A General Unofficial Guide for GMAT

Preface and Qualification:

This guide assumes that you have already comprehended what is in Official Guide for
GMAT, and thus only explain terminologies that are not mentioned in the Official Guide.
By “general”, I mean this guide is philosophical and methodological, involving few
specific examples or points of grammatical knowledge. Most of the generalized
principles that the guide is about to introduce can be trusted. However, the author ’s
generalization might suffer from personal judgment or discretion, and errors are
unavoidable. Suggestions herein are also general. I suggest that you read this guide
before you start your lengthy journey to GMAT, get a blurry impression of how to deal
with GMAT and frequently review this guide in the middle of your preparation to
further understand what is going on in this guide.
This guide is based on unverified information from the Internet (mainly, the
ChaseDream Forum) and personal experience, so it has no official authority, and thus is
labeled as “UNOFFICIAL”. Although the author did his best, the legality of this guide is
limited to his ability to, from his only personal experience of GMAT, correctly and
completely identify applicable pieces of information out of the great bulk of the true and
untrue in the Internet.
So, despite the author’s confidence, readers’ own discretion and consciousness is
necessary. You should know better to trust all the statements in this guide.

I. Parts of GMAT and appropriate PACE you should take on:

The “pace” here refers to speed and pattern. Pace can never be too emphasized. A good
pace calms you, puts you in a familiar and friendly atmosphere that is crucial to
appeasing tensions built in such a difficult test and enables you to finish all the questions
in an efficient and economic way. The lengthy and energy-consuming preparation for
GMAT you’ll go through in the next few months is for most part to develop a pace that is
unique and suitable for yourself. So remember that DO NOT panic if your correction rate
is stagnant or even lowering. As long as you are developing and perfecting your own
pace of proceeding, you are progressing!
GMAT consists of three parts, Math, Analytical Writing Assessment and Verbal. Math
is usually the easiest part for Chinese students, but requires meticulousness and patience
to get a maximum score. Read carefully and fluently every question, solve it step by step
and never rush to a conclusion because such conclusions are almost wrong. In most cases,
you’ll find plenty of time left when you have finished this part. However, the next two
parts are by far more exhausting and difficult, so you’d better take good advantage of this
part of time to mentally collect and physically prepare yourself. NEVER get forward to
the writing section until you feel calm, confident and ready for a brainstorming and
quick typing.
Analytical Writing Assessment, or AWA, includes Argument and Issue. Time allocated
to these two parts is never enough. A quick typing is essential here.
Verbal section is the part most of your time will be spent on. As you may know, GMAT
is computer-adaptive test. In this kind of test, what you encounter for the next question
depends on whether you correctly answer the current one. A wrong answer brings an
easier one, and vice versa. Moreover, it is said, however not officially, that correction rate
of the first ten questions decides the track that you are going for the test. If you answered
them all correctly, you’d be on a high-score track, otherwise on a low-score one. The rest
questions of the test are arranged according to the track and the correction of the former
question. Thus, a normal high-score track means an ever-more-difficult set of questions.
To properly handle it, you need to develop a pace that really works. For me, my pace is
medium for the first ten, speeding up in the middle of the test, and low for the last ten or
so questions. The reason is obvious and automatic. The first ten questions are
medium-difficult and make sure you answer them all correctly. Then get adapted to the
difficulty level of your track and speed up a little. The last few are usually the most
difficult ones, and they might cost you significantly more time than previous ones did.
Do your best to tackle these most-difficult, yet do not linger on them if two or three
minutes have been used in vain.
Then how to develop a pace? Pace is both spontaneous and intentionally designed. You
cannot develop a pace until you start to simulate tests in quasi-reality (GWD-TN-24).
That’s when you have already mastered the basic ways to solve verbal questions. The
correction rate might improve little as you go through tests one after another, because in
fact you have come to your top performance after finishing ALL-IN-ONE(大全). You do
not have to strive to improve correction rate then. Just follow the methods you have
constructed during ALL-IN-ONE session—the reason why it is spontaneous! The only
task facing you is to develop a pace. Time every simulated test, form a pattern of
correction rate for each kind of questions in verbal section, namely Sentence Correction,
Critical Reasoning and Reading Comprehension, and identify a proper speed for reading
and answering.
Technically, developing a suitable pace could be the toughest thing you’d come across
during your whole GMAT preparation. Do not hurry, do not wonder whether there is a
short cut. Step by step, day by day, a pace will emerge by itself.

