Customer Reviews

Critical Reasoning GMAT Strategy Guide, 4th Edition (Manhattan GMAT Preparation Guides)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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

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.

following this book might actually decrease of chances of getting the answers right during the exam.
the examples are superficial and honestly I think some of them have wrong answers and explanation.

do yourself a favor, DO NOT BUY THIS BOOK.

This book offers a very basic overview of the material covered on the verbal section. If you are having trouble with the critical reasoning portion, I suggest you pick up Powerscore's Logical Reasoning Bible for the LSAT. It far outstrips the material covered in the MGMAT book.

If you are preparing for the GMAT, this book is a great introduction to the critical reasoning in the verbal section of the exam. Good explanation and technique for someone who has difficulty in battling critical reasoning.

I loved this book. I actually used the RC, SC and CR of Manhattan and improved my verbal scores by a huge margin.

This and all the other Manhattan GMAT guides were really helpful in helping me prep for the GMAT. My colleagues had recommended them over other guides and I continue to do the same after getting the score I needed on my first try.

Overall, this is a good book, with detailed and accurate explanations on methods and what to expect in the exam.
One thing can be improved though - the questions/quizzes. Very small portion of the questions are not really good ones.

The Critical Reasoning section of GMAT has become more difficult over the years. The Official Guides are no longer reflective of the more difficult questions the real GMAT will give you.

This book does a credible job of covering all the CR question types. In my opinion, the GMAT CR is more difficult than LSAT CR (yes I have studied LSAT as well). In tougher GMAT CR problems, there is only 2 obvious wrong answers. The rest of the 3 answers are at least partially correct. It takes high level analysis and fine tuning of the passages to find the right answer.

The book provides a fine guideline on how to determine the right answers to all CR problems. I do not like nor recommend, however, this book's advocacy on writing out the logic of the passages on paper. You will be too pressed for time if you do so.

Overall, this is a worthy purchase and worthy of your precious GMAT study time.

This book gave me the tools to organize the parts of an argument. I have also used number properties and sentence corrections. No other books in GMAT prep (I have tired numerous) have been able to provide skill building exercises and pinpoint problem areas. I highly recommend the entire series.