Course Structure

If you have taken practice tests, I will look them over to determine your weaknesses.  If you have not taken practice tests, I will probably have you take a full-length diagnostic test.  If you have taken an actual GMAT, I might have you provide me with a copy of the enhanced score report. I will enter all this test information into your personal error log, which will be updated as you take additional tests. The error log allows us to keep a close eye on topics and question types that are costing you most points. I keep a very detailed record, which you can access at any time, of what we have done during each lesson. You can also access pdf files of every problem we do together and everything I write on the whiteboard.  Last but not least, I will make you a detailed, personalized day by day study schedule so you just have to study, not wonder what to study. My entire process, beginning with the information I collect during our initial free phone consultation, is very structured and data-driven. Nothing falls through the cracks. 

Of the 31 Quantitative Reasoning (math) questions on the GMAT, about 17 will require you to solve a problem and select from five answer choices. In addition to teaching you the math concepts themselves, I will teach you techniques like choosing smart numbers and "backsolving." I will also show you how to read questions more effectively, to estimate, and to write a "game plan" before you start working on the problem. Finally, I will give you greater insight into the available answer choices.

Of the 31 Quantitative Reasoning (math) questions on the GMAT,  about 14 will be Data Sufficiency, which require you to determine whether two given statements are sufficient to answer a certain question. In addition to what I do for Problem Solving, I will teach you to boil the Data Sufficiency question stem down to the essential question. Once you do this, it is often very clear whether the statements are sufficient or not.

I feel it's very important to time you reading the passages so that you are aware of how long you are actually taking; I believe it is best to read the passages carefully the first time, and knowing how much time  is actually required (often less than it seems) is important.  I am not a strong believer in skimming: everything on the GMAT must be read with extreme care. Much of the time spent tutoring this section is used to familiarize you with common ways answer choices can be wrong. 

This is often the easiest verbal section for students to improve, since there are many specific rules that can be learned. Much of the time spent tutoring this section is used to familiarize you with common ways answer choices can be wrong: verb tenses, parallelism, misuse of "which," or, my personal favorite, misuse of semicolons ; )

I focus on helping you learn to recognize conclusions for the types of passages that contain them (all but two types.) Much of the time spent tutoring this section is used to familiarize you with common ways answer choices can be wrong.

This section does not factor into the main 200-800 GMAT score: it is scored separately on a scale of 1 to 8. While this is generally considered less important than the verbal or quantitative sections, it's important not to get too low a score. Students generally prepare for this through guided self-study.  

This section does not factor into the main 200-800 GMAT score: it is scored separately on a scale of 1 to 6. While this is generally considered less important than the verbal or quantitative sections, it's important not to get too low a score. Students generally prepare for this through guided self-study.