GMAT Secrets

1. MBA Center
GMAT Secrets
By Hubert Silly, PhD

2. READY?
Welcome to
“GMAT secrets”!

3. What is this thing called the GMAT?
The GMAT is a required test for entrance into MBA programs.
It’s a multiple-choice test, which means that there is always one (and only one) correct answer
for each question.
Is it a The GMAT tests your verbal and quantitative skills, not your
management knowledge of management.
test?
A certain level of math and verbal skills is essential, but to ace the
Is it a test of
GMAT exam you’ll also need to know how to take the GMAT.
knowledge?
More than anything else, your GMAT score simply reflects
Is it an IQ test?
your ability to take the GMAT. This is a test of your ability to
take a test.

4. What is the breakdown?
Analytical Writing Assessment (AWA)
Tutorial
Two essays
•Analysis of an issue
•Analysis of an
argument
Quantitative (Mathematics) Section
5’ BREAK 37 questions
•Problem Solving
•Data Sufficiency
Verbal Section
5’ BREAK
41 questions
•Sentence Correction
•Critical Reasoning
•Reading Comprehension
Three main subject areas
•business
•social sciences
•science

5. What is the GMAT for?
We contacted many of the top business schools. Our inquiries make
one thing perfectly clear: there is no universal or uniform use of GMAT
scores.
For example:
• Duke considers only the Verbal section of the test as a relevant
selection tool, which is used primarily to evaluate your English abilities.
• London Business School has found a high correlation between GMAT math
scores and eventual success in their MBA program and therefore
concentrates on the quantitative score to select, or “weed out,” applicants.
• Wharton considers the overall GMAT score to be a good indicator of future
success in their MBA curriculum, especially for applicants with little or no
scientific background.

6. GMAT policy
You might also consider the policy of certain schools toward applicants who have taken the GMAT
several times.
• INSEAD, for instance, does not discriminate against the applicant and simply accepts the highest
score.
• Stanford, however, averages the scores submitted.
University policies change, so contact your target schools and do the
research for yourself. Generally, the best tactic is to achieve the
highest score possible the first time you take the test.

7. The CAT and You
Except for the Analytical Writing Assessment and the Reading
Comprehension questions, all the questions on the computer test are
adaptive.
It’s imperative that you understand the adaptive principle if you hope
to get a good score.
And I’ll tell you a secret: You can skip questions in each section
and still be guaranteed a score of 750.
You can skip the last ten questions, that is, if you get the first ten
correct, because it’s that first third that establishes your level of
difficulty.

8. If you can answer the first ten questions correctly and are able to maintain that
score during the second third, you can quit without answering the last ten
questions of each section.
Take a look at Wanda’s score chart…
Get the first third correct! Maintain that score!
800
This sample 700
graph is not 600
indicative of the
actual ETS 500
algorithm, but it
400
should give you
an idea as to the 300
way your score
will be 200
determined.
She didn’t have time to finish the exam, yet even without answering the
last several questions, her score dropped only slightly. Those final
questions were worth so much less.

9. The increments on the sample graph get smaller after each question is answered. After 7 or 8
questions, the tracking system will have formed its general impression of your test abilities and as
it continues to adapt the test to you, the following questions will vary by still fewer and fewer
points.
Note that you will not see Reading Comprehension questions within the first seven questions of
the verbal section
Get the first third Maintain that
correct! 800 score!
700
600
500
400
300
200
Because several questions are related to a single passage, a poor understanding of one Reading Comprehension
passage early on would kill your adaptive Verbal score.
Reading Comprehension passages will not occur until after the computer has determined your skill level within the
Verbal section.

10. Keep these two things about the CAT principle in
mind:
1. Higher scores come from the value, not the
number, of questions you answer correctly.
2. The test is designed to quickly determine
your test level, within the first few questions
of both the Math and the Verbal sections,
and fine tune it as you go along.
While you should aim at finishing all questions on the GMAT exam, it’s the
first seven to twelve in a section that you should spend the most time and
energy on trying to solve. Adjust your strategy to the strategy of the test.
A safe time to guess is on the last question. It will hardly affect your score at
all.
Try our Adaptive Quiz of World Capitals (coming soon) and find out
firsthand what an adaptive test is like.

