5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A solid review of GMAT geometry, July 29, 2010
This review is from: Geometry 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 Geometry guide:
===== OVERVIEW =====
The fifth and final guide in the series of quant guides from Manhattan GMAT deals with the subtleties of geometry. This is another important topic tested on the GMAT, since you'll undoubtedly see quite a few problems on triangles (at least two, I think) and the occasional problem on other shapes (particularly circles, squares and solids made up of these two). The guide is pretty exhaustive with regards to the theory you'll need on test day, but it could have been improved by the addition of some more problems in the circles department and a chapter on overlapping shapes.
The first part of the book concerns polygons, triangles, circles, angles, the coordinate plane and solids, featuring 75 "in action" problems (similar to Problem Solving, but with no answer choices). The second part is fairly small and only has 8 questions. In my opinion, this latter section would have benefited greatly from a few tips and practice items on overlapping shapes, since these tend to be the more difficult of the geometry subset (I actually had to guess on one such problem on my real test).
===== PROS =====
*Pretty much all of the theory you'll need on geometry is explained in this book. Their tips on the maximization of the surface area of polygons were particularly interesting, since I have not seen this discussed in any other strategy book on the market
*Comes with access to 25 online questions and 6 adaptive tests (some of the best in the industry). You'll also find the well-known
The Official Guide for GMAT Review, 12th Edition problems list to help you practice with real, retired questions
*The problems they supply in this book do tend to test more than one concept at a time, which is a plus. Their explanations are also pretty detailed
===== CONS =====
*No chapter on overlapping shapes! I find these problems to be some of the more challenging in geometry. Also, no Data Sufficiency practice problems is definitely a minus, since these questions tend to be extremely confusing for most students (they combine this relatively puzzling question type with geometry that you sometimes have to draw on your own)
*More problems on the trapezoid, polygons with more than 4 sides and angles within circles would have been nice. I also couldn't find a review of tangents to circles
*The issues mentioned above also impact the overall difficulty of the problems in this book. If the topics would have been included, the book would also contain more advanced problems than it does right now (only a few, sadly)
===== BOTTOM LINE =====
The Manhattan GMAT Geometry guide earns four stars out of five for its coverage of the concepts you'll need to know to do good on GMAT geometry. Overall, this book still needs a bit of work, but its contents currently contain what most student will need for their test. The elements that are missing are almost all advanced topics, of which you won't see more than one or two problems in the GMAT.
About me: Dana Jinaru, 770 GMAT scorer, expert at Beat The GMAT - a community serving 1.5 million+ MBA applicants each year
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Solid Geometry book but why so few illustrations and no gmat-style questions?, January 12, 2010
This review is from: Geometry GMAT Strategy Guide, 4th Edition (Manhattan GMAT Preparation Guides) (Paperback)
I love most of the MGMAT books but this one just does not feel right. The book is realistically 95 pages and covers all important concepts: from lines to coordinate geometry. Does not go over the top and gives enough material, seems like the writers covered all the bases. However, I have an issue with it - it is not laid out very well. I am a visual learner and felt it would have been a better book if it was spread out more, included more illustrations, and did not have so much verbiage everywhere. Even larger all-in-one books dedicate close to 100 pages for Geometry.
Another issue is that all of the problems in the book are in a non-gmat format (meaning you only get a question, not the 5 answer choices). That is OK for some sections, but not having a single gmat-like question in the entire book is a "no-no". GMAT is heavily about basics and good framework, but there are other ways to solve questions such as backsolving, picking numbers, etc and those skills are honed only when questions are in the GMAT format. Important to point out that the book comes with access to the Geometry quiz bank online, which does have GMAT-style questions, so there is hope.
The big redeeming factors are 6 online tests that are included with every MGMAT book ($39 value), additional online practice materials, and coverage of Coordinate Geometry (a harder topic often omitted in larger textbooks).
***Bottom line: this is a solid geometry book that was crammed in 95 pages but is still a worthy buy for the sake of tests and the coordinate geometry section.
Questions about the book? Post them here - i will respond.
BB, Founder of GMAT Club Community.
P.S. The only other books that cover Coordinate Geometry are:
Kaplan GMAT Math Foundations and
MGMAT Foundations of GMAT Math, both of which are on the easier side of things but recommended if you need help with math. You can find my reviews for both of them.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
I really like this series, September 2, 2011
This review is from: Geometry GMAT Strategy Guide, 4th Edition (Manhattan GMAT Preparation Guides) (Paperback)
I have purchased other GMAT strategy guides, but this is my favorite series. This item is very helpful, particularly if you have been away from geometry for several years. It organizes re-learning the topic into areas of focus for the exam. I appreciate the section on Data Sufficiency.
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