The Official Guide for GMAT Verbal Review, 2nd Edition

Product Description

The only official verbal review for the GMAT from the creators of the test. Anyone preparing for the Graduate Management Admission Test® (GMAT) knows it's important to study with the experts. With The Official GMAT Verbal Review, 2nd Edition, you'll get questions, answers, and explanations straight from the source. The only official verbal review for the GMAT Exam, this book targets your study and helps you improve your verbal skills by focusing on your ability to read and comprehend written material, to reason and evaluate arguments, and to correct written material to conform to standard English. Inside, you'll find

• 300 actual questions from past GMAT tests, including 75 questions new to this edition
• Sections on Reading Comprehension, Critical Reasoning, Sentence Correction, and Analytical Writing Assessment
• Questions organized in order of difficulty to save study time

The Graduate Management Admission Council certifies all content so you can trust that you're getting expert guidance as you prepare for the GMAT Exam.

The Graduate Management Admission Council® (GMAC) is the association of leading graduate business schools around the world. GMAC's mission is to meet the needs of business schools and students through a wide array of products, services, and programs. It is the owner and administrator of the Graduate Management Admissions Test® (GMAT), the first and only standardized test specifically designed for graduate business and management programs. Available in nearly 100 countries, it is the global standard for entry to the MBA degree course.

Top Myths About the GMAT®

Myth – If I don’t score in the 90th percentile, I won’t get into any school I choose.

Fact – Very few people get very high scores.

Fewer than 50 of the more than 200,000 people taking the GMAT test each year get a perfect score of 800. Thus, while you may be exceptionally capable, the odds are against your achieving a perfect score. Also, the GMAT test is just one piece of your application packet. Admissions officers use GMAT scores in conjunction with undergraduate records, application essays, interviews, letters of recommendation, and other information when deciding whom to accept into their programs.

Myth – Getting an easier question means I answered the last one wrong.

Fact – Getting an easier question does not necessarily mean you got the previous question wrong.

To ensure that everyone receives the same content, the test selects a specific number of questions of each type. The test may call for your next question to be a relatively hard problem-solving item involving arithmetic operations. But, if there are no more relatively difficult problem-solving items involving arithmetic, you might be given an easier item.

Most people are not skilled at estimating item difficulty, so don’t worry when taking the test or waste valuable time trying to determine the difficulty of the questions you are answering.

Myth – You need very advanced math skills to get a high GMAT score.

Fact – The math skills questions on the GMAT test are quite basic.

The GMAT test only requires basic quantitative analytic skills. You should review the math skills (algebra, geometry, basic arithmetic) presented in both The Official Guide for GMAT® Quantitative Review, 2nd Edition, and in The Official Guide for GMAT® Review, 12th Edition, but the required skill level is low. The difficulty of GMAT Quantitative questions stems from the logic and analysis used to solve the problems and not the underlying math skills.

Myth – It is more important to respond correctly to the test questions than it is to finish the test.

Fact – There is a severe penalty for not completing the GMAT test.

If you are stumped by a question, give it your best guess and move on. If you guess incorrectly, the computer program will likely give you an easier question, which you are likely to answer correctly, and the computer will rapidly return to giving you questions matched to your ability. If you don’t finish the test, your score will be reduced greatly. Failing to answer five verbal questions, for example, could reduce your score from the 91st percentile to the 77th percentile. Pacing is important.

Myth –The first 10 questions are critical and you should invest the most time on those.

Fact – All questions count.

It is true that the computer-adaptive testing algorithm uses the first 10 questions to obtain an initial estimate of your ability; however, that is only an initial estimate. As you continue to answer questions, the algorithm self-corrects by computing an updated estimate on the basis of all the questions you have answered, and then administers items that are closely matched to this new estimate of your ability. Your final score is based on all your responses and considers the difficulty of all the questions you answered. Taking additional time on the first 10 questions will not game the system and can hurt your ability to finish the test.

Myth – I need to speak US English in order to do well on the GMAT.

Fact- Essay grading is not affected by dialect of English. Questions on the GMAT are evaluated to ensure they are fair for all examinees, whether in the US or around the world.