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The Business School Application Process: Step 7: Making it official: the applications.

Monday, November 30th, 2009

You’ve researched. You’ve planned. You’ve taken your tests. Sent your transcripts. Gathered your letters of recommendation. Written your application essays and personal statements. Now it’s time to make it official.
Step 7: Complete and submit your applications.

Good news: you’re just moments away from becoming an official business school applicant. The hard parts are finished, and by now, you should have a stellar application packet almost ready to go… it just needs an official application form to introduce you to the admissions committees who will soon be reviewing your file.

And more good news: there’s not much you can do to screw this part up, but there are a few pitfalls you must absolutely avoid at all costs.
Review your programs’ application website and proofread everything else.

Before you complete the last portion of your application for admission, take a few moments to re-read the full application instructions on the website of each program at which you intend to apply. Double-check all application instructions to ensure that you’ve followed all instructions and completed all the necessary elements. Review the word count or page limits for your essays. Check off each required form, letter, or statement required. Once you’re satisfied that you’ve done everything correctly, you’re ready to fill out the surprisingly brief application form.
Do a “dry run.”

After the months you’ve probably spent preparing everything else, the actual application form will look pleasantly quick and easy. But before you begin filling anything in, print a copy to fill in manually if you plan to submit online, or print or photocopy a spare if you’ll be sending in a paper application. Start on your practice copy. Make sure you read each prompt carefully and provide the correct information. Taking the time to physically write out your application (rather than simply completing it online) will give you an added opportunity to get everything right.

Once you’ve finished filling out the paper form (or the spare copy), read everything again. Trust me: this is not the place for sloppy mistakes, missing blanks, or typos.
Complete your final application form(s).

When you’re satisfied with your “dry run” application, transfer everything to your final application form(s). If you’ll be sending in a paper application, choose your pen wisely. Choose a pen that won’t smudge as you write or bleed through to the opposite side of the paper.
Proofread your final application form(s).

Yes, again. You can never be too careful with this stuff. Always be aware that your admission and scholarship opportunities will be determined based upon your submissions, and take the appropriate amount of caution.
Include or attach payment.

Applications cost money (unless you’ve obtained a fee waiver), so don’t forget to include the correct payment amount with your application.
Submit everything.

Once you are absolutely, positively certain that your entire packet is ready to go, it’s time to send it off. If you’re submitting online, make sure all documents are properly attached and send it off with confidence. If you are sending in a paper version, use your printer to address the envelope you’ll be using. Make sure the envelope is oriented properly in the printer. Double-check the addresses. Make sure you place a check in the envelope or include credit card payment information on the application form (if/where you’re prompted to do so). Include all of the appropriate documents and attachments, seal up your envelope, and stamp it. I recommend taking your applications directly to the post office, but maybe that’s just me being neurotic.

Your application is now officially on its way! Time to celebrate! …But not for too long. You’ll still need to pay for school, so when you’re ready, you’ll need to gather up your most recent tax documents, complete your taxes, submit your FAFSA (for domestic students), and apply for financial aid.

Check out other articles in this series:
The Business School Application Process Part 1 – Building Your To-Do List
The Business School Application Process Part 2 – Managing the Application Process
The Business School Application Process Part 3 – Test Preparation
The Business School Application Process Part 4 – Transcripts and Paperwork
The Business School Application Process Part 5 – Recommendations
The Business School Application Process Part 6 – Essays and Personal Statements

Posted in Application, Business School, Series | No Comments »

Nothing Is Perfect—Especially On The GMAT

Monday, November 30th, 2009

Flaw questions are another often-seen challenge on the GMAT.  The central error in reasoning on GMAT flaw questions always comes down to the same thing: the evidence presented doesn’t logically lead to the conclusion.  You can’t argue with the evidence itself, so don’t be distracted by answer choices that directly contradict what’s stated in the argument.  However, you CAN argue with the way the evidence was obtained or interpreted, or with how it is connected to the conclusion.  Let’s look at a couple of examples:

Teenagers and young adults in their early 20s are 3 times more likely to participate in volunteer work than are men and women over 25.  Of those people who volunteer, teenagers are also twice as likely to donate more than 5 hours per week to volunteer work as are those over 25.  Thus, it must be true that teenagers are more aware of the ways that volunteer work benefits the community than are any other group of people.

Here, the problem is that the evidence as given doesn’t support the conclusion.  All of the evidence focuses on volunteer participation and the amount of volunteer work done.  But the conclusion is about recognizing the value of volunteer work.  That shift is a serious flaw; the key to recognizing that flaw is keeping an eye out for terms that appear in one part of the argument—evidence or conclusion—and nowhere else.

A recent study of teenagers in Alphaville showed that students on the Alphaville High School football team were considered by their peers to be more academically successful and of higher social status than were students in the marching band.  Therefore, Pete, a Betaville soccer player, should quit soccer and join the football team if he wants to be more popular and get better grades.

