GMAT GPS: Techniques To Focus And Direct Your GMAT Prep
When do you leave the house without directions? Or perhaps the more modern reference, is when do you start on your way without plugging in your destination into a GPS device? I expect the answer for most of you is when I know where I am going.
Conversely, when you have no idea when you are going, your solution is most likely not to get in your car (or on your bike or public transit) and just start randomly driving around hoping you run into your desired destination. Ideally, you probably look up where you are going and plan out a route. Alternatively, you might know a nearby destination and start heading there (e.g. I know the bike store is near that place I get coffee). Finally, on occasion you may just head to an area where you expect to find a type of business (e.g. Gas stations are usually close to freeway entrances).
Now, all this talk about directions has been fun, but let’s bring the analogy around to GMAT quant problems. Sometimes when you see a GMAT problem, you may understand what the question is asking and see the path to the solution. In these cases, dive right in. Start driving and you are likely to reach your destination because you know “ or at least have a good sense “ of where you are going. Read more
GMATPrep Quant Question, Part Two: What is this?
Recently, I gave you a GMATPrep question and started out by asking What is this thing, anyway? I’ve got another one (along similar lines) for you this week (also a GMATPrep problem).
By the way, I love this problem. Yes, I know I’m a complete dork. But it does such an amazing job of disguising what’s going on, and it looks deceptively simple, but then it’s hard to figure out an efficient way to tackle it. There’s so much to learn on this one “ that’s why I love it.
Try it out (2 minutes!):
Are x and y both positive?
(1) 2x “ 2y = 1
(2) x/y > 1
It can’t be that hard, right? It’s just asking whether they’re positive, and the equation and inequality look pretty simple, and well, let’s see how we do.
This is a theory question, first of all. How do we know that? Because they’re asking whether something is true, that thing is a characteristic (in this case, positive), and the information they give us is clearly not enough to determine a single value for x and y. Therefore, those statements are actually disguising other characteristics that can help us to tell whether these variables are always positive. Read more
Do You Have Any Crazy Stories About The Lengths You Went To In Order To Take The GMAT Before It Changes?
Do you have a crazy story about what you had to do in order to take the GMAT before it changes this weekend? Did you have to fly to Puerto Rico to find an opening at a testing center (We know somebody who did this when the GRE changed!)? Did you delay your honeymoon in order to take the test?
Share your crazy, funny, extreme, or otherwise amusing story with us as a comment on this Facebook post. Most “liked” story by Friday afternoon will win a free copy of our Case Studies and Cocktails book. 2nd most “liked” story will win a free Manhattan GMAT t-shirt. And, as an added bonus, your story might appear in a major news publication (pending your approval, details to follow)!
GMAT Grammar in Real Life: Misplaced Modifiers
As a GMAT instructor, I’m always in the right frame of mind to notice grammatical errors in the world around us.
(One might also say that, as a GMAT instructor, I’m also the sort of nerd who takes iPhone pictures of these grammatical errors.)
What’s wrong with this sign?
If you don’t see the problem, take a step back and imagine that you are a Martian with little knowledge of human culture. Might you misunderstand this sign?
The problem is related to the modifier “that endangers workers.” (We cover Modifiers extensively in session 6 of our nine-week course.)
What noun is “that endangers workers” supposed to be modifying? Unsafe conditions. What noun is it actually modifying? Work site.
Five Strategies for Conquering 700 Level Quant Questions
Let me start off by saying that hard work and mastering each question topic is the best way to conquer the GMAT. There is no Up-Up-Down-Down-Left-Right-Left-Right B, A, Start cheat code that can replace months of intense studying. That said, getting a 700+ score on the GMAT sometimes means having a few tricks up your sleeves. Here’s a few strategies that I’ve found to be helpful with gaining a few extra points at the very top of the GMAT curve:
1) Know your PEMDAS and your SADMEP
In other words, you have to know your parenthesis, exponents/roots, multiplication, division, addition, and subtraction, backwards and forwards. For as many students as I have worked with, I have yet to come across a student who can barely work through a multiplication table, yet still manages to consistently finish the quant portion of the GMAT. Even though you only need to answer 37 quantitative questions, this will entail hundreds of math calculations- calculations that far too many of us have left to the machines (I for one welcome our new calculator overlords). If the average straightforward calculation takes five seconds and a student sees two hundred of these calculations over an average test, that’s sixteen minutes and forty seconds of just doing simple arithmetic. And if it takes you twice as long to do each of those calculations, that’s going to take, umm, well, it’s…. it’s going to take a lot longer.
