Cách học và thi GMAT ppt

For more material and information, please visit Tai Lieu Du Hoc at www.tailieuduhoc.org GMAT Study Strategy Revised 4/25/05 Authors: Daveformba, Ursula, GMAT Club, Stephen Bolton, Erin I’ve searched all over the internet and read all the major books on preparing for the GMAT. The main thing that current GMAT prep books do well is to help identify what you’ll face on the test. What they don’t do well is to help you to know how to actually study each type of question and how to apply the strategies effectively. I’ve struggled to try and figure out how take a more active posture in studying such that information is not only retained, but efficiency improved. I’m tired of hearing, “just do a lot of problems.” That’s not useful. That was what people were telling me. One person, who attained a 740 on the GMAT at 46 years of age, the first time she took the test, stated how important it was to stay active and not be passive while studying. The point of this whole guide is on how to become an active learner for the GMAT and avoid being passive. (Read her Story here) As I was studying, I realized that I had to lay down some very specific strategies for myself to become more active in my learning process. This was because of a GMAT practice test I took where I got a 600. I had studied the Quant quite a bit, but not the verbal. For verbal, I went mostly off of what sounded right to me. I needed…. I wanted to come up with a way to approach the rest of my studying more effectively because there seemed to be too much memorization or gut reliance going on in my test taking skills. I knew that just going by what sounded right wasn’t the best way approach the real GMAT. This guide was created as a result of brutally asking myself specifics on how I could and would improve in each area of the GMAT. How does one move from, “just do a lot of problems” or “study hard” to “studying effectively” and most importantly…. Getting results? As this is a guide that is being refined and added to, I hope you’ll join me in letting me know what you feel needs to be re-worked or further explained by you or me to improve it. This will be of great benefit to you and me as well as others that might need this in the near future. Over time, I’ve received permission from several authors and teachers that have provided great strategy guidelines and have inserted them into this document. I’m not sure how you have discovered this GMAT study guide as I have not advertised it anywhere. In any case, I say good for you because it shows that you’re doing your homework. Hopefully, you weren’t just looking for the easy way out? Trust me, no matter how much you look, you won’t find a study guide better than this on the internet. It’s not that I searched myself and judged this guide to be the best. Rather, anyone who’s creating anything that’s even close is trying to sell you something. I’m not. There’s no extended version of this guide that I sell. This is For more material and information, please visit Tai Lieu Du Hoc at www.tailieuduhoc.org just me helping others. I do only ask for two things as you use this guide. 1) I have included links to books and study guides where I do receive very small referral fees. Therefore, I ask that you use the links in this document to purchase the GMAT books you’ll be buying used or new to help support this web site you found this document on. (By the way, I have and always will only suggest resources that have been their weight in gold. I don’t work for or receive kickbacks ever and never well. As you progress through this document and the associated links, I think you’ll see that I’ve put in a significant amount of time into putting this all together) 2) Provide me with feedback on how to improve this document such as information you may want to submit to me. For example, I have received some feedback that they would like to see more specifics on Math prep. As this is a lot of work, I’m taking my time on that, but have included some information in this latest revision. I have compiled a web page of various resources to file my research and organize it for easy browsing. You can find it at Future MBA Resources (FMR) . I have created one specific page just for GMAT resources. This will be where you’ll find a wealth of resources and free tests to help you on your journey. For example, I compiled a spreadsheet that lists the difficulty of every question in the GMAT Official Guide from GMAC the creator of the test. Dave daveformba@gmail.com My Blog Erin http://www.sentencecorrection.com/forums/index.php?act=Mail&CODE=00&MID=2 Dave’s Editorial Corner As I’ve received quite a bit of e-mail asking me questions about the GMAT and managing difficulties in progress, I’ve decided to add this new section that includes my responses. GMAT Question Answered Dear