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Remember to always look out for trigger words, or words that change or limit the direction of a sentence in some way. What are some trigger words in the following sentence?
Loading ...The words “only” and “not” place significant logical restrictions and directions on the word in the blank. What are some other common trigger words you know?
Posted in Barron's Courses, GRE, Verbal
Tagged GRE Question of the Day, Sentence Completions
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Every now and then, the GRE will throw you softball – a question that appeals to both your instincts and your grammatical knowledge. If you happen to stumble upon a question like this and recognize it quickly, go with your instincts and move to the next question quickly! How quickly can you get the answer to this question of the day?
Loading ...The clues in this question are comprehensive; in fact, the entire second half of the sentence can be used to find the answer. If you come across a question that you feel very comfortable with, carefully but quickly choose and answer and move on! You can use the time you save to improve your selections on tougher questions in the same section.
Posted in Barron's Courses, GRE, Verbal
Tagged GRE Question of the Day, Sentence Completions
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While technically GRE Sentence Completions don’t require outside knowledge (except for grammar and language knowledge, of course), they do occasionally rely on some common sense. What do you need to know in order to answer this question of the day?
Loading ...The GRE will only use this kind of test if there is legitimately only a single choice that could possibly be correct. You won’t be expected to have advanced knowledge of any particular subject matter, beyond of course “common” sense.
Posted in Barron's Courses, GRE, Verbal
Tagged GRE Question of the Day, Sentence Completion
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Sometimes a sentence may use subtle clues to indicate a change of direction or contrast within its context. What are some of the clues that you can identify in the following example that affect the direction of the blank?
Loading ...It’s not easy to spot the contrast indicator in this question – the best clue that points to a contrast here is the term “much simpler”, which implies that the foreign exchange students regard the American version as the opposite of that, or “complex” or “difficult to understand” (enigmatic).
Posted in Barron's Courses, GRE, Verbal
Tagged GRE Question of the Day, Sentence Completion
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Every sentence must have distinct and obvious clues about the blanks in question. What are the two words that are most important to answer the following question?
Loading ...“Puritanical disciplinarian” is the most important term in this sentence for determining the meaning of the blank. Keeping it in mind, “mercilessly” is far and away the best choice possible out of the five answers.
Posted in Barron's Courses, GRE, Verbal
Tagged GRE Question of the Day, Sentence Completion
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It goes without saying that your ability to transform word problems into equations and expressions is incredibly valuable on the GRE and GMAT. But don’t overthink it! Many of these translations can be done almost automatically. How would you translate the following word problem into expressions and equations you can use?
Loading ...Hopefully you are familiar with the word problem translation chart:
| Words | Math |
| More/Less Than | Add To/Subtract From Next Term |
| Increased/Decreased | Add/Subtract from original |
| Of/Times | Multiply |
| Percent | /100 |
| What/A Number | Variable |
| Is/Is Equal To/Equals | = |
| Remaining/Left/Difference | Subtract from original Quantity |
| Part | Divide Part by Total |
| Total/Sum | Add |
Being able to translate words into expressions using this chart is not just necessary to get word problems right, it is also a key to doing them quickly! Using the values from this table allow you to bypass any heavy lifting for these problems and proceed directly to solving.
Posted in Barron's Courses, GMAT, GRE, Quant, Quant
Tagged GMAT Question of the Day, GRE Question of the Day, Word Problems
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How does the following sentence use analogy and/or description to portray contrast?
Loading ...By describing amazement regarding their friendship, the author has directly established a framework for expressing contrast. Contrast isn’t always expressed through explicit trigger words such as “however” or “yet”; sometimes situational clues can be used to determine logical relationships in sentences like this.
Posted in Barron's Courses, GRE, Verbal
Tagged GRE Question of the Day, Sentence Completion
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Many students are guilty of ignoring the law of diminishing utility when it comes to test prep. Stated more plainly, I mean that students often operate under the assumption that “studying more is always better”. This is simply not the case.
The final week before the test is a time that students commonly misuse or, in some egregious cases, actually regress. This is because, instead of treating the GRE as a performance, which it is, students treat it simply as a test of knowledge, which it most certainly is not. The top priority of any student during the last week before taking the test should be resting well and staying healthy. Resist the urge to take a full-length practice test, as it will most likely contribute to fatigue on the actual test day, and by all means, don’t study anything on the day before the test. Just take care of yourself, relax, and mentally prepare yourself for game day.
Students also ignore the law of diminishing utility during normal study hours. The number of hours that you can be actively engaged in absorbing and executing new information is limited; just because you put in the extra hours does not mean that your score will continue to improve. In order to perform optimally on the test, you should view taking care of yourself as an equally important part of your study as pouring vocabulary words into your brain.
How long can you productively study in each day? The answer is not infinite; during your studies try to take note of how productive your study is. If you are wasting time, or not making effective progress, or not feeling well, then STOP! Watching Dumb and Dumber, believe it or not, may be a more valuable use of your time. And it won’t make you as dumb as you think.
Developing a proper study/life balance is a vital part of your prep and should not be ignored. In addition to the number of hours that you can spend during each session, there is a limited amount of study time that you can put your body through each week. Ensuring that you are taking adequate time to exercise, eat well, and sleep sufficiently is an often undervalued but highly sensitive aspect of your test prep so take your mother’s advice and take care of yourself, darnit!
The GRE and GMAT always present you with enough information to solve a question. But frequently, you will need to alter, simplify, or modify expressions a good bit before proceeding. In fact, some problems (like the following) depend upon your ability to do so. How might you simplify the expressions in the following problem before proceeding to a solution?
Loading ...Both inequalities presented at the outset of the problem must be simplified before a solution can be easily found. Be aware that often times the test will not simply offer information that can be directly solved; it is far more common to be given information which requires some significant changes before it is useful for solving.
Posted in Barron's Courses, GMAT, GRE, Quant, Quant
Tagged GMAT Question of the Day, GRE Question of the Day, Inequalities, Probability
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Traditionally, math students are taught to completely solve any equation or problem that they face. But due to the limited nature of GRE and GMAT problems, there are some problem-solving methods that are superior because of their speed.
Testing the Answer Choices is occasionally one of these options. Although it is highly dependent on the problem itself, there are some times where using this technique can be faster than solving the problem in a traditional way. Can you solve this problem by Testing the Answer Choices?
Loading ...However, using advanced problem-solving techniques is not always faster. In fact, it can be slower in many cases. But the execution of each problem solving method is quite subjective; the only way to find out whether one method will be better or worse for you is to practice thoroughly and get to know your own skill set well!
Posted in Barron's Courses, GMAT, GRE, Quant, Quant
Tagged GMAT Question of the Day, GRE Question of the Day, Testing the Answer Choices
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