Customer Reviews

Equations, Inequalities, and VIC's: GMAT Strategy Guide, 4th Edition (Manhattan GMAT Preparation Guides, No. 3)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

How do you find f(x)=f(1/x)?

Are the product of 3 consecutive integers divisible by 2? how about 3,4, and 8?

What is the units digit of 3^107?

If you have any doubts on how to answers these types of questions, and most people do, you need this book.

The explanations on how to best solve problems are very good. Yet the book suffers from what appears to be two different authors writing the explanations and the problems. The same type of problems are not always provided the same type of solutions.

This book is a vast improvement over the previous edition. The GMAT has changed over the years and the previous version did not address all the changes. This book rectifies that. You can be assured many of the concepts outlined in this book will be tested in the real thing.

Although the GMAT quant section only tests high school level math, do not confuse it with the SAT. It is way tougher and far more abstract. Furthermore, your high school math is probably very rusty by now. If you are unconvinced, please spit out the quadratic formula (which you must have used zillion times in HS) right now. If you can't do it in 5 seconds, then you are rusty.

I am torn whether to give this book a 4 or 5 stars. So I would give it 4.5 stars. It is very worthwhile book and you will not regret the purchase unless you are already a math geek.

I self studied and scored a 770 on the GMAT. Here are my thoughts on the Manhattan GMAT Equations, Inequalities, and VICs GMAT guide:

===== OVERVIEW =====

The third book in the Manhattan GMAT quant series features theory and practice on equations (with an emphasis on the quadratic equation, the one most commonly tested on the GMAT), functions, inequalities and problems based around variables (the so-called VICs). As is the case with the entire series, the book does an in depth coverage of the theoretical aspects of the topics and also provides a decent amount of practice.

The structure of this guide is similar to that of other MGMAT guides: a more basic to intermediate part (in this case, with 85 practice items) and an advanced section for those who want to take it a step further (where you'll also find 57 questions). The only issue with the questions supplied by MGMAT is that most of them are not exactly in the style of the GMAT, meaning that most problems simply ask for a value instead of letting you choose between options. Note that they are still good practice though!

===== PROS =====

*Solid conceptual review that gets to the core of the material. Because of its two-part structure, it is a good book for both for those who are just starting out and for those who seek more advanced practice and strategy

*Comes with a code to register for the 6 online MGMAT tests (pretty decent predictors of your skill level) and 25 extra practice questions. However, the guide does rely heavily on the The Official Guide for GMAT Review, 12th Edition for problems (you'll see sets of questions from the OG corresponding with topics)

*I was personally impressed with the VICs chapter, because "all-letter" problems tend to scare students the most. I also enjoyed their sample problems, which combined both geometry and VICs - this is a plus, I believe, because the GMAT rarely tests just one concept but rather "mixes it up". Their coverage of advanced functions was also pretty good

===== CONS =====

*They sometimes overuse tables and drawings in general as a technique to approach problems. While this might help if you're a visual learner, for me it seemed unnecessary at times: drawing does take a bit and this is a timed test, so be sure not to go over the top with it. They also seem to have a thing for mnemonics and abbreviations, which might be confusing if you're trying to remember everything

*Could have used more practice on arithmetic and geometric progressions and a few more challenging problems on equations

*Even thought the Data Sufficiency chapter does present a few interesting tips, it could have been improved by adding a few practice problems and focusing less on rephrasing from the The Official Guide for GMAT Review, 12th Edition

===== BOTTOM LINE =====

The Manhattan GMAT Equations, Inequalities, & VICs guide is a comprehensive resource on these topics, featuring both a good theoretical review and some noteworthy practice. Although it does have its flaws, it is probably one of the best on the market for the given concepts.

About me: Dana Jinaru, 770 GMAT scorer, expert at Beat The GMAT - a community serving 1.5 million+ MBA applicants each year

Here's the thing: if you're looking for a book that will give you exactly what you need to know to knock down the inequalities (or any section for that matter) of the GMAT, you're not going to find one. The GMAT isn't THAT type of test. Think of it less like an AP exam and more like a Case Interview - something that gets better ONLY with practice.

