GMAT practice paper

Verbal reasoning
Critical reasoning
Q1)Online classes are clearly easier than face to face classes. Students can log in whenever
they want, and they do not have to show up to class or listen to lectures. I am going to take as
many online classes as possible so I can breeze through my degree.
Which of the following, if true, most weakens the argument?
A) Online courses require students to log in five days a week.
B) Face to face classes only meet twice a week.
C) Online courses require students to participate in the discussion by posting to a discussion
board at least three times during the week, and also require a major research paper at the end
of the course.
D) Many upper level courses are not offered online.
E) There is a higher faculty/student ratio in online courses.

O A

OB

OC

OD

OE

Q2) Lauren is clearly going to make an awful professor. Nearly half of her students failed their
final this past spring. She should probably choose another career path, because her students’
performance demonstrates that she doesn’t teach very well.
What statement, if true, most weakens the argument above?

O This was Lauren’s second time teaching a college class.

O The class Lauren was teaching is a required class for all freshmen.

O The students who failed the exam also had poor attendance.

O The students who passed the exam attended an optional review session Lauren’s teaching
assistant held.

O Lauren struggled early in the semester with lesson planning.

Ciara distrusts modern medicine. She says that the drugs prescribed by doctors are just
synthetic poisons that they dispense to make money. She uses only herbs and essential oils to
treat her health problems, declaring that they are much safer than prescription drugs because
they come directly from nature.
Which of the following, if true, most weakens Ciara's argument?

O Some doctors dispense drugs for free to needy patients.

O Some common drugs are derived from plants and other natural substances.

O Some herbs and natural substances are quite harmful if ingested.

O Sometimes the herbal remedies Ciara takes do not relieve her symptoms.

O Herbal supplements and oils are often quite expensive.

Sentence correction
Q1) Unlike the nests of leaf cutters and most other ants, situated underground or in pieces of
wood, raider ants make a portable nest by entwining their long legs to form "curtains" of ants
that hang from logs or boulders, providing protection for the queen and the colony larvae and
pupae.
A. The nests of leaf cutters and most other ants,
B. The nests of leaf cutters and most other ants, which are
C. Leaf cutters and most other ants, whose nests are
D. Leaf cutters and most other ants in having nests
E. Those of leaf cutters and most other ants with nests

Q2)Despite its covering the entire planet, Earth has a crust that is not seamless or stationary,
rather it is fragmented into mobile semi-rigid plates.
A. Despite its covering the entire planet, Earth has a crust that is not seamless or stationary,
rather it is
B. Despite the fact that it covers the entire planet, Earth's crust is neither seamless nor is it
stationary, but is
C. Despite covering the entire planet, Earth's crust is neither seamless nor is it stationary, but
rather
D. Although it covers the entire planet, Earth's crust is neither seamless nor stationary, but
rather
E. Although covering the entire planet, Earth has a crust that is not seamless or stationary, but

Q3)Obtaining an investment-grade rating will keep the county's future borrowing costs low,
protect its already-tattered image, and increase its ability to buy bond insurance.
(A) Obtaining an investment-grade rating will keep the county's future borrowing costs low,
protect
(B) To obtain an investment-grade rating will keep the county's future borrowing costs low, and
protect
(C) Having obtained an investment-grade rating will, in keeping the county's future borrowing
costs low, protect
(D) To obtain an investment-grade rating would keep the county's future borrowing costs low,
protecting
(E) Obtaining an investment-grade rating, keeping the county's borrowing costs low, would be
protecting

Reading comprehension

Q1) To believe a proposition, say corn flakes have health benefits, is to accept it to be true.
However, the question of belief is valid only for those propositions that are understandable. An
understandable proposition is one that is expressed using correct grammar and known words.
The dominant view in the scientific community on how human mind believes or disbelieves an
understandable proposition is the Cartesian hypothesis, propounded by the
seventeenth-century philosopher René Descartes. He said that when an understandable
proposition is presented to a human mind, the comprehension of its content happens
automatically and passively; however, the assessment of the truth-value of that proposition is a
later and deliberate act, the result of which is either belief or disbelief. Thus, this view holds that
belief or disbelief in a comprehended proposition is created by rational assessment, and till such
an assessment is made, the intellect neither affirms nor denies a comprehended proposition. It
also suggests that the mental effort required to create belief and disbelief is the same: the effort
required to assess the comprehended proposition.
In contrast, Descartes's near-contemporary Baruch Spinoza suggested that comprehension of
and belief in an understandable proposition happen together, automatically and passively; he
said that it is not possible to understand a proposition without, at least temporarily, accepting it
to be true. On later, willful assessment, if one judges the believed proposition to be false, it may
be unaccepted (disbelieved), and if judged to be true, one may continue to believe in it. Thus, as
per the Spinozan hypothesis, the default setting of the human mind is to believe every
understandable proposition that is presented to it; disbelief is possible but it comes – if it comes
at all – from effortful, deliberate assessment done after the initial comprehension-belief.
Both hypotheses continue to have their proponents and opponents. It is, however, a common
observation that doubt, suspension of judgment and disbelief are mentally taxing tasks while we
naturally – effortlessly – accept and believe most of what we see, hear and read. Research has
proved that we systematically err on the side of believing too much, as opposed to rejecting too
much. This inherent credulity of the human mind is, in fact, the founding axiom of the fields of
advertising and propaganda.

