Articles published in How to Study

FAST Math for the GMAT (Part 2 of 5)

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Manhattan Prep GMAT Blog - FAST Math for the GMAT (Part 2 of 5) by Stacey Koprince

Did you know that you can attend the first session of any of our online or in-person GMAT courses absolutely free? We’re not kidding! Check out our upcoming courses here.


Welcome to part 2 of our Fast Math series! In Part 1, I acquainted you with the fact that I’m a lazy math person: I don’t want to do any more than I have to in order to answer the question. And this series shows you how! ☺

Principle #2: Learn shortcuts for when you do have to do the math.

You already saw the first example of this in Principle #1:

Shortcut #1: When multiplying a string of numbers, pair off the 5’s and 2’s and multiply them first.

What if that last problem in part 1 hadn’t had a 20 in it? If you had to multiply 5 and 81…how would you do that? Read more

FAST Math for the GMAT (Part 1 of 5)

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division-sign-gmat-fast-math-part-1-of-5-stacey-koprinceGuess what? You can attend the first session of any of our online or in-person GMAT courses absolutely free—we’re not kidding! Check out our upcoming courses here.


I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty lazy when it comes to doing math on paper. Blame constant access to Excel and the calculator on my phone…but I’m completely over doing math on paper.

If you give me a problem that’s going to require half a page of calculations…well, I’m not going to want to do that problem. But on the GMAT Quant section, I don’t get a calculator, so how can I still get a 99th percentile score while staying true to my lazy-math desires?

Let’s do some Fast Math! Read more

I Took The GMAT Online. Here’s What Happened.

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Considering taking the GMAT online? We have a lot to tell you!

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Get the Most Out of Your GMAT Study Group

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Manhattan Prep GMAT Blog - Get the Most Out of Your GMAT Study Group (Part 1) by Stacey Koprince

Did you know that you can attend the first session of any of our online or in-person GMAT courses absolutely free? We’re not kidding! Check out our upcoming courses here.


Recently, one of my fellow instructors, Jamie Nelson, got a great question from one of her students: What should I do to get the most out of my time with my GMAT study group? In the process of answering her student, Jamie checked with me to see whether we had anything on our blog that contained more formal recommendations or resources. We didn’t at the time, but now we do! Read on. Read more

The GMAT Online: How to Make the Most of BOTH Whiteboard Tools

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The GMAT Online allows test-takers to use both a physical whiteboard and an online whiteboard—and there are great reasons to use both, actually. Learn when to use which in this post!

When you take the GMAT Online, you’ll have access to both a physical whiteboard and an online one. The key is going to be knowing when to use which and practicing ahead of time so that everything feels seamless on test day. (Math? Definitely the physical whiteboard. Time management strategy? Probably online whiteboard. We’ll figure it all out in this post.)

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What’s a Good GMAT Score?

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Manhattan Prep GMAT Blog - What's a Good GMAT Score? by Chelsey Cooley

Applying to MBA programs would be simpler if there was just one “good GMAT score.” If you scored above that mark, you’d be done with the GMAT; if not, you’d know you needed to keep trying. As with most of life, though, it isn’t that simple. In this article, we’ll break down what counts as a good GMAT score and how to know whether you’ve achieved one. 

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The 3 Keys to Success on Integrated Reasoning

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Many schools care the most about the Quant section of the GMAT, but Integrated Reasoning has become more important since it was introduced in 2012. And employers who care about test scores are often very interested in your Integrated Reasoning (IR) scores. Follow the below 3 Keys to Success and you’ll be sitting pretty on test day. Read more

Everything You Need to Know about GMAT Time Management, Part 3

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Manhattan Prep GMAT Blog - Everything You Need to Know about GMAT Time Management (Part 3) by Stacey Koprince

Guess what? You can attend the first session of any of our online or in-person GMAT courses absolutely free—we’re not kidding! Check out our upcoming courses here.


You’ve made it to part 3 of our Time Management series!

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Everything You Need to Know about GMAT Time Management, Part 2

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Did you know that you can attend the first session of any of our online or in-person GMAT courses absolutely free? We’re not kidding! Check out our upcoming courses here.


Welcome to the second installment of our GMAT time management series! In the first part, we addressed the following:

  1. Why is time management so important on the GMAT?
  2. Know (generally) how the scoring works on the GMAT
  3. When solving problems, follow two principles: first Exam Mode, then Study Mode

Today’s installment is all about per-problem timing.
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Everything You Need to Know about GMAT Time Management, Part 1

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Did you know that you can attend the first session of any of our online or in-person GMAT courses absolutely free? We’re not kidding! Check out our upcoming courses here.


You have a lot to learn in this series! And it won’t happen overnight; you’ll need to build these skills over time. Bookmark this article and return to it frequently throughout your studies. At the least, revisit these articles before and after every practice test you take.

One more note: We’ll address per-question and per-section time management. We’ll also address how you keep track of your time for the test-center based GMAT. For the GMAT Online, the test sections themselves are the same, but the scratch paper situation is different, and that affects how you’ll keep track of your time during the exam. Read this series first; at the end, we’ll link to another post that addresses how to use your whiteboard to keep track of your time on the GMAT Online, specifically.

Today, we’re going to discuss the overarching principles for managing your time on the GMAT. Ready? Let’s dive in!

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