That being said, IMO Manhattan GMAT prep books are the best of the best. They should not be your only source of study material - I'd also highly recommend the Offical GMAT Study Guides. But in terms of a 3rd party source, when compared to Kaplan, Princeton Review, Veritas, Barrons, Arco et al:

1. The solutions are accurate and well described

2. The problems are representative of those you'll actually find on the GMAT (Kaplan and Princeton Review are nonsense!)

3. They're compact in content.

If you're going to spend the money, I'd also highly recommend the question banks online.

Summary: they're not going to teach you everything, and will not, alone, be responsible for a 200 point increase (unless your math skills are THAT bad) but are a great tool for refreshing those math skills you haven't used since 9th grade.

This is a good book to review concepts on inequalities. If you did not know, you also get the 6 free CAT online tests free with this book.

I didn't take a class, but I have alot of friends who have and have used the Kaplan book and practice tests in addition to the Manhattan. Manhattan prep material and tests are head and shoulders above Kaplan. My only wish is that I had started with the Manhattan series and not even worried about Kaplan. Kaplan may have the brand name, but the fact that Manhattan focuses only on the GMAT shines through. The material goes wayyy more in depth, and it really leverages the other best source of practice material you have, the Official Guide (it has a great feature called rephrasing that references the OG problems directly to give data sufficiency help. It almost makes so much sense that it seems obvious but ingenious at the same time. Why not use the actual old test problems provided by the GMAC as much as you can?).

I wasn't going to buy the whole series but was so impressed by the first book I used (Sentence Correction), that I bought a couple of the quantitative prep books. I was so impressed by those, that I ended up buying all the rest of them. I can not stress enough how much more focused and useful this material is than Kaplan. When used in conjunction with the Official Guide, you have everything you need to break 700.

The things these books provide make so much sense as the best way to prepare, that it makes you wonder why everyone else doesn't do it. My guess is that Manhattan benefits from a focused business model of limiting itself to the GMAT. If you're not looking to score that well and only need to practice some and get used to the questions, the Official Guide is enough. But the Manhattan series is also nice in that it allows you to pick and choose the certain topics you need extra help with. Also, by only buying one book, you get access to six practice tests that are very difficult and provide invaluable information in its readouts of your performance (much more detailed and useful than Kaplan's. Hate to keep hating on Kaplan, but it's the only thing I have to compare to. It's not horrible really, it just pales in comparison to Manhattan. I think of the Kaplan material like I think of McDonald's, very well-known but pretty junky. It'll fill you up, but you won't feel great afterward...)

I've never taken the time to review any items on Amazon.com before, but I have been so impressed with this product that I felt compelled to let others know about it.

Don't waste your money on a class, get the Manhattan series instead. You'll save over a thousand dollars and be better prepared as well!

Good luck!

Great GMAT prepbook! I recommend doing only the OG Guide problems after sections I and II as those will help you prepare for the exam the best, especially the problems after 100. I like that it condenses topics that I had learned in Algebra years ago into an easy 2 - 3 pages of explanation and review. However, if you are pressed for time, like I was, you may not get to complete all the problems and miss out on good material. I would suggest reviewing each section then go straight into the problems from the OG Guide that are referenced both the basic and advanced level. Good Luck!

This book covers well the concepts and has several advanced exercises of this part of the Gmat. Buying the book, you will have access to 6 online GMAT tests. The online tests are really good and come with detail explanations. The level of the questions in the online exams is higher than in the real exam.

The Manhattan series was the most helpful for me on my GMAT because other GMAT prep books only shows time saving or test taking tips but does not go into details about the various topics which I needed because I don't have a strong quantitative base. In fact, I didn't know even the basic idea of number properties or even odd plus odd is even (must have been asleep in math class) and so these guides were a must for me. Except for the critical reasoning guide, I give them all five stars +++!

Too bad I found these guides too late (just 2 weeks before the exam) and by the time they arrived in the mail, I didn't have time to do any of the practice exercises but I still managed to improve my score from 500 to 640 from just skimming through these guides. 640 may not be a high score, but for someone who didn't know what a cube root is two weeks before the exam, these guides sure did a good job getting me up to speed. In my situation, these guides were heaven sent.

If you're really good with math then they might be too easy and too basic for you. Even then, they would still serve as a nice 'refresher'. They are short and concise and it only took me about an hour or less to skim through each and so they are pricey if you're just using them for a quick review. But if you don't know math like I don't know math, BUY THEM ALL!!! THEY ROCK!

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.