Advanced GMAT Quant from Manhattan GMAT

Awesome review. This book just came out at the end of May 2011?

I can't believe it my luck! I just finished studying all of the MGMAT series last week, and I am stuck at Q45 (77% percentile). I even posted in the forum that I was lost and didn't know what to do after the MGMAT series. I guess this is next!

I am aiming for Q49! Hope this works.

Saw a few of your other posts - welcome back to the site!

Just got done with this book! -- wow! This is a terrific book to say the least. The problems and the explanations were first rate.

The problems are challenging but fair -- every problem in the book can be cracked under 2mins with the right strategy -- even the difficult DS problems with inequalities and absolute values!

The book emphasizes the need to pay close attention to details.

Here is an example of a seemingly harmless looking Geometry DS problem:

ABC is an isosceles triangle. What is the perimeter of ABC.

1) Segment AB = 11
2) Segment BC = 5

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Now the advanced test taker might look at this problem and quickly realize that even though we have two sides -- we have no idea which side makes up the "isosceles" triangle. The perimeter could be 11+11+5 OR 5 + 5 + 11. So option E makes sense right?...

Not so fast...there is another trick -- a 11-5-5 triangle violates the "sum of any two sides of a triangle is greater than the 3rd side"....so there is only ONE isosceles triangle that can be formed with the given lengths -- 11-11-5 Triangle. Option C is correct!

I think this is a brilliantly conjured up problem --simple yet a bit tricky -- and of course there are many many more such problems in the book.

Awesome post. I am currently at Q45 right now. I stopped Math for a month and studied Verbal for 2 weeks. I am about to go back to math and start this book on Saturday.

Where were you before the advanced book and where are you now? They said it can raise your score from 70th percentile to 90th percentile. What do you think about that? And how many hours or better yet, hours per day did it take you to finish this book?

Thanks! I had to stop studying to finish my thesis. Now I AM BACK!

Glad to see you guys are doing well. It is awesome you made your own business while trying to get into business school.

I think it will definitely be worth your while to spend some quality time on this book.

For example -- the strategies for tackling tough DS problems are very well laid out -- the authors explain a number a common traps people fall into and present a number of excellent examples. So it will be best to not rush through the book -- take your time to actually understand the concepts and do all the practice problems. The explanations are also really detailed -- so make sure you spend a lot of time reading them. They break down DS problems methodically -- so there is quite a lot to be learned from the explanations as well.

I spent about 3 weeks in total on the book (I plan on spending more time in the near future to review the contents again). Aside from the chapter problems -- there are 150 high quality practice problems at the end of the book. Some of these problems will take you more than 2 minutes -- a couple of the DS questions took me a "long" time to solve.

And as far as the level and the percentile and stuff -- I'm not too sure about that. But I'm pretty sure you will benefit from it and see some tangible results. I have done some practice CATs -- usually score fairly decent in Math. But my DS strategies were mostly down to picking numbers and "estimating" and "approximating". I felt that the advanced book really helped me come up with better ideas to tackle DS problems and of course a more methodical and organized approach overall.

I also struggled a bit with advanced number properties questions -- like absolute values and inequalities -- My approach was often reduced to plugging in values (-2,-1, -1/2, 0, 1/2, 1, 2) -- and this is OK -- but it is not always efficient. Sometimes there are just too many variables and cases to consider. So I had to learn how to solve complex inequalities and algebraic expressions quickly and confidently -- the advanced book has some good problems to practice and improve in those areas.

The toughest questions on the Math section are hybrid problems. For example -- problem 229 on OG 12 -- I can tell you for a fact that a couple of months ago there was no way I could have confidently solved a problem like that in a limited amount of time. But after dealing with a bunch of problems like that -- it's not so intimidating anymore. The advanced guide says -- put pen to paper -- move your pen -- write the information down -- get your brain fired up -- draw a diagram -- look for a pattern etc. All this was great advice for me -- because I would often read a problem and try to come up with a mental solution first and then start solving.

Good luck with the book. I really enjoyed it -- it was brutal at times but well worth it.

Awesome! thanks all for sharing your views on this book. Mine is on its way now.

Awesome. I am excited to read it! But it really took you 3 weeks? How much hours did you spend a week?

I am pumped. Can you also follow up on this thread your quant score progress? What were you getting before reading this book btw? Because I know the book recommend getting 70% in Quant. I want to see results!