Dave, Thank you very much for putting your GMAT strategy guide on the net, it's the best so far! I am not a native speaker, I am struggling with my preparation. I feel like I am not progressing, can you please advise something on this regard? I really appreicated it. For more material and information, please visit Tai Lieu Du Hoc at www.tailieuduhoc.org Best Regards, "T" Answer: That’s a difficult question to answer. I’ll try my best. I’m hoping that you’re doing well in Math. If this is not the case then the answer may be in how you review and think through why you get the wrong answer and ESPECIALLY why you got the right answer. You have to do your best to commit to daily reviews of the ones you got wrong from the previous day. OG is the best book for practice questions. Review all the answers in it. Moreover, you should review all the ones you’ve been getting wrong at least once a week. If you keep getting them wrong then you’re approach has been to just solve the problem rather than understand the concepts. If you're interested in which questions are difficult, medium or easy, you can check out the spreadsheet that I pulled from GMAC to help you. For English If you think about it… verbal is a math skill too. There are rules and guidelines and many ways to approach the answer. You have to understand the basics. I started to do that in my study guide. You have to make sure you memorize the basics. Then it comes down to repetition and practice. Don’t just try to do as many problems as you can when it comes to English. Understand not just why you got the question right buy exactly why the other choices were poor. Don’t just say makes sense or sounds right. It's better to figure out which rule it broke or which concept the wrong answer didn’t adhere too. By the way… take a practice full exam… not just verbal or math… but a full exam at least 1 per week or every other week. Find any test you can get your hands on. It doesn’t matter if the test is adaptive or not. And put yourself under the same time pressures of both the test taking time and the length of breaks. This part is crucial. What I described is the big picture approach for the GMAT. When it comes to discipline… there are two things that I would suggest. 1) Take a class, but quit the class if the teacher sucks. They should blow your socks off otherwise, it’s a waste of your time. 2) Whether you take the class or not… get to a place where you can focus and study with little or no distractions. I study at universities myself. For example, while I wrote my Business School application essays and studied for the GMAT, I went to Stanford at their 24 hour study center and took some drinks and sandwiches everyday. It was not unusual for me to get there by 6pm and For more material and information, please visit Tai Lieu Du Hoc at www.tailieuduhoc.org leave by 1am. Most Universities like Stanford don’t require a parking permit after 5pm weekdays and no permit is required on the weekends. I called and e-mailed my friends that I wouldn’t be around much because of my studies and I canceled a lot of appointments and activities in my life. I gave myself permission once a week to go see a movie after taking a practice test because my brain was fried anyway. I'm definitely not an expert at the GMAT, but in my humble opinion I've written what I believe to be a good approach to studying for the GMAT. Not all ways work for everyone. I hope you find what works the best for you. But trying various methods such as what I've outlined will hopefully get you there. Best wishes The Hard Facts About Your GMAT Score See how the chart below shows GMAT scores in 3 Tiers? I think people generally have a vague notion that 3 tiers exists, but with no hard evidence like this chart who's to say otherwise For more material and information, please visit Tai Lieu Du Hoc at www.tailieuduhoc.org Here's a follow-up to the last chart. Again 3 tiers of applicants regarding GMAT scores. Here's an interesting graph from Kellogg's 2004 entering class. This is a good GMAT question possibility. If 5282 applied to the 2-year MBA class resulting in 469, what percentage of students were admitted with the various GMAT brackets of scores as shown in the graph? When you do the math (Taking into account that Kellogg admits 12% more than needed for instances where the applicant chooses another school), you get the following: 640 or less GMAT = 1056 apps with 42 accepted at 4% acceptance. 650-690 GMAT = 1584 apps with 158 accepted at 10% acceptance. 700-740 GMAT = 2059 apps with 252 accepted at 12.2% acceptance. 