This argument has multiple flaws.  Let’s look at them individually:

  1. Evidence is given only about Alphaville teenagers, but the conclusion is about a single Betaville teenager.  The applicability of evidence about one geographical area to another area is questionable, as is evidence about one small group to one single case.  A larger, more geographically relevant sample size would help here.
  2. The evidence given compares football players to marching band members, but the conclusion is about a soccer player.  A conclusion about a soccer player would be better supported by evidence about a soccer player.
  3. The conclusion makes a recommendation for a course of action that would allegedly help Pete be more popular and get better grades.  But the evidence only describes peers’ perceptions of football players, which might be relevant to popularity, but do not provide a solid basis for a conclusion about their grades.  Peer perceptions are not a sufficient basis for a conclusion about a numerically measurable issue like grades.

An answer choice addressing any one of these flaws would be correct.  A strong test-taker will notice flaws as he or she reads, and will be looking for an answer choice addressing one or more of the predicted flaws.  Don’t go to the answer choices without at least one prediction in mind of a pre-identified flaw; tempting wrong answer choices can easily lead you astray and cost you time or points if you let them guide your evaluation, instead of taking control and navigating actively through the answer choices.

Brianna is thinking about getting a puppy.  She would like to adopt from the local Humane Society, but she recently read an article in which owners of purebred dogs purchased from dog breeders reported a low incidence of health or disciplinary problems with their pets.  Brianna should therefore purchase her new puppy from a dog breeder.

The reasoning in this argument is questionable because it makes a recommendation based on self-reported information from dog owners.  Self-reported data can easily be weakened by the suggestion that the people surveyed lied.  More objective data is better for supporting a conclusion.  Also, the evidence given doesn’t discuss Humane Society dogs, so there’s insufficient support for concluding that purebred dogs are preferable.

Overall, the key to identifying the flaw in a GMAT question is having an understanding of common flaw types.  The general rule is that the flaw will either lie in the reliability of the evidence itself or in the terms of the conclusion that is drawn based on the evidence.  These are the things to be looking for now, and in a later blog post, we’ll give more attention to a few specific common flaw types.

For more practice with flaw questions visit Grockit.

Posted in Critical Reasoning, Flaw, GMAT, Verbal | No Comments »

The Business School Application Process: Step 6: Essays and Personal Statements

Saturday, November 28th, 2009

You know yourself.

Adcoms, however, don’t know you. All they have to go on is your GPA, some test scores, some letters from some people who know you, and these: your application essays and/or personal statement. With that said, your essays and personal statements are, well, personal. So I can’t (or won’t) tell you what you should write.

What I can–and will–tell you is what characteristics your essays should and should not have. There are reasons adcoms ask specific questions: 1) to figure out how well you can follow directions, 2) to learn more about your writing and communication skills, and 3) to find out more about your specific qualifications for their programs. Here’s a good starter list of dos and don’ts:
DO: Be honest.
DO NOT: “Stretch” the truth.

Never, ever “stretch the truth” in an application essay or personal statement. More often than not, these kinds of things have a way of coming back to bite you. Think of it this way: the applications process is tricky enough on its own. You’ll have enough to keep track of with your various schools and myriad essay questions and personal statement guidelines and deadlines. You’ll need to make sure you’re naming the right school, sending the right targeted letters of recommendation, meeting the right deadlines, answering the right essay question, and keeping to the appropriate margins and word counts for each school’s essays. Telling the truth means you have that much less to remember.

There are ways to deal with the less-than-pleasant elements of your past as they apply to b-school applications. There are few things that are absolute deal-breakers. Should you need to address something like a grade slump, an altercation with the law, or a blemish in your employment past, adcoms want to know that you learned a valuable lesson from the experience and that the problem is in your past and won’t happen again.

Besides, admissions folk see enough applications to develop some pretty good instincts on honesty, fluff, and outright falsehoods in applications, and I’ve heard plenty of stories about applicants being asked about elements of their applications in interviews. If you have to lie to get into a program, it’s not the right program for you. Trust that the admissions people know who and what they’re looking for, for reasons that are quite often beyond an applicant’s knowledge and/or understanding. They’re professionals. Trust them; if you’re who/what they’re looking for, then you’ll get in… and if not, well… that just wasn’t the school or program for you.
DO: Use spelling and grammar checkers.
DO NOT: Submit any writing samples with spelling errors or grammatical mistakes.

In the age of built-in spelling and grammar-check, there is absolutely no valid excuse for submitting a writing sample that contains spelling errors or grammatical mistakes. Such blunders are often considered inexcusable, and rightly so. If you’re applying to graduate studies, your most basic writing skills should display competence. A lack of such attention to detail also reeks of laziness and shoddy work, traits not so highly sought after in the business school admissions process.

But beyond mere lack of error, there are other crucial elements to keep in mind.
DO: Follow directions.
DO NOT: Exceed the allotted word limit, page count, or margins.

You are not the first person to feel like you are worth more than 500 words or two pages or whatever the particular limitations might be. I know I might sound repetitive here, but trust that the adcoms know what they’re doing (not to mention that they’re really, really busy).

Great writing necessarily involves great editing. A truly great story includes all of the relevant story elements and nothing superfluous. Need more tangible examples? Think about what happens to a joke’s punchline when you flub the build-up with too much padding, or recall a bad movie you’ve seen that seemed to carry on and on for hours with little plot development (”Swept Away” comes to mind), only to leave you feeling underwhelmed at the end (and robbed of three hours of your life).

