The One-Stop Guide
for
GMAT Prep!
IN TROD UCTION
Dear read ers, In our pursuit of helping stud ents find the best course and institution, w e
present our next e-book. This e-book is on the GMAT and has lots of tips on preparing for
the test, book recom m end ations, scoring patterns, test structure, fees and m uch m ore.
Please go through the e-book and find answ ers to all your questions on the GMAT.
Don’t forget to check the bonu s-vid eos at the end of the e-book
and listen to Kevin (GMAT Expert from Magoosh) talking
about various aspects of the GMAT. Kevin grad uated from UC
Santa Cruz w ith a BA in Politics and a m inor in Film . H e loves
ed ucation, gram m ar, bluegrass, the Sierras and the Pacific.
Please go through the e-book and find answ ers to all your questions on the GMAT.
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CON TEN T
What is the GMAT? What is the cost and d uration of the Exam ? -5
GMAT Sections and Score Patterns -7
7 Tips to prepare for the GMAT Exam - 11
Top Ten Books for GMAT Preparation - 14
GMAT – FAQs - 18
GMAT - Bonus Vid eos - 21
GMAT - Useful Online Resources - 22
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CH APTER 1
What is the GMAT? What is
the cost and d u ration of the
Exam ?
The One-Stop Guide for GMAT Preparation! 6
The GMAT is an acronym for Grad uate Managem ent Ad m ission Test and is a
com puter-based , stand ard ized test that is u sed as the criterion for ad m ission for a w id e
range of international business schools. Over 5,400 program s of over 1,500 Universities
across 83 countries w orld w id e rely on GMAT as the stand ard selection criteria.
Cost & D uration
The fee for the GMAT is US$ 250. Free stud y m aterial is available online besid es w hich
private coaching is also offered by m any institutes for a fee. The d uration of GMAT exam
is 3 hours 30 m inutes. H ow ever there w ill be som e sched uled breaks as w ell.
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CH APTER 2
GMAT Sections and Score
Patterns
The One-Stop Guide for GMAT Preparation! 8
The GMAT m ainly consists of fou r sections - nam ely the analytical w riting assessm ent,
integrated reasoning, qu antitative and verbal sections. Stu d ents have the tim e slot of
fou r hou rs for the GMAT inclu sive of op tional breaks.
Analytical Writing
Basically, the Analytical Writing Assessm ent (AWA) gives ou t a top ic w here the stu d ents
are exp ected to d o analysis of an argu m ent. The tim e slot for this is 30 m inu tes. It
m easu res the ability of stu d ents’ critical thinking skills and how they com m u nicate their
id eas. This thirty m inu te essay u su ally covers top ics abou t bu siness or related top ics.
Integrated Reasoning Section
The Integrated Reasoning section has 12 qu estions that requ ire stu d ents to d o
m u lti-sou rce reasoning, grap hics interp retation, tw o-p art analysis and table analysis.
The tim e slot given for this section is 30 m inu tes.
This section has fou r typ es of qu estions that requ ire analyzing and synthesizing of d ata
in variou s form ats and from nu m erou s sou rces. Most of its qu estion form ats have
m u ltip le answ ers and all p arts of a qu estion m u st be answ ered accu rately.
Quantitative Section
The qu antitative section has 37 qu estions that requ ire stu d ents to solve p roblem s and
know abou t d ata-su fficiency. The tim e slot for this is 75 m inu tes. This section has tw o
typ es of qu estions that are in the form of mu ltip le-choice; d ata-su fficiency and p roblem -
solving. To solve these p roblem s, stu d ents m u st have know led ge of elem entary algebra,
arithm etic and com m on geom etry concep ts.
Verbal Section
The verbal section has 41 qu estions that cover read ing com p rehension, critical reasoning
and sentence correction. The tim e slot for this is also 75 m inu tes. The verbal section
m easu res stu d ents abilities in u nd erstand ing w ritten m aterials, evalu ation and
reasoning of argu m ents and the stand ard of their w ritten English.
