A Kaplan Expert on GMAT: Interview

Kaplan expert Brian Holmes shares some tips on cracking the GMAT and coming out on top.

Question

I'm interested in obtaining a Masters in Marketing from Manchester Business School or from ESADE. I want to know which are the main topics in the exam and how I can prepare to get at least this score? Also, I'd like to know some tips that you have to crack the GMAT exam.

Answered by Brian Holmes

You have done a smart thing in targeting the GMAT score needed for the schools you would like to attend. The average GMAT score at Manchester Business School is 620 and at ESADE it's 650. This means you would want to score at or above the 80th percentile on the GMAT - which is around 640 - in order to be competitive for admission to these schools. So that gives you some motivation to study! I'm going to go over the basics of the test - these may be familiar to some of you, but they'll form the basis for many of my other comments. The GMAT consists of three sections: Analytical Writing, Quantitative, and Verbal. The sections always appear in this order.

In analytical writing, you have to write two essays, each in 30 minutes. In the first essay, you have to analyse an argument that contains a number of flaws. In the second essay, you have to present your perspective on an issue. The Quantitative section includes 37 questions that you must complete in 75 minutes. These maths questions are all multiple choice, and you are not allowed to use a calculator. There are two types of questions: "problem solving" questions are word problems, like you might have done in school, and "data sufficiency" questions are a format unique to the GMAT. These are highly unusual, as the objective is not to answer the question asked, but rather to determine whether the two statements - taken individually or together - give you enough information to answer the question.

The Verbal section includes 41 questions you must complete in 75 minutes. These are divided roughly evenly among three types of questions. Each "critical reasoning" question will include a paragraph you have to read - most of the time, this paragraph will be an argument and you will be asked to identify the assumption, or to strengthen or weaken it. Each "sentence correction" question gives you a sentence with an underlined portion; you have to pick the answer choice that best corrects the part that's underlined - keeping in mind that sometimes there are no errors!

Then there is "reading comprehension" - each verbal section includes three or four reading passages, each several paragraphs long, and each followed by three or four questions. Thus, to prepare for the score you want on the GMAT, you'll have to review the math and grammar content it covers. Most of this material is taught in US high schools to students between the ages of 14 and 16. What makes this content challenging is that it comes from such an earlier phase of everyone's life.You will also have to spend a good deal of time preparing for the GMAT's main challenges. These have to do with its unfamiliar question types, and also with its fast pace. On average, you'll have about two minutes for each math question, and a little less than two minutes for each verbal question. So you will want to work with practice questions as much as possible. Taking full-length practice tests will also help you prepare to endure the length of the test. If you take the two breaks (10 minutes each, before and after the math section), the test will take nearly four hours from start to finish. It will take some practice to be as fresh at the end of the verbal section (and still earning those points toward that score for Manchester or ESADE) as you were at the start of the first essay.

As for dealing with the unfamiliar question types, the best tip here, again, is to practice with questions in the GMAT format. You can get plenty of these from the testmaker, the GMAC, through their website at mba.com - they offer two full-length practice tests that you can take for free, and also publish three books of practice questions you can buy. You'll probably want more questions than they offer, so you might consider buying some commercially sold books, or taking a course from a company like Kaplan. When you do this, just be sure the practice questions are in proper GMAT format. You'd hate to waste your time covering material that is not on the test!

Question

I have problems answering the reading comprehension questions and the sentence correction questions. How do I improve these areas? From where can I get more material to practise?

Answered by Brian Holmes

I haven't seen your exact test results, of course, but I'll give you a few general pointers about Reading Comp and Sentence Correction. For reading comp, the key is to invest time in reading the passage before going on to the first question. And when you read the passage, make sure you're not getting bogged down in detail. You shouldn't pay too much attention to the details, as funny as that might sound - if a question asks about one of them, you'll have to go back to the passage anyway to answer it.

At Kaplan, we teach our students to make a "passage map" as they read. This is simply a set of brief notes on the whiteboard, and it serves two purposes: it keeps you focused as you read, and it gives you a breakdown of the passage's structure to refer back to when you answer the questions. These notes focus on the structure and purpose of each paragraph. Many students have trouble taking these notes quickly and concisely at first, but it's a skill that most pick up without too much trouble through repeated practice - and it definitely pays off with points from the questions on test day!