750-780 GMAT = 581 apps with 74 accepted at 12.7% acceptance. That means the 2004 class had 25% of all students who scored 700 or more accepted. However, the actual student population is actually 62% people who scored 700 or more. This is actually a great challenge and encouragement as I thought it was much worse. So 38% of the class scored 690 or less? That's cool. 700-740 is only 2% more likely to receive acceptance than those who had 650-690. Not much of a difference. I think this is why we ought not to kill ourselves for not getting 700 and for not killing our self if we do get 700 or more and don't get into a top Business School. That 2% can't hurt though. For more material and information, please visit Tai Lieu Du Hoc at www.tailieuduhoc.org Comments from a GMAT Instructor Last year, I received some feedback from a 12 year veteran Princeton Review GMAT instructor. Here are some comments he wrote in an e-mail to me that may be helpful for you. What we do for high scoring students to make them get their scores up (in a classroom setting) is to run classes that focus on ONE AREA. For instance, Statistics and GMAT Miscellany, SC, CR, Data Sufficiency. People at or above the 600 level have to revamp their study plan. Random info dump won't be effective anymore. If you can get a 600, then you basically know most of the information there is on the test. What you are probably lacking is a systematic way of using that information and an understanding of good GMAT strategy. I told the instructor that I wanted to focus on probability a bit more. His reply on that was as follows: You are basing some of your plans and concerns on forums. In the last 5 "Test Recons" there have been an average of 1.3 probability questions per test. 1.3 think of all the energy and time dedicated to probability in the forums and think of what kind of wasted effort is poured into that subject. Forums are 95% noise, 4% good intention, and 1% information. If you think of it that way you will actually look at them with an entirely new eye and perhaps glean the little there is there to be had. Test prep companies sometimes fall for the same sort of paranoia. They respond to the concerns of their students and when those students' fears are being fed and influenced by the forums a nasty little spiral starts to form. Ask how many people teaching the GMAT took the GMAT in the last 6 months I think you will be shocked and dismayed. While I do not think that someone has to take the test often to be a good teacher, a good teacher will take the test often to be able to screen the noise. The graphic below is part of how I assess student needs. Each red zone is a plateau. It is a score range that is REALLY hard to break through. You are in the plateau that the course is designed to get people to. Don't believe the nonsense out there. There is no super effective one-size-fits-all solution to maximum GMAT improvement. Achieving and moving through each plateau has its own unique set of needs and concerns. For more material and information, please visit Tai Lieu Du Hoc at www.tailieuduhoc.org What you’ll find in this document 1) GMAT online forum resources and why they are helpful. 2) Study habits of 19 people who achieved 700+ GMAT scores. 3) How to track your progress and improve your review process 4) What kind of schedule should I use? What order should I go through the material? 5) Ongoing help resources – Daily e-mail questions 6) What GMAT resources should I use? In other words, what books and resources out there are good and what sucks. 7) Should I use a Test Prep Company? 8) What kind of study schedule should I use? 9) A summary study guide for each section of the GMAT 10) A study guide on probability. There just aren’t any books out there that cover probability well. GMAT online forum resources and why they are helpful A couple of websites I found in my research were www.testmagic.com and www.gmatclub.com. Both are tremendous resources because you can post questions there and people will help you to understand why one answer is right and another is wrong. You should see the generous amount of time people take to post responses. One thing I noticed was how a few people who did well on the actual GMAT mentioned how the forum benefited them so much. They went on to mention how they stayed active in the forums. A good forum is created when people take the time to explain an answer and not to just simply try to guess at the answer or write out a quick formula to show how you got the answer. How did you get the formula? What led you to start out with certain steps? What concepts were used in your solution? Putting your answer in this kind of context is helpful and most importantly forces the person who is posting the answer to explain the answer through fact and theory. To write out the answer requires a reasonable understanding of the concept being tested. To explain the answer to someone is literally like being a teacher. Teaching a topic is the best method of learning. Now that’s active learning! Here’s an example of a typical posting. For more