Tuesday, September 20, 2005
GMAT strategy
Last week’s first MBA class went pretty well. Since it was the first time I had ever taught the class, I felt a little rough around the edges, but I think overall it was a success. The organizers had asked me to explain different test-taking strategies such as back-solving and number picking. However, the idea of using strategies seemed so new to some of the students that we spent most of the time just explaining that there are strategies, and gave examples of each. Here are a few of the things that I talked about.
For instance, when I was an undergrad at BYU I lived in the same apartment complex as Jeopardy phenom Ken Jennings. I knew he was active in BYU’s college bowl team and was over at his apartment one evening when he and some friends were going through some random facts in preparation for an upcoming meet. It was something he really worked at. So when I found out he was winning on Jeopardy I tuned in to watch the show pretty regularly. Ken is undeniably smart, but more than that, I think he is great at playing the game of Jeopardy. He knows what type of questions (or answers in the case of Jeopardy) to anticipate and is fast at the buzzer. I read somewhere that before he appeared on jeopardy he would even practice buzzing in at home.
As I watched jeopardy and started playing online I noticed some patterns that I had been unaware of before. For instance, one of the questions (er, answers) I remember hearing went something like this: “This Central American country has its national anthem in English” – the correct response was “What is Belize?” As I played the game online I ran into this very similar question/answer: “This Latin American country has English as its official language.” The correct response was “What is Belize?” It was the same question – just put a different way. I began to realize that the questions Ken was studying years before in our apartment complex were probably used over and over again in different ways. They can’t ask something so obscure that nobody will know the answer, but they also need new and fresh questions each year. So, when writing “new” questions, they often just repackage old ones. It’s the same with the GMAT.
I think that there are really smart people out there who can simply walk in to take the GMAT cold and ace it. For the rest of us, I think it’s possible to get familiar enough with the types of test questions that you know what to expect. There are only so many ways that they can ask a Venn diagram question, for instance. Be familiar with the limited ways to complicate a Venn diagram and you’re ready to move onto another category of questions. Master them all, and you’re well-prepared for the test.
For instance, when I was an undergrad at BYU I lived in the same apartment complex as Jeopardy phenom Ken Jennings. I knew he was active in BYU’s college bowl team and was over at his apartment one evening when he and some friends were going through some random facts in preparation for an upcoming meet. It was something he really worked at. So when I found out he was winning on Jeopardy I tuned in to watch the show pretty regularly. Ken is undeniably smart, but more than that, I think he is great at playing the game of Jeopardy. He knows what type of questions (or answers in the case of Jeopardy) to anticipate and is fast at the buzzer. I read somewhere that before he appeared on jeopardy he would even practice buzzing in at home.
As I watched jeopardy and started playing online I noticed some patterns that I had been unaware of before. For instance, one of the questions (er, answers) I remember hearing went something like this: “This Central American country has its national anthem in English” – the correct response was “What is Belize?” As I played the game online I ran into this very similar question/answer: “This Latin American country has English as its official language.” The correct response was “What is Belize?” It was the same question – just put a different way. I began to realize that the questions Ken was studying years before in our apartment complex were probably used over and over again in different ways. They can’t ask something so obscure that nobody will know the answer, but they also need new and fresh questions each year. So, when writing “new” questions, they often just repackage old ones. It’s the same with the GMAT.
I think that there are really smart people out there who can simply walk in to take the GMAT cold and ace it. For the rest of us, I think it’s possible to get familiar enough with the types of test questions that you know what to expect. There are only so many ways that they can ask a Venn diagram question, for instance. Be familiar with the limited ways to complicate a Venn diagram and you’re ready to move onto another category of questions. Master them all, and you’re well-prepared for the test.
