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?

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.

Here are some common pitfalls to avoid so that you can achieve everything you’re capable of!

1. Studying only weaknesses- Once you’re taken stock of where you are going into the test, a common tendency is to jump headlong into your weakest areas. While this might seem to be a wise strategy, make sure that you consider your timeframe and natural abilities. If you’re a non-native English speaker who struggles with idioms and your test is coming up relatively soon, you might be better off getting your geometry skills from good to great, or sharpening your critical reasoning abilities rather than pouring a large amount of valuable study time into something that is not a huge part of the test and will likely be quite a struggle.
2. Going it alone- As a professional tutor, I see examples every week of how working with an expert with your best interests in mind can be extremely helpful. It’s something I would recommend to every student who is dedicated to reaching his or her potential. However, if you’re unable to meet with a tutor for some reason, that doesn’t mean solitude should be your next choice. Find a study partner or group. Preparing for a standardized test like the GMAT requires a large investment of time and if you don’t have someone else to share struggles and successes with, the pursuit of a great score becomes lonely and difficult to maintain.
3. Aiming for a score- When I assign a practice test as homework to a student I often hear “My goal is 650 for this one.” Setting these arbitrary numbers as a goal really doesn’t do any good. If you see a difficult reading passage, are you going to approach it any differently if your goal is 600 or 650?  You aren’t going to say “I’m not going to worry about understanding the author’s point in this third paragraph because my goal is only 600 today.” Rather than focusing on results that may leave you feeling satisfied on a lucky day, or frustrated with a great effort that didn’t quite meet the mark, set process goals. If your goals are centered around tackling problems in the correct way, thinking strategically and managing time well, you’re working toward getting a great number on the one score that really matters.
4. Not making a study schedule- If your plan is to study when you have time, you’re hurting yourself. Making a study schedule not only makes study time more likely to happen because it’s blocked out on your calendar, but it also alleviates non-studying guilt! If it’s not listed as study time on your calendar, you don’t have to worry about studying!
5. Trying to get every question right- Since the GMAT is a computer-adaptive test, the software’s goal is to find your level. In order to do that, it needs to see which questions are too easy and which questions are too difficult for you. If you focus on getting every single question correct, you’re likely going to get yourself in a lot of time trouble, which is going to do your score more harm than good! Focus on getting the ones you can get within a reasonable amount of time and taking intelligent guesses on the ones you don’t know.

If you can avoid these pitfalls you’re well on your way to a great score!

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.

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).

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“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.

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Hope you will find these free resources helpful.

Hopefully you are familiar with the word problem translation chart:

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.

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.