But don’t take my word on it: When asked why he wrote a particularly lengthy letter, Mark Twain allegedly replied, “I didn’t have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead.” A little bit of editing can go a long way.
DO: Answer the questions asked.
DO NOT: Stray from the topic.

To do so, your submissions must be on-point. Failure to do so can cause adcoms to think one of two things about you: 1) you didn’t think the question asked was worthy of an answer, that you know what they want better than they do, or 2) you’re unable to comprehend directions. Neither portrait is a desirable one.

Here’s something important to consider: In the applications for many different schools offering similar programs, you may find a high degree of overlap in essay question prompts. While it is definitely okay–and smart, even–to consolidate your efforts by using some of your answers to similar questions from previous applications, you should make absolutely certain that you have adequately tailored the response you submit to the particular question asked on the correct school’s application.
DO: Communicate skillfully.
DO NOT: Answer the question(s) like a simple Q&A.

This is a writing sample–a rare chance for you to shine–and, as such, your writing should positively exhibit your communication skills. Being free of spelling or grammatical mistakes is a start, and staying on point is also helpful, but you’ll need to exhibit some real panache if you want to stand out from the crowd.

In regards to tone, know your audience. Schools are looking for serious students, so you’ll want to convey maturity and commitment in your writing. The structure of your writing should illustrate your ability to introduce, develop, and conclude an idea. Your language and sentence structure should be complex enough to exhibit your linguistic skills, but shouldn’t be plugged with excessive displays of esoteric language.
DO: Be true to yourself in your writing sample.
DO NOT: Copy someone else’s personal statement or write your essays “by committee.”

Remember that this might be a school’s best chance of getting to know the real you. Be yourself in your essay. Speak in your own voice. Don’t retool the essay of someone else who got into XYZ school, and don’t get the input of your twelve closest friends and family members. Doing so only makes it more likely that your writing samples, when considered as a whole package, will sound disjointed and confusing. They’re not applying to XYZ school; you are. You know your reasons better than anyone. You know why this is the perfect school or program or field of study for you better than anyone else does. No one will be a stauncher advocate in this process.

Trust your own voice and run with it. Many applicants choose to write personal narratives, others choose to write persuasive essays, while others feel that neither option fits and choose a style more personal. There is no right or wring way to write, so long as you stick to the dos and don’ts above. Find the best way you can use this opportunity to prove to schools why you’re the right fit for their program and get to work.

Finally…
DO: Write several drafts over time.
DO NOT: Procrastinate until you have only two days to submit your essays.

Trust me on this one: you’ll need time to be able to edit your essay(s) properly. Even the best writers can’t edit their own material without giving the brain some time to recover from writing mode. Give your head a little time to distance yourself from the first draft. Come back a few days, maybe a week later, and give it a fresh look. You’ll be much better equipped to find the problems in flow that need to be fixed or the linguistic oddities you’ll want to smooth out. I recommend dedicating the same day every week for a month to the process. On your application calendar, maybe block off every Saturday morning for the month before you intend to submit your applications. Use this time for drafting, writing, editing, revising, and finalizing your essays. You’ll be glad you did.

Now go get inspired! Read a few pages from your favorite book or poem or speech. Take some notes. Print out the essay questions or personal statement guidelines and start outlining what you want to say. When you’re ready to move on, we’ll get on with the business of submitting those applications you’ve been working on for so long!

Check out other articles in this series:
The Business School Application Process Part 1 – Building Your To-Do List
The Business School Application Process Part 2 – Managing the Application Process
The Business School Application Process Part 3 – Test Preparation
The Business School Application Process Part 4 – Transcripts and Paperwork
The Business School Application Process Part 5 – Recommendations

Posted in Application, Business School, Business School Essays, Series | 2 Comments »

Formal Logic: Sorting Out the Necessary and the Sufficient

Friday, November 27th, 2009

Sometimes, a critical reasoning question on the Verbal section of the GMAT has an answer so clear that there’s no mistaking it.  For instance, the information given in the question has an obvious gap in it, and the test-taker quickly spots the appropriate answer and moves on.  Other times, though, the question seems bizarrely phrased, and all of the answer choices are either too extreme to be possible, or so similar to one another that choosing one comes down to a quick Eeny Meeny Miney Moe.  In those cases, the key to understanding and conquering the question is often formal logic.

Formal logic, or conditional statements, can be frustrating to the unwary test taker.  In its most basic form, a conditional statement looks like this:

If X, then Y.

See?  Not so scary, right?  But then you have to make a contrapositive of that conditional statement.  And the contrapositive of the statement above should look like this:

If not Y, then not X.

Okay.  So, you’re probably thinking that this isn’t so tricky.  And you’re right: at its simplest, formal logic is absolutely understandable.  When it gets less simple, it becomes a problem for many test takers, and I’ll talk more about that in a later blog posting.  But for now, let’s deal with X and Y—or, for clarity’s sake, a car and a key.  In order to understand how formal logic translates to our purposes on the GMAT, we need to see it at work in a real-life context.  So, here’s our car-and-key formal logic statement:

If the car starts, then the key must be in the ignition.

