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About Us.

Dipl.-Phys. Claus Huber, MBA Physik Studium an der TU München MBA Studium an der Universität St. Gallen und der ESADE Business School Langjährige Erfahrung als GMAT-Coach in Kursen für GMAT-Workshop.de info@gmat-workshop.de

GMAT - Introduction What is the GMAT.

A computer based language and mathematics/logics test.

Duration: incl. breaks 3:40h

Can be done in different test centers worldwide.

Application via www.mba.com

Parts of the test:

Analytical Writing: (1 Essay, 30 min) individually graded (1 -6 highest)

Analysis of an argument 30 min

Integrated Reasoning: (12 Question, 30 min) individually graded (1 -8 highest)

Multi-Source Reasoning, Table Analysis, Graphics Interpretation, Two-Part Analysis

Quantitative Part: (37 multiple choice questions, 75 min) graded (0-51)

Problem Solving

Data Suffiency

Verbal Part: (41 multiple choice questions, 75 min) graded (0-46)

Reading Comprehension

Critical Reasoning

Sentence Correction

Overall score

(200 – 800)

Scores are determined by percentage listing!

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GMAT - Introduction How GMAT evaluates your score.

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Dif

ficu

lty

# question 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Big adaption steps (~30 points)

First 13-15 questions are crucial.

Small adaption steps (~ 5 points)

Maybe only a “try out” question

30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37

Always finish the question sets! GMAT score is a combination of your individual Quant and

your Verbal score:

Q: 47

V: 39 680

One point more in Verbal is weighted

higher than one point in Quant.,

because harder to reach.

Hard question are good signs !

GMAT - Introduction

Quantitative Part: 75 min, 37 Questions

60 min 45 min 30 min 15 min

Q 7 Q 15 Q 21 Q 30 Q 37 Start

Verbal Part: 75 min, 41 Questions

60 min 45 min 30 min 15 min

Q 8 Q 16 Q 25 Q 33 Q 41 Start

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What to know to prepare.

Focus on weaknesses, but keep working steadily on everything.

Always mark practice questions you had wrong and repeat / learn them! Repetitiveness of test, do a lot of

practice questions.

Pace yourself (i.e. sets of 10). If you are getting better, try to “overpace”. Also to improve educated

guessing.

Try to “overshoot”: Safe 700 in Manhattan Prep → safe 650 in real test.

Set yourself timing milestones during the test.

GMAT - Introduction What Literature to use.

GMAT - Official Review

“The Bible”! Absolutely necessary!!!

Official Guide with former GMAT Questions.

Crucial to learn how the original questions are phrased, what vocabulary the use.

Huge collection of Questions, sorted by increasing difficulty.

Essential to start with.

Use to establish a certain base.

BUT: Practice Questions are too EASY TO ACHIEVE A SAFE 650+ !!!

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Manhattan GMAT – Specialized Editions.

One shorter practice book for every category.

Good explanations.

Access to 6 very good, very tough online practice tests!

Others….

GMAT - Introduction

Official Practice Tests.

Absolutely crucial for a successful preparation.

You get them for free with your GMAT application.

Two practice tests that are EXACTLY like the real test. Same software.

Lets you simulate real test conditions at home.

Big question pool.

Repeat over and over again until you score 800 and got all the questions right.

Good for checking your status. Giving you hints where to focus while practicing.

Problem: Test-Scores might be too high!

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GMAT - Introduction

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Minimum preparation time should be 4-6 weeks, but is depending on your target score and the time per day

you are able to invest.

Create a preparation plan according to the material you want to work through.

Plan more GMAT prep time exponentially, meaning invest more time towards the test date.

Use prep tests for checking where you stand and where you have weaknesses.

Consistency over Intensity: Try to work every day at least a little bit instead of only two days

a week but hard. Try to do 5-10 questions of every category / day as a basis.

How to plan your preparation Time.

Preparation time Workshop

1st Prep test

1st Prep test

Manhattan

2nd Prep test

Manhattan

1st practice

test 2nd time

6th Prep test

Manhattan

>700

3rd Prep test

Manhattan

Test Day

2nd practice

test 1st time

Gra

de

of

imp

rov

em

en

t / W

ork

loa

d

Verbal Section

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Critical Reasoning – Sample Question.

