One more word of advice for test day
We received a report of a student having her score canceled because she went to her locker during a break on test day and checked her cellphone for messages (FYI, you put all of your belongings in a locker at the testing center). Apparently, an official at the testing center flagged her for suspicious activity and canceled her test administration on the spot.
The moral of the story is, stay away from your electronic device during the breaks! Keep it in the back of the locker and don’t pick it up again until you have your score report in hand (hopefully you’ll want to call your friends and share some good news!). You CAN have a snack in your locker to scarf during the breaks, but keep it in the front of your locker and don’t rummage too much in there. Apparently some of the testing proctors are very action-oriented.
Manhattan Prep and Score Guarantees
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.
We occasionally get questions about why we don’t offer a score improvement guarantee.
There are a few little reasons, and one big reason. In our experience, a test prep score guarantee has a number of attendant issues: Read more
Breaking the 700 Barrier
One of the great GMAT myths is that the first 8 questions in each section “make or break” your score and that nothing you do after that point has much of an effect on the score you end up with. False! Eight questions are not enough to determine your score. If they were enough, each section would consist of 8 questions.
One of the consequences of the myth is the belief that in order to break 700, you must answer those first 8 questions correctly. Untold numbers of test-takers have labored over the first eight, afraid that any mistake will send their scores plummeting to unthinkable depths. While it is true that you should give each question your best shot, the absolute number of questions answered correctly is not as important as their difficulty level. Better to have a 50/50 success rate at a high level than a 50/50 success rate at a lower one, even though the percentage of right and wrong answers is the same.
The most serious upshot of this myth is that its believers spend far too much time on the first eight questions and then find themselves racing to finish the section. Often, these test-takers run out of time and leave some questions unanswered at the end of a section. Given that unanswered questions are essentially counted as incorrect answers, it makes more sense to move at a steady pace throughout the entire section rather than concentrate on any particular subset of questions. In fact, spending too much time on early questions may actually damage rather than help your final score.
Manhattan GMAT Instructor Convocation

Erica Lee (NY), Alex Cappy (DC/Phi), Robert Wilburn (NC) and Danielle Diciaccio (NY HQ)
The 3rd Annual Manhattan GMAT Instructor Convocation took place this past weekend. Dozens of Instructors came from across the country (and Canada) to mingle and share best practices with some of the brightest teaching minds anywhere.
The topic of the afternoon was how to deal with students whose issues are not primarily content-related (i.e. understanding GMAT-tested concepts), but rather issues surrounding the test-taking experience (e.g. stress management). Some very interesting themes came out of the Convocation – we’re going to be compiling some of these ideas to help our Instructors coach students moving forward. Some good suggestions came up for us incorporate into our upcoming books. We’re also looking at putting together a series of essays that may be helpful directly to students as well. An essay will likely appear in this space.
The Convocation was then followed by a massive Company dinner and a party at the CEO’s apartment, so it wasn’t all work and no play. Perhaps there will be more pictures to come . . .
All About the GMAT
Application season is starting to heat up again! For those of you just getting started, here’s an overview of “what’s what” with the GMAT.
What Is The GMAT?
The Graduate Management Admissions Test is a standardized test that many English-speaking business schools require applicants to take. The test is called a CAT, or Computer Adaptive Test, both because it is administered on a computer and because the test actually changes based upon how we answer the questions. The computer chooses what test questions to give us based upon our performance up until that point in the test. In a sense, we all take a different test, because the specific mix of questions any one person sees is based on that person’s performance during the test.
To register for the test or learn more information straight from the testwriters, go to www.mba.com.
More info on the “Next Generation” GMAT
GMAC has released a bit more information about their research process for the Next Generation GMAT, slated to launch in 2013. (See this story on GMAC’s web site.) Here’s the nutshell:
GMAC is currently researching what skills the Next Generation GMAT will test. An advisory group made up of representatives from 9 major business schools in the US and Europe has been meeting to review the results of several studies conducted by GMAC and to debate the skills that the GMAT should test. (See this page for a summary of the advisory group’s activities.)
GMAC has not yet finalized what the pool of skills will be, nor has it determined the format of the questions or even the scoring scale that will be used. The Next Generation GMAT may even be given in additional languages besides English! (See the FAQ for more.) All we know for now is that the new test is expected to launch in 2013.