That makes sense, right?  The car is our X factor here—the “sufficient” factor—and the key is our Y—the “necessary” factor.  What makes one sufficient and the other necessary?  Well, the car here is sufficient because knowing that the car starts is enough information to tell us that the key must be in it.  Could the key be in it even if it didn’t start?  Sure.  If you’ve ever left your keys in the ignition and accidentally locked yourself out of the car, you’re very familiar with the fact that the car doesn’t have to be running for the key to be in the ignition.  But if the car does start, that is sufficient to tell us that the key is in the ignition.  And that’s why the car starting is the “sufficient” factor in the scenario: it’s not the ONLY thing that would indicate that the key is in the ignition, but it’s enough.  Now, let’s move on to our contrapositive:

If the key is not in the ignition, then the car doesn’t start.

So now we can see that the key is the “necessary” factor here.  If it’s not present, then the car won’t start.  Thus, we have both “necessary” and “sufficient” factors in the statement of formal logic.  But we have to be careful; if this information were part of a GMAT question, the test writers would probably try to trick us by including tempting wrong answer choices like this:

If the car doesn’t start, then the key is not in the ignition.

That looks like a contrapositive if you’re not paying close enough attention.  But we saw above that in order to form the contrapositive, the original necessary and sufficient factors had to switch places and be negated.  Here, there’s been negation, but no switch.  And looking at it logically, this statement doesn’t have to be true based on our original statement, “If the car starts, then the key must be in the ignition.”  If the car doesn’t start, yes, it could mean that the key isn’t in the ignition.  But maybe the key is in the ignition, and the car is just out of gas.  Or the battery is dead.  Or someone cut one of the little wire things under the hood like they do in movies. (Auto maintenance isn’t really my strongest area of knowledge, so I’m grasping at straws here.)  The point is, knowing that the car not starting is not sufficient to tell us whether or not the key is in the ignition.

So what can we take out of this?  Well, formal logic is tricky.  And we’ll be delving into it more later.  But for now, you as a test taker can start focusing on the necessary and the sufficient elements of statements, and using that knowledge to weed out wrong answer choices.

Visit Grockit for more formal logic practice!

Posted in Critical Reasoning, GMAT, Verbal | No Comments »

Coordinating Conjunctions: “So,” FANBOYS Part 7/7

Wednesday, November 25th, 2009

This is the last of a short series of articles on the short list of what are known as coordinating conjunctions, short words themselves that show up very frequently in the GMAT Sentence Correction questions. Learning them can save you time, allowing you to eliminate wrong answer choices quickly and confidently; understanding them will of course also help add style and clarity to your AWA and admissions applications. These coordinating conjunctions are often remembered by the acronym FANBOYS (For, And, Nor, But, Or, Yet, So); their job in a sentence is joining two or more parallel . . . well, things in a sentence.

1. These words can join single words (Would you like one or two?);
2. whole phrases (He plans to post to Facebook today and try Twitter at least once by the end of the week);
3. or entire independent clauses — things that would stand alone as complete sentences without the conjunction (I would love to try the peaches, but the fuzz gives me the chills).

The things these conjunctions connect must be the same type of thing — an adverb and another adverb, a noun and a noun, an independent clause with another independent clause. Just as you can only add fractions when they have the same denominator, you can only use parallel parts with coordinating conjunctions. All of these coordinating conjunctions also have at least one other job in English.
SO

The last of the FANBOYS, so, is quite a word. In addition to its job as a conjunction, it also can be an adverb, an adjective, an interjection, and even a noun! We’ll cover all of them for the sake of clarity and completeness; the use of so as a conjunction is not as varied as the other FANBOYS, though. So is used to express purpose or result with two independent clauses:

Purpose:

Your mother went to the store so we can bake cookies tonight.
Write this down so you don’t forget it.

Result:

She didn’t wake up on time, so she was late for work.
You’re not going to pay me, so I’m not going to do any more work.
If the two of you can go without ice cream for a year, so can I.

(note that when so is used for the second half of a conditional sentence, the word order of the subject and verb is reversed, as it would be with a question like “how can I?”)

Whether so (as a coordinating conjunction) is used to express purpose or result, you have just two rules to keep in mind on Test Day:

Rule 1: Things connected by so need to be parallel, and need to be independent clauses
Rule 2: When so is used as the consequence in a conditional statement, word order is changed

For the sake of completeness and to clear up questions you might have on the other uses of so:

Adverb:

(”very”): If I weren’t so worried about this trip, I would be able to sleep.
(”to that extent”): What took you so long?

*Note that the “extent” version of so does get tested on the GMAT in sentences splitting up “so [adjective] . . . . that [result]” (”He was so tall that he had to duck his head”)!

Adjective:

(a synonym for “true”): Say it isn’t so!
(”in the aforementioned way/manner”): We were very excited and nervous about the big game, but so was the other team.

Interjection:

(summarizing, akin to the “result” so): So, let’s get your suitcase packed for your trip.
(beginning a question): So, when do you start your MBA program?

As a noun, so is a term from music referring the fifth note of a major scale; it is not likely to appear on the GMAT in this form!

I hope the FANBOYS are a little more familiar to you now!