Every Critical Reasoning question contains three separate parts:

Shelby Industries manufactures and sells the same gauges as Jones Industries. Employee wages account

for 40 percent of the cost of manufacturing gauges at both Shelby Industries and Jones Industries. Shelby

Industries is seeking a competitive advantage over Jones Industries. Therefore, to promote this end, Shelby

Industries should lower employee wages.

Which of the following, if true, would most weaken the argument above?

(A)Because they make a small number of precision instruments, gauge manufacturers cannot receive volume

discounts on raw materials.

(B) Lowering wages would reduce the quality of employee work, and this reduced quality would

lead to lowered sales.

(C) Jones Industries has taken away 20 percent of Shelby Industries' business over the last year.

(D) Shelby Industries pays its employees, on average, 10 percent more than does Jones Industries.

(E) Many people who work for manufacturing plants live in areas in which the manufacturing plant they work

for is the only industry'

Text

Question Stem

Answer Choices

Critical Reasoning

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Critical Reasoning The Answer Choices – How to approach.

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Always read all five answer choices.

Critical Reasoning asks you for the best answer. This means, that if you spotted an answer that already

works in the right way, you never know if something better comes along.

Do a quick ranking of the answer choices.

Filer out the clearly wrong and improbable ones. Rank the rest.

Pace yourself in training. Take sets of 5 or 10 and consider 1:50 min per question.

Pacing not only gets you used to the time pressure you face during the test, but also teaches you to let loose

of questions you cannot answer in time.

Get suspicious if an argument is based on surveys or investigated data.

Very often the answer shoots at the representativeness of this data.

If question considers the information in the text as “true” or “correct”, then the correct answer must be

100% approved by the text.

Try to spot weaknesses in the argumentation already when reading the text, before jumping to the answer

choices.

Critical Reasoning The Text – Strong or weak arguments.

Strong Argument

Bees prefer blossoms with a bright color. Lillies are

white colored. Therefore lillies are prefered by bees.

Weak argument

Atlanta has 3 million inhabitants.

Florida has 100 million inhabitants.

Therefore we should better move to Atlanta.

If stimulus contains an argument, see if it is strong or weak.

Weak arguments contain a sweet spot where to attack or defend.

Top 6 Critical Reasoning Question Types

1. Must be true

2. Main Point

3. Assumption

4. Strengthen / Support

5. Resolve the Paradox

6. Weaken

Most common question types. All have slightly different strategic approaches.

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Reading Comprehension

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Example of Reading Comprehension question.

Example of RC question.

1) The author’s stance on the possibility of life on Mars can

best be described as …

A) Optimistic

B) Disinterested

C) Skeptical

D) Simplistic

E) Cynical

Reading Comprehension

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What to know, when approaching Reading Comprehension ?

Content focused on physical science, biological science, social science, history and business.

Expect to see four Reading Comprehension passages with three to four questions.

Passages are either “short” or “long”.

Short: 200 – 250 words in two or three paragraphs, with three questions in most cases.

Long: >300 words in three to five paragraphs, with four questions assigned.

You cannot afford to give up an entire reading comprehension question!

Look for the simple story:

Every GMAT passage has a “simple story”, a core meaning of the passage.

Rephrase the story for yourself in a simple way.

There are two sorts of questions:

General Questions: Deal with main idea, purpose, organization, structure of a passage.

Specific Questions: Deal with details, assumptions, arguments, certain paragraphs.

Reading Comprehension

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The right approach to reading.

„The Cherry

Picker“

„The

Researcher“

Does not read the entire text.

Is only looking for the answers for

the questions.

Problem:

Takes too much time to look for

answers.

Does not get the general

understanding.

NOT RECOMMENDED!!!

Reads the entire text very detailed

and carefully.

Pays attention to every detail.

Problem:

Takes far too much time for reading.

Misses big pictures by getting into

details.

NOT RECOMMENDED!!!

„Big Picture

Reader“

Reads first question.

Reads whole passage with an eye on

structure.

Goes slowly at the beginning and

quicker at the end.

