Best Use of Manhattan GMAT books

Question

What is the best way to retain information from the 8 Manhattan Strategy guides?

Background:
I have purchased the full set of 8 Manhattan GMAT Strategy Guides and over the past month I have gone through the first 6. I took one of the MGMAT cat tests and realized that I was unable to recall many of the equations and strategies taught in the first books I reviewed a month ago.

For those who have successfully utilized these guides, what were your strategies? Did you highlight/underline the books as you read them so as to turn them into quick reference guides for later? Did you create a separate notebook of equations and principles you found useful? Did you develop something else?

adalfu · Answer

I've only done this for the SC book...(I have the 3 Verbal books + Word Translation + Number Properties), but I find it quite helpful to put stickies on the sections that I know I'll have to go back to make references...

I also wrote on that book quite liberally, underlying key concepts and providing more comment/color to some sections that are lacking.

I think the best way to learn is to read the concepts and write them down on a notepad (summarize them as if you were creating a lecture plan), then re-read the raw material (or you can skip this step), and finally re-read your "lecture plan"... When studying for my financial designations (FRM, CAIA, CFA), that was pretty much my roadmap in terms of grasping concepts... but when it comes down to the actual exam, the most important thing was to practice as many problems as you can get a hold of, and review all the ones you get wrong.

adalfu · Answer

I just want to reiterate that it's pretty vital to write the things you learn in your own words (or write formulas/concepts down on a notepad) and just reference them later...

many people say repetition is key (i.e., reading and re-reading), but i think it's more important to WRITE down what you read/learn.

lonewolf · Answer

I would agree with adalfu here. I am also under the impression that re and re-read is the key but begin to think otherwise. some stuff simply doesn't go thru my head and I need to start writing them down instead.

Cclay · Answer

Hey,

Thanks for using our books!

As you go through the books, have you been doing the practice problems at the end of each chapter? If not, definitely do those, as they are meant to solidify the concepts you learned. Once you've finished the practice problems, proceed to the Official Guide problems we list that reference the concepts you learned. When doing the OG problems, don't just look to see if you have gotten the problem right or wrong, but look to see what principle you applied, and whether you could do it again another way using a different principle. Analyze your answers, and use the explanations in the OG guide as well as the explanations we give to better understand them. In other words, don't just read the concepts, but make sure you thoroughly understand them before moving on. This will make you less likely to forget them a month or two down the road.

If you have already done this, I would suggest doing those same drills that you find at the end of each chapter again as you review, or at least redoing the ones you initially got wrong.

Other than that, I think the other advice so far has been very good.

Hope that's helpful!

Best,
Caitlin Clay
Student Services Associate
Manhattan GMAT

Cclay · Answer

Our 8 Strategy Guides reference problems in all three Official Guides (and in fact, every problem is listed, so if you do every problem we list in all 8 of our books, you will have done all the problems in the 3 official books.) If you're limited in time, I'd suggest that you start with the OG problems, then if you need more practice, move on to the Quant and Verbal Review books.

Best,
Caitlin Clay
Student Services Associate
Manhattan GMAT

ThomasD · Answer

Hi CClay,

what do you think of this approach:

Something I think is useful when you are still early on and use MGMAT books, plus some other book (Kaplan Premier or the like), and the OG, do not do what MGMAT tells you to do: I would not go straight from finishing an MGMAT book chapter to solving the problems they suggest in the OG. Do their end of chapter problems and then find appropriate questions in the Kaplan book and apply/hone your skills there. Here is my reasoning: I want to tackle the OG last as a 'true' test to see if I really took the concepts to heart. Now to train and master the concepts, non-official questions should be sufficient. It will allow you to really test your grasp of the techniques on questions that came from the actual test in the OG.

It'd be nice if one had a similar problem quick reference guide to problems in the Kaplan Premier book as you provide for the OG12. May this is something to implement in the future? I'll take 5% of the new revenue :-D

Scrat · Answer

Hi y'all

I am using the MGMAT series and I find them very useful.

Here is my strategy:

- i go through each and every section and write down my notes regarding information I found either as new or very helfpul etc 
- i do give a lot of time to the practice questions and I created my MGMAT error log. you can find it attached below. Since the practice questions do not have the multiple choice format of the GMAT i thought it is best to have a different looking error log. 
- i go over the error log once i finish a book and before moving to the next one

This works for me very well and I have to say that the MGMAT books are great for me.