material and information, please visit Tai Lieu Du Hoc at www.tailieuduhoc.org Posting Hi Guys! Help me with this one. Q. What is the volume of a certain rectangular solid? (1) Two adjacent faces of the solids have areas 15 and 24 respectively. (2) Each of two opposite faces of the solid has area 40. I think statement (1) alone is sufficient to answer the question. If not, please explain me why? Thanks XXXXX Reply #1 Statement (1) alone is not sufficient as we can get multiple results for volume: Face 1 can have an area of 15 with sides 15 & 1: 15 * 1 and Face 2 can have an area of 24 with sides 1 * 24. The volume would be 15*1*24 = 360 Face 1 : 5 * 3 Face 2 : 3 * 8 Volume : 5*3*8 = 120 Statement (2) alone is not sufficient as we have info only about 2 sides. Combining Statement (1) & (2), Areas with 15, 24 & 40 correspond to three sides with lengths measuring 5,3 & 8. Ans should be C. Please let me know the correct answer. Reply by Original Poster The answer was infact C. Reply #2 According to B each opposite face of solid has an area of 40.So all the faces of the solid are equal in area.So the solid is a cube.So each edge is (40)^1/2 long .So we can definitely find volume with B.So "B" should be the correct answer. Please let me know if I am missing some point over here. Reply #3 For more material and information, please visit Tai Lieu Du Hoc at www.tailieuduhoc.org Statement 2 just says that each of two opposite faces of the solid have an area of 40. As therez no info about the remaining 4 faces of the cube, this statement alone is insufficient. Thanks, XXX I found about 19 people who scored 700+ and found quite a few similarities in their study habits and what books they chose to prepare with. Here is a summary of that analysis. Books used (98% used the following) 1. Kaplan GMAT book 2. Princeton Review book 3. Official Guide for GMAT 4. Power Prep Tests 5. Manhattan GMAT Study Guide Books (New!) Book/Resources used (About 4-5 people used the following) 1. Kaplan 800 - Hard GMAT questions - more than a few argued that this had the hardest questions they found. 2. 800-score tests – A good resource for tests. 3. GMAT Plus – A good resource for tests. 4. DeltaCourse - primarily a combination, probability, permutation advanced study guide with plenty of sample questions to practice with. 5. Barron's - All said study guide part sucked, but questions were useful. 6. Verbal Workout for GMAT -Princeton Books/Resources all said sucked. 1. Arco Master the GMAT CAT – Many of the answer are wrong. But the study guides are good. 2. Petersons 3. Crack-GMAT – Don’t waste your time or money on this one according to many. 4. Kaplan’s in-person GMAT prep course – a few who did it said that it didn’t help. For more material and information, please visit Tai Lieu Du Hoc at www.tailieuduhoc.org Study tips that every single 700+ scorer mentioned. 1. Record all mistakes on wrong questions and revisit them no sooner than 5 days. If still getting wrong, then zero on the subset's and go for more help. 2. Always read the explanation in the book to see why you get it wrong and take enough time to really understand the concept. 3. Pick a date and register. Don't study then register. There was a tendency to not take prep time as seriously. 4. Quite a few went through OG questions more than once. Not all questions on the repeat though; Mainly verbal sections and Quant that were areas of weakness. 5. Wrote practice essays at least 20 times under timed conditions. 6. Visit the test center before the day of test. Many did so a week or two before. 7. Time spent by most averaged between 3 and 4 months. 8. All averaged 2-3 hrs per day and no less than 10-12 hrs on the weekends. 9. Took advantage of every break during the GMAT. Take a bathroom break, some washed their face to wake up, got fresh air. 10. Study in blocks. One person mentioned studying in 80 minute blocks without getting up to build stamina. Another person mentioned studying in 75 minute blocks with exact numbers of questions that are on the real GMAT to build stamina and skill. Many agree that the ability to handle the time constraints is nearly as important is solving the problem. Scores in the actual GMAT are worse if you leave an answer blank than if you get the answer wrong. Interesting note: The Official Guide for GMAT contains questions that are in the 550 to 650 difficulty range. Let’s Get Started The first step is to get a bit analytical. When going through questions, use either one of the following tracking sheets. http://home.comcast.net/~dave.kim/GMATTracker.xls http://home.comcast.net/~dave.kim/GMATAnswersForm.zip What this will help you do is track your progress in a way that can tell you in a measurable way whether carelessness or lack of skill caused a wrong answer. In other words, using this sheet will help you to zero in on the what you can target for improvement. Instead of saying, I need to improve in math you’ll be able to say, “I need more work in probability, more work in stamina or [...]