KevinMagoosh

Howdy GMAT takers! I wanted to talk briefly about writing your introduction for your argument essay. It is not a typical introduction, so it is worth talking about. First, your guiding light for the introduction should be brevity. Don't worry about a long preamble or hooking your reader with some related tidbit from history or a quote from a famous person. You only have 30 minutes and you need to get into the meat of your essay as soon as you can. The real heart of your essay is in the body, so don't keep your reader waiting. Quickly establish what is going on and then move on. Second, write about some specifics of the argument. The best introductions will first briefly summarize the argument's main points and the conclusion in one or two sentences. The final part of the introduction is state that the argument is flawed. There are many ways to write this idea, but I recommend coming up with a stalk sentence that you can use during your practice and then use on test day. Every argument you see will be flawed, you know that you will have to mention it, so you might as well be prepared with a sentence that conveys this idea. Third, you don't always have to start with the introduction. Some students find it hard to begin with the introduction—a lot of pressure to summarize. For some students, then, I recommend waiting until the end to write the introduction. By that point, you have written about many different aspects of the argument, and you know what flaws you talked about and why. So you have more context to write the introduction at the very end after finishing the body paragraphs and a conclusion. Those are the tips I have for now. If you have any questions or need me to be more specific, don't hesitate to reach out. :) Cheers!

Howdy! I think that I might be able to help with this one. :) Now this does seem strange. One verb ends with "-ed" and the other ends in "-ing." Strange indeed! How can these be parallel? I thought that the question might be flawed. (I'd be able to answer if it is flawed if I knew the source of the question). But with a closer inspection I noticed something. We have to look at the larger structure of the sentence to see what is going on. We have two phrases that are describing the anthropologists. "...studying..." is a present participle phrase and "Influenced by..." is a past participle phrase. So actually this question is a little more complex than I originally thought. Here is some info about different participle phrases: "The -ing ending is added to the root of a verb to create a present participle (e.g., play becomes playing). Its function, explained below, is to form the progressive tense or to act as a verbal (a verb used as a noun or adjective). The -ed (sometimes -en) ending is added to the root of a verb to create a past participle (e.g., play becomes played). Its function is to form the simple past tense (e.g., played), the perfect tense (have, had, or will have played) or to act as a verbal." Here is where I found the info: http://writingcenter.tamu.edu/2006/composing-process/grammar-composing-process/participles-%E2%80%9C-ing%E2%80%9D-and-%E2%80%9C-ed%E2%80%9D-endings/ Thanks for the question! It was a good one! :) Best of luck with your studies!

Hi there! I think I can help shed some light on these issues. These types of questions with modifying phrases can be tough because our minds are so good at making inferences and making sense of ambiguity. :) I think the "problem" with the bold faced portion is that is does change the meaning of the sentence. It creates some ambiguity with the two modifying phrases "who had been waiting" and "for a ride." As the bold faced portions is written, we can't know if the the people who waited were waiting for a ride or if these people were just waiting, and then the driver took them for a ride. In the bold face portion of the sentence, "who" properly refers to "people." :) I hope that I was able to help a little with this problem. :)

Howdy! I'd like to talk about what to include in your body paragraphs for the AWA essay. You can use this rough outline for every essay that you write. Having an outline in place, or at least some guidelines, will help you save time on test day. Every body paragraph should have three parts: 1. Identify the Flaw: You should begin the paragraph by identifying the flaw that you will discuss in the paragraph. You don't have to know the names of common flaws. Describing the flaw can help you save time and be more concise though. If you want to learn more about common flaws in logic, I recommend spending sometime on this website: https://yourlogicalfallacyis.com/ 2. Explain why it is a Flaw (by example): Once you identify the flaw, now it is time to explain why it is a flaw. Usually this involves demonstrating what was left out, what was not mentioned, what was forgotten or ignored. Spend time in this part of your paragraph to really explain what is flawed with a premise or an assumption. The more that you can provide examples of how this flaw is harmful to the argument, the better. 3. Explain How the Flaw Weakens the Conclusion: You always want to end your paragraph by returning to the conclusion. Talk about how this flaw makes the conclusion false and if not false, at least doubtable. It is important to include this last step. You can't fully outline why a flaw is bad for an argument without returning to the conclusion or claim of the argument. I hope that this helps you as you prepare for the AWA! :) Cheers!

Hi there! If you are looking for prep materials for reading comprehension, I recommend using the Manhattan book. Manhattan publishes the best resources in their books, and you are guaranteed to have high quality questions. And of course, in terms of practice, you can't do better than the Official Guide to the GRE. Since this book is made by the test makers, it has questions that are more similar to the actual test than any other test prep book. Besides that, there is not too much else out there in book format that will be useful. One other tip, though, if you are looking for extra practice or challenging practice, I recommend using the GMAT Official Guide. The GRE and GMAT Reading Comprehension questions are extremely similar, so you would definitely benefit from practicing with some of the GMAT material. I hope that this helps a little. :)

We all need a strong foundation in dealing with fractions if we want to be successful on the GMAT. Moderator edit: The link in your thread was removed. Please understand that we work very quickly to evaluate the content that our members post and need to make quick decisions based on limited information. As a rule, we generally delete almost all links posted by relatively new members (for example, those with fewer than 50 posts or who have been members for shorter than a month or so), unless those links point to generally recognized authorities or websites, such as Harvard University, the official GMAT website, etc. To learn more, please read the forum rules that you agreed to when you joined our forum. (And yes, we realize that most people don't read them. But they're important nonetheless.) Erin Happy Studying!