Everyday Ways To Improve Your Mental Math Skills
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.
In a world where we are often carrying at least one device, if not multiple devices, that can complete calculations, there is little need to do calculations manually. For this reason, the lack of a calculator on the GMAT Quantitative section is a significant point of concern—or perhaps even fear—to many test takers, even some with strong quantitative skills. That brings me to some good and some bad news for prospective GMAT takers. Read more
More Free Integrated Reasoning Workshops
Remember out immensely popular free Integrated Reasoning workshops from last month? Well, they’re back! Due to overwhelming student demand, we’ve added four more workshops, which you can now register for.
Sign up fast before they sell out!
Tuesday, May 8th (8:00 “ 10:00pm EST)
Instructor: Tommy Wallach
Saturday, May 19th (1:00 “ 3:00pm EST)
Instructor: Stephanie Moyerman
Monday, May 21st (8:00 “ 10:00pm EST)
Instructor: Whitney Garner
Saturday, June 2nd (1:00 “ 3:00pm EST)
Instructor: Stephanie Moyerman
Rushing to take the GMAT before it changes?
Then this article’s for you. Everyone I’ve talked to recently falls into one of two camps:
- I need to take the test before it changes and I’m running out of time! Help!
- I need to take the new GMAT with IR and I don’t know what to do! Help!
If you’re in the latter category, read last week’s article and check back again next week, when I’ll have an article for you regarding how to study for IR. This week, we’re going to talk about what to do for those who are still trying to get the test done before it changes on June 5th.
How far are you from your goal?
Have you taken a practice test recently “ under official testing conditions? Official conditions means you did the essays, you stuck to roughly 8 minute breaks, you didn’t pause the test and come back to it later basically, you did what you’re going to have to do on the real test. Also, you hadn’t already seen the questions before, right? One or two might still be okay, but if you recognized more than that, or if you deviated significantly from official test conditions, take another test.
You’re doing this to get a good idea of your current scoring level. Compare that to your desired score on the real test. How far apart are the two scores? Read more
What’s It Like To Write A Textbook? An Interview With Authors Of MGMAT’s 5th Edition Strategy Guides, Pt 2
In keeping with our 5th Edition Release Week festivities, we’re really excited to bring to you an interview with three of the people behind our awesome new 5th Edition Manhattan GMAT Strategy Guides.
Below is part 2 of a 2 part interview with David Mahler, Stacey Koprince, and Liz Moliski. Learn what part of the books was hardest to write, what part was our interviewee’s favorite, and how a student should work their way through the books. Part 1 is here.
What was it like to finally finish the books? What was the final rush to beat the deadline like?
Stacey Koprince: I was lucky in that I received the research relatively early on for my book, so I was done in advance of the eventual deadline. I say the “eventual” deadline, because the first deadline I was given didn’t end up being the final deadline. Because some of the other books were delayed, all of the deadlines were pushed back several times, so I finished on time. I’ll admit, though, that I might’ve missed the original deadline if it hadn’t been moved back. : )
For the quant books, though, I would sometimes receive part of the galleys (the files that needed to be proofed) one day and need to give my edits the next day or the day after. Towards the end, we were all working to turn things around so quickly that I would often only be given a chapter at a time, and by the time I was done with it (an hour or two later), the next chapter would be ready to edit.
Read more
What’s It Like To Write A Textbook? An Interview With Authors Of MGMAT’s 5th Edition Strategy Guides, Pt 1
In keeping with our 5th Edition Release Week festivities, we’re really excited to bring to you an interview with three of the people behind our awesome new 5th Edition Manhattan GMAT Strategy Guides.
Below is part 1 of a 2 part interview with David Mahler, Stacey Koprince, and Liz Moliski. Learn what it’s like to write a textbook, how long the process takes, what it’s like approaching the final deadline, and more! Be sure to check back tomorrow for part 2.
What’s it like to actually write a textbook? Where do you start? What is the day-to-day process like?
Stacey Koprince: We do a lot of research before we can even think about starting to write. We examine every all of the most recent official questions to determine patterns, language structures, traps, and so on. We use that data to determine the best solution methods and what and how our students need to study in order to succeed with that question type or content area.
After several months, we’re finally ready to start writing. The process isn’t that different from writing a school paper – a really long school paper! I start with an outline, and then I expand the outline chapter by chapter. Once I have a clear idea of the sub-sections I want to have in each chapter, then I dive into the actual writing.