gablaze23 wrote:
DevilDoggNC wrote:
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?
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.