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The total time I spent on the book was probably about 25 hours. It took me 3 weeks because I work full-time, I don't study for long periods and I also spent time on some verbal stuff and other Math material (like Kaplan Advanced and the Sackmann Extreme Challenge set).

And yes -- will keep you posted on the Quant scores. In the advanced quant book -- out of the 150 problems at the back of the book I got 133 questions right. Got some hard DS questions wrong, fell for a couple of traps and a made a few silly mistakes.

What did you score in Quant before going through the book?

Lol I hope you take a CAT soon! I am so excited to hear the results!

@ Gablaze23

Different perspective post exam: I took the real GMAT a couple of days ago -- scored Q50. My overall score was 760 (Q 50, V 44). I was always pretty strong in the verbal section (LSAT prep years ago and I write reports and grant proposals). But quant really scared me -- I invested a lot of time in the advanced quant book mainly because my first manhattan CAT quant did not go all that well.

Now what I realized is this (post real gmat and gmat prep practice) -- the manhattan quant questions are a lot of fun if you like solving difficult math problems. But they are not representative of the real deal. The real gmat questions are very elegant -- in that -- they are not HARD -- they are just *brilliantly* tricky. Manhattan problems take a long time to solve -- they require a lot of work. But the real gmat questions have this tone about them -- its so unique. Most of the problems on the real gmat can be cracked with a proper technique and an analytical approach -- you don't need to use fancy formulas or solve complex expressions and equations.
I am very pleased with my Q50 -- but I don't think the manhattan advanced quant guide helped me much. The real GMAT questions are very subtle -- they are not over powering. The best guide you can use is the GMATPrep software. Keep resetting this software and do every problem (there are plenty of problems in both the bins) on there. I could hardly complete the Manhattan quant sections -- but I completed my real gmat quant exam with 8 minutes to spare.

I am so impressed with the way the real gmat math people conjure up these simple yet elegant problems -- not overpowering but subtle. The manhattan advanced book does not mimic this tone.

i bought the book on amazon the week after it came out. it was perfect timing for me as i had already scheduled to retake the test and was focusing almost exclusively on improving my quant.

the book does a really good on teaching you alternative methods for solving 70 percentile level and above problems (~Q46). once you get to the 80+ percentile problems, they begin to test your ability to recognize certain details and subtleties. Things like the product of 3 consecutive numbers is always divisible by 3. this book does a good job at going through some of these with specific strategies and tactics. they even start to go into guessing techniques when you get stuck on certain types of problems. for example, in probability problems, find answer pairs. if one answer is 2/3 and another is 1/3, guessing one of these two is better than guessing randomly. things like that.

note. it does not go through any math principals. it assumes you have a solid grasp of all the material from the regular mgmat quant books (which are excellent and i recommend). basically, it assumes you are consistently scoring at least Q45. if you are not, i would recommend reviewing the regular mgmat quant books again rather than picking up this book.

also note that there are a few mistakes, typos, and missing pictures which can be a little confusing. its a 1st edition.

i already took my test and it's been over a month since i read the book so i don't remember too much more detail to make this a more detailed review. but i can tell you that my official test score in quant went from a Q46 before this book to a Q49 after this book. i can't confidently say it was only because of this. in fact, i also used gmatclub practice tests (i also recommend these), but my score improved and i'm sure this book was at least part of the reason why.

in summary, it's a great book if you're stuck around the Q45-47 range and have already gone through all the official problems. I would recommend this book as the last step in your quant study. use it after all the regular mgmat quant books and after all the official guide problems. not before and definitely not instead of. the book has good tips and a lot of practice problems with solutions to break the 80% ceiling.

good luck!

Thanks guys for a great overview and feedback!
I will add to the Best GMAT Books thread

I bought this book and went through it when I was studying, and found it to be pretty helpful. I don't think I maximized it in the sense that my study of it was a little disjointed, however I still found myself grasping the topics much better at the higher levels. It will help you see through the layers that separate hard questions from 700 level questions. GMAT day my quant was bad - I got started off with a tough question and never really recovered, ended up with a 43, but I would still recommend this book.

Congratulations. What was your first MGMAT CAT quant score by the way? I am just curious.

Thanks for the review bb. I've ordered this book from amazon, I'll post my thoughts after I go through it.

I had 690 on the first MGMAT CAT. I think it was 43 or 44 in Q.