Read other articles in this series:
Coordinating Conjunctions: “For,” FANBOYS Part 1 of 7
Coordinating Conjunctions: “And,” FANBOYS Part 2 of 7
Coordinating Conjunctions: “Nor,” FANBOYS Part 3 of 7
Coordinating Conjunctions: “But,” FANBOYS Part 4 of 7
Coordinating Conjunctions: “Or,” FANBOYS Part 5 of 7
Coordinating Conjunctions: “Yet,” FANBOYS Part 6 of 7

Posted in GMAT, Sentence Correction, Series, Verbal | No Comments »

The GMAT Subjunctive Part 2 of 8: If I were to score 760

Tuesday, November 24th, 2009

The subjunctive usually refers to things that have not happened yet, whether we really want them to happen (commands, wishes) or not (suppositions, conditional statements, fearing). The subjunctive appears in very specific contexts; we shall cover the most common ones, and some of the less common ones!  Please note that the subjunctive on the GMAT is not common! If your Verbal scores are low, direct your studies toward:

  • subject-verb agreement
  • verb tense, comparisons
  • parallelism (the GMAT loves parallelism so much, the two of them should get married)

The subjunctive exists in many languages, though other languages use it more than we do in English, where it’s a somewhat strange and slowly disappearing form.

What does it look like?

The present subjunctive looks exactly the same as both the imperative (used in direct orders, like Go home! or Be careful!) and the part of the infinitive that isn’t the word to (to sleep or to dream).  Some call this the “plain form” of the verb, since it’s the same in all three settings (sit, merge, dig).  It doesn’t get different endings for being in the past tense (like take vs. taken) or in the third person singular (I eat vs. she eats).  Since Sentence Correction on the GMAT is completely dominated by third-person verbs (he/she/it jumps, they jump), the subjunctive will stand out more often:

Indicative (”normal”):  She drives her truck to work.

Subjunctive:  I suggested that she drive her truck to work.

It definitely stands out!  You won’t be able to tell a friend “She drive her truck to work!” without your friend wondering whether you’ve been hit in the head too many times, because the subjunctive doesn’t live on its own, outside of a few set phrases that are basically fossils, remnants of a time when the subjunctive was more common in English (and we’ll cover those too).  When you need a present subjunctive, think of how you would form the infinitive (to sing, to cut) and remove the to:  that’s your present subjunctive (or “plain form”).

The past subjunctive looks the same as the normal (indicative) form, except in the verb to be.

The future subjunctive as it is traditionally taught looks different from the indicative and other subjunctives in all forms; some say that because it’s so different, we should call it something else and not the future subjunctive at all.  I mention this because your understanding of how this works is deeply affected by the way you were taught (for most non-native speakers of English) or the fact that you weren’t taught it at all (for most native speakers); I didn’t learn about the subjunctive until I studied other languages!  No matter how (or whether) you were taught the subjunctive, though, these are the forms you could see on the GMAT.

I’ve made this chart for your reference; I will include all of this information in every installment of this series so that you don’t have to refer back to this article:

Jim2

I’ve highlighted the places where the subjunctive differs from the “normal” indicative.  In the future

tense, you see that I have “will/shall”; traditionally, “shall” is the simple first-person future form (I/we shall, but he/she/it/you/they will), though you are not likely to see it often in American English.  “Shall” can still be used to show certainty or obligation (You shall not pass!), and also appears in legal language.

Where will I see it?

There are some common places the subjunctive can appear in English; we will be covering all of these in this series:

  • wishes (I wish that I were able to drive a motorcycle or may the best man win)
  • suppositions (If I were to go to the party, I wouldn’t finish paint ing the house)
  • demands and commands (She demanded that he leave her house immediately)
  • suggestions and proposals (I suggest that she think about it more)
  • conditions contrary to fact (If I were master of the universe, college tuition would be free)
  • statements of necessity (It’s necessary that they be there for your safety)
  • fearing with lest (I filled her car with gas lest she run out on her cross-country trip)
  • idiomatic phrases  (As it were or be that as it may or . . . need only . . .)

Suppositions

A “supposition” (which is the noun form of “suppose”) is a sentence theorizing or guessing about possible outcomes of actions that haven’t happened yet, or options being considered.  Suppositions are more common in spoken English than in written English, but the subjunctives are slowly being replaced by indicatives (which are normally used in factual conditions).  Eventually the indicative forms will be correct formal English . . . but not in time for your GMAT Test Date:

-Supposition (subjunctive):  If I were to be elected president, the first thing I would do is replace our complex income tax with a higher, but simpler, sales tax.

-Supposition (indicative, common in spoken English now, not correct on the GMAT):  If I am elected president, the first thing I would do is replace our complex income tax with a higher, but simpler, sales tax.

-Compare those to a factual condition:  If I am elected president, the first thing I will do is replace our complex income tax with a higher, but simpler, sales tax. It’s not “factual” in the sense that it has happened, but rather is as factual as a promise or a prediction (or a threat!).

A GMAT-style question:

After spending many long nights working late in his office, the architect thought that if he were to continue working so much he would lose both his sanity and his job, while if he stopped working so much he would at least have his sanity.