As for sentence correction, there are usually two issues: you have to develop an ear for standard American English grammar, and you have to make quick work of the question format. I notice you spell "practise" the British way, so I suspect you might have some trouble on the first point. The major difference between British and American English that comes up on GMAT sentence correction has to do with idioms, and particularly with the matter of which preposition is used after a certain verb or adjective. Americans have this drilled into them from a young age, whereas those educated in the British system tend to be comfortable with more flexibility.

The other issue has to do with the format of sentence correction questions, in which there is no question but rather the sentence with the underlined bit. The key here is not to linger over the sentence. Read the sentence, looking for errors, then go right to the answer choices. If you find an error, you can eliminate any answer that doesn't correct it - and always "A", as that is the original sentence unchanged. If there's an error, "A" must be wrong. However, if you don't find an error on first reading the sentence, you should still go to the answer choices - usually you will spot a big structural difference among them; for instance, two of them might begin with "was" and three begin with were. Which is right? You can knock out two or three choices right there. Then continue to compare the answer choices, looking for differences, and decide which is best.

As for practice material, I've already mentioned what you can get from the GMAC, the GMAT's testmaker. I would recommend any of their books. I'd also recommend any of the Kaplan books, which are sold commercially through bookstores (mainly in the U.S.) or through online retailers like amazon.com. If you get a book that's not a GMAC or Kaplan book, I'd just check on the qualifications of the people who wrote the questions. Kaplan spends $3.5 million on test research each year, and we have contacts inside the GMAC who our team in NYC talk to on a regular basis. In fact, if I have a question the team in NYC can't answer, they email the GMAC and get a response from the people who write the test. That's why I'm so confident in vouching for the reliability of our materials.

One final point - from the start of this year, if you take a Kaplan GMAT course in the U.S. or Europe, you will receive a copy of the GMAC Official Guide (the big orange book) with your course materials. So no need to buy this if you are going to take our course.

Question

How much time would you recommend for the preparation of the GMAT? Do you recommend taking a program to prepare for the GMAT?

Answered by Brian Holmes

This is one of the most common questions I'm asked - how long should you take to prepare for the GMAT? The key consideration here is whether you are preparing on a full-time or part-time basis. At our London centre, where I work, we sometimes get students who take a month off work to prepare full-time. These students are very ambitious, and lucky that they are able to rearrange their lives around GMAT prep.

For most students, part-time prep works just fine. Most of us have jobs, families, friends, and other commitments we have to work around. If you're in this situation, I recommend being realistic about the time you have to prepare. This is the biggest mistake most people make. Time and again, I hear students say, "Well, I'm so busy during the week, I'll just spend eight hours on Saturday practicing." I have yet to meet a student who can actually sit down and study for eight hours straight!

If you're studying on a part-time basis, a realistic plan is to allow yourself two to three months to prepare. This way, you can spend 8 to 12 hours a week on your GMAT studies and still have plenty of time for your other commitments. The key is working out a schedule for each week. You will not spend all day Saturday doing math problems, obviously. But you should be able to find at least a little time every day. Even if it's 30 minutes before work, an hour between work and the gym, 45 minutes before bed, you will gain more from studying in small amounts. If you have time for a longer session on Saturday or Sunday, that's a great time to take a practice test.

Deciding whether to take a GMAT prep course depends on your needs, your time frame, and of course what program you are considering. At the London Kaplan centre, we find that most students benefit from our classroom course, which is eight sessions (four math, four  verbal) over four to eight weeks. A classroom course gives you a sense of structure and a teacher who will focus your studies and check in with you as you make progress, or as you need help.

You will want to take a diagnostic test to see where you're starting from before deciding on a GMAT prep program (and paying out the required cost). Kaplan will let you do this for free at any of our locations; I'm sure some of our competitors will as well. If you score at a very high level on the diagnostic test, you might do well enough studying on your own, or you might prefer to take private tutoring, so your instruction can focus on the areas where you can still raise your score. If you score very low on the diagnostic test, you might benefit more from private tutoring than a classroom course, as you will probably need more direct, one-to-one guidance to build a solid foundation in the basics.