11. Frequently Asked Questions
Think you understand how the CAT works? If
not, you’ll need to go back through what we’ve
talked about so far.
Or try some of the links below. These are some
of the most frequently asked questions about the
GMAT CAT.
• Should I answer questions wrong on purpose so the test gets
easier?
• How much does the level of difficulty change from question to
question?
• Does my performance on one section affect the level of difficulty of
the questions in the other sections?
• Is the computer program that precise?
• Can I skip a question?

12. Frequently Asked Questions
Should I answer questions wrong on purpose so the test gets
easier?
Absolutely not! If you answer a question wrong, the computer will give you
an easier question but your score will go down as a result.
If you want a good score (and you know you do!) you must answer as many
questions as possible correctly . The harder the question, the higher the
point value.
This is crucial information! Since the CAT scoring algorithm determines
your test level very rapidly answering correctly without hesitation from the
first question on is extremely important so that you start off with a high
score. It’s much easier to maintain a high score than it is to raise a low
score.

13. Frequently Asked Questions
How much does the level of difficulty change from
question to question?
In the beginning, quite a lot - toward the end, not so much. This is
an important quirk in the system. The objective of the CAT is to
quickly determine (right from the beginning) your approximate test
level and then fine-tune it while you continue the test.
To illustrate: a right answer on the first question results in an
increase of 50 points, a right answer on the second, an increase of
40 points—on the second-to-last question a right answer nets you
an increase of only 10 points.
So, if you answer the first few questions correctly, you’ll swiftly
receive more difficult (higher score value) questions and can
therefore raise your score.

14. Frequently Asked Questions
Does my performance on one section affect the level
of difficulty of the questions in the other sections?
No. Each section is scored separately and begins with a question
at the 500-level score value.
If, for example, the Quantitative Section is the first section of the
test, and if you get all the questions wrong, you’ll still begin with a
question valued at 500 on the Verbal Section.

15. Frequently Asked Questions
Is the computer program that precise?
At The MBA Center, we don’t think so: it’s about as precise as the
pencil-and-paper test. Standardized tests, even on computer,
cannot be 100 percent accurate in their estimation of the level of
difficulty of a given question.
Some students consider difficult questions to be easy, other
students consider easy questions to be difficult—it varies from test
to test, student to student. However, the Adaptive Scoring System
comes closer to identifying a personalized test level than did the
pencil-and-paper test.

16. Frequently Asked Questions
Can I skip a question?
No. Unlike the old test, on the CAT you cannot skip a question and
come back to it. Neither can you change your responses. In order
to advance to the next question you must enter your answer and
then confirm it.
The explanation is simple: the computer selects a question for you
which depends on an algorithm that takes into consideration all of
your answers thus far—if you could go back and change an
answer, the continuity of the algorithm would be broken.

17. Draw a Grid
Ten years ago, you would have been able to
cross out wrong answer choices in your booklet.
This process of elimination was always a great
strategy in the past. By ruling out answer
choices that were definitely wrong, students
could focus on the ones that were possibly right.
Unfortunately, since you can’t write on the computer screen, you can’t
cross out the wrong answer choices. A new system is necessary to
keep track of wrong answer choices.
Our Process of Error Identification is your best tool when you
approach difficult questions, and drawing a grid will help you keep track
of it all.

18. When you sit down to take the test, use the time during the
mandatory CAT-tutorial (which you will know well before the exam)
and during the optional 5-minute break between the Quantitative
and Verbal sections to draw yourself a grid, such as this:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
A X X X
B X X O
C O X X
D X X X
E X O X
There are two specific advantages to the grid:
1. You can eliminate wrong answers and focus on
remaining possible answer choices.
2. You can cross out an answer choice, and have a
record of it, as soon as you see that it’s incorrect.

19. Strategies at work
The power of good guesswork is one reason why
multiple-choice tests are rarely given in school.
Simply put, the correct answer is there right in
front of you. That’s why ETS makes every effort
to try to steer you toward misleading, incorrect
answer choices.
The Wrong Answer Factory realizes that most people who take the
test make the same mistakes:
1 errors in calculation
2 jumping to conclusions
3 overcomplicating simple problems
If you know how wrong answers are made and what they’re made of,
you’ll avoid being the victim of tricks and traps waiting for you.