... e-mails of GMAT questions sent to you on a daily basis The two popular ones are Delta Course and Manhattan GMAT • For Delta Course, go to http://www.deltacourse.com /gmat/ gmat-email.asp • For Manhattan GMAT, go to http://www.manhattangmat.com/ Select the Student Center menu and create a profile At the bottom of the profile registration, you’ll be asked if you want the daily question or not This is free... I setup? It’s SANE to memorize this Some Any— No— Every-Everyone Someone Either One Everybody Somebody Neither Each Everything Something Anyone No one Whoever His Anybody Nothing Whomever Anything Nobody Be aware that group, jury, team, country, family are singular Society today uses them sometimes as plural This is because these act as a single unit when they do something Plural Pronouns (Memorize... on the GMAT to review and score your essay You can get it at: For more material and information, please visit Tai Lieu Du Hoc at www.tailieuduhoc.org • Test Magic – www.testmagic.com - Excellent forum to get questions answered or explained • GMAT Club – www.gmatclub.com – Similar to Test Magic • GMAT Club Prep material - It’s pretty good • http://daveformba.blogspot.com – my weblog Obviously, this is... Official Guide to the GMAT – Can be obtained from Amazon • Manhattan GMAT Prep Books – This is by far the best set of study guide books for the GMAT on the market Where Kaplan, Princeton Review, and the Official Guide all fall short is in the study prep material I browsed a set of the books from a friend I liked them so much that I went ahead and bought them • Princeton Review, Cracking the GMAT 2005– Can... how he could help raise money for his chess club at Harvard This sentence could look like this: • Chosen to head the committee, Angus Ng thought about how he could help raise money for his chess club at Harvard This concept is important for the Sentence Correction section of the GMAT, so if you're preparing for that test, pay attention to this! 3 noun + adjective Another pattern is to use an adjective... if-clauses birthday, she wouldn’t be mad Used with all verbs at me now This is somewhat common on the Should you need a hand, I will TOEFL and more common on the be more than happy to help GMAT and GRE you This type of inversion is kind of Were I you, I think I would study special Notice that we can only use more for your exam tomorrow this type of inversion when we are using an if-clause In other words,... will probably not see this on need anymore the grammar section of the TOEFL Here comes the bus! or on the GMAT or GRE It could, however, appear on the Listening Comprehension Section of the TOEFL We use this form mostly in spoken English Burning out of control was the Inversion is obligatory forest located in the foothills of Used only with be-verbs the Sierra Nevada mountains This form is not common... online You can’t buy it in bookstores For a scaled down version of this, go to Appendix A of this Guide For every Data Sufficiency and Problem Solving question you get wrong, write out in long hand the solution Don’t just write out the formula This will help you process the theory being tested Explain why you did certain steps I call this the teaching method explanation Here’s a number Property table... This is going to cause more problems that be helpful with saving time in the long run Your answer should never contradict the main point of the passage 8) Most people get main point and inference questions wrong so focus more carefully on these 9) "According to the passage/author" question type of questions Whenever you see this question, tell yourself, "Stop and stop thinking I need to FIND, not think."... Princeton Review, Cracking the GMAT 2005– Can be obtained from Amazon • Kaplan GMAT 2005– Can be obtained from Amazon • DeltaCourse – Only available online • Powerprep Tests – ETS, the company that makes the GMAT • GMAT Tutor has a good Math basics reference sheet to help you memorize formulas and math basics • To see if your GMAT essay abilities are up to snuff, you can use GMAC’s services to review . explained. • GMAT Club – www.gmatclub.com – Similar to Test Magic • GMAT Club Prep material - It’s pretty good. • http://daveformba.blogspot.com – my weblog. Obviously, this is where you got this guide. SANE to memorize this Some Any— No— Every Everyone Everybody Everything Someone Somebody Something Either Neither One Each Anyone Anybody Anything No one Nothing Nobody Whoever. Therefore, I ask that you use the links in this document to purchase the GMAT books you’ll be buying used or new to help support this web site you found this document on. (By the way, I have and