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- Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
- Kategorie: Bildung
- Sprache: Englisch
Learn to: * Score higher on the GMAT and get into the business school ofyour choice * Improve your skills to conquer the verbal and quantitativesections * Write clearly and effectively to ace the analytical writingsection * Prepare for the big day with expert strategies for solvingintegrated reasoning problems Review your math knowledge and verbal skills with theinteractive flashcards, and take 5 simulated GMAT tests on thecompanion CD Practice your skills and score your highest on the GMAT Nervous about taking the GMAT? Don't sweat it! This hands-on,friendly guide gives you all the preparation you need to maximizeyour score and outsmart your competition. You'll discover how tothink the GMAT way and chart your study progress with updatedpractice questions, math and grammar reviews, and five full-lengthpractice exams. * Conquer the verbal section -- get the 4-1-1 on how to spotthe common types of errors for sentence corrections, how to readthrough a passage quickly and effectively, and how to break apartand analyze arguments * Ace analytical writing -- discover what the GMAT is lookingfor in the analytical writing section and find pointers on writinga well- organized and compelling essay * Make sense of math -- find plain-English explanations ofwhat you'll encounter in the quantitative section, from basicarithmetic and algebra to more complex concepts like coordinategeometry * Rip through the reasoning -- get strategies for approachingthe integrated reasoning section and find out how to extract datafrom tables, charts, and graphs Open the book and find: * A plain-English explanation of the test's format * What to bring on exam day * How to make educated guesses * Common pitfalls to avoid * Tips and advice to calm your nerves * Proven ways to save time and beat the clock * Ten writing errors to avoid * Guidance on increasing your chances of gaining admission to thebusiness school of your choice CD Includes Five full-length practice tests in timed and untimed modes,flashcards to review important formulas and concepts, and a set ofintegrated reasoning practice questions. See the CD appendix for details and complete systemrequirements.
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Seitenzahl: 715
Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2013
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GMAT® For Dummies®, Premier 6th Edition
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Table of Contents
GMAT® For Dummies®, Premier 6th Edition
by Lisa Zimmer Hatch, MA and Scott A. Hatch, JD
GMAT® For Dummies®, Premier 6th Edition
Published byJohn Wiley & Sons, Inc.111 River St.Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774
www.wiley.com
Copyright © 2013 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey
Published simultaneously in Canada
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without the prior written permission of the Publisher. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, (201) 748-6011, fax (201) 748-6008, or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions.
Trademarks: Wiley, the Wiley logo, For Dummies, the Dummies Man logo, A Reference for the Rest of Us!, The Dummies Way, Dummies Daily, The Fun and Easy Way, Dummies.com, Making Everything Easier, and related trade dress are trademarks or registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc., and/or its affiliates in the United States and other countries, and may not be used without written permission. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book.
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Wiley publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats and by print-on-demand. Some material included with standard print versions of this book may not be included in e-books or in print-on-demand. If this book refers to media such as a CD or DVD that was not included in the version you purchased, you may download this material at booksupport.wiley.com. For more information about Wiley products, visit www.wiley.com.
Library of Congress Control Number: 2012952202
ISBN 978-1-118-27383-8 (pbk); ISBN 978-1-118-41947-2 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-118-42126-0 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-118-50373-7 (ebk)
Manufactured in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
About the Authors
Lisa Zimmer Hatch, M.A. and Scott A. Hatch, J.D. have prepared teens and adults since 1987 to excel on standardized tests, gain admission to colleges of their choice, and secure challenging and lucrative professional careers. For virtually 30 years, they have created and administered award-winning standardized test preparation and professional career courses worldwide for live lecture, online, and other formats through more than 500 universities worldwide.
Scott and Lisa have written the curriculum for all formats, and their books have been translated for international markets. Additionally, they wrote, produced, and appeared in the landmark weekly PBS “Law for Life” series. They continue to develop new courses for a variety of careers and extend their college admissions expertise to assist those seeking advanced degrees in law, business, and other professions. Together they have authored numerous law and standardized test prep texts, including ACT For Dummies, 5th Edition, SAT II U.S. History For Dummies, SAT II Biology For Dummies, SAT II Math For Dummies, Catholic High School Entrance Exams For Dummies, and Paralegal Career For Dummies (Wiley).