A. should he stop working working so much he should

B. should he stop working so much he would

C. if he were to stop working so much he should

D. should he were to stop working so much he should

E. if he were to stop working so much he would

Read Part 1: “Wishes” if you haven’t already and work out the problem. The answer to the question as written was C; replacing “wishes” with “wants” would make the correct answer E.

Answer for this one:  Next time, along with demands and commands!

Posted in GMAT, Sentence Correction, Series, Verbal | 1 Comment »

Coordinating Conjunctions: “Yet,” FANBOYS Part 6/7

Monday, November 23rd, 2009

This is the sixth of a short series of articles on the short list of what are known as coordinating conjunctions, short words themselves that show up very frequently in the GMAT Sentence Correction questions. Learning them can save you time, allowing you to eliminate wrong answer choices quickly and confidently; understanding them will of course also help add style and clarity to your AWA and admissions applications. These coordinating conjunctions are often remembered by the acronym FANBOYS (For, And, Nor, But, Or, Yet, So); their job in a sentence is joining two or more parallel . . . well, things in a sentence.

1. These words can join single words (Would you like a hug or kiss?);
2. whole phrases (He plans to dig a hole today and fill it with sand and gravel until the end of the week);
3. or entire independent clauses — things that would stand alone as complete sentences without the conjunction (I would love to try the peaches, but the fuzz gives me the chills).

The things these conjunctions connect must be the same type of thing — an adverb and another adverb, a noun and a noun, an independent clause with another independent clause. Just as you can only add fractions when they have the same denominator, you can only use parallel parts with coordinating conjunctions. All of these coordinating conjunctions also have at least one other job in English.

The sixth of the FANBOYS, yet, is another one of our “double agents”; yet is both a conjunction (the subject of this series!) and an adverb. When yet appears as a conjunction, it has an intent similar to the conjunction but or the adverb nevertheless — what follows yet is in some way contrary to the expectations set by what came before it.

Direct opposition: The family reunion was a happy one for all who attended, yet for many it was a sad one at the same time.
Contrary to expectation: The team was no longer mathematically able to make it to the playoffs, yet each athlete played as if it were the championship game.

Note that yet can appear alongside two other coordinating conjunctions, and and but:

Mr. Jones disliked the children in the neighborhood, and yet he still made sure he had plenty of candy for the children every Halloween.
We have never had a good meal at that restaurant, but yet we still go back there occasionally, hoping it will be better.

By comparison, when yet is used as an adverb, it means “up to a specified point” or “still”:

Up to a specified point: She was not yet tall enough to be allowed on that amusement park ride last year.
At a point in the future: The ancient script Linear A may yet be deciphered.
Still or continuously: I haven’t refused a free slice of pizza yet.

As long as we are speaking of yet (the conjunction), you have just one rule to remember — the same rule that appears with every one of these coordinating conjunctions:

Your only rule for yet: Things connected by yet need to be parallel

A GMAT-style question:

The popular actor walked into the party with the self-importance of a man walking onto a yacht, yet he succeeded only in impressing everyone with his vanity.

A. a yacht, yet he succeeded only in impressing everyone with his vanity.
B. a yacht, yet only having his success in impressing everyone with his vanity.
C. a yacht; only yet successful in impressing everyone with his vanity.
D. a yacht, only yet he succeeded in impressing everyone with his vanity.
E. a yacht, yet only impressing his success on everyone with his vanity.

Next: The last of the FANBOYS, the conjunction SO.

Read other articles in this series:
Coordinating Conjunctions: “For,” FANBOYS Part 1 of 7
Coordinating Conjunctions: “And,” FANBOYS Part 2 of 7
Coordinating Conjunctions: “Nor,” FANBOYS Part 3 of 7
Coordinating Conjunctions: “But,” FANBOYS Part 4 of 7
Coordinating Conjunctions: “Or,” FANBOYS Part 5 of 7

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Inequalities

Sunday, November 22nd, 2009

The best way to think of inequalities is as equations with slightly less specific information. Instead of providing an exact location, they provide a range of locations, all of which are satisfactory. With “=” instead of“<”, we can solve for the exact number. In an inequality, that number will be used as an endpoint.

Find the Range

To find the range, you can solve for each inequality as if it were an equation, and then look at the direction of the sign. For example:

1/2 < 2x + 3 < 8

To find the range of values for x, we can subtract 3 from all three expressions, and then divide by 2.

(1/2 – 3) < 2x < (8 – 3)
-5/2 < 2x < 5

-5/4 < x < 5/2

If the question had asked if x³ < 0 (if x is negative), then we would not have definitive proof. Inequalities literally provide a range of options, so be sure what critical points (0, +1, -1 etc) these ranges include.

How many Ranges? It Depends.

When you have one greater/less than sign in an inequality with a linear variable, there is only one range created. Here are your options:

x>2 OR
x<4

These both provide one range stretching to infinity or to negative infinity. But what if you had x² < 9?

x² < 9 actually provides a finite range with two endpoints, even though there is only one < sign. The endpoints in this case are +/-3. Any x value between these two points will satisfy the equation. Also note that the expression x² < 9 can also be written as |x| < 3.

Be careful how many endpoints are created, to recognize whether the range is finite or infinite.