As we said when this info first came to light, the Next Generation GMAT is so far in the future that nobody needs to worry about it right now (except, of course, for all of us here at ManhattanGMAT!). If you are curious, though, check out the above links for the word straight from GMAC’s lips.
Happy studying!
E-mail of the Day II
Another fantastic account from a student who went from a 570 to a 720. Hats off to Dan Patinkin for his tremendous work!
I am so proud of myself, but more just relieved – I knew I was capable but after struggling for 2 years, I was beginning to doubt myself.
I don’t know if you are familiar with my story, but I have ADHD and severe test anxiety. I had started studying for the GMAT in September of 2007 and had been through two different courses, all of the MBA guide books and 2 poorly attempted official tests before I got to Dan. I had called Manhattan GMAT as a last resort – mainly because my parents were convinced I had to try “everything” before I gave up. I expected nothing because no matter how much I had known in the past – my test score never showed it.
I want you to know how unbelievable Dan was in helping me execute what had been stuck inside my head for 2 whole years. The Manhattan Gmat tests and questions adequately prepared me and I have never had a more positive experience with a tutoring company or with any tutor period – and I am speaking from 15 years of tutors. When I called your New York office – everyone was receptive and listened to my situation and was able to actually help me.
I cannot thank you enough for your companies services and how much they helped me reach my full potential. It is going to change my life.
Best,
E-mail of the Day
We get good news from students quite often, but this e-mail today reminded us of how great it is to do what we do here at Manhattan GMAT. Kudos to Jonathan Schneider, Kate McKeon, and Horacio Quiroga for their tremendous work in contributing to yet another success story!
Hi all.
It’s with a lot of emotion that I write this email to you all -because each of you were instrumental in me achieving a fair GMAT score. Kate your teaching was always on point, so much so that I watched the replays of class long after class was over. Jonathan your teaching style in addition to your extra help throughout class is greatly appreciated, and I’m in gratitude to your constant interaction with me up to the hours before my exam. Horacio you were always so willing to help out in any way you could, including occasionally going beyond our scheduled time, and sending me much needed review documents.
As Jonathan said a few weeks ago, my goal is to “fire on all cannons.”
With that said:
Quantitative: 43
Verbal: 44
Score: 710 (92nd percentile)
Bear in mind my absolute highest combination of scores seen in the last five CATs were Q42 and V37. My first official GMAT taken in February was a 590. My goal on Saturday was a 650, yet I was hoping to break 630 on that day. With your help guys, I’ve blown away even the wackiest of expectations, with a 120 point increase and a 710 score.
Thanks to Manhattan GMAT, I now have crossed the academic bridge to getting into business school, and can at the minimum be taken seriously by any school in the country. I’m quite emotional about the whole thing – and want you all to know that you and your team were instrumental in me achieving my goals.
Sincerely – thank you. The direction of the rest of my life is now a bit different thanks to your support and teaching. Feel free to use me as a reference at any point. And feel free to forward this email to any of your supervisors, bosses, direct reports, proteges, references, or whomever. Thanks again.
—-
Naveed A. Khan
—-
New GMAT in the works?
Don’t worry. It isn’t launching until 2013(!), so if you’re planning to take the test before then, you don’t have to worry about any big changes the test writers decide to introduce.
If you are curious, though, click this link to a short mention of the news in The Economist. There isn’t much info – GMAC is obviously still in the early stages of developing their “Next Generation GMAT” – but there’s some interesting discussion on trends in business school admissions.
Don’t Let The GMAT Get You Down
The GMAT, like many things in life, is a stressful experience. We arrive and we’re handed a bunch of legal information that we have to read and sign. We have to empty our pockets and put everything in a locker, evoking feelings similar to going through airport security. A digital photo and a digital fingerprint or palm scan are taken. Every time we enter or leave the testing room, the digital fingerprint or palm scan is repeated. Oh, and then, the outcome of the next four hours could have a major impact on the success (or not…) of our business school applications.
It’s no wonder that, by the time the exam begins, we’re seriously jittery. But is there really anything we can do about that?
Carrie Shuchart, ManhattanGMAT instructor extraordinaire, thinks so and she recently wrote the article “Managing GMAT Stress: 7 Useful Tips” to share her great strategies with us (click on the title to read the article).
You may also be interested in this older article, “Stress Management,” which discusses some physical relaxation techniques that can help to reduce stress.