Lisa is currently an independent educational consultant and the president of College Primers, where she applies her expertise to guiding high school and college students through the undergraduate and graduate admissions and financial aid processes and prepares students for entrance exams through individualized coaching and small group courses. She prides herself in maximizing her students’ financial aid packages and dedicates herself to helping them gain admission to the universities or programs that best fit their goals, personalities, and financial resources. She graduated with honors in English from the University of Puget Sound and received a master’s degree in humanities with a literature emphasis from California State University. She is currently completing the UCLA College Counseling Certificate Program and is the editor of the newsletter for the Higher Education Consultants Association (HECA) and a member of the Rocky Mountain Association of College Admissions Counselors (RMACAC).
Scott received his undergraduate degree from the University of Colorado and his Juris Doctorate from Southwestern University School of Law. He is listed in Who’s Who in California and Who’s Who Among Students in American Colleges and Universities and is one of the Outstanding Young Men of America as determined by the United States Jaycees. He was also a contributing editor to McGraw-Hill’s Judicial Profiler series and The Colorado Law Annotated series published by Lawyers Cooperative Publishing. He also served as editor of the Freedom of Information Committee Newsletter and functioned as editor of several national award winning periodicals. His current law books include A Legal Guide to Probate and Estate Planning and A Legal Guide to Family Law in B & B Legal Publication’s Learn the Law series.
In addition to writing law books, periodical articles, television scripts, and college curricula, Scott was editor of his law school’s nationally award-winning legal periodical, winner of two first place awards from the Columbia University School of Journalism, and another first-place award from the American Bar Association. He also contributed to Los Angeles’s daily newspaper, The Metropolitan News, was an editorial assistant during the formation of the Los Angeles Press Club’s Education Foundation, and served on the Faculty of Law at the City University of Los Angeles.
Dedication
We dedicate GMAT For Dummies to our children, Alison, Andrew, Zachary, and Zoe and to Dan, Paige, and Ryan. Our family demonstrated patience, understanding, and editorial assistance while we wrote this book, and we’re very blessed to have them in our lives.
Authors’ Acknowledgments
This book would not be possible without the contributions of Julia Brabant, Jackson Sutherland, Zachary Hatch, and Zoe Hatch, who provided practice test material and helpful input. We also acknowledge the input of thousands of our students who have completed our test preparation courses over the last 30 years. The classroom and online contributions offered by these dedicated and motivated learners have provided us with a significant amount of information about those subject areas that require the greatest amount of preparation for success on the GMAT.
Our project organization and attempts at wit were greatly facilitated by the editing professionals at Wiley. Our thanks go out to Chrissy Guthrie for her patience and guidance throughout the editing process and to copy editors Megan Knoll and Jennette ELNaggar. Thanks also to the technical editors, Bill Kenworthy and Frank Cavanaugh, for their attention to detail and helpful suggestions during the editing process.
Finally, we wish to thank our literary agent, Margo Maley Hutchinson, at Waterside Productions in Cardiff for her support and assistance and for introducing us to the innovative For Dummies series.
We thrive on feedback from our students and encourage our readers to provide comments and critiques at [email protected].
Publisher’s Acknowledgments
We’re proud of this book; please send us your comments at http://dummies.custhelp.com. For other comments, please contact our Customer Care Department within the U.S. at 877-762-2974, outside the U.S. at 317-572-3993, or fax 317-572-4002.
Some of the people who helped bring this book to market include the following:
Acquisitions, Editorial, and Vertical Websites
Senior Project Editor: Christina Guthrie
(Previous Edition: Tim Gallan, Natalie Faye Harris)
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Assistant Editor: David Lutton
Editorial Program Coordinator: Joe Niesen
Technical Editors: Frank Cavanaugh, Bill Kenworthy
Vertical Websites: Laura Moss-Hollister
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Editorial Manager: Christine Meloy Beck
Editorial Assistants: Rachelle Amick, Alexa Koschier
Cover Photos: © blackred / iStockphoto.com, © vasavil / iStockphoto.com
Cartoons: Rich Tennant (www.the5thwave.com)
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Project Coordinator: Sheree Montgomery
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Publishing and Editorial for Consumer Dummies
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Introduction
You’re merrily skimming through the admissions requirements for your favorite MBA programs when all of a sudden you’re dealt a shocking blow. Your absolute top choice program — you’ll die if you don’t get in — requires that you take the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT). And you thought your days of speed reading passages and solving for x were over.
