The following text is from a professional development blog post written by a recent graduate about starting work at a...
GMAT Craft and Structure : (Structure) Questions
The following text is from a professional development blog post written by a recent graduate about starting work at a consulting firm.
Walking into those client meetings felt overwhelming at first. Everyone around the table seemed to possess an intuitive understanding of business dynamics that I clearly lacked. When colleagues referenced industry frameworks or discussed market positioning strategies, I found myself nodding along while feeling completely lost. The conversations moved at a pace that left me scrambling to keep up, and I often wondered if my inexperience was as obvious to others as it felt to me.
Which choice best states the main purpose of the text?
To explain specific business frameworks used in consulting
To describe the author's adjustment to a professional environment
To analyze why client meetings are challenging for consultants
To compare different approaches to market positioning
Step 1: Decode and Map the Passage
Part A: Passage Analysis Table
| Text from Passage | Analysis |
|---|---|
| "Walking into those client meetings felt overwhelming at first." |
|
| "Everyone around the table seemed to possess an intuitive understanding of business dynamics that I clearly lacked." |
|
| "When colleagues referenced industry frameworks or discussed market positioning strategies, I found myself nodding along while feeling completely lost." |
|
| "The conversations moved at a pace that left me scrambling to keep up, and I often wondered if my inexperience was as obvious to others as it felt to me." |
|
Part B: Passage Architecture & Core Elements
Main Point: The author describes feeling overwhelmed and out of place when starting work at a consulting firm due to a lack of business knowledge and experience.
Argument Flow: The author moves from the general feeling of being overwhelmed to specific examples of knowledge gaps, then concludes with the broader emotional impact of struggling to keep up and worrying about appearing inexperienced.
Step 2: Interpret the Question Precisely
This is a fill-in-the-blank question asking us to choose the best logical connector. The answer must create the right relationship between what comes before and after the blank.
Step 3: Prethink the Answer
- The right answer should capture that this passage is fundamentally about someone's personal experience adjusting to a new work environment
- The author isn't trying to teach us about business or analyze consulting—they're sharing their own story of feeling unprepared and overwhelmed when entering the professional world
- The entire passage focuses on the gap between what the author knew and what was expected, and how that made them feel
To explain specific business frameworks used in consulting
✗ Incorrect
- This suggests the passage explains specific frameworks, but the author never actually explains any frameworks
- The author mentions that colleagues "referenced industry frameworks" but doesn't tell us what those frameworks are
To describe the author's adjustment to a professional environment
✓ Correct
- Perfectly captures that this is about the author's personal experience starting in a professional environment
- Matches our analysis showing the progression from feeling overwhelmed to struggling with knowledge gaps
To analyze why client meetings are challenging for consultants
✗ Incorrect
- Too broad and analytical—this isn't a general analysis of why meetings are challenging for all consultants
- This is specifically about one person's individual experience, not a broader study of consulting challenges
To compare different approaches to market positioning
✗ Incorrect
- The passage mentions "market positioning strategies" only as something colleagues discussed that confused the author
- No comparison of different approaches is provided