I am really bad at Math, need help PLEASE!!

Thank you bb and dmnk for your advice. I am going to order that book today and get going on it asap. The weird thing that I was just thinking was that when I have gone through my review of math over the last three months, it feels like I am familiar with most of the topics. It is just when I go through the GMAT math questions and word questions, I get really confused and then do not know how to start to answer them. Then I would go through the answer in the answer section and see how to do it, and I am familiar with the actual math in answering the question, but setting up how to get to the math is where I think I am disconnected the most. I am not sure if I am making much sense. Let me know if you understand. Thanks a million, and yes this site is amazing, I am very glad to have found this!!!!!

Josh

I would also recommend the GMAT roadmap book - it is not designed to teach you the GMAT strategies or material but for $16 you will get a list of the best practices and tips for how to study and structure your prep - all 240 pages.

It is an easy read and comes with 6 cat tests (though you may have already gotten them)

I used to be terrible at Math as well. My quant score increased from a lowly 12 to a respectable 44. It took me about 3-4 months to slowly pick up all the pieces. I used a bunch of free resources and I bought a couple of books as well . MGMAT quant foundations book helped me a lot, but I determined that I needed more help, I wanted to see problems being worked in front of me for this purpose, I used Khan academy lectures, which are available for free online. Finally, there is another new resource out there called GMATPREPNOW (GPN), the content is delivered in bite sized videos, many of them are free to watch. I watched all the free videos and decided to purchase all the quant modules for 139$. Once I completed my video lessons not only was I able to do 80% of OG 12 problems with relative ease, but also I saw my quant score go up 10 pts (on GMATprep test 32 to 42). Above all, it all comes down to the number of hours you spend practicing and analyzing (post-problem analysis, even if you get it right). I maintained detailed error logs by problem type and would review them after each study session. So, good luck on your path to mastery, for the GMAT you'll need to be very comfortable with the content almost to the point that all this becomes second nature.

Same boat, how do I improve my math Starting from scratch, the MAnhattan guide is hard for me, is the Kaplan Math refresher any better, or a waste of $300?

My math score was pitiful on my first practice test. I think it was in the low 20's. I found the Manhattan math guides to be very helpful to me. I went through them slowly starting with the numbers properties guide and working up. Once I finished them I worked through the OG's and made sure I understood how to do every problem. The entire process took me over 4 months, but I ended up getting a pretty decent 49 on the math section.

I was lucky that I'm naturally good at the verbal so I never had to study that. I focused completely on the math section for 4+ months. I studied about 2 hours every night, and more on the weekends.

Thanks for the quick response, what about the Manhattan Math Foundation book, it's 500 pages, how does one possibly work it in, do you do it concurrently w the others or start after number properties or save it for last?
Thks

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Good point, I almost forgot about that book. I actually worked through it completely before starting the standard books. Then you can use it as a reference if you need to look back at certain concepts as you study the rest of the books. You could also do it concurrently - do the numbers properties section of the foundations book, then jump right into the number properties guide etc. I liked reading the foundations completely first however, because that way it made me come back to each concept twice, once in the foundations book, and a second time in the individual guides.

Not sure when you are applying, but if you have time, I recommend going through all or most of the practice problems in the MGMAT books and the OG's and make sure you understand the principles behind each question.

It's hard to see it now, but the math is very learnable. There are a finite number of concepts that you have to master, and you'll see that they get easier and easier as you practice. The harder questions don't really introduce many new concepts, most of them just incorporate multiple concepts into one question so you have to understand how things relate, and untangle the parts to solve them. They also try to trick you on the wording and format.

Lastly, don't worry about it now, but once you are more comfortable with the question types, you'll want to really focus on the timing. On the real test you'll screw yourself if you waste 5 minutes trying to crack a problem, you'll need to figure out how to narrow down choices quickly and make accurate guesses when you need to. But for now just take your time to learn the concepts and solve problems.

Let me know if you have any other questions.