Solving: Multiple Rates



    confused GMAT Prep Question in Problem Solving: Multiple Rates

    Question: Pumps A, B, and C operate at their respective constant rates. Pumps A and B, operating simultaneously, can fill a certain tank in 6/5 hours; pumps A and C, operating simultaneously, can fill the tank in 3/2 hours; and pumps B and C, operating simultaneously, can fill the tank in 2 hours. How many hours does it take pumps A, B, and C, operating simultaneously, to fill the tank?
    (A) 1/3
    (B) 1/2
    (C) 2/3
    (D) 5/6
    (E) 1

    Step 1) Recognize that you need to find TIME. In order to find the aggregate time, you will need find the aggregate rate and just take the inverse.

    In order to find the time for all 3 pumps working together, you will need to the reciprocal of the combined rates: do 1 / (A + B + C).

    Remember that rates are additive, so rate(pumps A AND B) = rate(pump A) + rate(pump B).

    So in order to find the TIME(A, B, and C) you need to find the reciprocal of RATE(A, B, and C), which is the same as finding the reciprocal of the quantity { Rate(A) + Rate(B) + Rate(C) }

    Step 2) Use the information you are given to find what you need

    But what are rates of A, B, and C individually? You are given information on each one paired with another one, but you need them individually in order to add them up.

    Well, it turns out you are given the amount of time for each of the pair ups.

    For example, A and C together take 3/2 hours.
    So to get the combined rates of A and C, all you do is take the inverse of the time 3/2 hours. So the inverse of 3/2 hours is 2/3.
    2/3 is the combined rate of A and C.

    Likewise, you can do the same for the others and get the following:
    Time = 3/2, so 2/3 is the combined rate of A and C.
    Time = 2, so 1/2 is the combined rate of B and C.
    Time = 6/5, so 5/6 is the combined rate of A and B.

    Step 3) Modify your calculations so what you have is exactly what you need

    Again, we are looking for A+B+C. How do we combine what we have here to get (A+B+C)? Well, if we add up 2/3 + 1/2 + 5/6, then we’d be double counting each of the rates A, B, and C. Because (A+C) + (B+C) + (A+B) = 2A + 2B + 2C.

    But that’s OK! Because we can just add them up and then divide our answer by 2–that would eliminate the effect of double counting each one and just leave us with the sum of (A+B+C).

    Well, it turns out 2/3 + 1/2 + 5/6 = (4/6) + (3/6) + (5/6) = 12/6 = 2
    Divide that by 2, and you get 2/2 = 1.

    Step 4) Now that you have what you need, answer the original question
    Now to get the amount of time, we need to do 1 divided by the total rate (which we found was 1). So 1 / 1 = 1

    The final answer is (E).

    GMAT Prep Resources

    GMAT Pill Review – What Others Say On Yelp!
    Take GMAT – When to Take Your GMAT
    GMAT Scores – Scores On Your GMAT Report
    GMAT Practice Questions – Collection of Other Great Questions Answered By Dr. GMAT

    Table of Contents | See Pricing

    Verbal Videos: Sentence Correction | Critical Reasoning | Reading Comprehension
    Quant Videos: Problem Solving | Data Sufficiency

    1 comment
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About Zeke Lee
Zeke Lee is the "98th %ile in 2 weeks" guy from Stanford who teaches MBA candidates how to think efficiently on the GMAT and how to study less, but score more... [more]
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