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Page after page of practicequestions are arranged at the back of this book in difficulty “bins”—justlike the questions on the real GMAT—so that you can concentrate on thequestion level y

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Some of the content in the “GMAT Insider” has previously appeared in The Best 296 Business Schools and Business School Essays That Made a Difference, both published as trade

paperbacks by Random House in 2012; and Do I Need an MBA? Figuring Out if Business School Really Fits Your Future Needs, published as an eBook by Random House in 2012.

Trade Paperback ISBN: 9781524757892

Ebook ISBN 9781524758240

GMAT is a registered trademark and owned by the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC).

Our GMAT course is much more than clever techniques and powerfulcomputer score reports; the reason our results are great is that ourteachers care so much about their students Thanks to all the teacherswho have made the GMAT course so successful, but in particular thecore group of teachers and development people who helped get it off theground: Alicia Ernst, Tom Meltzer, Paul Foglino, John Sheehan, MarkSawula, Nell Goddin, Teresa Connelly, Phillip Yee, Kimberly BethHollingsworth, Bobby Hood, Chris Chimera, Chris Hinkle, Peter Hanink,and Cathy Evins

Special thanks to John Fulmer, Kyle Fox, Jim Havens, Ted Klein, andKeith Hehr for their valuable contributions to the 2019 edition of this book

Special thanks to Adam Robinson, who conceived of and perfected theJoe Bloggs approach to standardized tests and many of the othersuccessful techniques used by The Princeton Review

We are also, as always, very appreciative of the time and attention given

to each page by Liz Rutzel, Jim Melloan, and Deborah Weber

• Research admissions rates and average test scores for dozens of

• Read successful b-school application essays, interviews withadministrators, and articles containing a wealth of advice aboutadmissions and financial aid

• Check to see if there have been any corrections or updates to thisedition

• Get our take on any recent or pending updates to the GMAT

Look For These Icons Throughout The Book

ONLINE VIDEO TUTORIALS ONLINE ARTICLES

ONLINE PRACTICE DRILLS ONLINE PRACTICE TESTS PROVEN TECHNIQUES APPLIED STRATEGIES TIME-SAVING TIP

MORE GREAT BOOKS

WATCH OUT

Introduction

Congratulations on your decision to attend business school, and welcome

to Cracking the GMAT, 2019 Edition! Preparing for the GMAT is an

important part of the process, so let’s get started This chapter willprovide you with a strategic plan for acing the GMAT, as well as anoverview of the test itself, including question formats and information onhow the test is scored

HOW TO USE THIS BOOK: A STRATEGIC PLAN FOR ACING THE GMAT

3 Practice Each Type of Question—at the

Difficulty Level You Need to Master

Two of the GMAT’s sections, the Quantitative and Verbal sections, arecomputer adaptive These sections quickly hone in on your ability leveland then mostly give you questions at or just above that level It makessense for you to practice on the level of problem you will actually see

during the test Cracking the GMAT is the only book out there with

practice questions grouped by difficulty Page after page of practicequestions are arranged at the back of this book in difficulty “bins”—justlike the questions on the real GMAT—so that you can concentrate on thequestion level you will have to answer on the actual test in order to getthe score you need

The Integrated Reasoning section of the GMAT is not computer adaptive.

We’ve provided two complete Integrated Reasoning sections at the back

of this book to help you prepare for this section of the test

Measure Your Progress

As you work through the book, you’ll want to take our online practicetests to see how you’re doing These tests closely mimic the GMAT so youcan become familiar with the test’s content and structure Our testsinclude adaptive sections for the Quantitative and Verbal sections and anon-adaptive section for the Integrated Reasoning section Our practicetests can be found at PrincetonReview.com In addition, we actively

encourage students to use The Official Guide for GMAT Review, which is

published by the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) Itcontains actual test questions from previous administrations of theGMAT You should also take at least one of the real practice testsavailable through the GMAT website, www.mba.com

Make sure that you register your book to access your tests Please refer to the “Get More (Free) Content” spread a few pages back to learn how to do just that.

5 Hone Your Skills

Using the detailed score reports from your practice exams, you’ll be able

to zero in on problem areas and quickly achieve mastery throughadditional practice And as your score rises on the adaptive sections, thisbook is ready with more difficult question bins to keep you on track forthe score you need You can use the two practice Integrated Reasoningsections in this book to help you prepare for your practice tests and yourreal GMAT

6 Keep Track of the Application Process

Throughout the book, you will find informative sidebars explaining howand when to register for the test, how and when to apply to businessschool, the advantages and disadvantages of applying early, and muchmore Plus, at PrincetonReview.com, you’ll be able to take advantage

of our powerful web-based tools to match yourself with schools that meetyour needs and preferences

WHAT IS THE GRADUATE MANAGEMENT

ADMISSION TEST?

The Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) is a standardizedtest used by business schools as a tool to decide whom they are going tolet into their MBA programs

Where Does the GMAT Come From?

The GMAT is published and administered by the Graduate ManagementAdmission Council (GMAC) GMAC is a private company We’ll tell youmore about them later on in this book

More Great Books!

Check out our survey-driven guide, The Best 294

On each of the Math and Verbal sections, approximately one-quarter ofthe questions you encounter will be experimental and will not counttoward your score These questions, which will be mixed in among the

regular questions, are there so the test company can try out newquestions for future tests We’ll have much more to say about theexperimental questions later.

But Wait, There’s More

One of the first options you’ll encounter when taking the GMAT is theoption to choose from one of three possible orders for the exam sections.You pick your preferred section order on the day of the test

Here are the possible section orders:

Order #1 (Classic Order) Order #2 (Verbal

First)

Order #3 (Math First)

IntegratedReasoning

Analytical WritingAssessment

Analytical WritingAssessment

How Do You Know What Order to Pick?

The answer to that depends on your goals for the test and your level ofcomfort with the different sections Are you looking to get a high Mathscore, but you don’t care so much about the Verbal? Has your school told

The answer to these questions and other questions like them help toinform your section order choice

How Does This Impact Your Studying?

We recommend that you take one test using the classic order A majorgoal of your first practice test is to simply get acquainted with thesections, question types, content, and timing of the GMAT and to attempt

to put into use some of the basic approaches for important questiontypes

Taking a test using the classic section order provides a baseline score.Having established a baseline score, you can then try out a differentsection order for the remaining test Compare the results of the test withthe different section order to the results of the test with the classic sectionorder and see if there are any improvements

In addition to looking for score improvements, you should also payattention to a handful of other factors about your preferences in testtaking

For instance, do you like to ease into a test or hit the ground running? Ifyou like to ease into a test, you may want to stick with the classic sectionorder While all parts of your GMAT score are important, most schools doattach less importance to your AWA and Integrated Reasoning scoresthan your Quantitative and Verbal scores Remember, as well, that onlythe Quantitative and Verbal scores are used in calculating the overallscore So, if you like to ease into a test, the AWA and IntegratedReasoning can provide that way to ease in

Do you like to do the section you’re most worried about first? Some testtakers like to get the section that they are most worried about out of theway If that’s you, you’ll probably want to pick either the Verbal First orMath First orders, depending on which section you are most worriedabout!

paced and tiring Fatigue can be a very real issue If you are worried aboutfatigue, you probably want to do either the Verbal First or Math Firstorders as they place the two least consequential sections at the end of thetest.

on no other test in the world)—approximately 18questions

Verbal (41 questions total)

Reading Comprehension (tests your ability to answerquestions about a passage)—approximately 13

questionsSentence Correction (a grammar-related questiontype)—approximately 17 questions

Critical Reasoning (a logic-based question typerecycled from the LSAT)—approximately 11 questions

Integrated Reasoning (12 questions total)

Table Analysis—data is presented in a sortable table(like an Excel spreadsheet); each question usually hasthree parts

Graphics Interpretation—a chart or graph is used todisplay data; each question usually has two parts;

answers are selected from drop-down boxes

of charts, text, and tables) is presented on two or threetabs; each set of tabbed information is usually

accompanied by three questions

Two-Part Analysis—each question usually has five orsix options of which you need to pick two

How Is the GMAT Scored?

As soon as you’ve finished taking the GMAT, your computer will calculateand display your unofficial results, not including your WritingAssessment score You can print out a copy of your unofficial results totake with you Within 20 days, you will receive your score report online; awritten report will be available only by request

Most people think of the GMAT score as a single number, but in factthere are five separate numbers:

1 Math score (reported on a scale that runs from 0 to 60)

2 Verbal score (reported on a scale that runs from 0 to 60)

3 Total score (reported on a scale that runs from 200 to 800 and basedonly on the results of Math and Verbal sections)

4 Analytic Writing Assessment score (reported on a scale of 0 to 6, inhalf point increments; 6 is the highest score)

5 Integrated Reasoning score (reported on a scale from 1 to 8 in onepoint increments)

The report will look something like this:

Many business schools tend to focus on the total score, which means thatyou may make up for weakness in one area by being strong in another.For example, if your quantitative skills are better than your verbal skills,they’ll help pull up your total score—although some of the more selectiveschools say they prefer to see math and verbal sub-scores that arebalanced Total scores go up or down in ten-point increments In otherwords, you might receive 490 or 500 on the GMAT, but never 494 or 495.

The Integrated Reasoning section is scored from 1 to 8 in one-pointincrements

Questions have multiple parts, and you must answer each part correctly

to get credit for the question The Integrated Reasoning score is notincluded in the Overall score

You will also see a percentile ranking next to each score For example, ifyou see a percentile of 72 next to your Verbal score, it means that 72percent of the people who took this test scored lower than you did on theVerbal section

WHAT IS THE PRINCETON REVIEW?