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The One-Stop Guide for GMAT Preparation! 9
Section N umber of Questions Question Type D uration
Analytical Writing Analysis of an
1 Topic 30 m inutes
Assessm ent Argum ent
Mu lti Sou rce
Reasoning,
Integrated Grap hics
12 questions 30 m inutes
Reasoning Interp retation,
Tw o Part Analysis,
Table Analysis
Data Su fficiency,
Quantitative 37 questions 75 m inutes
Problem Solving
Read ing
Com p rehension,
Critical
Verbal 41 questions 75 m inutes
Reasoning,
Sentence
Correction
Total Exam Duration 3 hours 30 mins
Source: http:/ / w w w.bschool.careers360.com /
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The One-Stop Guide for GMAT Preparation! 10
Score Patterns
Stud ents get five scores in the GMAT exam from the analytical w riting assessm ent, the
integrated reasoning, quantitative, verbal sections and their total score. Stud ents get a
percentile rank to ind icate how m any stud ents have scored less than them . This m ay
change on an annual basis. Unlike the percentile rank, the scaled score w ill not be subject
to any change and w ill stand valid for five years.
Total Score
The total GMAT score can range betw een 200 to 800 and it has been found that tw o
third s of the GMAT takers score in the range of 400-600.
Verbal plus Quantitative
The scores for the verbal and quantitative sections can range from 0 to 60. Generally, the
score for the verbal section can range from 9 to 44 and for the quantitative section, it can
range from 7 to 50. These are both fixed scores and aren’t com parable w ith each other.
These scores d epend only on the num ber of questions answ ered by stud ents.
Analytical Writing Assessment (AWA)
The AWA essays are scored on the analysis of the argum ent essay and are grad ed tw ice
ind epend ently and the average is taken. Generally the scores for the analytical section
can range from 0 to 6 in half point intervals.
Integrated Reasoning
The new ly introd uced Integrated Reasoning (IR) section can fetch stud ents scores
ranging from 1 to 8 in single d igit intervals. The score that stud ents get in the integrated
reasoning section d on’t form a part of the overall GMAT score w hich is just a total of the
verbal and quantitative sections. Like the AWA, the IR scores are com puted separately
from the Quantitative and Verbal sections and have no effect on the Total score.
The Official GMAT Score Report
When stud ents sched ule in their GMAT test, they’ll have the option of choosing to get
the official online Score Report. The GMAT score report is inclusive of all GMAT scores
from tests taken w ithin a period of five years. The unofficial scores from the quantitative
and verbal sections w ill be available on im m ed iate com pletion of the test. Stud ents w ho
choose to get their Official Score Report Online w ill get their reports m ailed to them in a
period of 20 d ays after they take their test.
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CH APTER 3
7 Tips to prepare for the
GMAT Exam
The One-Stop Guide for GMAT Preparation! 12
Like every other important examination, preparing for this test can sometimes appear
hard . H ow ever, a little help from the experts w ill guid e you to go through this test
process and also save your precious tim e. N ow, let us talk about how to w ork it out in a
system atic m anner.
Understand the computer-adaptive test (CAT) of the GMAT.
Unlike its paper-based pred ecessor, the com puter-ad aptive version of the GMAT can
better assess your skills w hile asking you less questions. You start w ith a question of
average d ifficulty and d epend ing on your answ er the com puter w ill ad apt the next
questions to the level of your capabilities, meaning if you get the correct answ er, the next
question w ill be slightly m ore d ifficult and if you answ ered it w rong, your next question
w ill be slightly easier. The softw are can also m ix the question types so they’ll appear in a
rather unpred ictable ord er. When you answ er the questions you can only answ er one at
a tim e and once you click the 'answ er confirm ' box you m ove on to the next question and
you cannot go back and change the previous answ ers, or skip a question and return to it
later, as you could on a regular paper exam .
Learn to manage your time w isely.
The GMAT has three m ain parts, the analytical w riting assessm ent, the quantitative and
the verbal section, each w ith its ow n d uration rules you m ust m eet. It is very im portant
to answ er all questions and finish each part of the exam on tim e. Therefore, you should
take few practice tests before the actual GMAT exam , so you can practice and im prove
your tim e m anagem ent skills and later get the best scores. Do these trial tests in the
com puter-ad aptive form at, but also sim ulate the actual testing environm ent, w hich
m eans you d on’t get to talk on the phone or take a food break until the test is finished .