Sub-Question 1 of 6
A supporter of the Cartesian hypothesis would probably agree with which of the following
statements?
A)Understanding a proposition is one thing and believing another
B) Believing is the most effortful thing that a human mind does
C) Belief is more quickly and easily acquired than doubt
D) Human beings are more prone to rejecting than believing propositions
E) Human beings are skeptical and credulous in equal measure

Sub-Question 2 of 6

Unlike the Spinozan hypothesis, the Cartesian hypothesis suggests that at any point in time, a
human mind may contain some

A) ununderstood propositions that are believed

Sub-Question 3 of 6
Which of the following statements about an understandable and false proposition is not
supported by the Spinozan hypothesis?
A
Its comprehension is a prerequisite for its rejection.
B
Its comprehension does not require effort.
C
Its acceptance occurs before its rejection.
D
Its comprehension is automatically followed by its acceptance.
E
Its rejection does not happen automatically.

Sub-Question 4 of 6
It can be inferred from the Spinozan hypothesis that when exposed to understandable but
suspicious propositions, a person who is too distracted or tired to exert much mental effort is
A) less likely to comprehend them than when he is alert and mentally fresh
B) more likely to comprehend them than when he is alert and mentally fresh
C) more likely to be uncertain and uncommitted about their truth-value than when he is
alert and mentally fresh
D) more likely to believe them than when he is alert and mentally fresh
E) more likely to disbelieve them than when he is alert and mentally fresh
Sub-Question 5 of 6
It can be inferred from the passage that to make his target customers believe his
advertisements, an advertiser should
A) convey the message only using words familiar to the target customers
B) convey the message using the traditional motifs of the target customers
C) not use any negative words in his message
D) not distract the customer's mind by use of images or stories
E) not overwhelm the customer's mind by presenting a lot of information

Sub-Question 6 of 6
The author of the passage
A) supports the Cartesian hypothesis
B) supports the Spinozan hypothesis
C) has a neutral stance towards the two hypotheses
D) rejects both the hypotheses
E) belongs to the scientific community

Quantitative reasoning
Data sufficiency

Q1) At a bakery, all donuts are priced equally and all bagels are priced equally. What is the total
price of 5 donuts and 3 bagels at the bakery?
(1) At the bakery, the total price of 10 donuts and 6 bagels is $12.90.
(2) At the bakery, the price of a donut is $0.15 less than the price of a bagel.
A. If statement (1) ALONE is sufficient, but statement (2) alone is not sufficient to answer the
question asked;
B. If statement (2) ALONE is sufficient, but statement (1) alone is not sufficient to answer the
question asked;
C. If BOTH statements (1) and (2) TOGETHER are sufficient to answer the question asked, but
NEITHER statement ALONE is sufficient;
D. If EACH statement ALONE is sufficient to answer the question asked;
E. If statements (1) and (2) TOGETHER are NOT sufficient to answer the question asked, and
additional data specific to the problem are needed.

Q2) If no bulk purchase discount applies, what is the price of 13 oranges and 12 apples?
(1) The price of 39 oranges and 36 apples is $111.
(2) The price of 3 oranges and 2 apples is $7.

A) Statement (1) ALONE is sufficient, but statement (2) ALONE is not sufficient to answer
the question asked.
B) Statement (2) ALONE is sufficient, but statement (1) ALONE is not sufficient to answer
the question asked.
C) BOTH statements (1) and (2) TOGETHER are sufficient to answer the question asked,
but NEITHER statement ALONE is sufficient to answer the question asked.
D) EACH statement ALONE is sufficient to answer the question asked.
E) Statements (1) and (2) TOGETHER are NOT sufficient to answer the question asked,
and additional data specific to the problem are needed.

Q3) A box has at least one ball of each of the colors red, green, and blue and no balls of any
other color. If one ball is drawn randomly from the box, is the probability that the drawn ball is
red the same as the probability that the drawn ball is blue but NOT the same as the probability
that the drawn ball is green?
(1) There are 5 balls in the box.
(2) The number of green balls is greater than the number of blue balls.

A) Statement (1) ALONE is sufficient, but statement (2) ALONE is not sufficient to answer
the question asked.
B) Statement (2) ALONE is sufficient, but statement (1) ALONE is not sufficient to answer
the question asked.
C) BOTH statements (1) and (2) TOGETHER are sufficient to answer the question asked,
but NEITHER statement ALONE is sufficient to answer the question asked.
D) EACH statement ALONE is sufficient to answer the question asked.
E) Statements (1) and (2) TOGETHER are NOT sufficient to answer the question asked,
and additional data specific to the problem are needed.

Problem solving

Q1) If 893 × 78 = p, which of the following is equal to 893 × 79?

Q2)If 1 < x < y < z, which of the following has the greatest value?
A. z(x + 1)
B. z(y + 1)
C. x(y + z)
D. y(x + z)
E. z(x + y)

Q3) Over the past 7 weeks, the Smith family had weekly grocery bills of $74, $69, $64, $79,
$64, $84, and $77. What was the Smiths' average (arithmetic mean) weekly grocery bill over the
7-week period?

A. $64

B. $70

C. $73

D. $74

E. $85