Introduction

You’re merrily skimming through the admissions requirements for your favorite MBA programs when all of a sudden, you’re dealt a shocking blow. Your absolute top choice program — you’ll die if you don’t get in — requires that you take the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT). And you thought your days of speed-reading passages and solving for x were over.

Many MBA programs include the GMAT as an admissions requirement, so you’ll be in good company. But how do you prepare for such a comprehensive test? What are you going to do? Get out your spiral notebooks from undergraduate courses and sift through years’ worth of doodles? Many years may have gone by since you encountered a geometry problem, and we bet your grammar skills have gotten a little rusty since English 101.

Clearly, you need a readable, concisely structured resource. Well, you’ve come to the right place. GMAT For Dummies 2021, with Online Practice, puts at your fingertips everything you need to know to conquer the GMAT. We give you complete math and grammar reviews and provide insights into how to avoid the pitfalls that the GMAT creators want you to fall into. We also try to make this book as enjoyable as a book that devotes itself to setting up equations and critiquing arguments can be.

About This Book

We suspect that you aren’t eagerly anticipating sitting through the GMAT, and you’re probably not looking forward to studying for it, either. Therefore, we’ve attempted to make the study process as painless as possible by giving you clearly written advice in a casual tone. We realize you have a bunch of things you’d rather be doing, so we’ve broken down the information into easily digested bites. If you have an extra hour before work or Pilates class, you can devour a chapter or even a particular section within a chapter. (If these eating metaphors are making you hungry, feel free to take a snack break.)

In this book, you can find

We’ve included all kinds of information to help you do your best on the GMAT.

You should find this book easily accessible, but a few things may require explanation. A few of the chapters may contain sidebars (a paragraph or two in a shaded box) with quirky bits of information that we think may interest you but aren’t essential to your performance on the GMAT. If you’re trying to save time, you can skip the sidebars.

Foolish Assumptions

Although we guess it’s possible that you picked up this book just because you have an insatiable love for math, grammar, and argument analysis, we’re betting it’s more likely that you’re reading this book particularly because you’ve been told you need to take the GMAT. (We have been praised for our startling ability to recognize the obvious!) And because we’re pretty astute, we’ve figured that this means that you intend to apply to MBA programs and probably are considering working toward a Master of Business Administration.

Generally, MBA programs are pretty selective, so we’re thinking that you’re pretty motivated to get into the program of your choice. Some of you are fresh out of college and may have more recent experience with math and grammar. Others of you probably haven’t stepped into a classroom in over a decade but possess work skills and life experience that will help you maximize your GMAT score despite the time that’s passed since college.

If math and grammar are fresh in your mind and you just need to know what to expect when you arrive at the test site, this book has that information for you. If you’ve been out of school for a while, this book provides you with all the basics as well as advanced concepts to give you everything you need to know to excel on the GMAT.

Icons Used in This Book

One exciting feature of this book is the icons that highlight especially significant portions of the text. These little pictures in the margins alert you to areas where you should pay particularly close attention.

Remember This icon highlights really important information that you should remember even after you close the book.

Tip Throughout the book, we give you insights into how you can enhance your performance on the GMAT. The tips give you juicy timesavers and point out especially relevant concepts to keep in mind for the test.

Warning Your world won’t fall apart if you ignore our warnings, but your score may suffer. Heed these cautionary pointers to avoid making careless mistakes that can cost you points.

Example Whenever you see this icon in the text, you know you’re going to get to practice the particular area of instruction covered in that section with a question like one you may see on the test. Our examples include detailed explanations of how to most efficiently answer GMAT questions and avoid common pitfalls.

Beyond the Book

In addition to what you’re reading right now, this book comes with a free access-anywhere Cheat Sheet that includes tips to help you prepare for the GMAT. To get this Cheat Sheet, simply go to www.dummies.com and type GMAT For Dummies Cheat Sheet in the Search box.

You also get access to Seven full-length online practice tests and approximately 500 flashcards. To gain access to the online practice, all you have to do is register. Just follow these simple steps:

  1. Register your book or ebook at Dummies.com to get your PIN. Go to www.dummies.com/go/getaccess.
  2. Select your product from the drop-down list on that page.
  3. Follow the prompts to validate your product, and then check your email for a confirmation message that includes your PIN and instructions for logging in.

If you don’t receive this email within two hours, please check your spam folder before contacting us through our Technical Support website at http://support.wiley.com or by phone at 877-762-2974. 

Now you’re ready to go! You can come back to the practice material as often as you want — simply log on with the username and password you created during your initial login. No need to enter the access code a second time.

Your registration is good for one year from the day you activate your PIN.

You can also go to www.dummies.com and search for GMAT 2021 for a Cheat Sheet you can reference with helpful information you may need on a regular basis.

Where to Go from Here

We know that everyone who uses this book has different strengths and weaknesses, so this book is designed for you to read in the way that best suits you. If you’re a math whiz and need to brush up only on your verbal skills, you can skim Part 5 and focus on Parts 1, 3, and 4. If you’ve been writing proposals every day for the last ten years, you can probably scan Parts 3 and 4 and focus your attention on the math review in Part 5. Because the integrated reasoning section differs so significantly from other standardized test questions, you’ll benefit from reading Part 6 regardless of your math prowess or verbal genius. The pre-assessment in Part 2 can help you figure out where to focus if you aren’t sure.

We suggest that you take a more thorough approach, however. Familiarize yourself with the general test-taking process in the first two chapters, take the pre-assessment, and then go through the complete GMAT review, starting with the verbal section and working your way through the analytical writing, math, and integrated reasoning sections. You can skim through information that you know more about by just reading the Tips and Warnings and working through the examples in those sections. When you’ve finished reading through the entire book (Parts 1–6), you can take practice tests from Part 7 and the online content. As you complete your practice tests, compare your scores. This way, you can see just how much you improve with practice.

This book provides you with a bunch of practice tests, but you can never get enough practice. So, if after taking all the practice tests provided at dummies.com, you still crave more, visit the official GMAT website at www.mba.com and download the free GMATPrep software from there. This software mimics the computerized format of the test and gives you practice on the types of mouse-clicking and eye-straining skills you need to succeed on the exam. That way, you can experience using the same software you’ll see on the exam. Plus, you can purchase the current editions of GMAT Official Guide, GMAT Official Guide Quantitative Review, GMAT Official Guide Verbal Review, and GMAT Guide Advanced Questions, all published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., for thousands of additional official practice questions.

We’re confident that if you devote a few hours a week for at least six weeks to practicing the skills and tips we provide for you in this book, you’ll do the best you can when you sit in front of that computer on GMAT test day. We wish you our best for your ultimate GMAT score!