GMAT 5-Hour Quick Prep For Dummies

Lisa Zimmer Hatch, MA, and Scott A. Hatch, JD, help students excel on standardized tests. They have authored numerous test-prep texts and curricula. Sandra Luna McCune, PhD, is professor emeritus at Stephen F. Austin State University. She’s currently an author and statistics consultant.

Start Here 1

About This Book 1

Foolish Assumptions 1

Icons Used in This Book 2

Where to Go from Here 2

Block 1: GMAT Overview in 20 Minutes 3

Signing Up for the GMAT 3

Deciding where to take the test 3

Registering for the GMAT 4

Knowing What’s on the Test 4

Checking out how the GMAT is structured 5

Knowing what you’re being tested for 5

Navigating the computerized test 6

Preparing for the GMAT 7

Getting Up to Speed on GMAT Scoring 8

Interpreting your score 8

Deciding whether to retake the test 9

Block 2: Vanquishing the Verbal Section 11

Acing the Reading Comprehension Questions 11

Knowing what reading comprehension questions look like 11

Approaching reading passages 12

Sticking to the subject: Types of passages 13

Approaching reading comprehension questions 14

Reading comprehension practice questions with answer explanations 20

Sharpening Your Critical Reasoning Skills 25

Focusing on “critical” concepts: An overview 25

Making a case: Essentials of informal logic 26

Thinking inside the box: Question types 29

Stalking your prey: How to approach each question type 30

Critical reasoning practice questions and answer explanations 41

Block 3: Conquering the Quantitative Section 47

Juggling Numbers and Operations 47

Just your type: Kinds of numbers 47

It’s not brain surgery: Basic operations 48

Working with bases and exponents 52

Checking out the ancestry: Roots 54

Following the order of operations 55

Splitting up: Fractions, decimals, and percents 56

Making comparisons: Ratios and proportions 61

Playing the numbers: Scientific notation 62

Considering All the Variables: Algebra 63

Defining the elements: Algebraic terminology 63

Mastering algebraic operations 65

Extracting information: Factoring polynomials 70

Minding your Ps and Qs: Functions 71

Putting on your thinking cap: Problem solving 75

Seeing is believing: The coordinate plane 87

Slip-sliding away: Slope and linear equations 89

Manipulating Statistics and Sets 91

Joining a clique: Groups 92

Setting up sets 93

Dealing with permutations and combinations 94

Meeting in the middle: Mean, median, and mode 97

Solving range and standard deviation problems 99

Predicting the future: Probability 101

Tackling Problem-Solving Questions 105

Block 4: Excelling on the Data Insights Section 107

Knowing What to Expect: Four Key Integrated Reasoning Question Types 107

Understanding what the IR questions are all about 107

Approaching each question type 110

Extracting Insights from Graphic Data 122

Mastering graphics-focused questions with five simple steps 122

Translating information in tables 123

Making comparisons with bar graphs 123

Honing in on histograms 126

Looking at line graphs 127

Perusing stem-and-leaf plots 130

Clarifying circle graphs (also known as pie charts) 130

Venturing into Venn diagrams 131

Taking on Data Sufficiency Questions 133

You don’t need the solution to find the answer 133

Steps to approaching data sufficiency questions 134

Block 5: Taking a (Shortened) Practice Test 139

Section 1: Data Insights 140

Section 2: Quantitative 145

Section 3: Verbal 148

Answer and Explanations 152

Section 1: Data Insights 152

Section 2: Quantitative 155

Section 3: Verbal 159

Answer Key 162

Block 6: Ten Tips for Scoring Higher on the GMAT 163

Pace Yourself 163

Guess and Move On 164

Take Advantage of the Review and Edit Option 164

Finish It! Completing Each Section 164

Give Each Question Equal Treatment 165

Make Time for the Last Ten Questions 165

Use the Process of Elimination to Improve Your Odds 166

Maintain Your Focus 166

Take Time to Read the Questions 166

Don’t Sink All Your Time into the Hard Questions 167

Index 169