Introduction 1 About This Book 1 Foolish Assumptions 2 Icons Used in This Book 2 Beyond the Book 3 Where to Go from Here 3 Part 1: Getting Started with the GMAT 5 Chapter 1: The Lowdown on the GMAT 7 Knowing Why the GMAT is Important 7 Timing It Perfectly: When to Take the GMAT (And What to Bring) 8 When to register for and take the GMAT 8 Things to take to the GMAT (and things to leave at home) 10 Forming First Impressions: The Format of the GMAT 10 Getting familiar with what the GMAT tests 10 Understanding the computerized format 11 Honing your computer skills for the GMAT 12 Knowing Where You Stand: Scoring Considerations 13 How the GMAT testers figure your score 13 How the GMAT testers report your score 13 Why you should (almost) never cancel your GMAT score 14 Repeating the Process: Retaking the GMAT 15 Chapter 2: Maximizing Your Score on the GMAT 17 Discovering Strategies for Successful Guessing 17 Forcing yourself to guess so you can move on 18 Understanding the importance of completing each section 18 Winning the Race against the Clock 19 Giving each question equal treatment 19 Making time for the last ten questions 19 Keeping track of your pace 20 Getting Rid of Wrong Answers 20 Keeping track of eliminated answer choices for the computer test format 20 Recognizing wrong answers 21 Playing It Smart: A Few Things You Shouldn''t Do When Taking the Test 25 Don''t lose your focus 25 Don''t read questions at lightning speed 25 Don''t waste all your time on the hardest questions 25 Don''t cheat 26 Tackling a Case of Nerves with Relaxation Techniques 26 Devising a Plan of Attack 27 Chapter 3: Mastering Business School Admissions 29 Choosing a Business School 29 Lining Up Your Ducks -- Applying to Business Schools 31 When to apply 32 What to submit 32 Crafting Effective Business School Essays 33 Part 2: Vanquishing the Verbal Section 35 Chapter 4: Applying What You Learned (We Hope) in Grammar Class: Sentence Correction 37 Building a Solid Foundation: Grammar Basics 38 Getting wordy: The parts of speech 38 Pulling together: The parts of a sentence 40 Pointing Out Mistakes: Common Sentence Correction Errors 42 Can''t we all just get along? Errors in subject-verb and noun-pronoun agreement 43 Building code violations: Faulty construction 45 Follow the idiom: Correct use of standard expressions 48 Implementing an Approach to Sentence Correction Questions 51 Spotting the error 51 Eliminating answers that don''t correct errors 52 Eliminating choices that create new errors 52 Rereading the sentence 53 Reviewing the process and guessing on sentence corrections 53 Sentence Correction Practice Problems with Answer Explanations 53 Practice problems 54 Answer explanations 56 Chapter 5: Not as Enticing as a Bestseller: Reading Comprehension 59 Judging by Appearances: What Reading Comprehension Questions Look Like 59 Approaching Reading Passages 60 Mastering the message: The main point 60 Absorbing the ambiance: Author''s tone 61 Finding the framework: The passage''s outline 61 Sticking to the Subject: Types of Passages 62 Experimenting with natural science passages 62 Gathering in social circles: Social science passages 62 Getting down to business passages 63 Approaching Reading Comprehension Questions 63 Identifying the question type 63 Eliminating answer choices 66 Dealing with exception questions 67 Reading Comprehension Practice Questions with Answer Explanations 70 Reading comprehension practice questions 70 Answer explanations 74 Chapter 6: Thinking This through Logically: Critical Reasoning 79 Focusing on "Critical" Concepts: An Overview 79 Understanding the structure of the questions 80 Figuring out how to answer the questions 80 Making a Case: Essentials of Informal Logic 81 Fighting fair: The elements of an argument 81 Getting from Point A to Point B: Types of reasoning 81 Thinking Inside the Box: Question Types 83 Stalking Your Prey: How to Approach Each Question Type 84 Strengthening or weakening arguments 84 Delving into drawing conclusions 88 Spotting those sneaky assumptions 89 Using your noggin to make inferences 91 Critical Reasoning Practice Questions and Answer Explanations 94 Critical reasoning practice questions 94 Answer explanations 98 Chapter 7: Bringing It Together: A Mini Practice Verbal Section 103 Working Through Verbal Reasoning Practice Questions 104 Understanding What''s Right with Answer Explanations 113 Part 3: Acing the Analytical Writing Section 121 Chapter 8: Analyze This: What to Expect from the Analytical Writing Assessment 123 Fitting in the AWA with the Rest of the GMAT 123 Calling 411: Your AWA Writing Tools 124 Analyzing an Argument 124 Racking Up the Points: How the GMAT Scores Your Essay 125 Getting to know your readers 125 Interpreting the scores 126 Requesting your essay be rescored 126 Chapter 9: Present Perfect Paragraphs: How to Write a GMAT Essay 127 Avoiding Grammar, Punctuation, and Mechanics Errors 127 Punctuation errors 128 Sentence-structure problems 129 Faulty forming of possessives 129 Spelling issues 129 More dos and don''ts 130 Practice makes perfect! 130 Building a Better Essay: Ten Steps to a Higher Score 131 Chapter 10: Deconstructing Sample GMAT Essays 133 Defining GMAT AWA Scores 133 Taking a Look at Sample Essays 134 Sample essay #1 135 Discussion of sample essay #1 136 Sample essay #2 136 Discussion of sample essay #2 137 Sample essay #3 138 Discussion of sample essay #3 139 Sample essay #4 139 Discussion of sample essay #4 140 Chapter 11: Sampling a Series of Writing Prompts 141 Sample Prompt #1 141 Sample response to essay #1 142 Dissection of essay #1 142 Sample Prompt #2 143 Sample response to essay #2 143 Dissection of essay #2 144 Sample Prompt #3 144 Sample response to essay #3 145 Dissection of essay #3 145 Sample Prompt #4 146 Sample response to essay #4 146 Dissection of essay #4 146 Part 4: Conquering the Quantitative Section 149 Chapter 12: Getting Back to Basics: Numbers and Operations 151 Just Your Type: Kinds of Numbers 151 It''s Not Brain Surgery: Basic Operations 153 Adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing 153 Checking out the real estate: Properties of real numbers 155 Using Little Numbers for Big Values: Bases and Exponents 157 Adding and subtracting with exponents 158 Multiplying and dividing with exponents 158 Figuring out the powers of 0 and 1 158 Dealing with fractional exponents 159 Working with negative exponents 159 Checking Out the Ancestry: Roots 160 Order of Operations: Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally 161 Splitting Up: Fractions, Decimals, and Percentages 162 Defining numerators, denominators, and other stuff you need to know about fractions 163 Adding and subtracting fractions 164 Multiplying and dividing fractions 165 Calculating percent change 167 Taking it further: Repeated percent change 168 Making Comparisons: Ratios and Proportions 169 Playing the Numbers: Scientific Notation 170 Chapter 13: Considering All the Variables: Algebra 171 Defining the Elements: Algebraic Terms 171 Braving the unknowns: Variables and constants 171 Coming together: Terms and expressions 172 Knowing the nomials: Kinds of expressions 172 Maintaining an Orderly Fashion: Algebraic Operations 173 Adding to and taking away 173 Multiplying and dividing expressions 175 Extracting Information: Factoring Polynomials 177 Something in common: Finding common factors 177 Two by two: Factoring quadratic polynomials 178 Minding Your Ps and Qs: Functions 179 Standing in: Understanding function terminology 180 Taking it to the limit: Domain and range of functions 181 Putting On Your Thinking Cap: Problem Solving 184 Isolating the variable: Linear equations 184 Bringing in the substitution: Simultaneous equations 185 Not playing fair: Inequalities 187 Solving quadratic equations 189 Reading between the lines: Word problems 190 Burning the midnight oil: Work problems 192 Going the distance: Distance problems 193 Chapter 14: Getting the Angle on Geometry: Planes and Solids 195 Fishing for the Answers: Lines and Angles 195 Trusting Triangles 198 Triple treat: Types of triangles 198 The area of a triangle 200 The Pythagorean theorem and other cool stuff about right triangles 200 A striking resemblance: Similar triangles 203 Playing Four Square: Quadrilaterals 204 Drawing parallels: Parallelograms 205 Raising the roof: Trapezoids 206 Showing Their Good Sides: Other Polygons 207 Eating Up Pieces of Pi: Circles 208 Ring measurements: Radius, diameter, and circumference 208