Howdy Mykie! Stay focused and committed!!! You can improve and dominate the test! It just takes a lot of work and patience! Improvement will take time to see, but if you follow some of these recommendations, you will see improvement. 1. Read. Read. Read. The first thing that you need to do is improve your overall reading ability. This will have positive effects across all parts of the test. So make a point of reading high quality materials on a regular basis, i.e. everyday. I recommend reading The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, The Atlantic Monthly, MIT Technology Review. These news sources are not only what business leaders read, but they are written at a level that is comparable to the reading on the GMAT. 2. How You Read Matters. I address this issue in a post that I recommend reading. This will tell you how to read so that you maximize the benefits of reading everyday: http://www.www.urch.com/forums/gmat-reading-comprehension/150698-how-improve-your-reading-ability.html 3. At Magoosh, we see a lot of students with varying levels of commitment. One thing that we notice that is telling and maybe a little obvious is that the students who answer the more questions do better than students who answer less. But even more than this, students who answer all of our 1000 questions twice will score higher than a student who only answers all the questions once. So there is a benefit to answering a lot of questions and returning to questions that you have already answered. I can see that you have a lot of resources at your disposal. You should plan to go through all of those books more than once. I can say that the Manhattan books will be your best resource since they tend to have the highest quality questions out of all the test prep books. But that does not count the Official GMAT book. If you can't work through all the books twice, you should definitely work through this book twice. Since it is made by the test makers, it will provide you with the best possible preparation. And this means you shouldn't write in the books since you will have to use the questions again. 4. Take Notes. Don't miss the opportunity to keep track of your progress. You should be writing down everything you learn in these books. When you read an explanation take notes on what you learn. FInd a word you don't know—look it up and write it down. Find an idiom you never knew—write down. The more you can track your progress, keep tabs on your weaknesses, the more likely you are to improve. 5. Come up with a study plan.The last thing you want is to haphazardly approach your studies. Map out how much time you have and how much you want to accomplish in that time. Come up with a daily routine that you can adhere to and follow. Schedule multiple shorter study sessions instead of long power sessions. Know what you are going to do next week and next month to prepare for the test. You can also find study schedules in the forums and we even have some at Magoosh too. These would be a good guide which you can adapt to your materials and needs. I hope that these tips help! Stay diligent and focused and you will find success! Kevin

Howdy! Many students are curious about how to improve in Reading Comprehension. And rightly so. You have to deal with some tough passages in the Verbal section of the GMAT. Luckily, the answer is easy, but the actual improvement takes time. To improve in Reading Comprehension, and to improve your abilities across the rest of the Verbal section, you need to be reading everyday. Read. Read. Read. Simple say, but hard to stay dedicated to. The act of reading will expose you to proper English grammar, contemporary topics that will appear on the test, and acclimate you to some of the passages you will see on topics that you are not familiar with. You'll also be exposed to new vocabulary, new ways of organizing ideas, and new approaches to a topic. But this only happens if you reading the right material. You do not want to just read any old thing. You need to be reading the best passages and articles possible. That means you need to choose your sources wisely. I always recommend reading The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Economists, and The MIT Technology Review. The articles in these new sources are not only stellar, but they are also what everyone in the business industry is reading. So you'll be preparing for the test by reading these news sources and you'll be preparing for business. Lastly, you need to practice focused, active reading. You need to read like your life depends on it, like a hungry bear waking from months of hibernation. You need to read with purpose. One way to activate your reading process is to ask yourself a set of questions every time you read. And ask yourself these questions multiple times as your reading. The answers may change as you read. So ask yourself: 1. What is the main idea? You should be able to put this into a couple phrases, not necessarily a long sentence. Try to start at the broadest possible level and then narrow more and more. So start with the general topic, then try to figure out what the scope of the passage is. That is, if the passage is about dinosaurs, what part of dinosaurs are we talking about? Skeletons? Fossil records? Biology? Coloring? Why they disappeared? Relationship to modern day birds? Through this process you should be able to narrow and narrow until you have a good summation of the main idea. 2. What is the structure and flow of the passage? This is what GMAT Pill was getting at. You need to pay attention to transition words in the passage. You need to think about where you have been and where you are going in the passage. How does this paragraph connect to the main idea? What's its purpose in terms of the main idea? And how was it connected to the previous paragraph? Through these questions, you will get a "road map" of the passage. You'll have a sense of what happens where. And you will have a better understanding of examples or reasons because you will know their purpose in terms of the main idea of the passage. 3. What is the author's tone and what is the author's purpose? You always want to try and infer the author's opinion about the topic. The author's opinions and beliefs will leak into the passage and influence the word choice and position in the article. So pay attention to the positive or negative tone of the adjectives and adverbs in the passage. In terms of the author's purpose, we don't have to do too much work. There are really only four reasons that people write something: to entertain, to persuade, to inform, or to describe. Obviously, passages will have elements of all of these, but usually there is one main reason that author sat down to write what you are reading. I hope that you find these tips and resources useful. Happy studying!