Don’t Float Like a Butterfly – Sting Like a Bee
(This is one of a series of GMAT tips that we offer on our blog.)
The world fondly remembers Muhammad Ali’s boxing career for a variety of reasons – his effervescent smile, his political activeness, his friendly banter with Howard Cosell, and an uncanny ability to brag and taunt through rhyme that still makes Jay-Z and Eminem jealous. Boxing purists, however, remember him most fondly for the techniques he employed in the ring to make himself the Greatest of All Time (GOAT). Perhaps most famous was his “Rope-A-Dope” style, in which he would lean back against the ropes, allowing overeager and undersophisticated challengers to wear themselves out throwing ineffective punch after punch while Ali conserved his energy for a knockout barrage later in the fight.
What, you may ask, does this mean for your GMAT preparation? Much like the GOAT, the GMAT finds much of its competitive advantage in its ability to wear down its unsuspecting challengers, who inefficiently chase “punch after punch”, performing unnecessary calculations on the quantitative side and reading and analyzing unnecessary verbiage on the verbal side, while all the while the GMAT packs its “knockout punch” in the form of a subtle uniqueness in the line of questioning that an exhausted-and-distracted examinee is unlikely to notice.
In order to combat this formidable opponent, be sure to seek out opportunities to save time and energy when possible. A few likely opportunties to do so include:
Quantitative Section:
Verbal Section:
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