Reading Comprehension Gmat Strategy Guide (Manhattan GMAT Preparation Guides) [Paperback]

Manhattan Gmat Prep (Corporate Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 2008

The Reading Comprehension guide provides a structured approach to the variety of questions in this verbal content area. The guide introduces note-taking techniques designed to facilitate active reading, increase comprehension, and improve time management. The nature of wrong answers choices is explored, making it easier to choose between two tempting answers. At the same time, the guide provides strategies for different question types and sample passages of increasing difficulty. The guide also includes online access to 6 full-length Computer Adaptive Practice Exams on ManhattanGMAT's website.

Each chapter builds comprehensive understanding by providing rules, strategies, and in-depth examples of how the GMAT tests a given topic and how you can respond accurately and quickly. The Guide contains a total of 69 "In-Action" problems of increasing difficulty with detailed answer explanations.

Special Features

Purchase of this book includes one year of access to ManhattanGMAT's online Reading Comprehension Question Bank (accessible by inputting a unique code in the back of each book).

Manhattan GMAT has categorized all the Reading Comprehension problems in The Official Guides by question type. These categorized problems have been organized into problem lists that appear in the Reading Comprehension Strategy Guide.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

About the ManhattanGMAT Strategy Guides

The ManhattanGMAT Strategy Guides offer students a unique balance between two competing emphases: test-taking strategies and in-depth content understanding. Most prep courses focus on the strategic portion of the GMAT - timing, shortcuts, etc. However, we believe that unless a student has a solid understanding of the content, the tricks won't be of any use. Therefore, we include practice problem sets that build specific foundational skills in each topic as well as advanced content that many other prep books ignore.

About the Author

Manhattan GMAT's 8 preparation guides were developed by Manhattan GMAT's talented staff of real teachers, all of whom have scored in the 99th percentile on the official GMAT. As the company focuses solely on the GMAT (no other tests), it continually updates the guides to reflect the GMAT's most current trends. ManhattanGMAT's guides offer students a unique balance between two competing emphases: test-taking strategies and in-depth content understanding. Most prep courses focus on the strategic portion of the GMAT - timing, shortcuts, etc. However, we believe that unless a student has a solid understanding of the content, the tricks won't be of any use. Therefore, we include practice problem sets that build specific foundational skills in each topic as well as advanced content that many other prep books ignore.

The nation's largest GMAT-exclusive preparation provider, Manhattan GMAT was founded by Zeke Vanderhoek. A Yale graduate, Zeke taught as a member of Teach for America at New York City public junior-high school, earned a Masters in Philosophy & Education from Columbia University's Teachers College, and supplemented his day-job by tutoring individuals in various subjects at all educational levels. Word-of-mouth referrals soon brought in a remarkably high number of GMAT test-takers, and thus Manhattan GMAT and its prep guides were born.

Product Details

• Paperback: 147 pages
• Publisher: MG Prep, Inc.; 3 Pap/Psc edition (October 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0981853358
• ISBN-13: 978-0981853352
• Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 8.4 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #986,340 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

In the last decade, Manhattan GMAT has grown from a single, dedicated tutor to a major test prep company with locations across the country. Our philosophy is simple: We aim to help students achieve their goals by providing the best curriculum and the highest-quality instructors in the industry. Manhattan GMAT hires fewer than 1 in 10 qualified applicants for its teaching positions, ensuring every instructor has years of experience and a 99th percentile score. So you can trust our books are developed by the very best.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great help for the GMAT, December 14, 2007

By 

english_august (Madison, WI United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Reading Comprehension GMAT Preparation Guide (Manhattan GMAT Preparation Guides) (Paperback)

Reading Comprehension is one of the most difficult areas to improve in a short time for the GMAT. If you are not getting good scores in this section and if you've not been a life long reader, then it is not easy to improve your score - it will take hard work and a lot of practice, and probably the Manhattan GMAT RC guide.