In terms of time frame, our courses run between four and eight weeks - most of them take place over four weeks, as our students are busy and don't want to prolong their GMAT prep any longer than they have to. As we do in London, most Kaplan centres in the U.S. would provide a range of scheduling options to accommodate students' varying availability.

I do want to make a point about the different GMAT prep programs on the market. Obviously, I work for one of the companies you can choose, but I still might highlight some factors to consider. If you're shopping for a GMAT prep course, I'd suggest looking at the quality of the teachers, as well as the course content. Are the teachers required to earn a high score on the GMAT? Is there a training program for the teachers, or are they just given a book and sent to a classroom? How often are teachers observed by supervisors, and how often are they evaluated by students? As for course content, how many practice tests are included in the course price? Are these paper-and-pencil tests, or are they offered in the GMAT's computer-adaptive format? How much does the test company spend on test research each year? Do they have contacts inside the GMAC? How often do they update their course books and practice tests?

If a company cannot answer these questions to your satisfaction, I would think twice before handing over any money. GMAT prep is a competitive market, so you should be able to find a course that delivers high quality teachers and course materials - these will be essential to helping raise your score.

Question

Where can an average student in India start his preparation, for getting a score of 700 in GMAT?

Answered by Brian Holmes

A 700 is a very ambitious score. The students at the top business schools in the U.S. and Europe tend to have average GMAT scores between 680 (the 90th percentile) and 710 (the 95th). So you are aiming for a top score. Nothing to stress about, but it will require a good amount of studying and hard work.

To get a high score on the GMAT, it's essential to invest in preparing for math as well as verbal. Your overall score - the one from 200 to 800 - factors in your performance on these two sections. It does not include your performance in the analytical writing section - this is reported only as a score from 0 to 6.

To get a score of 700 or above, you will have to do very well in math and also in verbal. More than that - you will need to do extremely well early on in each section. This is due to the computer-adaptive nature of the math and verbal sections. Each section starts you off with a question of medium difficulty, and estimates you as having an average score of about 500. If you get the first question right, the computer's estimate of your score goes up, and the next question is harder. If you get the first question wrong, the computer's estimate of your score goes down, and the next question is easier. The computer adapts this way throughout the entire section - get a question right, next one harder; get it wrong, next one easier - and your score fluctuates appropriately. The computer then takes the two sets of data (one from math, and one from verbal) and combines them into the overall score.

However, there's a twist - the changes to your estimated score are not consistent across the section. The biggest swing in the score estimate comes between the first question and the second. The changes to your score then lessen gradually with each subsequent question. By the end of the math or verbal section, the change in your score between the last two questions has become minimal. It makes little difference to your score whether you get the last question right or wrong. Conversely, it makes an enormous difference whether you get the first question right or wrong. You thus don't want to rush, or make careless mistakes, early on in a math or verbal section - you wouldn't want to have that negative effect on your score. If you do well early in the section - in the first third to half of the questions - you can miss quite a few in the second half and still get a very high score.

One more point about scoring: you must enter an answer and accept it for every multiple-choice question. If you fail to enter an answer and accept it for a single question in math, or a single question in verbal, you get an enormous penalty deducted from your overall score. Based on feedback from our students, we estimate this penalty to be in the neighbourhood of 50 to 60 points - far more than you'd lose for getting the last several questions in a section wrong. So you must also practice for pacing, so you can do well early in each section, but also leave time to answer all the questions.

Question

I want to sit my GMAT, so could you kindly tell me which is the ideal book to start with, as these days there are plenty of materials available, also on the Internet.

Answered by Brian Holmes

You're right; there sure are a lot of GMAT materials available for self-study. You might want to refer back to my answer above about how to select practice material.

As for specific books, The Official Guide for GMAT Review, 11th edition, published by the GMAC (the GMAT test-maker) is a book most students find essential. However, you might prefer to start with a different book, such as one of the ones published by Kaplan, that breaks down the question types and provides you with structured practice, before moving on to the Official Guide.

For a student just starting out, I would suggest you first work with a comprehensive book, such as Kaplan GMAT Premier Program or Comprehensive Program. Depending on your needs, you might then move on to the math, verbal or writing workbooks as needed - these are great for extra practice.