Answ er the first 5 questions w ith appropriate attention.
In the com puter-ad aptive version of the GMAT, the first five questions in any section are
the most important ones, because the computer w eighs your capabilities on the answ ers
you’ve provid ed and gives you the other questions to fine tune your final score w ithin
that narrow ed range you’ve pred eterm ined w ith your answ ers. The w ay you approach
these first five questions has a huge influence over your final section score. That’s w hy
you should spend ad equate tim e to answ er these questions w ith extra care, alw ays
d ouble-checking and ensuring that w hat you’ve m arked as incorrect is ind eed incorrect.
If you aren’t certain of the correct answ er, m ake a good ed ucated guess through the
process of elim ination.
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The One-Stop Guide for GMAT Preparation! 13
Get ready to finish the test at any cost.
If you can likely get higher scoring based on the answ ers you’ve provid ed so far and fail
to answ er the last few questions of that section because you’ve run out of tim e, your
GMAT score w ill significantly d ecrease no m atter the correct answ ers from before. You’d
be better answ ering the questions w rong than not answ ering them at all. That’s w hy it is
crucial to practice and train so you’ll be able to recognize the last m inute or so from the
test and use the tim e to just guess the answ ers of the rem aining questions, because
though guessing is like shooting yourself in one leg, leaving even one question
unansw ered is far w orse, like shooting yourself in both legs.
Carefully read all the questions.
When stressed and und er the pressure of the clock an unprepared test -taker m ay
m isinterpret the questions in his effort to save tim e, w herever and w henever possible.
The GMAT test w riters are also aw are of this, so they’ve d eliberately includ ed inaccurate
answ er choices in som e of the questions to capitalize on m isinterpretations of w hat the
questions are actually asking.
Take an educated guess on the questions you don’t know how to answ er.
On the computer-ad aptive GMAT version you are not allow ed to move on to the next
question if you d on’t answ er the previous one. If you d on’t know the correct answ er,
take an ed ucated guess elim inating the obvious incorrect options rather than guessing
the answ er rand om ly. By elim inating even one of the incorrect answ ers you are
significantly im proving your od d s of guessing the correct answ er.
Practice makes it perfect!
You can benefit from review ing and practicing each section of the GMAT test, but you’ll
m ake the m ost out of your preparation tim e if you locate your w eakest points and stud y
and practice the m ost in those areas.
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CH APTER 4
Top Ten Books for GMAT
Preparation
The One-Stop Guide for GMAT Preparation! 15
If you are on the lookout for some excellent GMAT preparation materials, here are the
present top ten guid e books for the GMAT that you m ay w ant to invest in, for a
prom isingly high score.
1. The Official Guide for GMAT Review
This guid ebook has been created by GMAT’s official creators and is consid ered an
absolute m ust-have for GMAT prep. It com prises a general overview of the test, 907 real
GMAT questions and a d iagnostic review. The Integrated Reasoning Section of its test
has an online com ponent w ith 50 questions for ad d itional practice. Of all the guid e
books available, this one is the only one that contains actual GMAT questions - making it
one of the best possible sources of GMAT prep.
2. Manhattan GMAT Complete Strategy Guide Set
The guid ebook, Manhattan GMAT Com plete Strategy Guid e Set, w ill provid e you w ith a
thorough and com plete set of strategies for good GMAT preparation. The set includ es 10
w ell w ritten books, includ ing GMAT Road m ap; Algebra; Fractions, Decim als and
Percents; Geom etry; Critical Reasoning; Sentence Correction; Integrated Reasoning and
Essay; Word Problem s. The set also offers m any online resources inclusive of 1,000
practice questions w ith answ ers. This is one of the best com prehensive GMAT
preparation materials available in the market.