Many MBA programs include the GMAT as an admissions requirement, so you’ll be in good company. But how do you prepare for such a comprehensive test? What are you going to do? Get out your spiral notebooks from undergraduate courses and sift through years’ worth of doodles? Many years may have gone by since you encountered a geometry problem, and we bet your grammar skills have gotten a little rusty since English 101.
Clearly, you need a readable, concisely structured resource. Well, you’ve come to the right place. GMAT For Dummies, Premier 6th Edition, puts at your fingertips everything you need to know to conquer the GMAT. We give you complete math and grammar reviews and provide insights into how to avoid the pitfalls that the GMAT creators want you to fall into. We also try to make this book as enjoyable as a book that devotes itself to setting up equations and critiquing arguments can be.
About This Book
We suspect that you aren’t eagerly anticipating sitting through the GMAT, and you’re probably not looking forward to studying for it, either. Therefore, we’ve attempted to make the study process as painless as possible by giving you clearly written advice in a casual tone. We realize you have a bunch of things you’d rather be doing, so we’ve broken down the information into easily digested bites. If you have an extra hour before work or Pilates class, you can devour a chapter or even a particular section within a chapter. (If these eating metaphors are making you hungry, feel free to take a snack break.)
In this book, you can find
Plenty of sample questions so you can see just how the GMAT tests a particular concept. Our sample questions read like the actual test questions, so you can get comfortable with the way the GMAT phrases questions and expresses answer choices.
Detailed explanations of the strategies for mastering all four sections of the GMAT. Enjoy a grammar review for the verbal reasoning section, an extensive math lesson to help you with the quantitative reasoning section, a summary of good writing practices for the analytical writing assessment, and a how-to on reading all kinds of charts and graphs for the integrated reasoning section.
Five practice tests. One appears in this book in Chapter 19, and you’ll find that one plus four others on the accompanying CD. Ultimately, the best way to prepare for any standardized test is to practice on lots of test questions, and this book, along with the accompanying CD, has more than 500 of them.
Time-tested techniques for improving your score. We show you how to quickly eliminate incorrect answer choices and make educated guesses.
Tips on how to manage your time wisely.
Suggestions for creating a relaxation routine to employ if you start to panic during the test.
We’ve included all kinds of information to help you do your best on the GMAT!
Conventions Used in This Book
You should find this book easily accessible, but a few things may require explanation. A few of the chapters may contain sidebars (a paragraph or two in a shaded box) with quirky bits of information that we think may interest you but aren’t essential to your performance on the GMAT. If you’re trying to save time, you can skip the sidebars.
The book highlights information you should remember in several ways. Lists are bulleted and marked with a solid bar to the left of the list. Icons appear in the margins to emphasize particularly significant information in the text. You can use these highlighting tools to focus on the most important elements of each chapter.
Foolish Assumptions
Although we guess it’s possible that you picked up this book just because you have an insatiable love for math, grammar, and argument analysis, we’re betting it’s more likely that you’re reading this book particularly because you’ve been told you have to take the GMAT. (We have been praised for our startling ability to recognize the obvious!) And because we’re pretty astute, we’ve figured that this means that you intend to apply to MBA programs and probably are considering working toward a master’s of business administration.
Generally, MBA programs are pretty selective, so we’re thinking that you’re a pretty motivated student. Some of you are fresh out of college and may have more recent experience with math and grammar. Others of you probably haven’t stepped into a classroom in over a decade but possess work skills and life experience that will help you maximize your GMAT score despite the time that’s passed since college.
If math and grammar are fresh in your mind and you just need to know what to expect when you arrive at the test site, this book has that information for you. If you’ve been out of school for a while, this book provides you with all the basics as well as advanced concepts to give you everything you need to know to excel on the GMAT.