The Princeton Review is a test-preparation company founded in NewYork City It has branches in more than 50 cities across the country, aswell as abroad The Princeton Review’s techniques are unique andpowerful, and they were developed after a study of thousands of realGMAT questions They work because they are based on the sameprinciples that are used in writing the actual test The Princeton Review’stechniques for beating the GMAT will help you improve your scores byteaching you to:

think like the test writers

take full advantage of the computer-adaptive algorithms upon whichthe GMAT is based

find the answers to questions you don’t understand by using Process

of Elimination

avoid the traps that test writers have set for you (and use those traps

A Warning

Many of our techniques for beating the GMAT may be very different fromthe way that you would naturally approach problems Some methods mayeven seem counterintuitive Rest assured, however, that many test takershave used our methods to get great GMAT scores To get the full benefit

above, the council has its own review book called The Official Guide for

GMAT Review, which we heartily recommend that you purchase GMAC

also puts out preparation software called GMATPrep, which can be

downloaded for free from www.mba.com This software includes twocomputer-adaptive tests plus additional practice sets, all of which featurereal GMAT questions By practicing our techniques on real GMAT items,you will be able to prove to yourself that the techniques work andincrease your confidence when you actually take the test

And, remember, by using The Princeton Review’s practice questionsgrouped by level of difficulty at the back of this book, you’ll be able toconcentrate on types of questions you are actually likely to see

approaches to GMAT question types and strategy, extra drills andpractice, and tons of useful articles, essays, and information.

By using a combination of The Princeton Review’s Integrated

Reasoning introduction, math and verbal reviews, the practicequestions contained in this book, and periodic simulated tests, youwill be able to improve your score on the GMAT

The test itself is taken on computer It consists of the following:

How to Think About the GMAT

If you think the GMAT tests your business knowledge or shows howsmart you are, you’re in for a surprise This chapter will give you a newway to look at the GMAT to guide your studies in the right direction

The GMAT is not a test of how smart you are Nor is it a test of yourbusiness acumen or even a predictor of your grades in business school.It’s simply a test of how good you are at taking the GMAT In fact, youwill learn that by studying the very specific knowledge outlined in thisbook, you can substantially improve your score

The GMAT as a Job Interview

The first axiom of any how-to book on job interviewing is that you mustalways tell your interviewer what he or she wants to hear No matterwhether this is good job-hunting advice, it happens to be a very usefulstrategy on the GMAT The test writers think in predictable ways You canimprove your score by learning to think the way they do and anticipatingthe kinds of answers that they think are correct

Course?

No You won’t have the benefit of taking ten computer-adaptive GMATsthat are scored and analyzed by our computers You won’t get to sit insmall classes with only three other highly motivated students who willspur you on You won’t get to work with our expert instructors who canassess your strengths and pinpoint your weaknesses There is no way toput these things in a book

What you will find in this book are some of the techniques and methods

that have enabled our students to crack the system—plus a review of theessentials that you cannot afford not to know

If at all possible, you should take our course If that is not possible, thenthere is this book

How to Crack the System

In the following chapters, we’re going to teach you our method forcracking the GMAT Read each chapter carefully Some of our ideas mayseem strange at first For example, when we tell you that it is sometimeseasier to answer GMAT questions without actually working out the entireproblem, you may think, “This isn’t the way I conduct business.”

Remember: The GMAT Isn’t About Business

We’re not going to teach you business skills We’re not going to teach youmath and English We’re going to teach you the GMAT

During the test itself, your screen will display the question you’recurrently working on, with little circles next to the five answer choices Toanswer the question, you use your mouse to click on the circle next to theanswer choice you think is correct Then you press a button at the bottom

Let’s watch the process in action In the left-hand column on the nextpage, you’ll see what a hypothetical test taker—let’s call her Jane—sees onher screen as she takes the test In the right-hand column, we’ll show youhow GMAC keeps track of how she’s doing (We’ve simplified thisexample a bit in the interest of clarity.)

to them Instead, you select your response by clicking on an adjacent oval.For the sake of clarity and brevity, we’ll refer to the five answer choices as(A), (B), (C), (D), and (E)

To check out which b-schools are the “Toughest to Get Into,” take a look at the Business School Ranking lists

WHAT JANE DOESN’T SEE:

When you start each adaptive section, the computer assumes that yourscore is average So, your starting score for each section is around a 30.Jane gets the first question correct, (C), so her score goes up to a 35, andthe computer selects a harder problem for her second question

WHAT JANE SEES:

WHAT JANE DOESN’T SEE:

Jane has no idea what the correct answer is on this third question, butshe guesses (E) and gets it correct Her score goes up to a 33

up or down in larger increments than it does at the end, when GMACbelieves it is merely refining whether you deserve, say, a 42 or a 43 Thequestions you will see on your test come from a huge pool of questionsheld in the computer in what the test writers call “difficulty bins”—eachbin with a different level of difficulty

The Experimental Questions

Unfortunately, approximately one-fourth of the questions in eachadaptive section (Math and Verbal) won’t actually count toward yourscore; they are experimental questions being tested out on you Thedifficulty of an experimental question does not depend on your answer tothe previous question You could get a question correct and thenimmediately see a fairly easy experimental question

So, if you are answering mostly upper-medium questions and suddenlysee a question that seems too easy, there are two possibilities: a) you areabout to fall for a trap, or b) it’s an experimental question and really iseasy That means it can be very difficult for you to judge how you aredoing on the section Your best strategy is to simply try your best on everyquestion

Remembering that experimental questions are included throughout theadaptive sections can also help you use your time wisely When you getstuck on a question—even one of the first ten questions—remember that

it might be experimental Spending an inordinate amount of time on onequestion could cause you to rush and make silly mistakes later Wouldyou really want to do that if the question turned out to be experimental?

In those situations, eliminate as many answer choices as you can, guess,and move on to the next question

What the Computer-Adaptive GMAT Uses to

Calculate Your Score

The GMAT keeps a running tally of your score as it goes, based on the

number of questions you get correct and their levels of difficulty—butthere are two other important factors that can affect your score:

Early questions count more than later questions

Questions you leave unanswered will lower your score

How much can leaving questions at the end unanswered damage your score? GMAC says that somebody who was on track to score in the 91st percentile will drop to the 77th percentile by leaving just five questions unanswered Answer every question!

Why Early Questions Count More Than Later

Questions

At the beginning of the test, your score moves up or down in largerincrements as the computer hones in on what will turn out to be yourultimate score If you make a mistake early on, the computer will choose amuch easier question, and it will take you a while to work back to whereyou started from Similarly, if you get an early problem correct, thecomputer will then give you a much harder question

However, later in the test, a mistake is less costly—because the computerhas decided your general place in the scoring ranks and is merely refiningyour exact score

While it is not impossible to come back from behind, you can see that it isparticularly important that you do well at the beginning of the test.Answering just a few questions correctly at the beginning will propel yourinterim score quite high

Pace Yourself

Make sure that you get these early questions correct by starting slowly,checking your work on early problems, and then gradually picking up the

Still, if you are running out of time at the end, it makes sense to spend afew moments guessing intelligently on the remaining questions usingProcess of Elimination (POE) rather than random guesses or (let’s hope itnever comes to this) not answering at all You will be pleased to knowthat it is possible to guess on several questions at the end and still end upwith a 700

The following is our pacing advice for Math and Verbal The charts willtell you how much time you should spend for each block of ten questionsbased on a practice test score

The Princeton Review Approach to the GMAT

test-taking techniques that have made The Princeton Review famousand that will enable you to turn the inherent weaknesses of the

computer-adaptive sections of the GMAT to your advantage

a thorough review of all the major topics covered on the GMAT

a short practice test to help you predict your current scoring levelpractice questions to help you raise your scoring level

Know Your Bin

According to classic theory, the average test taker spends most of his orher time answering questions at his level of competency (which he getscorrect) and questions that are just above his level of competency (which

he gets wrong) In other words, most test takers will see questions fromonly a few difficulty “bins.”

This means that to raise your score, you must learn to answer questions

from the bins immediately above your current scoring level At the back

of this book, you will find a short diagnostic test to determine yourcurrent scoring level and then bins filled with questions at various scoringlevels When combined with a thorough review of the topics covered onthe GMAT, this should put you well on your way to the score you’relooking for

But first, let’s learn with some test-taking strategies

The computer-adaptive sections of the GMAT always start you offwith a medium question If you get it correct, you get a harder

question; if you get it wrong, you get an easier question The testassigns you a score after each answer and quickly (in theory) hones in

on your level of ability

Mixed in with the questions that count toward your score will beexperimental questions that do not count toward your score Thetesting company is using you as an unpaid guinea pig to try out newquestions Approximately one-fourth of the questions in each of theadaptive sections are experimental

Because the test is taken on a computer, you must answer each

question to get to the next question—you can’t skip a question orcome back to it later

Because of the scoring algorithms, early questions count more thanlater questions—so check your work carefully at the beginning of thetest

The GMAT computer-adaptive sections select questions for you from

“bins” of questions at different levels of ability The Princeton Reviewmethod consists of finding your current bin level through diagnostictests and then practicing questions from that bin, gradually moving

to higher bins as you become more proficient

Cracking the Adaptive Sections:

Intermediate Principles

This chapter provides an introduction to one of the key Princeton Reviewtechniques: Process of Elimination