GMAT - AWA

Let’s start this post with a critical reasoning question: When a group of people starts a company, the founders usually serve as sources both of funding and of skills in marketing, management, and technical matters. It is unlikely that a single individual can both provide adequate funding and be skilled in marketing, management, and technical matters. Therefore, companies founded by groups are more likely to succeed than companies founded by individuals. Which one of the following is an assumption required by the argument? Before we dive into the answer choices, let’s start by wrapping our heads Read more

It’s getting to be that time of the year. For the sake of being somewhat politically correct, it’s the slightly-chillier-time-of-the-year-that’s-directly-proportional-to-increased-gift-giving. If you work most 9-to-5 jobs, there’s likely some type of end-of-calendar-year celebration planned which can be make or break time in office social circles. You want to sit next to Brad from Marketing who is super dreamy and knows more about The Walking Dead and Shark Tank than the producers while avoiding Mark from Finance who can be heard a mile away because he jingles orange Tic-Tacs in his shirt pocket. Wait, is it Marketing who is dreamy or Read more

Today’s GMAT article comes from Manhattan Review GMAT Prep UAE, a provider of GMAT Prep courses in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, among others. In this article, they reveal Manhattan Review’s six best points on the GMAT essay. The GMAT is an odd test. Unlike in the LSAT, the least important section, the essay, comes first, not last. However, though it's true that business schools don't pay as much attention to the essay score as to the overall verbal and quantitative score, this doesn't mean that the essay is of no importance at all. You need to take it seriously and write as good an essay as you can.  Here are six points to guide you: WHY THE ESSAY? It is important to keep in mind what the essay is and what it isn't. The essay isn't a newspaper Op-Ed. It isn't a definitive statement on a critical issue of the hour. It isn't even an essay that you write for your professor. Consider: You only have 30 minutes to think about, plan out, write and proof your essay. So there's a limit to what you can say and how effectively you can say it. The purpose of the essay is to enable the schools to verify that you really wrote the essays that you submitted with your application. If you sent in a beautifully crafted, eloquent essay but only managed an illiterate, ungrammatical and perfunctory essay in the GMAT the school will wonder whether someone other than you wrote your application essays. The GMAT essay does not have to astound anyone with its brilliance. It just has to be good enough to make sure that the school admissions officers don't start to entertain doubts as to your authenticity as a writer. Keep this in mind though: While a poorly written essay could harm your cause, a well-written, perhaps even outstanding one won't advance it very much. The score the business schools continue to be guided by is the main quantitative and verbal score. An adequate score for the essay will suffice. An inadequate score will hurt. AN ESSAY, NOT A GROCERY LIST This is an essay, not an office memorandum, an e-mail or a grocery list. It has to read like a narrative, like a logical progression of an argument. There can be no bullet points; numbered paragraphs; headings; underlined words; abbreviations such as w/out or b/c; colloquialisms; acronyms; Internet slang such as LOL, IMHO, P2P, B2B, FWIW and OTOH. All sentences must include at least one noun and one verb. Memorize words that allow you to transition from one paragraph to another such as "however," "on the one hand" and "on the other hand," "moreover," "furthermore," "in addition," “consequently,” and "it is possible." Avoid inserting yourself into the essay as much as possible. There is no need for such expressions as “I think” on “In my opinion,” or “I don't agree.” Such terms are redundant. You are the one writing the essay. The reader knows this; he or she doesn't need to be told. Read more