At that point, you'd be in great shape for the Official Guide -- and perhaps even the Kaplan GMAT 800 book! This last one (GMAT 800) I would save for later in your studies, as it focuses on high-difficulty question types. You'll do better mastering the basics with one of the other books first before moving on to GMAT 800.

Question

Hi. Could you advise me on some strategy which needs to be followed for RC and logical reasoning questions. Also if you could advise a method to approach GMAT and what books and software need to be used and in what order it will be of help.

Answered by Brian Holmes

I've already addressed strategy for Reading Comprehension in my answer to one of the earlier questions. So here, let me focus on Critical Reasoning.

First, I'll suggest a strategy that's essential for critical reasoning. At Kaplan, we find that most students come to us with an approach to critical reasoning that wastes a lot of time. They start each question by reading the stimulus - the long paragraph that usually contains an argument. After investing a minute or two in this initial reading, they then go on to read the question. Then they have to go back to the stimulus and re-read it to find the info needed to answer the question. Obviously, this approach is horribly inefficient - you only have about two minutes for each critical reasoning question on the GMAT; doing them in this fashion would take at least twice as long every time.

Thus, at Kaplan, we teach our students to read the question first. This will then keep you focused as you read the stimulus - you need only read it for the info needed to answer the question. Most questions will require you to find the conclusion, evidence and assumption - the building blocks of any argument - which leads to my next point.

To do well on critical reasoning, you must be comfortable at breaking arguments down into conclusion - the point the author is trying to make - and evidence - the reasons given in support of that point. Once you find these, you can work out the un-stated assumption - the missing piece that must be true for the conclusion to follow from the evidence.

Most students who struggle on critical reasoning either have trouble locating assumptions, or they have trouble with weakening assumptions - which happens to be the most frequent critical reasoning question type on the GMAT. The key is to make sure you are weakening (or attacking) the assumption, not the conclusion or the evidence. Wrong answer choices that weaken the evidence, rather than the central assumption, are very popular on the GMAT. This point may sound simple, but the GMAT has ways of making it complicated - it's definitely something to practice!

Question

I am an engineering student studying computer science and intend to pursue my MBA (in HR) in the US. Will I be accepted with no work experience? What should I do to make myself eligible, even without work experience? What sort of financial help can I expect?

Answered by Brian Holmes

These questions are better suited for one of the forums on MBA admissions. I will say that it's very difficult to get into a top MBA program in the US without at least three years work experience, which means it's also very difficult to get in if you are under the age of 25 or 26. If you are in your early 20s, you will improve your position significantly by taking a few years' break from your formal education to build up the work experience on your CV.

This will be especially vital if you are applying for scholarships - these are available at many business schools, but they can be incredibly competitive. You would want to give yourself every advantage possible, and if you apply to start your MBA immediately following your undergraduate degree, you are putting yourself at a disadvantage compared to the other applicants against whom you'd be competing.

Perhaps not the answer you'd want to hear, but I'd suggest thinking seriously about getting those few years of work experience before submitting your MBA applications.

Question

Will learning foreign languages like French or Spanish along with a sound preparation for GMAT give me an extra edge? Other than the US, where I can pursue my MBA that is a little less heavy on my pocket. And what would be a decent GMAT score to get into the best institutions?

Answered by Brian Holmes

You won't really get much of a benefit on the GMAT from studying languages like French or Spanish, because the GMAT is not designed to test your knowledge of English vocabulary (so much of which comes from those Romance languages). You will want to improve your ear for standard American English grammar and style. This will be essential for sentence correction questions. You can work on developing your ear by reading publications written at a moderate to high level in standard American English. We normally recommend The New York Times or The Washington Post - you can read these newspapers online for free (with registration). You might also benefit from listening to standard spoken American English. Recommended websites for that are npr.org (National Public Radio) and of course cnn.com.

As for finding MBA programs outside the U.S., you can always check the MBA resources available from QS - most likely in other forums, or on other parts of this website. You might also check out the Global MBA Rankings published by the Financial Times (ft.com, then click on Business Education in the left-hand column). Their 2008 rankings have just been released.