Multiplication/Division of a Negative Number
Make sure you are not multiplying or dividing by a negative number. In these situations you must FLIP the signs. If you aren’t sure whether the number is positive or negative (as in a variable) then you cannot perform the action. Please see the following Data Sufficiency question:

If m ≠ -n, is (m – n)/(m + n) > 1?

(1) n < -2
(2) m > 1

On first look, this seems pretty simple. We always want to make the inequality as simple as possible before analyzing, so we can multiply both sides by (m + n) to get (m – n) > (m + n). Then subtract m from both sides to get –n < n. If n<0, as provided in Statement (1), then there is sufficient information, right?

Not so fast. How were we so sure that (m + n) was positive? If it were negative, then we would have to flip the sign, which would yield an opposite answer. Even with both (1) and (2), we still do not know the sign of (m + n). We may know that the numerator (m – n) is positive, but since no specific magnitude is given for m or n, we cannot know the sign of their difference. If given absolute equations for m and n, we would be able to solve. Choice E.

Inequalities and Absolute Values

Since an absolute value simply expresses a distance from a certain point, if we used an inequality instead of an equal sign, we know if a distance is more or less than the specified amount. Take a look at the following example:

GMATPS_QS150Q0
Which inequality below most accurately represents the range of possible values for x?

A. The absolute value of x is less than or equal to 4.
B. The absolute value of x is less than or equal to 5.
C. The absolute value of (x + 2) is less than or equal to 2.
D. The absolute value of (x - 1) is less than or equal to 3.
E. The absolute value of (x + 1) is less than or equal to 3.

The first thing we want to do is determine the midpoint between the endpoints. What this does is create an equal distance in the negative and positive directions from that center location. For this question, the center point between -2 and +4 is +1.

From +1, our range of possible values for x extends at most 3 in either direction, but can also be 1, 1.5, 2.8 etc in either direction. This means that the distance from +1 is LESS THAN 3.

Looking at our answer choices, we now have to decide between D and E. With absolute values, as with some advanced pre-calculus equations, the shift within the equation is opposite of the shift on the graph. A good way to quickly test this is to plug in numbers toward the extremes and see which fit.

For (E), if we plug in x = 3.5 (which we know is within the given range) into | x + 1 | ≤ 3, we get 4.5 ≤ 3, which is false.

Any x within the given range meets the inequality | x - 1 | ≤ 3 in Choice D. Be sure to think of ranges in terms of both inequalities and absolute values, as these come up in about 1-2 questions per test.

Good luck. Please visit the Grockit forum or leave a comment here to discuss further.

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Coordinating Conjunctions: “Or,” FANBOYS Part 5/7

Saturday, November 21st, 2009

This is the fifth of a short series of articles on the short list of what are known as coordinating conjunctions, short words themselves that show up very frequently in the GMAT Sentence Correction questions. Learning them can save you time, allowing you to eliminate wrong answer choices quickly and confidently; understanding them will of course also help add style and clarity to your AWA and admissions applications.  These coordinating conjunctions are often remembered by the acronym FANBOYS (For, And, Nor, But, Or, Yet, So); their job in a sentence is joining two or more parallel  . . . well, things in a sentence.

  1. These words can join single words (Would you like a new coat or hat?);
  2. whole phrases (He plans to eat sushi today and cook on the grill at least once by the end of the week);
  3. or entire independent clauses — things that would stand alone as complete sentences without the conjunction (I would love to try the peaches, but the fuzz gives me the chills).

The things these conjunctions connect must be the same type of thing — an adverb and another adverb, a noun and a noun, an independent clause with another independent clause.  Just as you can only add fractions when they have the same denominator, you can only use parallel parts with coordinating conjunctions.  All of these coordinating conjunctions also have at least one other job in English.

V. OR

The fifth of the FANBOYS, or, does not lead quite the double life that for does (for is also a preposition, which is a different part of speech); or is only a conjunction, but as one of the three most common coordinating conjunctions, or has Test Day implications for you.  On the surface, or offers a simple choice (wet or dry, left or right), but on closer inspection it has two uses, inclusive and exclusive.

Inclusive:

May I get you an appetizer or some drinks? (Or can separate non-exclusive choices, with an unstated choice “all of them”; tone of voice makes this use of or clearer in spoken English)That woman is an absolute genius, or at least more insightful than the average person. (Or can precede a clarification or refinement of the statement that comes before it)

Exclusive:

I will make it to the finish line or die trying! (It is not possible to do both logically)

Either clean up this room, or start packing your suitcase for boarding school. (Either . . . or is always the exclusive or)

Note: you will never see either without or, but you will frequently see or without either.

Whether or is inclusive or exclusive, you have just two rules to keep in mind on Test Day:

  • Rule 1: Things connected by or need to be parallel (with or without the presence of either)
  • Rule 2: When or joins two things (nouns or pronouns) in the subject of a sentence, and both parts are the same number (singular or plural), then the verb will match that number (singular or plural); when or joins two things in the subject of a sentence and the two parts differ in number, the verb will take the number of the part closer to the verb

Examples of Rule 2:

Matthew or Samantha will answer the phone when I am not home. (Two singular subjects with a singular verb)

Bottles of wine or fine chocolates are excellent gifts for the host of the party. (Two plural subjects with a plural verb)

The coach or her assistant coaches decide who plays each game. (One singular, one plural subject with a plural verb)

The assistant coaches or the head coach decides who plays each game. (One singular, one plural subject with a singular verb)

Some say it is a rule that when you have or joining a singular and a plural, the plural always goes second (and therefore you will always have a plural verb if at least one of the parts is plural).  If this is easier for you to remember in your own writing, or if your school’s or employer’s style manual requires it, then by all means follow this rule — but be careful on the GMAT!

