Table of Contents

Introduction 1

Part 1: Getting Started with the GMAT 5

Chapter 1: The Lowdown on the GMAT 7

Chapter 2: Maximizing Your Score on the GMAT 17

Chapter 3: Mastering Business School Admissions 27

Part 2: Creating a GMAT Study Plan 33

Chapter 4: Planning Your Approach 35

Chapter 5: GMAT Practice Assessment 41

Chapter 6: Scoring and Interpreting the Practice Assessment 55

Part 3: Vanquishing the Verbal Section 71

Chapter 7: Applying What You Learned (We Hope) in Grammar Class: Sentence Correction 73

Chapter 8: Not as Enticing as a Bestseller: Reading Comprehension 95

Chapter 9: Thinking This through Logically: Critical Reasoning 117

Chapter 10: Bringing It Together: A Mini Practice Verbal Section 143

Part 4: Acing the Analytical Writing Section 159

Chapter 11: Analyze This: What to Expect from the Analytical Writing Assessment 161

Chapter 12: Present Perfect Paragraphs: How to Write a GMAT Essay 165

Chapter 13: Deconstructing Sample GMAT Essays 173

Chapter 14: Sampling a Series of Writing Prompts 181

Part 5: Conquering the Quantitative Section 189

Chapter 15: Getting Back to Basics: Numbers and Operations 191

Chapter 16: Considering All the Variables: Algebra 213

Chapter 17: Getting the Angle on Geometry: Planes and Solids 237

Chapter 18: Keeping in Step: Coordinate Geometry 257

Chapter 19: Manipulating Numbers: Statistics and Sets 271

Chapter 20: It’s All in the Presentation: GMAT Quantitative Question Types 287

Chapter 21: All Together Now: A Mini Practice Quantitative Section 305

Part 6: Excelling on the Integrated Reasoning Section 323

Chapter 22: Best of Both Worlds: The Integrated Reasoning Section 325

Chapter 23: Deciphering Data in Charts and Graphs 341

Part 7: Practice Makes Perfect 353

Chapter 24: GMAT Practice Test 355

Chapter 25: Practice Test Answers and Explanations 381

Part 8: The Part of Tens 409

Chapter 26: Ten Question Types You’ve Got a Good Shot At 411

Chapter 27: Ten Writing Errors to Avoid 415

Chapter 28: Ten Ways to Increase Your Chances of Getting into Business School 419

Index 423

About the Author

Lisa Zimmer Hatch, MA, and Scott A. Hatch, JD, have been helping students excel on standardized tests and navigate the college admissions process since 1987. They have written curricula and taught students internationally through live lectures, online forums, DVDs, and independent study, and have authored numerous test-prep texts.

Sandra Luna McCune, PhD, is professor emeritus and a former Regents professor at Stephen F. Austin State University. She’s currently a full-time author and math/statistics consultant.