II. Tips for every single kind of questions in GMAT

Math section: the necessary math knowledge is introduced in Official Guide, so I am

not going to reiterate here. There is great chance that the toughest question you’d see is
related to integer theory. Practice more about it. There also might be some tables, graphs
and lengthy passage, some of which could be annoying and drive you out of sobriety and
patience. The simplest way to tackle them is to read more slowly and get to understand
what exactly is known and asked.
 Analytical Writing Assessment: all secrets for a high score writing section come down
to three words: SPEED, SPEED, SPEED! Fast conceiving and fast typing!
Argument is relatively simple. A universal template is of great help in such a
time-limited situation. But NEVER pick up someone else’s template and make it your
own. That might be considered as cheating by GMAC (the institution providing GMAT).
Frame one of your own style. The most valuable part about New Oriental School’s GMAT
classes could be writing part. Take notes on how to pinpoint logic errors in shortest time
and how to properly state and correct them.
Issue is definitely tougher. Issue tests not only your vocabulary and English writing
skills, but also your comprehensive knowledge of human society, including politics,
sociology, economics, leadership, corporate governance, environmental problems, arts,
education, and so on and on. You could find that some of the topics spark nothing
whatsoever in your mind, especially those of politics, sociology and arts. Fortunately, the
issue questions are all drawn from one determined topic pool, so in practice, you just
need to get those high-frequency topics well prepared. I strongly recommend that you
start writing preparation as soon as possible. It may take more than one month for you
to understand each area of knowledge involved in the ISSUE topic pool and get adroit
about issue essay. Google and Wikipedia are among the most useful tools that can be
employed during the preparation. Google and wiki everything you don’t understand.
Once you have some fundamental knowledge, get to draw outlines for those
high-frequency topics. Outlines are simple and constructive, with usually one sentence
for each paragraph and a few words describing the examples you’d cite. Finally, expand
each of these outlining sentences into a complete logic process, that is, a paragraph. In
sum, three steps to finish an issue are 1) collect related knowledge, 2) draw outlines and
find examples and 3) expand outlines to form an essay.
Among the three steps, step 2 is critical. A typical 6-point issue essay consists of
350-400 words. Generally, your essay score is positively correlated to the number of
words you can put within a limited time, holding that the reasoning and wording are
soundly done. Then the crux is how to form a set of logically sound sub-positions that
can be derived from and supportive to your major position you bring up in the first place.
One of the tricks is Characterization, to spot key words in the issue statement, figure out
what characteristics they have and see what logical connections there are between these
characteristics. And these connections are probably good sub-positions you should work
on. Another trick is to categorize the subject. Either the subject consists of several
sub-subjects or the subject can be applied on different levels (for example, personal level,
community level and societal level). Let’s name it Categorization. I’ll take No.1 issue
question (excerpted from 2006 AWA Issue Pool) for illustration since the instruction
above may seem a little abstract.
1. In some countries, television and radio programs are carefully censored for offensive
language and behavior. In other countries, there is little or no censorship.
In your view, to what extent should government or any other group be able to censor
television or radio programs? Explain, giving relevant reasons and/or examples to support your
position.
 Resolution: the bold-faced words are so-called key words. The subject is
CENSORSHIP. You might not be familiar with censorship, which is a political
terminology. Find “censorship” entry in Wikipedia.org. Censorship is termed as “the
suppression of speech or deletion of communicative material which may be considered
objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or inconvenient to the government or media