Does not get into details with first

reading, might come back later with

the questions.

READ ACTIVELY BUT

EFFICIENTLY!!!

Quick reading is essential:

2 ½ - 3 minutes for a short paragraph, 3 ½ - 4 minutes for a long passage.

Reading Comprehension

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Answer Strategies.

Justify every word in the answer choices.

Avoid extreme words if possible:

GMAT prefers moderate language and ideas.

Avoid answers that use words like “never” or “all”.

Sometimes they might be true, but the extreme case must be backed up 100% by the passage.

Stay as close to the passage as possible.

Preview the first question:

Read it before you start reading the paragraph and have it in mind while reading it. It helps to

spot details when needed.

Try to answer General Questions without rereading them.

For Specific Questions in most cases you have to reread certain passage.

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Eating saltwater fish may significantly reduce the risk of heart attacks and also aid for sufferers of

rheumatoid arthritis and asthma, according to three research studies published in the NEW England

Journal of Medicine.

(A) significantly reduce the risk of heart attacks and also aid for

(B) be significant in reducing the risk of heart attacks and aid for

(C) significantly reduce the risk of heart attacks and aid

(D) cause a significant reduction in the risk of heart attacks and aid to

(E) Significantly reduce the risk of heart attacks as well as aiding

Sentence Correction – Sample Question

Sentence Correction Strategies for Sentence Correction

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Pace yourself in training. Take sets of 5 or 10 and consider 1:50 min per question.

Sentence correction is good to prepare for, since some major grammar topics are asked over

and over again.

In general 2 or even sometimes up to 3 failure areas are constructed into the question. If you

spot one, get an idea of the correct solution and use this to quickly separate out wrong answers.

Skip to read the first answer choice, it is always exactly what you have read in the text.

A quick overview of some golden rules:

Grammar over Concision over Meaning.

“being” marks wrong answers in 95% of cases.

Check immediately if you see one of these indefinite pronouns: it, its, they, them, their.

Check if the subject and verb make sense in terms of singular / plural and sense.

Check for same verb forms in logical parallel sentences.

Avoid passive forms.

Quant Section

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Quant Section

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General strategies for Quant Section.

Good to prepare in order to learn and practice all possible mathematic concepts.

Mathematics might look easy (school level), but do not underestimate. It is not only about how to

solve but also how to solve in time!

Train with time limit of 2 min / question.

Train use of drawing board you get.

Try to avoid decimals if you have to calculate further, use fractional expressions instead.

Crucial to be secure and very quick calculation “by hand”.

The following main areas are used in mathematical problems:

Rates & Velocity, Ratio, Percentage, Combinatorics, Overlapping Sets, Average,

Number Properties, Geometry, Divisibility and Primes, Coordinate Systems,

Arithmetics

Data Sufficiency – Sample Question

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If 75 percent of the guests at a certain banquet ordered dessert, what percent of the guests ordered

coffee?

1) 60 percent of the guests who ordered dessert also ordered coffee.

2) 90 percent of the guests who ordered coffee also ordered dessert.

A) Statement (1) ALONE is sufficient, but statement (2) alone is not sufficient to answer the question asked.

B) Statement (2) ALONE is sufficient, but statement (1) alone is not sufficient to answer the question asked.

C) BOTH statements (1) and (2) TOGETHER are sufficient to answer the question asked, but NEITHER statement ALONE is sufficient to answer the question asked.

D) EACH statement ALONE is sufficient to answer the question asked.

E) Statements (1) and (2) TOGETHER are NOT sufficient to answer the question asked, and additional data specific to the problem are needed.

Data Sufficiency

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Strategies for Data Sufficiency.

Know the answer sequence by mind.

Do not calculate the exact result. Calculate as little as possible.

Use the following sequence in order to sort out answer choices.

Check if information set 1 is sufficient.

Check if information set 2 is sufficient.

Only if no set for itself is sufficient, check for combination.

In a time crunch, evaluate the easier statement and guess.

Symmetry (meaning both sets with same information) amongst statements (1) and (2)

--> D or E.

