The Reason Test Prep Blog
Welcome to the Reason Test Prep Blog. 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!
How to Improve your GMAT or GRE Verbal Score: The Secret Weapon
The title may be a little inflated but what I would like to cover in this article is what I believe to be the single most important strategy point for Verbal questions and one that cuts across all Verbal questions types on both the GMAT and GRE. It is what I...
Thoughts on the New GMAT – Coming in Fall of 2023
On March 8, 2023, GMAC announced upcoming changes to the GMAT. There will be a new version of the exam, the GMAT Focus Edition, that will be released in late 2023. The current version of the exam will end in the first half of 2024. In this...
In-Person vs Online GMAT and GRE: Which Version to Take?
GMAC and ETS offer online versions of the GMAT and GRE, but test-takers are often unsure about which version to take. Part of the problem is that there are a handful of confusing differences, especially with regard to the GMAT, and some of those...
Understanding the Timeline for GMAT/GRE Prep and Graduate School Applications
Many graduate and business school applicants underestimate the timeline for preparing for the GMAT or GRE and, more generally, don’t understand how that timeline relates to application deadlines. Every October, November, and December we tend to get...
What Are the Differences Between the GMAT & GRE?
Ever since business schools began accepting the GRE an increasing number of MBA applicants have elected to take the GRE instead of the GMAT. We have also had many students who either started with the GMAT and then turned to the GRE or who ended up just...
GMAT vs GRE: How to Choose Which Test to Take?
In a another post, we discuss the differences between the GMAT and GRE. That background might be heIpful if you really want to understand the ins and outs of each test. If, however, you are just looking for general guidance on how to decide which test to...
1000 Lockers
There are 1000 lockers in a high school with 1000 students. The problem begins with the first student opening all 1000 lockers; next the second student closes lockers 2,4,6,8,10 and so on to locker 1000; the third student changes the state (opens lockers...
How to Choose Between the SAT and ACT?
Consider Both Tests Before Starting Gone are the days when schools accepted only the SAT or the ACT. Nowadays all colleges accept both tests and have no preference for which test scores students submit. And while it is true that many students score similarly...
Verbal as the Key to a High Overall GMAT Score
In my last post I described how Data Sufficiency is, for many, the key to a high Quant score on the GMAT. I decided to continue this theme to discuss a related but, I think, more important point and one that I love to explain to people because it seems that...
Data Sufficiency as the Key to a High Quant GMAT Score
Back in the old days the GMAT Prep tests did not break down your performance by question type on the Quant and Verbal sections. Nor was there an Enhanced Score Report that did so on the actual GMAT. Now, with the existence of practice tests that indicate...
Laying Eggs
This month’s brain teaser is on the “easier” side (though it is still a brain teaser: hint, hint). As in previous newsletters, it’s also typical of the type of questions you see on standardized tests, especially the GMAT and GRE: If 4 hens can lay...
The SAT and ACT and the Future of Test Optional Admissions
The test optional movement is an ever-changing landscape with colleges changing and updating policies all the time. As of this writing (March 2023), some colleges have announced an extension of test optional policies (for example, Harvard has extended...
GMAT Scoring Algorithm: The First Ten Questions
It is a pretty well-accepted fact that within each section on the GMAT the early questions are slightly more important than the late ones (everything I have seen in all my years as a GMAT tutor has confirmed this and there have been some good experiments...
Table Numbers
Club X has more than 10 but fewer than 40 members. Sometimes the members sit at tables with 3 members at one table and 4 members at each of the other tables, and sometimes they sit at tables with 3 members at one table and 5 members at each of the other...
GMAT Myth or Fact?
You must get all, or at least most, of the early questions right in order to score well? As you will see with most of the myths/facts in this series, there is some truth and some fiction in the statement above. So let’s start with what definitely is true…...
When Should One Start Studying for the SAT or ACT?
Parents and students alike are often unsure when to begin preparing for the SAT or ACT. Like most things in life there is no simple answer to this question and it depends somewhat on the student and his or her circumstances. We’ll go into much more detail in...
Differences Between the SAT and ACT
Despite popular misconception, the SAT and ACT are actually much more similar than they are different. Both tests are essentially reasoning tests and both tests are based off of a very similar content base, so our approach to tutoring both tests is...
The Census
A census taker approaches a house and asks the woman who answers the door "How many children do you have, and what are their ages?" The woman says, "I have three children; the product of their ages is 36, and the sum of their ages is equal to the address of...
GMAT Verbal Time Management: Speeding up on CR & RC
In this post I want to address one aspect of dealing with time management on the Verbal section of the GMAT: shaving time off of Critical Reasoning and Reading Comprehension questions. I recently tutored a couple of students who really benefitted from this...
GMAT Time Management: The 2 Kinds of Strategic Guessing
There are 2 different kinds of guessing that test takers should apply on the Quant section of the GMAT – both of them are crucial to success on the GMAT. But in my years of tutoring, I have found that most people just aren’t aware of how different guessing...
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