organizations as determined by a censor.” Obviously, censorship is administrative and
thus may suffer from bias of groups of special interests, suppressing freedom of speech.
Down the webpage, Wikipedia lists categories of censorship, namely moral, military,
political, religious and corporate censorship. This leads us straight to the second
method—categorization. Among them, military and corporate censorships are not
relevant, and moral censorship is to some degree justifiable. For example, pornography is
harmful to minors and abets premature sex and needs censoring. Minors’ mains sources
of information are television and radio. Thus to the extent that something that is
determined immoral is blocked, censorship is proper. However, morality is never static.
The evolution of morality causes heated controversies over what is moral and otherwise.
Censorship should not be extended to moral topics that are still under debate.
Homosexuality is morally controversial in the U.S., and should not be censored by state
or federal government or other non-governmental organizations. Political censorship
violates freedom of speech, which is a critical human right, and freedom of the press.
Look up entries to freedom of speech and freedom of the press. You’ll find that political
censorship is probably utilized by demagogues and groups of special interests to
withhold information. And freedom of speech and the press is essential to a mature and
true democracy (See democracy section in the entry of freedom of speech). Religious
censorship violates freedom of religion, one of fundamental ideologies that gave birth
to the United States of America. Although the majority of Americans are Christian, a
suppression or deletion of non-Christian message could be viewed as a violation of
constitution.
The boldfaced sentences in the paragraph above are just what we seek to establish a set
of outlining sub-topics. Let’s rewrite them to present a clear structure of our essay:
Major position: censorship can clear up dirt in the television and radio programs. But
censorship is a dangerous slippery slope toward excess and dictatorship. Limited
censorship is justifiable.
Minors get their information mainly from television and radio, censorship is justifiable
on some moral grounds. To the extent that something that is socially determined
immoral is blocked, censorship is proper. Examples: pornography, violence, drug
abuse…
However, censorship should not be extended to moral topics that are still under debate.
A premature censorship could jeopardize lawful rights of some people. Examples:
homosexuality. A pandemic criticism of homosexuality on television and radio is indirect
oppression on homosexual people and could cause hatred toward them.
Political censorship should be removed, because it violates freedom of speech and the
press, endangering our democracy. Television and radio are major means of the press,
having enormous influence on people’s opinions. Thus censorship can be used by
demagogues. Examples: Watergate scandal: if political censorship existed, Nixon would
never be exposed and forced to step down.
Religious censorship violates freedom of religion, suppresses people’s faith and belief,
and should be removed.
Once you have these above in your mind, a brilliant essay will soon come out!
A set of outlines presents the structure of your essay. Typically, a good issue essay
contains four parts:
a). beginning, one paragraph, which presents your major position,
b). concession, one paragraph, which partly agrees with the statement and makes your
argument complete and defendable,
c). transition and development, several paragraphs, which brings out your
sub-positions and reason them,
d). summation and conclusion, one paragraph, which is similar to but definitely not
the same as the beginning part.
p.s.: the order of (b) and (c) parts can be reversed.
The step 3 requires you to elaborate your outlining sentences using reasoning and
examples. A typical reasoning paragraph consists of three parts. The first one is a topic
sentence, or TS, stating the sub-topic, i.e. a paraphrased version of the outlining sentence.
Then one or two sentences of reasoning develop your idea, followed by a RELEVANT
example that closely illustrates your idea. The last part is concluding your reasoning.
Some tips for writing skills:
1). NEVER waste time trying to think out some brilliant ideas that are supposed to give