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Problem Solving – Sample Question

A) 0

B) 1

C) 2

D) 3

E) 4

1) If x is a positive integer, what is the remainder when 7 (12x+3) +3 is divided by 5?

2) What is the area of the triangle?

30° 45°

105°

6 A)

B)

C)

D)

E)

299

399

3929

21818

31818

• Remainder when division by 5 ? -> only unit digit necessary to know. • Calculating unit digits -> only multiply unit digit of factors.

• Check certain right triangle side ratios.

Quant Section – Geometry

Triangles:

The right Triangle:

Pythagorean theorem:

Length ratios of certain right triangles:

90°

45° 45° 90° 30°

60°

Common in GMAT: Possible side ratios in a right triangles.

3 , 4 , 5 5 , 12 , 13

222 cba a

b

c

2 3

111

2

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Quant Section – Prime Numbers

Definition: Prime Numbers

Definition Prime Number: Any number that is divisible only by 1 and itself

Memorize: Primes up to 30 (100)

2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19, 23, 29, 31, 37, 41, 43, 47, 53, 59, 61, 67, 71, 73, 79, 83, 89, 97, 101, …

Important facts for GMAT:

„2“ is the only even prime.

Square of a prime has exactly three factors.

Prime Factorization is a very important and powerful tool in GMAT.

Definition: Write a number as the product of its prime factors:

Examples:

54 = 2 * 27 = 2 * 3 * 9 = 2 * 3 * 3 * 3

99 = 3 * 33 = 3 * 3 * 11

420 = 2 * 210 = 2 * 2 * 105 = 2 * 2 * 5 * 21 = 2 * 2 * 5 * 3 * 7

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Divisibility Rules:

Divisibility by:

2: if number is even

3: add digits of number, if result a multiple of 3

4: if last two digits are multiple of 4

5: if last digit is 5 or 0

6: if divisible by 2 and 3

7: Routine:

Double and subtract the last digit in your number from the rest of the digits. Repeat the process

for larger numbers. Example: 357 (Double the 7 to get 14. Subtract 14 from 35 to get 21 which is

divisible by 7 and we can now say that 357 is divisible by 7.

8: if three times divisible by 2

9: add digits of number, if result a multiple of 9

Very common in GMAT is the principle of the remainder. Meaning that if a number is divided by

another number and the result is not an integer there stays a rest called “remainder”.

Quant Section – Divisibility

225

12R

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Definition of Overlapping Sets:

Quant Section - Overlapping Sets

Very common on GMAT:

Dividing a group of people in different overlapping subgroups.

Example: Class of 100 students. 30 are male and sign up for history class. 10 are female and didn‘t

sign up for history class. The history class holds 40 students. How many males students are

there in the class?

Solve with matrix: History (h) Non History Total

Male Male h Male non h Total male

Female Female h Female non h Total female

Total Total history Total non history

Total

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Thank You!

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…will be around for further questions!

About Us.

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"Unser Ziel ist es, eine faire, preisgünstige Alternative zu teuren GMAT-Kursen großer kommerzieller Anbieter zu schaffen. Von Ex-MBA Studenten für zukünftige MBA-/Master-Studenten! Wir wollen dem GMAT das Erschreckende nehmen, um die "Hürde GMAT" für Deine Bewerbung so tief wie möglich zu legen!"

Coach: Claus Huber ist aktuell in verantwortungsvoller Position innerhalb der Automobilentwicklung (großer dt. Hersteller) im In- und Ausland beschäftigt. Zuvor studierte er Physik an der TU München und arbeitete in dieser Zeit über Jahre als Tutor im Bereich Mathematik. Er absolvierte sein MBA Studium an der Universität St. Gallen und der ESADE Business School (HSG class of 2012). Claus hat langjährige Erfahrung als GMAT-Coach in Kursen für GMAT-Workshop.de und an verschiedenen Hochschulen.

Aktuelle GMAT-Workshop Termine auf www.GMAT-Workshop.de: • 1-Tages Live Intensivkurs e(8:00 – 18:30 Uhr) • Über mehrere Termine gestreckte Online Kurse (ca.13h) • Einzelcoaching • Geeignet für GMAT Anfänger und Fortgeschrittene