20. The Wrong Answer Factory
Given a little time, a little coursework and a little practice, you’ll be
eliminating wrong answers with deadly accuracy.
Take a look at this example:
From September 1 to October 1, the price per
share of a certain stock increased 10 percent.
From October 1 to November 1, the price
increased 20 percent. What was the combined
percent increase from September 1 to November 1
?
(A)
(B)
(C)
(D)
(E) 32
It’d be easy if they presented word problems this way, wouldn’t it?

21. Now look at this same question as you’d see it on the GMAT.
Click on the oval that corresponds with the correct answer.
From September 1 to October 1, the price per
share of a certain stock increased 10 percent.
From October 1 to November 1, the price
increased 20 percent. What was the combined
percent increase from September 1 to November 1
?
(A) 10
(B) 18
(C) 20
(D) 30
(E) 32

22. Not so easy any more.
This is a tricky question. The temptation is simply to add 10 and 20 to
get 30. But answering a Problem Solving question is never that easy.
Answer choice (D) is there for test takers who don’t fully understand the
problem. Rule it out! ETS will never offer you a difficult question with
such a simple solution.
What about answer choices (A) and (C)?
Some test takers pick numbers they see in the problem itself when
they have no idea what to do. Rule them out! Those are there to fool
test takers who are utterly lost.
So what do we have left? Just (B) and (E). Much better odds, don’t
you think?
Now, let’s look at this problem a little closer.

23. Well done! Don’t forget that ETS has had years of experience
writing Problem Solving questions.
They know all about test takers’ most common
mistakes. You should too!
Don’t get fooled by:
• Making simple arithmetic mistakes
(adding instead of subtracting, for example)
• Omitting a step of a multiple-step problem
• Confusing units of measure or time
(forgetting to convert from hours to minutes,
for example)
Click on the forward Advance icon and take a look at our method for
approaching Problem Solving questions.

24. Now suppose the September 1 price was $100. Then the October 1 price, after a 10 percent increase, would be $110.
Increase that price by 20 percent and you get a November 1 price of $110 + (20% of $110) = $110 + $22 = $132. That is 32 percent greater than the September 1 price.
From September 1 to October 1, the price per
share of a certain stock increased 10 percent.
From October 1 to November 1, the price
increased 20 percent. What was the combined
The correct percent increase from September 1 to November 1
answer is 32, ?
(E).
(A) 10
(B) 18
(C) 20
(D) 30
(E) 32
This is an example of one of the ways ETS will try to fool you using the Wrong Answer Factory techniques. In
the following lessons, we’ll apply Wrong Answer Factory and Process of Error Identification strategies to all
question types. Welcome to the GMAT

25. The Process of Error Identification
Ruling out incorrect answer choices is essential to all GMAT question
types.
We call this the Process of Error Identification,
and it’s the best way to avoid formulaic Wrong
Answer Factory tricks.
Use the Process of Error Identification to help
you solve this next word problem…
Click on the oval that corresponds with the
correct answer choice.
If Lorenzo walks to work at 3 miles per hour and returns
along the same route at 2 miles per hour, what is his
average speed for the round trip?
(A) 2 miles per hour
(B) 2.2 miles per hour
(C) 2.4 miles per hour
(D) 2.5 miles per hour
(E) 3 miles per hour

26. If Lorenzo walks to work at 3 miles per hour and returns
along the same route at 2 miles per hour, what is his
average speed for the round trip?
What’s the distance between home and work?
It really doesn’t matter. His rates there and back remain the same. So
choose a distance that works well with the numbers you already have.
Try six…
1 hr 1 hr
HOME WORK
Average speed:
12 miles in 5 hours,
or 2.4 mph.
1 2 3 4 5 6
1 hr 1 hr 1 hr
Now add the hours.
Two hours to get to work, and three hours to get back home.
Five hours for the round trip of twelve miles

27. Sorry, the correct answer is (C). Remember, ETS has had years of
experience writing Problem Solving questions.
They know all about test takers most common
mistakes. You should too!
Don’t get fooled by:
• Making simple arithmetic mistakes
(adding instead of subtracting, for example)
• Omitting a step of a multiple-step problem
• Confusing units of measure or time
Click on the (forgetting to convert from hours to minutes,
Explanation for example)
icon to see
how it’s
done.
Click on the forward Advance icon and take a look at our method for
approaching Problem Solving questions.