ABOUT THIS BOOK
If you don’t have a pencil in your hand, get one now! Don’t just read this book—write on it, study it,scrutinize it! In short, for the next four weeks, this book should be a part of your life. When you havefinished the book, it should be marked-up, dog-eared, tattered and torn.Although the GMAT is a difficult test, it is a very learnable test. This is not to say that the GMAT is“beatable.” There is no bag of tricks that will show you how to master it overnight. You probably havealready realized this. Some books, nevertheless, offer "inside stuff" or "tricks" which they claim will enableyou to beat the test. These include declaring that answer-choices B, C, or D are more likely to be correctthan choices A or E. This tactic, like most of its type, does not work. It is offered to give the student thefeeling that he or she is getting the scoop on the test.The GMAT cannot be “beaten.” But it can be mastered—through hard work, analytical thought, andby training yourself to think like a test writer. Many of the exercises in this book are designed to promptyou to think like a test writer. For example, you will find “Duals.” These are pairs of similar problems inwhich only one property is different. They illustrate the process of creating GMAT questions.The GMAT math section is not easy—nor is this book. To improve your GMAT math score, youmust be willing to work; if you study hard and master the techniques in this book, your score willimprove—significantly.This book will introduce you to numerous analytic techniques that will help you immensely, not onlyon the GMAT but in business school as well. For this reason, studying for the GMAT can be a rewardingand satisfying experience.To insure that you perform at your expected level on the actual GMAT, you need to develop a level ofmathematical skill that is greater than what is tested on the GMAT. Hence, about 10% of the mathproblems in this book (labeled "Very Hard") are harder than actual GMAT math problems.Although the quick-fix method is not offered in this book, about 15% of the material is dedicated tostudying how the questions are constructed. Knowing how the problems are written and how the testwriters think will give you useful insight into the problems and make them less mysterious. Moreover,familiarity with the GMAT’s structure will help reduce your anxiety. The more you know about this test,the less anxious you will be the day you take it.
