GMAT Tip of the Week The Song Remains the Same

Welcome back to hip hop month in the GMAT Tip of the Week space, where were constantly asking ourselves, Wait, where have I heard  that before? If you listen to enough hip hop, youll recognize that just about every beat or lyric you hear either samples from or derives from another track that came before it (unless, of course, the artist is Ol Dirty Bastard, for whom, as his nickname derives, there aint no father to his style). Biggies Hypnotize samples directly from La Di Da Di (originally by Doug E. Fresh yep, hes the one who inspired The Dougie that Cali Swag District wants to teach you and Slick Rick). Biggie Biggie Biggie, cant you see, sometimes your words just hypnotize me was originally Ricky, Ricky, Ricky And right around the same time, Snoop Dogg and 2Pac just redid the entire song just about verbatim, save for a few brand names. The East Coast  edit of Chris Browns Loyal? French Montana starts his verse straight quoting Jay-Zs I Just Wanna Love U (Im a pimp by blood, not relation, I dont chase em, I replace em), which (probably) borrowed the line I dont chase em I replace em from a Biggie track, which probably got it from something else. And these are just songs we heard on the radio this morning driving to work The point? Hip hop is a constant variation on the same themes, one of the greatest recycling centers the world has ever known. And so is the GMAT. Good test-takers like veteran hip hop heads train themselves to see the familiar within what looks (or sounds) unique. A hip hop fan often says, Wait, where I have heard that before? and similarly, a good test-taker sees a unique, challenging problem and says, Wait, where have I seen that before? And just like you might recite a lyric back and forth in your mind trying to determine where youve heard it before, on test day you should recite the operative parts of the problem or the rule to jog your memory and to remind yourself that youve seen this concept before. Is it a remainder problem? Flip through the concepts that youve seen during your GMAT prep about  working with  remainders (the remainder divided by the divisor gives you the decimals; when the numerator is smaller then the denominator the whole numerator is the remainder). Is it a geometry problem? Think of the rules and relationships that showed up on tricky geometry problems you have studied (I can always draw a diagonal of a rectangle and create a right triangle; I can calculate arc length from an inscribed angle on a circle by doubling the measure of that angle and treating it like a central angle). Is it a problem that asks for a seemingly-incalculable number? Run through the strategies youve used  to perform estimates or determine strange number properties on similar practice problems in the past. The GMAT is a lot like hip hop just when you think theyve created something incredibly unique and innovative, you dig back into your memory bank (or click to a jazz or funk station) and realize that theyve basically re-released the same thing a few times a decade, just under a slightly different name or with a slightly different rhythm. The lesson? You wont see anything truly unique on the GMAT. So when you find yourself stumped, act like the old guy at work when you tell him to listen to a new hip hop song: Oh Ive heard this beforeand actually when I heard it before in the 90s, my neighbor told me that she had heard it before in the 80s As you study, train yourself to see the similarities in seemingly-unique problems and see though the GMATs rampant plagiarism of itself. The repetitive nature of the GMAT and of hip hop  will likely mean that youre no longer so impressed by Tyga, but you can use that recognition to be much more impressive to Fuqua. Getting ready to take the GMAT? We have free online GMAT seminars running all the time. And as always, be sure to follow us on  Facebook, YouTube,  Google+  and Twitter! By Brian Galvin.