you an edge. GMAT issue essay do not emphasize the creativity as much as Chinese do.
As long as it shows complete and sound logic process, vast vocabulary and fluency, your
essay deserves a decent score.
2). Use conjunctive words frequently, logically and properly. Conjunctive words with
logic implication are welcome in issue. Frequently-used words are such: so, and,
therefore, thus, hence, accordingly, correspondingly, as a result, on the one hand….on the
other hand…, meanwhile, however, moreover, furthermore, nevertheless, nonetheless,
notwithstanding, despite, albeit…… There are so many of them. Take good advantage of
them and make your essay fluent and smooth.
3). Use some “advanced” words. Try to substitute GRE-level words with your obsolete
CET vocabulary. Make a note of good substituting sophisticated words that can show
your large vocabulary and forget those naïve words learned in your regular college life.
For example, “dirty” is simple. You may use “filthy” instead. Therefore, pay additional
attention to verbs, adjectives and adverbs.
4). Construct long sentences, but do not fill your essay all with long ones. There should
be a rhythm as to the length of sentences in your essay. Read the document 句法多样
化.doc in the GMAT preparation package.
5). Take advantage of Google. Google is far more powerful and useful than you can ever
imagine! Google gives you examples, reminds you of blurred usage of idioms and words
and leads you to wonderful websites. Read this post: 学会用 Google 做 research.
6). Read more. There are resources in blogs, books, newspapers, etc.. Time.com,
TNR.com, NYRB.com.
7). Use formal language. Avoid slang words and idioms. Use verbs rather than verbal
phrases, which seem a little colloquial. Colloquialism is negatively regarded in GMAT.
So much for writing… Writing tend to be ignored by Chinese GMAT test takers, who
would regret profoundly when their writing score turned out to be the only part that
makes their GMAT look sad. NEVER underestimate the efforts you would devote to
writing. It could be more demanding than verbal section.
Verbal section comprises three kinds of questions: Sentence Correction, Critical
Reasoning and Reading Comprehension. I’ll analyze them each.
Sentence Correction is usually about grammar, as many would tell you. Nevertheless, I
hold a different opinion. Cracking SC needs more logical consideration than grammatical
background. Logic is the thread that links SC, CR and RC. The process of preparing
GMAT is indeed a training of logic and critical thinking. As to SC, logic is intertwined
with grammatical phenomenon. As you would get to know from OG, you may encounter
many kinds of errors. Official Guide is essential and indispensible in SC preparation. The
examples offered in it are relevant, instructive and exhaustive. The explanations are
splendid. Scrutinize them repeatedly and meticulously. You would feel frustrated shortly
after you start SC ALL-IN-ONE, because you would find that many of the SC rules are
literally contrary to the knowledge you’ve got from your Chinese English teachers and
that there seems no applicable universal method to solve these questions. Believe me.
This feeling could last significantly much longer if you did not take OG seriously. Take
notes to points of knowledge and solution rules as I did in document My Notes on SC.doc
A leading author in GMAT SC, named Bai Yong, alleges that Sentence Correction is
pivotal if you want a 700-plus score.1 Make sure you answer SC questions all correctly.
At most only one or two of them are allowed to be wrong.
I always claim that Reading Comprehension and Critical Reasoning are inextricably
intertwined. Reading is fundamental in GMAT, GRE and TOEFL tests. A good reader
should have the following three qualities: large vocabulary, information processing,
temporary retention.
How to increase your vocabulary within a short time? Here is my method learned
from my GRE class:
1. Spend less than two seconds on a single word. Do not attempt to memorize spelling
when you are skimming words. The aim is to get a vague impression of
characteristics, i.e. structure, shape, length and alike, of word, which nonetheless is
enough for you to recognize them quickly.
2. Assume there are roughly 15 words on every page. Cover the Chinese explanations
and speak out them fast. Mark every word you do not recognize with 0.5 seconds.
3. Go on to the next page. Repeat Step 1 and 2, and review the previous page you just

