If you're experiencing a roadblock with one of the Manhattan Prep GRE math strategy guides, help is here!
mrw1956
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Really??

by mrw1956 Fri Nov 14, 2014 8:16 am

How is it possible to do very well on the Check Your Skills questions, then get absolutely CRUSHED on the Problem Sets?

I'm working in the Word Problems book, and while having done well in the other math books, I'm getting run over in this one. I look at at least half the problems and have no clue as to how to begin. Even the problems I do solve take several minutes, not the 105 seconds we'll have on the real test.
danc
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Re: Really??

by danc Fri Nov 14, 2014 6:42 pm

I know how you feel because I went through something similar with the algebra and FDP books (I actually find Word Problems to be easier than some of the others), but the MP instructors on here can't give you any help if you don't cite specific questions you are struggling with (or at least specific topics, like I did with the question I posted yesterday).

The check-your-skills questions are designed to be very simple questions to test one specific skill, not to mimic real GRE questions. There won't be any questions on the GRE like the check-your-skills questions, so do not use them as a gauge of your progress. The problem sets and the practice sets at the end of each book are better gauges.
tommywallach
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Re: Really??

by tommywallach Sat Nov 15, 2014 4:14 pm

Great response from Dan here. Thanks Dan!

It's true that the Check Your Skills questions are simply little exercises DIRECTLY related to whatever concept was just described. This makes them doubly easy, because you also know precisely what to expect in terms of what the question will want you to do. The questions at the end of the chapter are much more difficult.

That being said, I also wouldn't necessarily stress if you're struggling with the questions at the back. These aren't always attempting to describe real GRE questions either (though they're much closer than the CYS questions). Instead, they are questions built to test your understanding of the underlying concept taught in the chapter. The only place you should be "Worrying" about performance is on actual GRE questions (or maybe questions in our 5lb. book). Beyond that, don't focus on rightness and wrongness, but on using the book to learn what you should have done.

Hope that helps!

-t