Reason Test Prep Articles
Welcome to Reason Test Prep Articles. Over the course of decades tutoring the SAT, ACT, GMAT, and GRE, we’ve accumulated a lot of insight, and almost nothing pleases us more than sharing that knowledge with people who are hungry for it!
Understanding the Adaptive Scoring Algorithm of the Digital SAT
In the name of science, we went to the source and tinkered with the new Digital SAT practice tests released by the College Board. Our goal was to find out exactly what's going on under the hood to determine scoring on this new test. In this post, we'll lay...
The Penalty for Leaving Questions Unanswered on the GMAT
The GMAT imposes significant time pressure on test-takers: anyone who has taken a practice GMAT can attest to how difficult it can be to finish one or more of the sections on time. But most people are unaware of just how significant the penalty is for not...
The Dizzying Spirals
This month we have yet another great Martin Gardner puzzle. Full disclosure, doing this one made me a little dizzy! But if you do it in a “systematic” way, it’s possible to do it without getting nauseous! One of these spirals is formed with a single piece of...
Your Guide to Success on the GRE Essay – Template and Sample Essay
This article is a companion to our original guide, Your Guide to Success on the GRE Essay (Analytical Writing Section). That piece walks you through the strategy, structure, and mindset you need to succeed on the GRE Analytical Writing task. Here, we follow...
Who Gets Picked? Claire vs. Max
This month’s “brain teaser” is actually a Data Sufficiency question, which is a question type that appears on the Data Insights section of the GMAT. These questions tend to be tricky and reward reasoning more than pure math ability! The answer choices are...
The Art of Learning: Training for the ACTUAL Conditions of the GMAT and GRE
The ability to learn, to really understand how to acquire a skill or set of skills, is one of the keys to a successful and happy life. In some sense, the ability to learn is what intelligence really is! Think about artificial intelligence and how the most...
The Mislabeled Crates
You are in a storage room with 3 wooden crates. One is labeled APPLES, one is labeled ORANGES, and one is labeled APPLES & ORANGES. You are told that every single label is wrong. Inside each crate is either only apples, only oranges, or a mix of apples...
Your Guide to Success on the GRE Essay (Analytical Writing Section)
This is a no-nonsense guide to doing well on the GRE Essay (Analytical Writing) Section. By “doing well”, a 4.5 generally suffices, even for the best programs, but of course the higher the better. Scoring on the GRE Essay The Essay is scored from 0.0 - 6.0,...
Funny Fold
This month we have a great “spatial reasoning” puzzle from the prodigious writer of brain teasers, Martin Gardner. This one is an absolute gem! Enjoy! The below image depicts a large capital letter that has been cut from a piece of paper and given a single...
Anchor in the Lake
This month we have more of a question than a brain teaser. But, it definitely has a brain teaser-ish feel to it! Enjoy! Suppose you are on a boat in the middle of a lake. There is an extremely heavy lead anchor in the boat. If you were to throw the anchor...
GMAT or GRE: Why the GRE May Give You a Strategic Edge in MBA Admissions!
At Reason Test Prep, we enjoy helping ambitious people clear the testing hurdle for admission into elite MBA programs. Now that business schools accept the GRE alongside the GMAT, applicants often wonder: Which exam should I take? We find that many of our...
Pairing Students…Perfectly!
Once again we dip into official test questions for our monthly brain teaser! This one is an actual ACT question. If you struggle with it, take comfort in knowing that this one took me longer than I’d like to admit (I saw this question on an actual ACT that I...
Interest Rate
In this month’s “brain teaser,” we present an official GMAT question. While thinking about this question, it’s critical to remember/understand that the GMAT does not allow a calculator on the Quantitative Section, so this question must be able to be solved...
How to Choose the Optimal GMAT Section Order
The GMAT allows test takers to choose the order in which they do the 3 sections of the test (Quantitative, Verbal, and Data Insights). But test takers often struggle with determining their optimal section order. The truth is that there is no specific section...
Weighing Bricks
This month’s brain teaser comes from one of our students! It's a question that one of her colleagues asks people in job interviews. So, lest you think that pondering brain teasers (especially confusingly worded and seemingly inane ones like the below) are a...
A Test of Reasoning, Not Math
Below we once again share an official GMAT question as our monthly brain teaser. Like many difficult GMAT and GRE questions, and even like many of the most difficult SAT/ACT questions, this one shares a lot in common with brain teasers. The question looks...
Section or “Global” Time Management Strategies for the GMAT
We recently released an article that covers similar ground but for the GRE. If you’ve already read that article, just note that most of what we say in the introduction and in the section about “establishing the right mindset” is very similar. There are 2...
The Two Barbershops
A traveller arrives in a small town and decides to get a haircut. There are only two barbershops in town: one on East Street and one on West Street. The East Street barbershop is a mess, and the barber has the worst haircut the traveller has ever seen. The...
The Doctor’s Son
Below is a classic brain teaser that plays some of the same tricks that one sees on standardized tests, especially the GMAT and GRE. A boy is walking down the road with a doctor. While the boy is the doctor's son, the doctor isn't the boy's father. Then who...
Why “Using Your Ear” on Verbal Questions is a Bad Idea
Most people take a rather informal, intuitive approach to verbal questions. This is often described as "using your ear": simply reading the answer choices and trying them out in your mind's ear, seeing which one sounds best. And here, dear reader, there lie...
Find the Animal
In each of the sentences below, the name of an animal is concealed. The first sentence is marked so that you can see how the word “dog” is hidden. See if you can find the animal hidden in each of the other sentences! What shall I do, Gertrude? Asking nutty...
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