1 《白勇 GMAT 语法全解》

 went through, especially those words that you did not memorize.
4. Make three pages a unit. Repeat step 1~3 for every unit, and review this unit all after
you have finished these three pages.
The point here is to spend little time on every single word yet to review them a lot.
A worth-recommending systematic pattern for memorizing GRE vocabulary is
Yangpeng’s 17-day Memorization Plan. Stick to this plan, and you could carve in mind
nearly 10,000 words within as few as 17 days!
As for information processing, it is a simultaneous process with temporary retention.
In effect, the two are selecting key information and logic connections and memorizing
them. Du Changxu, a New Oriental School’s teacher specialized in TOEFL reading
comprehension, invented a theory called Vague Comprehension. This theory suggests
that reading be a logic constructing process, rather than a word-by-word translating one.
This theory is particularly powerful as to long and complicated sentences, as followed:
e.g.: Matching the influx of foreign immigrants into the larger cities of the United States
during the late nineteenth century was a domestic migration, from town and farm to city,
within the United States.
This sentence consists of 33 words, a typical long sentence in GMAT reading. After
reading it, you should memorize two facts and one logic connection. Facts are a).
Foreigners are immigrating into big cities in the U.S. and b). U.S. residents are migrating
from town and farm to city. These two facts are connected by a word matching. Therefore,
the connection is that a) and b) are simultaneous in the late 19th century.
Despite this example, a mature reading method still requires lots of practice. Apart
from readings offered in my GMAT preparation package, another splendid source of good
reading is the first section, namely introduction part, in academic economic papers.
NBER.org (National Bureau of Economic Research) is one of the best banks offering such
papers.
Critical Reasoning is sort of like, yet far more difficult than, argument. Start with
example questions in Official Guide. Read the explanations carefully and repeatedly!
Familiarize yourself with the manners that OG employs to solve problems and make
them your own.
Reasoning problems could be exceptionally abstruse and confusing. The foundation of
cracking reasoning part is reading ability. Many times did I discover that a tiny remiss in
reading caused an ultimate error in reasoning. So when the problem confuses you, try to
read it again more slowly and carefully.