Good luck!

Scrat

n2739178 · Answer

Hi all

I've had the same problem recently - i.e. not the best retention of information.

I've definitely found doing the drills is very helpful at the end of each chapter, as well as going back and really trying to understand the concepts you got wrong
in each drill.

Then, when you do the OG questions, I thoroughly recommend buying the MGMAT Official Guide Companion - It has answers for ALL the official guide questions.

You can either get it as an online version or I think it gets released as a physical version in a month or two's time (i.e. July/August 2010). The Manhattan guys have gone through and explained the answer to every question in the OG and any alternative ways of solving it. Before I got this, I had no idea how some of the questions were to be solved properly - the OG answers were quite bad in some cases.

Also another method for retention:
Flash cards! You know all the stuff they say to MEMORIZE in the MGMAT books - DO IT! It's definitely a big time saver when it comes to answering questions. Also make flash cards for topics that are new to you or key concepts (e.g. odd x odd = odd etc.)

There are a few free online flash card generators out there that do the job and test you, you can create flash card sets etc.

Also, write notes on all the stuff that is new to you or you're not entirely comfortable with, then do the questions etc. ,then re-do your notes again with the stuff that is still not sinking in and learn them. Repeat this until it all sinks in. That's just my strategy anyway

Cclay · Answer

Thanks for the Official Guide Companion shout-out! Just so you know, you can actually buy the book already. You can find it here: https://www.manhattangmat.com/storeitems ... 7&catid=10

You also mentioned flash cards. We have some good free ones here: https://www.manhattangmat.com/gmat-flashcards.cfm

And Thomas, sorry I didn't answer your post earlier. Your strategy sounds good! I don't think we can reference any other company's books... after all, only the OG has problems that actually appeared on the GMAT, but I think finding more problems that reinforce the concepts that our books teach sounds like a good strategy. If we ever do though, I'll let you know!

Best Wishes,
Caitlin Clay
Student Services Associate
Manhattan GMAT

Best Wishes, Caitlin Clay Student Services Associate Manhattan GMAT

youven · Answer

Let's make sure people have the correct information here. MGMAT Official Guide Companion does not answer ALL the OG questions as mentioned above. It only contains solutions to the Math questions. The name OG Companion is deceiving in that sense.

LoveTheGMAT · Answer

I know a ton of students were asking them to create a companion for Verbal as well. I guess the name should be OG Quant Companion. But really, most people put so much focus on Quant, that I never felt the name was deceiving. Its a very good book though, I bought online version and I was very impressed.

n2739178 · Answer

ah yes i should have mentioned it was maths only!

n2739178 · Answer

Does anyone know how long each MGMAT book is supposed to take, on average? The number properties book has taken me 3 weeks to do, the FDP's one is approaching 2 weeks (and almost complete). Obviously this is not a good timeframe to complete books in considering I have the exam in 2 months. Does anyone else take a long time to do them and do every single practice question in the book?

RGM · Answer

I did all exercises and all related OG/VR/QR questions. One book per week. But I was doing it full-time. So your three weeks per book actually sounds good. Honestly, I could have used two weeks per book, digest everything, read all the explanations in the OG/VR/QR, but I had a deadline.

n2739178 · Answer

ok great thanks! I was seriously getting frustrated wondering why it was taking so long to go through each book. Now I feel better about it.

RGM · Answer

Np! I think the best way to go about it is slowly but surely. Read the explanations, do all exercises, no matter how long it takes. It's a long process but would give you a leg up. Doing that right now actually.

whiplash2411 · Answer

I have the MGMAT books too, and I think that the key here is to keep a notebook with the most pertinent knowledge/strategies you've gained from working your way through each guide. This is useful especially if you have difficulty in remembering things you did a while ago. I agree with adalfu's strategy as well.

Do the practice problems at the end of each chapter, maybe?

Dawgie · Answer

It's been about a month and I'm still working on the MGMAT guides. Wonder if I will have enough time to practice before my test.

LoveTheGMAT · Answer

Depends when your test is. Make sure to do OG problems before your test. Maybe do every other problem and see where you start getting them wrong (since OG is in increasing difficulty). OG most closely resembles the real test, so you really should do OG problems.

Goodluck

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