How This Book Is Organized
The first part of this book introduces you to the nature of the GMAT beast and advises you on how to tame it. An in-depth discussion of how to approach and answer the questions in the verbal section of the test follows. We give you tips on how to succeed on the sentence correction, reading comprehension, and critical reasoning questions you’ll encounter there. Then we tell you how to write the analytical essay. Even if you haven’t written anything more than a grocery list in a while, you’ll be ready to expound come test day. We follow the analytical writing portion with a comprehensive math review, covering everything from number types to standard deviation. To prepare you for the newest section of the GMAT, we include an extensive examination of the integrated reasoning section. This section essentially tests analytical and math skills in a different way.
Our discussion of each section ends with a mini practice test to prepare you for the full-length practice test that follows the math review and the four additional tests on the CD. Test your knowledge on these five tests and then see how you’ve done.
Part I: Putting the GMAT into Perspective
Read this part if you want to know more about what kinds of information the GMAT tests and how you can best handle it.
Part II: Vanquishing the Verbal Section
The verbal section of the GMAT includes three kinds of questions: sentence correction, reading comprehension, and critical reasoning. We show you what to look for in the sentence correction questions, how to read through a passage quickly and effectively for the reading questions, and how to break apart and analyze arguments for the critical reasoning questions. We end the part with a mini practice test of randomly organized questions of all three types.
Part III: Acing the Analytical Writing Section
The GMAT requires you to write an essay that analyzes an argument. We tell you what the GMAT is looking for and give you pointers on writing a well-organized and compelling essay.
Part IV: Conquering the Quantitative Section
This part is for you if you haven’t solved equations in a while and if you work with math concepts every day. We cover basic arithmetic and algebra (things you may have forgotten after all these years) and explain more complex concepts like coordinate geometry and standard deviation. You find out how to tackle the data sufficiency question type that appears only on the GMAT. We tie up the part by giving you a mini practice test that covers all areas of math and both types of GMAT math questions.
Part V: Excelling on the Integrated Reasoning Section
The GMAT integrated reasoning section is like no other section on a standardized test. This part exposes you to the unique way that the GMAT tests how well you use your analysis skills in real-life scenarios. We provide strategies for approaching the section and review how to pull data from tables, charts, and graphs. You can practice your newfound skills on a computerized mini practice test on the accompanying CD.
Part VI: Practice Makes Perfect
After you feel comfortable with your GMAT prowess, you can practice on the full-length test found in this part and the four others on the CD. Each test comes complete with a scoring guide and explanatory answers to help you figure out which areas of the GMAT you have down pat and which ones you need to study more for.
Part VII: The Part of Tens
This part finishes up the fun with a summary of questions you can’t miss, writing errors you should avoid, and ways to maximize your chances of getting into an MBA program.
Appendix and CD
The Appendix explains computer system requirements and how to use the CD that comes with this book.
The CD offers five full-length practice tests (including the one in Part VI), along with answers and explanations. Verbal and math flashcards help you memorize key concepts and formulas. And finally, bonus integrated reasoning information and practice questions help you sharpen your skills for this tricky section of the GMAT. Note: If you’re using a digital version of this book, go to http://booksupport.wiley.com for access to the additional content.
Icons Used in This Book
One exciting feature of this book is the icons that highlight especially significant portions of the text. These little pictures in the margins alert you to areas where you should pay particularly close attention.
This icon highlights really important information that you should remember even after you close the book.
Throughout the book, we give you insights into how you can enhance your performance on the GMAT. The tips give you juicy timesavers and point out especially relevant concepts to keep in mind for the test.
Your world won’t fall apart if you ignore our warnings, but your score may suffer. Heed these cautionary pointers to avoid making careless mistakes that can cost you points.
Whenever you see this icon in the text, you know you’re going to get to practice the particular area of instruction covered in that section with a question like one you may see on the test. Our examples include detailed explanations of how to most efficiently answer GMAT questions and avoid common pitfalls.
Beyond the Book
This book comes with a companion CD-ROM that contains five full-length practice exams, as well as 100 flashcards and extra integrated reasoning practice questions. If you don’t have access to a CD drive, or if you’re reading this as an e-book, you can go to http://booksupport.wiley.com and download the CD-ROM files.
