6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great CR Book w/ good practice questions; could use better concept review, May 21, 2010
This review is from: Critical Reasoning GMAT Strategy Guide, 4th Edition (Manhattan GMAT Preparation Guides) (Paperback)
I self studied and scored a 770 on the GMAT. Here are my thoughts on the Manhattan GMAT Critical Reasoning Guide:
===== OVERVIEW =====
The Manhattan GMAT Critical Reasoning Guide is the first in a series of three Manhattan GMAT books developed for the three major question types students will see on the GMAT verbal section. This resource presents itself as a reasonable alternative to the
The PowerScore GMAT Critical Reasoning Bible as a complete guide to Critical Reasoning (CR).
As compared to other general GMAT guides, the Manhattan GMAT CR guide is pretty thorough in its analysis of CR, but less so when you put it side by side with the CR Bible from PowerScore. For instance, the latter devotes entire chapters to some relatively rare questions (such as Resolve the Paradox or Evaluate an Argument), while this Manhattan GMAT book simply groups these topics together in a single chapter, with approximately one page of theoretical review per rare question type. However, Manhattan GMAT does offer more practice problems: 75 (50 in the book and 25 available online) versus only around 50 in the CR Bible. Note that I believe there's no value in owning both books - the overlap in concepts is just too big to justify purchasing both.
===== PROS =====
* The questions are well-written and seem to be in the style of official GMAT questions. You'll also get some extra practice for specific concepts at the end of the first two chapters
* Offers access to the 6 computer adaptive tests by Manhattan GMAT, tests that are widely considered to be good indicators of your current level
* Handy lists of real GMAT questions (from the OG 12 and the verbal supplement, 1st and 2nd editions) are presented at the end of each chapter, so that you may practice your newly acquired skills on official material as well
===== CONS =====
* The theoretical review is not as thorough as the one in the PowerScore CR Bible. It could use more practice questions and strategy tips for the minor question types (some of them are covered in only half a page)
* At times, this book seems to overemphasize note-taking techniques. While they are certainly handy on occasions, some students (such as myself) prefer not to use them as much on the relatively short CR passages
* As opposed to the CR Bible, the Manhattan GMAT Critical Reasoning Guide argues that you should read the question stem before reading the stimulus. I personally have found that this strategy does not work for me: my main reason for this is that students--once they've read the question stem--tend to get stressed out if they cannot find the answer as they read and thus lose sight of the structure of the argument. However, some students do work more efficiently by using the strategy advocated in the Manhattan GMAT guide
===== BOTTOM LINE =====
The Manhattan GMAT Critical Reasoning Guide gets four stars out of five for a solid theoretical review, handy Official Guide for GMAT Review lists and good practice questions. While its theoretical coverage could use a bit more work, this book is overall a good investment of time and money.
About me: Dana Jinaru, 770 GMAT scorer, expert at Beat The GMAT - a community serving 100K+ GMAT students/month
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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Not the finest of the bunch, July 4, 2009
As one who teaches the GMAT for a living, has written around 250 Critical Reasoning practice questions and is presently working on a Critical Reasoning manual, one thing that I have found remarkable about the GMAT Critical Reasoning section is the lack of good guides or practice materials.
Part of this is due, I suppose, to laziness: GMAT test prep companies cater largely to the Anglo-American market, which is largely not worried about the Verbal portion. The Verbal section encompasses far more than simply language, however--this is not the TOEFL--and in order to break the 700 ceiling a firm mastery of Critical Reasoning is absolutely essential.
Manhattan GMAT's Critical Reasoning guide, like nearly every other one on the market, appears eager to reassure students that "no knowledge of formal logic is necessary" to ace the Critical Reasoning questions. That is true but unhelpful information: most people of whatever nationality are simply SLOPPY thinkers and sloppy readers and need a serious recalibration. Perhaps no questions hinge on your knowledge of the terms "modus ponens," "modus tollens," "affirmation of the consequent," or "denial of the antecedent," but most people do not realize just how many arguments contain serious flaws and accept them without thinking critically, rendering themselves unable to dig out the problem when faced with it.
Furthermore, the refusal to structure the lessons along the lines of deduction and formal logic lead Manhattan to ignore the widely accepted mathematical conventions for diagraming arguments and suggest a great many vague and confusing symbols to that end. Diagramming arguments is useful in some situations, but only if you recognize what a valid argument (modus ponens or modus tollens) should look like.
The classification of questions is okay, but the excessive focus on GMAT content at the expense of developing logical skill sets severely mars this book, as well as a great many others. Sadly, at the moment it is the best of the major prep books on the market. Clearly, the amount invested in pedagoigical development has not kept pace with the great salaries Manhattan GMAT teachers receive.
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3.0 out of 5 stars
CR GMAT, February 22, 2012
This review is from: Critical Reasoning GMAT Strategy Guide, 4th Edition (Manhattan GMAT Preparation Guides) (Paperback)
I purchased Critical reasoning GMAT book from Manhattan series. The book is in OK good condition . The content of the book is not great as expected. There are very simple questions for practice which anybody can solve without any special effort.
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