In this series of articles, we’ll cover the three main “pillars” of GMAT prep necessary for success on test day.  The first pillar is content, which encompasses the math and verbal skills necessary to answer the questions given to you on Test Day.  This is the factual stuff you HAVE to know when you walk in the door for the GMAT.  For example, a question like

“What is the area of a right triangle whose legs have lengths 3 and 4?”

Is literally unanswerable if you don’t know the formula for a triangle’s area (one-half base times height, for the record).  Other vital content areas tested on the GMAT include, organized by section:

Quantitative content areas:

Algebra (including Isolating a Variable, Systems of Equations, FOIL, etc.)
Geometry (including Triangles, Quadrilaterals, and Circles, with a little bit of solids and coordinate geometry)
Number Properties (including Positives/Negatives, Odds/Evens, Prime Numbers, Integers, etc)
Arithmetic  & Proportions (including Ratios, Rates, Percents,  Averages, etc)

Verbal content areas:

Grammar (for Sentence Correction)
Argument Analysis (for Critical Reasoning)

One of the first steps of successful GMAT prep is to assess your strengths and weaknesses in terms of content.  Maybe there’s a lot of writing required at your job, so your grammar is strong, or you have fond memories of geometry formulas but don’t know the first thing about argument analysis.  After identifying your current status with regard to GMAT content, you then must follow through and be willing to confront those areas that are a little rustier, or that you never learned in the first place.

But it is not enough to merely work your weaknesses tirelessly until Test Day.  As an illustration of this principle, the subject of probability comes to mind.  In my experience, a great many students are nervous about their ability to answer probability questions quickly and accurately, and rightfully so: the subject can be tested in many ways, and some of the GMAT’s hardest questions test knowledge of probability content.  However, I do not advise these students to concentrate many precious hours of study time to brushing up on probability, beyond gaining a general knowledge of the principles at hand.  Why?  Because however difficult it may be, even the highest-scoring test takers will not likely run into no more than 2 or 3 probability questions on Test Day, and so time is better spent mastering higher-yield topics, such as Algebra or Number Properties.

Thus, in terms of content, to really maximize your score, you have to find yourself an individual or organization who knows the GMAT inside and out to help you prepare and to use your preparation time efficiently.  Having someone over your shoulder, guiding you on what to cover next and how to allocate your prep time can really make a difference in the score you ultimately receive.

Stay tuned for Pillar #2: Strategy.

From previous posts, I’ve discussed the need to understand certain grammar concepts on the GMAT in order to do well.  As you continue to study for the GMAT, make sure you focus on these specific grammar areas.  Additionally, on any given question, the GMAT is often testing several of these concepts.  Thus, as we teach in our Kaplan classroom course, make sure you have a great strategy to keep all the moving parts organized.  The following conceptual topics appear often on the test:

Verbs: The GMAT is often testing your ability to match up subject verb agreement.  If you see a verb in the underlined portion of the sentence, make sure you ask yourself “to what subject is this verb referring” (note that more difficult questions have ambiguous subjects).

Pronouns: If you ever see a pronoun underlined on the GMAT, always ask yourself whether the pronoun unambiguously refers to the noun it is replacing.  Additionally, ask yourself whether the pronoun refers correctly to the singular or plural noun.

Modifiers: Modifiers can be tricky.  Note the following example: “I love you.”  If we wanted to add the modifier “only” to this sentence we need to be careful where we place it.  We can place it in several places:

“I love only you.”  - Meaning that I don’t love anyone else but you.  OR,
“I only love you.”  - Meaning that I love you but I don’t like you much. OR.
“Only I love you.” – A quite depressing meaning – that no one but me loves you.
A modifier can severally change the meaning of a statement.  On the GMAT, always put the modifier next to the word that it modifies.

Parallelism & Comparisons: The GMAT tests parallelism in several ways:  1) Make sure that if you have a list of entities, you always make the phrases parallel. 2) Additionally, if you are comparing items, you must make sure the forms are parallel as well as the concepts that you are comparing.

Style & Idioms: Here is the area that gives even the best test takers some concerns.  Style and idiomatic usages on the GMAT generally means using concise business language and commonly accepted words and phrases.  I’ve met many individuals who identify themselves as grammar kings and queens – many of them have trouble with GMAT style and idioms.  While we can complain and argue about the virtues of competing styles, we are better severed if we simply learn and practice the specific GMAT idioms and style that are tested.  I’ll write more on style and idioms later on – at this point, simply accept the ones that you agree with and memorize the ones you may not.

These five topics are the extent that the GMAT is testing your grammar.  In general, while there are many things within each of these categories that could be tested, we want you to focus on looking for these five things in the underlined part of the question.  Thinking about what to look for (instead of just hoping you hear the problem), is more than half the battle.  Good luck with sentence correction!