This book is definitely one of the best out there for this section. The book offers some radically new tricks and tips to better attack this section (I ended up using a few of them and they were very helpful) and it also has a bunch of practice passages apart from pointers to practice passages from the Official Guide.

I will be reviewing other ManhattanGMAT Prep books individually but here's what I have to say about the entire series - buy them all, it will cost you less than 150 dollars and believe me, it will be money well spent (I scored 760 on my GMAT last month).

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent concept review and practice questions, but I have minor criticisms, June 6, 2010

By 

BeatTheGMAT.com (San Francisco, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Reading Comprehension GMAT Strategy Guide, 4th Edition (Manhattan GMAT Guides, No. 7) (Paperback)

I self studied and scored a 770 on the GMAT. Here are my thoughts on the Manhattan GMAT Reading Comprehension Guide:

===== OVERVIEW =====

Reading Comprehension (RC) is possibly the only question type that you'll see in all major standardized tests: SAT, GMAT, LSAT, GRE, and so forth. Unfortunately, reading comprehension is also one of the hardest areas to improve as a test taker, simply because RC is closely linked your overall ease in reading and to your general English fluency. Even so, the Manhattan GMAT Reading Comprehension Guide does provide some useful strategies for attacking this question type.

This book is also the only GMAT guide I've seen that is dedicated exclusively to GMAT Reading Comprehension. As such, it fills the need for a quick reference on this verbal section. The Manhattan GMAT RC guide is especially useful for non-native speakers of English, but could benefit native speakers as well by improving their accuracy and speed when dealing with this particularly time-consuming question type.

===== PROS =====

* The only guide on the market that is entirely dedicated to Reading Comprehension. The alternatives to the Manhattan GMAT RC book would be general or verbal strategy guides, but they are usually not as detailed as this book (with the possible exception of the PowerScore GMAT Verbal Bible--however the PowerScore book contains markedly fewer practice problems)

* Really good lessons on theory/concepts. Manhattan GMAT's friendly approach earns them points by making the learning process quite pleasant

* Provides access to 6 online computer adaptive tests (considered to be among the best in the industry) and 25 extra practice questions. As opposed to the SC guide, this book contains quite a few practice questions: 44 in total, with good explanations and a reasonable difficulty level

* Offers detailed note-taking tips. This is actually one of the main focuses of the book, which is a plus compared to the PowerScore GMAT Verbal Bible.

===== CONS =====

* I would have loved to see more about connectors and their role in passages in a separate section of the book. Tips regarding this topic sometimes pop up, but they're not grouped together

* The system that Manhattan GMAT uses to classify various passages and questions is a bit superficial, so to speak. For instance, the length of a passage is not necessarily what makes it difficult, in my opinion. The analysis of different question types is not as complete as it could have been

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

As the only book to cover exclusively RC, the Manhattan GMAT Reading Comprehension Guide is a welcomed addition to the series of question-specific books available for the verbal section of the GMAT. It scores well for the number and quality of problems and note-taking strategies, but it could use some work on its classifications and theoretical review.

About me: Dana Jinaru, 770 GMAT scorer, expert at [...] - a community serving 100K+ GMAT students/month

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Don't take the GMAT without it, December 6, 2009

By 

J. Mak (New York, NYC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Reading Comprehension GMAT Strategy Guide, 4th Edition (Manhattan GMAT Guides, No. 7) (Paperback)

I wouldn't take the gmat without comprehensively reviewing all the workbooks and online material for manhattan GMAT. They are simply the best books and most directly relevant books to studying. They don't care about teaching you material, but teaching exactly what you need to know for the GMAT, and nothing more!

If you get this book, you should also get access to the online material. I would highly suggest you do all the material and time yourself. There are 6 practice tests that in my opinion are the best in the market. I would do the pearson/GMAC provided test once in the beginning to see where you stand. Then take on practice test from Manhattan GMAT per weekend. Treat it like a real test! Then carefully go over all your answers and mistakes. Even go over the ones you got right!

During the week, I would focus on going through the workbooks and other online exercises.

It is a major commitment but it was worth it...I got a 740