In the next article we will cover: Yet

Read other articles in this series:
Coordinating Conjunctions: “For,” FANBOYS Part 1 of 7
Coordinating Conjunctions: “And,” FANBOYS Part 2 of 7
Coordinating Conjunctions: “Nor,” FANBOYS Part 3 of 7
Coordinating Conjunctions: “But,” FANBOYS Part 4 of 7

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Geometry Series Part 3: Couple Common Circle Concepts

Friday, November 20th, 2009

One of the key things to remember with circles is that once you know one piece of information, you know everything about the circle itself. Additional angles and lengths inside are not always so simple, but it is possible to convert circumferences to areas, to radii and diameters without intermediate steps. This will save you time in Data Sufficiency questions.

Arc Lengths and Sector Areas

300px-Circle_arc.svg 1

Arc Lengths (portions of perimeters) and Sectors (pie slices) seem more complicated than they really are. Both relate directly to the internal angle at the circle’s center, represented by θ in this diagram. Here are the equations:

Sector Area = A = θ/360 * πr²

Arc Length = L = θ/360 * 2πr

Literally, all we are doing is finding the fraction of the circle and applying it to either the area or circumference formula, respectively. Note there are only 2 variables. This is good to keep in mind for Data Sufficiency questions. It will be helpful to finding the solution to the following problem:

square in circle 2

In the above diagram, a square is inscribed in a circle, which is inscribed in another square. Which is larger, the green region or the yellow region?

(1) The area of the larger square is 64.
(2) The area of the green region is 4.

(Standard Data Sufficiency answer choices apply)

Let’s start with Statement 1.

A(large square) = 64
s(large square) = 8
diameter = 8
r = 4

First, recognize that the figure is symmetrical. So while we may not explicitly be given an angle to find the sector area (not drawn) in which the yellow region resides, we do know its measure. The diagonals of a square intersect at a right angle, so we can deduce that the sector including the yellow region is 1/4 of the area of the circle. Since we know the radius…

A(large sector) = 1/4 * 16π = 4π

To find the yellow region itself, we must subtract the imaginary (not drawn) triangle from 4π. (Note that this imaginary triangle will be twice the green triangle.)

A(imaginary triangle) = 1/2 * r * r = 1/2 * 4 * 4 = 8

A(Yellow Region) = 4π – 8

The area of the green region can be found in two ways. Either we can see that it’s simply one-half of the 8 we just found, OR we can find both sides of the green triangle with the common 45-45-90 1:1:√2 formula. With a hypotenuse of 4, we derive 2√2 for each side, which yields an area of 4.

Which is greater,  4π – 8 or 4?

4π – 8. Sufficient. (We can save the calculations on the GMAT for DS questions, but it’s still good to go through it to practice for PS questions involving similar calculations.)

What about Statement 2?

If we know the area of the green triangle equals 4, and that it is an isosceles right triangle, then we can set up a simple equation to find its sides, which can be denoted x:

1/2 * x² = 4
x² = 8
x = 2√2

If x = 2√2, then the hypotenuse (r) = 2√2 * √2 = 4. From here, we follow the same logic as we did for Statement 1, and determine Statement 2 is sufficient. The answer choice is D.

One More Problem

antenae 3

A circular loop of wire is attached to the two straight wires of a dipole antenna at points X and Y. Point Z is the base of the antenna where the two straight wires meet. How far is point X from the center of the circular loop of wire?

(1) The perimeter of the circular loop of wire is 3 feet.
(2) The center of the circular loop of wire is 2 feet from point Z.

The key point to remember here is that all radii are equal. That is, the distance from the center of the circle (C, not drawn) to both X and Y is the same.

Statement 1: Before we mentioned any if you have any one piece of information about the circle, then you have it all. This is perfect example. If we know the circumference (perimeter) of the wire, we know the radius, regardless of the presence of Z in the diagram. Sufficient.

Statement 2: We can draw a line from Z to C, and mark that distance 2. Because both antenna are tangents to the circle, we know that angles CYZ and CXZ are both right angles, making 2 the hypotenuse. However, there is not additional information (angles or additional sides) that dictates the distance CX. You can visualize this lack of information; picture pinching point Z and dragging it “down” such that X and Y are still on the circle, but closer together. Since there is nothing restricting us from doing that, there is not enough information to accurately determine the length of either the two remaining sides of the right triangle. Insufficient. Answer Choice A.

Here are just a couple examples, but keep working hard. Givens in geometry provide a series of information, not just what’s stated. Make sure to keep that in mind for Data Sufficiency questions.

Good luck!

Read other articles in this series:

Geometry Series pt 1, Circles Inscribed in Squares
Geometry Series pt 2, Inscribed Triangles

Posted in GMAT, Geometry, Quantitative, Series | No Comments »

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