3. Complete GMAT Course Set – 12 Books (Veritas Prep GMAT Series)
This GMAT stud y guid e is basically the Veritas prep course w ithout the instructor. It
com prises a set of 12 books that includ es Arithm etic; Found ations of GMAT Logic;
Critical Reasoning; Sentence Correction; Algebra; Data Sufficiency; Ad vanced Verbal
Strategy; Ad vanced Word Problem s; Analytical Writing Assessm ent and Integrated
Reasoning; Statistics and Com binatorics.
4. Kaplan GMAT Premier 2014 w ith 6 Practice Tests
This guid e book w ill provid e you w ith a good introd uction to the GMAT test and helps
stud ents fam iliarize them selves w ith the structure and the m echanism s of the test. The
book offers thorough coverage of the test’s Verbal and Math sections and takes you
in-d epth through Integrated Reasoning. It offers 6 GMAT tests, of w hich five are online
and the other one in the book; vid eo lessons; d igital versions of the book to be view ed
on iPad s, sm art phones and com puters.
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The One-Stop Guide for GMAT Preparation! 16
5. The GMAT Roadmap: Expert Advice Through Test D ay
This guid ebook provid es you w ith an introd uction to the GMAT and w ill give you a
thorough know led ge of all that is required for a top score. This is consid ered to be
am ong the top guid es w hen it com es to GMAT prep. Starting from stud y tips to tim ing
to even the best kind of d iet for GMAT preparation, this book truly gives you the
complete preparation experience. It has six computer based tests and also provid es
ad vice on how to hand le each and every kind of question you w ill find in the test.
6. The Pow erScore GMAT Critical Reasoning Bible
As the nam e suggests, this guid e book is for critical reasoning and is the best possible
book for it. This book w as w ritten by an ex-LSAT instructor and the kind of explanations
this book has are easy to follow. The author has broken d ow n the d ifferent varieties of
critical reasoning questions and given out specific techniques on how to m aster each
one. It m ay not have a huge num ber of practice questions but still it is a fantastic buy for
those looking to im prove in critical reasoning.
7. Total GMAT Math
Total GMAT Math is the best com prehensive m athem atical guid e you could possibly
find in the m arket for the GMAT. It takes you in -d epth into d ifferent sort of
m athem atical questions and covers various m ethod s and w ays of solving each one. This
book has over 300 practice problem s for you to w ork on and also m ore than 500 non -
GMAT style exercises w hich are useful. It offers end less tips, d etailed coverage and
num erous insightful strategies for d ifferent kind s of questions.
8. Advanced GMAT Quant
The Ad vanced GMAT Quant is an excellent cond ensed stud y m aterial that gives you all
you need to know to perform excellently in the quantitative section of the GMAT. This is
m ainly focused on bettering those w ho score over 70% on an average in this section. Its
chapters cover num erous topics includ ing Problem Solving Tactics & Strategies; Problem
Solving Principles; Data Sufficiency Strategy & Tactics; H ybrid Problem s; Pattern
Questions. Its final chapter com prises 150 questions in its “w orkout sets.” Those looking
to score high in quant should d efinitely get their hand s on this book.
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17
The One-Stop Guide for GMAT Preparation! 17
9. The Pow erScore GMAT Verbal Bible
The Pow erScore GMAT Verbal Bible is for those w ho w ould like to quickly m aster the
verbal section of the GMAT. It offers d etailed explanations and strategies for scoring
w ell in the section and has 125 practice questions and 85 d rills. These d rills offered are
aim ed at helping stud ents m aster various strategies required for the verbal section.
10. Kaplan GMAT Verbal Workbook
The Kaplan GMAT Verbal Workbook is consid ered an “all-in-one guid e” of the GMAT’s
verbal section. It gives out effective ad vice on how to m aster the GMAT’s verbal
com ponent and has a gram m ar guid e and provid es num erous practice questions
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CH APTER 5
GMAT – FAQs
The One-Stop Guide for GMAT Preparation! 19
1. How Can A Student Sign Up/ Register For the GMAT?
Stud ents can choose to register for the GMAT either through MBA.com online or register
through a phone. By registering, stud ents w ill be assigned a testing centre som ew here
close to their present location.