III. A Detailed Process of Preparing GMAT-My Personal Experience

I scored 780 out of 800, percentile rank 99%, for my first attempt of GMAT. Although it
might not be universal and omnipotent, my experience, I guess, is worth recommending.
However, a good process of preparation should be personally customized according to
individual’s background of English skills, general knowledge and capability. Before I
took GMAT, I have tried GRE and TOEFL, the former resulting 1420+5(verbal 630+quant
690+writing 5) and the latter 108 (reading and writing full scored). Therefore, one month
is enough for my background to score high. In fact, GMAT reading is relatively simple as
to GRE counterpart, let alone LSAT reading, which I once scored a 90% correction rate
during my GRE phase. Sentence Correction part is at first annoying because some of the
rules GMAT embraces are just inconsistent with, even contrary to, those you learned
from your English teachers. But, sooner or later, once you get adapted to these new rules
through plenty of practice, SC is beyond question. The only part that to some degree
annoys me throughout my GMAT time is Critical Reasoning. CR problem seems able to
surprise me always with its creativity and difficulty, becoming the very part that could
prevent you from getting a 750-plus score.
Nonetheless, different persons have different backgrounds. Some may have difficulty
dealing with Reading, some writing and others reasoning. Prolong the time that you
intend to spend on the tough part and practice more. Thus, my experience presented
below is only one of these scenes. The point of this presentation is to recommend my
utilization of GMAT review materials.
All of my review materials are enveloped into one RAR file, GMAT Review Package.rar.
The most important stuffs included in the package are ALL-IN-ONE series (including SC,
RC, CR), GWD simulating tests (24 tests incorporated) and GMATPrep, a piece of
software provided by GMAC. Other things includes Feifei series of logic and Math, Taotao
Math, AWA package and some grammatical and logic notes.
I started with the Official Guide, got familiar with types of questions in GMAT and
their solutions, finished example questions and read the explanations which presented
basic solutions skills that could be refined during your coming review process. Official
Guide is a tool that I frequented to refresh and remind myself of usual types of questions
and their solution rules. GMAT requires test takers to finish the great bulk of question of
different difficulty levels within a limited time. SPEED is essential and familiarity
improves speed. Official Guide cost me approximately one week.
ALL-IN-ONE series further hones your skills at rapidly solving problems. Time every
unit of questions and record the correction rate to get a primitive impression of the
correlation between speed and correction rate, which helps build an effective pace later.
Some of the reference answers given by the document are questionable. Go to
ChaseDream forum to search for early discussion of these questions. These discussions
were inspiring even if they reached no unanimous results.
There are three major documents in this series, separately for SC, CR and RC, more
than 2,000 questions in sum. Do not be intimidated. You can finish them all within at
most 3 weeks with full-time devotion.
Take notes during ALL-IN-ONE phase, especially for SC questions, as I did in My
Notes on SC.doc.
The most important material is GWD-TN-24. In effect, 21 of them are effectively worth
doing because SC questions in the remaining three overlaps those in GMATPrep which is
a key predictor I’ll discuss later. According to the compilers of GWD-TN-24, the reference
keys to these tests are never officially verified and thus not beyond question. A few
questions are debatable. Refer to ChaseDream or MY used edition for explanations when
you suspect that the answer might be wrong.
 The value of GWD-24 lies in that they mimic the reality well and thus help you
familiarize yourself with the real scenario and that the pace I emphasized in the first part
of this guide is also developed through this series of tests. Although it is widely said that
the difficulty of GWD is higher than that of real GMAT, my experience told me that GWD,
especially the last few of the tests, is still a fair predictor of your later real GMAT score.
I finished GWD-TN-24 at a speed of three tests a day, one each in the morning,
afternoon and evening. And that’s why I suggest a full-time dedication. After the intense
week, I developed a pace and made up my mind according to my record that I’d score
750-plus.
I want to additionally mention the Critical Reasoning questions in GWD, which are
very instructive and the best part of GWD. The pattern of these questions is extremely
like that of real ones.
The rest of the package is to keep your hands warm. Feifei logic is of great value. Feifei
Math is an excellent material for Math review. Math is relatively easy, so you can do it
casually for a rest.
The last five days is used to predict your score and give you an expectation. The best
predictor I used is the official review software, GMATPrep, of which the latest version is
enclosed in the package. I scored 780 twice in the simulated tests in GMATPrep, the same
score as I did in the real one.
The directory AWA contains a piece of software that mimics the real Analytical Writing
Assessment scene. It can test your writing ability under real time pressure. It took me one
month to get prepared for my GRE writing test. So do not underestimate the amount of
time and energy needed to get through AWA.

IV. Other Issues in GMAT Preparation

1. Stress. GMAT is a very intense exam. The heaviest pressure comes from writing
section. Before GMAT, you might have never been through such a writing task that
treats you as an English native speaker and requires typing continuously to reach a
reasonable floor of the number of words. When you pause or hesitate in the middle,
the fear and stress could easily accumulate, prevent you from smoothly thinking and
in turn aggravate the stressful effects. A familiar pace and atmosphere is good for
appeasing such stress. If stress seems unstoppable, pause a few seconds, collect your
mind and then continue.
2. The World Wide Web. Internet is a useful tool to crack GMAT. ChaseDream Forum,
Wikipedia and Time.com are among my favorite. FTChinese.com has a column to
test your reading speed and comprehension, a casual practice that is very helpful.
3. Improve your writing skills by reading and doing SC questions. As you proceed with
SC part, you may realize how informal and erroneous your essays are. Learn formal
ways of expression and wording from SC questions, and apply them to your writing.
4. Write at least ten issues and arguments before you get on test table. A classic
reference material is 北美 GRE 范文精讲. Read and emulate it. The fastest way to
 write good issues is to mimic the best.
5. Well, in fact, GMAT is not that difficult. Try your best and try again if the first
attempt failed.

For God’s sake, I finally finish this….