Where to Go from Here
We know that everyone who uses this book has different strengths and weaknesses, so this book is designed for you to read in the way that best suits you. If you’re a math whiz and need to brush up only on your verbal skills, you can skim Part IV and focus on Parts I, II, and III. If you’ve been writing proposals every day for the last ten years, you can probably scan Part III and focus your attention on the math review in Part IV. Because the integrated reasoning section differs so significantly from other standardized test questions, you’ll benefit from reading Part V regardless of your math prowess or verbal genius.
We suggest that you take a more thorough approach, however. Familiarize yourself with the general test-taking process in the first two chapters and then go through the complete GMAT review, starting with the verbal section and working your way through the analytical writing, math, and integrated reasoning sections. You can skim through information that you know more about by just reading the Tips and Warnings and working through the examples in those sections.
Some of our students like to take a diagnostic test before they study. This is a fancy way of saying that they take one of the full-length practice tests before they read the rest of the book. Taking a preview test shows you which questions you seem to cruise through and which areas need more work. After you’ve taken a practice exam, you can focus your study time on the question types that gave you the most trouble during the exam. Then, when you’ve finished reading through the rest of the book (Parts I, II, III, IV, and V), you can take another practice test and compare your score to the one you got on the first test. This way, you can see just how much you improve with practice.
This book provides you with a bunch of practice tests, but you can never get enough practice. So you may want to visit the official GMAT website at www.mba.com and download the free GMATPrep software there. This software mimics the computerized format of the test and gives you practice on the types of mouse-clicking and eye-straining skills you need to succeed on the exam. That way, you can experience using the same software you’ll see on the exam.
We’re confident that if you devote a few hours a week to practicing the skills and tips we provide for you in this book, you’ll do the best you can when you sit in front of that computer on GMAT test day. We wish you our best for your ultimate GMAT score!
Part I
Putting the GMAT into Perspective
In this part . . .
The first part of this book initiates you to the marvels of the GMAT. The chapters here introduce the format of the test and explain how to take the test seriously (but not too seriously). You may be tempted to skip this part and jump headlong into the reviews. If you do so, we strongly suggest that you come back to this part later. We include information in here that you may not get elsewhere.
Among other things, you find out what to expect on the test, how the test is scored, how the CAT (which stands for computer-adaptive format) works for the verbal and quantitative reasoning sections, and what stuff is tested on each of the test sections (analytical writing, integrated reasoning, verbal, and math). You also discover some helpful tips for organizing your time and relaxing if you get nervous.
Chapter 1
Getting the Lowdown on the GMAT
In This Chapter
Finding out how MBA programs use your GMAT score
Deciding when to take the GMAT and knowing what to bring
Figuring out the format of the GMAT
Understanding how the GMAT is scored
Considering whether you should retake the GMAT
Congratulations on deciding to take a significant step in your business career! More than one hundred countries offer the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT), and according to the Graduate Management Admission Council, it’s used by more than 5,000 graduate programs in admissions decisions. That said, you’re probably not taking the GMAT because you want to. In fact, you may not be looking forward to the experience at all!
The GMAT need not be a daunting ordeal. A little knowledge can help calm your nerves, so this chapter shows you how admissions programs use your test score and addresses the concerns you may have about the GMAT’s format and testing and scoring procedures.
Knowing Why the GMAT Is Important
If you’re reading this book, you’re probably thinking about applying to an MBA program. And if you’re applying to an MBA program, you probably need to take the GMAT. Almost all MBA programs require that you submit a GMAT score for the admissions process. (Some may require other tests or no test at all, so make sure you check each program’s admissions checklist.)
Your GMAT score gives the admissions committee another tool to use to assess your skills and compare you with other applicants. But if you’re seeking a career in business, you’re probably resigned to being continually assessed and compared. The GMAT doesn’t attempt to evaluate any particular subject area that you may have studied, but instead it gives admissions officers a reliable idea of how you’ll likely perform in the classes that make up a graduate business curriculum. Although the GMAT doesn’t rate your experience or motivation, it does provide an estimate of your academic preparation for graduate business studies.
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!
