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.