2. How Often Can A Student Take The GMAT?
A person can take a GMAT test every 20 d ays! Stud ents can take the test only five tim es
w ithin a 12 m onth cycle.
3. How long are GMAT scores valid for?
GMAT scores are valid for 5 years. Every tim e you take the test and send your score to a
school, the school w ill be able to see every GMAT score you have attained in the
previous 5 years.
4. What is CAT/Computer Adaptive Test?
The CAT is a new intelligent system of testing w herein questions are generated by the
com puter. Each person is taking a test w ith a d ifferent set of questions from the other.
The test starts w ith a m ed iu m -d ifficulty question. If the user answ ers it correctly, the
next question generated by the com puter algorithm is a bit tougher than the first
question. Alternatively, if the user is not able to answ er the first correctly the com puter
next generates a slightly easier question. Essentially, each subsequent question that is
generated is based if the user answ ers the previous question correctly or not.
5. Can A Student Cancel or Reschedule the GMAT?
Cancellation of appointm ent can be d one up to seven d ays prior to the test. You w ill get
a sm all portion of your m oney back in this case- $80. If you are looking to change the
d ate or tim e or place of the test, how ever, it w ill cost you $50- if it is seven d ays in
ad vance; $ 250 if it com es to less than seven d ays in ad vance.
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The One-Stop Guide for GMAT Preparation! 20
6. What is a good GMAT score?
A “good ” GMAT score is only relative to the MBA program m es to w hich you are
applying! You w ill need to d o som e research on the schools to w hich you w ant to send
your scores and set yourself realistic goals based on the average scores accepted by those
program m es. Top tier schools w ill u sually be looking for a score in the 90th percentile or
above (eg Wharton has an average GMAT score of 713; H arvard 708; IN SEAD 702; and
Lond on Business School 680).
7. What are experimental questions on GMAT?
There are 9 questions on the Quantitative section and 11 questions on the Verbal section
that are experim ental questions and are unm arked . They are solely for the purpose of
research by question fram ers and they d o not contribute to the GMAT score (irrespective
of the fact w hether they are answ ered correct or w rong). But unfortunately there is no
w ay to figure out w hich questions are experim ental.
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BON US VID EOS (by Kevin Rocci from Magoosh.com )
What is GMAT and Is it Mand atory for The Dummies'
Why should a a Stud ent to Take Guid e to GMAT
Stud ent Attend it? the GMAT Test to Scores
Stud y Abroad ?
Is the GMAT easier Im portant things Recom m end ed
than the GRE? What's that you need to Books and Online
the Difference betw een know about the Resources for a
Them ? GMAT Stud ent to Prepare
for the GMAT Test
Steps to Prepare
for Your GMAT
in 6 Months
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USEFUL ON LIN E RESOURCES
• At MBA.com, you can register for an account on this site, free of charge and d ow nload
GMATPrep softw are
• BeattheGMAT.com is an online GMAT and MBA com m unity, that is free of charge
• Read y For A Challenge?- Every w eek, the Manhattan GMAT site w ill post a brand new
GMAT Q to challenge visitors like you. If you answ er it right, you m ay even get a free
GMAT stud y m aterial! .
• All in one site- Magoosh.com w ill give you online lessons, hom ew ork, instructions
suited to your stud ying pace. And , it’s a one-stop place w here you can know
everything about the GMAT
• AspirantHunt.com w ill give you one-on-one tutoring through interactive softw are and
Skype w ith an experienced tutor ( w ith a score of 740 or m ore!)
• Eduers.com w ill take you through GMAT test strategies to score the m ost in your
GMAT Verbal, GMAT Analytical and GMAT Verbal.
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In recent years som e institutions are accepting the GRE score in lieu of the GMAT; but
the popularity of the GMAT continues. Som e of the w orld ’s top banking and business
consulting firm s ask for GMAT scores w hile recruiting new em ployees. The GMAT
rem ains the d efinitive test to assess the skills and know led ge of stud ents aspiring to
stud y a postgrad uate business course.
We hope that you found this book useful and w ish you the very best in your attem pts
to ace the GMAT!
Team Uniguru - Helping y ou fulfill y our st udy abroad dreams!
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