Manhattan GMAT All the Quant + DI Review

Question

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Hi folks,

The following is my review of Manhattan Prep's just-released book. I waited for the book for a while and would say immediately that the book and its contents did not disappoint me. As expected, the book is still, in my opinion, the gold standard in preparation for the GMAT, as the previous releases were for the old version of the GMAT.

The forgoing releases of GMAT were all quant and verbal; somehow, they were transition books. This is parallel to what was happening to the GMAT itself. But now that the transition to the new GMAT FE has come, this new book will indeed cast the foundation for preparing for the GMAT years to come. The book provides a student's need to overcome the test. So, without further ado, let's dive into it.

Stacey Koprince and her team did a marvelous job crafting a well-rounded book, providing all the notions, information, and a spelled syllabus for the quant part of the GMAT FE. Notice, guys, how in the actual exam, we did not have any more like before, essentially, two sections: one quant and one verbal. Now we do have THREE sections:

quant problem solving , which is math;  
  quant data insights , which are comprised by

1.Data Sufficiency (aka DS) 
2.Table Analysis (aka Table) 
3.Graphical Interpretation (aka Graph) 
4.Multi-Source Reasoning (aka MSR) 
5.Two-Part Analysis (aka Two-Part)

and  the verbal section , which is reading comprehension and critical reasoning based.

See our  GMAT Syllabus for Focus Edition  for a thorough dissection of every single section in the current GMAT exam.

I have a little digression here: the test not only became tougher than before, but NOW, in the easy and medium questions, you do not have almost room for errors. The test got shorter, and the percentile scale changed. Therefore, the exam will punish you even more than the old version if you commit some error in the mid-lower range difficult test questions. Be aware.

In the book, we have

Four grand units; 
 31 chapters: 
 the math contents range from PEMDAS to coordinate plane, passing through probability, and counting methods.

Positive sides of the book

Every area tested on the current GMAT is explained, as always, in-depth by the book's creators. They are seasoned tutors/pundits of this exam, and they perform their job very well. 
 The organization of the book is excellent. Step by step, clearly, and consistently, the student is led by the hand to learn from the most basic math concepts to the most advanced. Even though this is a book more for the students in the already mid-range of the math skills possessed. If you want to start from scratch, it would be advisable to use first the MGMAT Foundation quant book 
 the organization is what strikes me the most: a quant book usually is not easy to digest. For example, when I prepared for the SC section of the test, I used the MGMAT book. It is slightly different because we are dealing with verbal and grammar concepts. However, the key lesson here is that a book must be fun or not abstruse. It must be enjoyable. I never read the SC guide multiple times more than the first 20 pages. It was not for me. This book, nonetheless, is almost a breeze to read. You dive into it with a lightweight sense. 
 Now we come to the book's PLUS: the four sections for the former Integrated Reasoning. To my knowledge, this is not only the first book that delves into the matter with crazy-level details to tackle every single question, but it is the only book at the moment this review is written. Take a look, for example, at the Two-Part Analysis.
 
The level of detail you are guided through is egregious.

Negative sides of the book

I did not find a clean cut in the negative side of the matter. I would like to see more examples down the road. Usually, there are two to three examples for each DI type of question. Even though they are explained from every angle, you could not go wrong. Of course, more examples would be beneficial, but stretching the book even more from its already 800 pages could become excessive. Of course, once you have the tricks, the questions in the same league will repeat themselves.

Making a parallelism, people think they must practice millions of passages for the RC part of the test. This is a false myth. The RC passages mainly have two kinds of questions: main idea and inference questions. Once you learn the strategy to stick to them, every passage will be the same. All the information are there, you have to read super carefully and reply to the questions along the way. Nothing more than that. The technique acquired is essential to apply to every single passage. Not millions of passages that are wrongly practiced.

Final Thoughts

I am not the most prominent expert for this beautiful exam.  bb  or  GMATNinja  are more seasoned than me to give you opinions or advice. However, I do believe that this specific book, along with

GMAT MATH BOOK in downloadable PDF format  
  Forum Quiz V3.0 - Adaptive Update  
  Free GMAT Materials - Where to get it!  - the title reminds me of a similitude on the  GRE Prep Club  
  Data Insights Videos hosted by @GMATNinja

It is a bang for the buck to prepare for the GMAT FE without spending thousands of dollars or wasting time preparing, which is even more critical.
And IF, in the midst of all this, you intend to switch to the GRE, do not be scared: we also have a specific website dedicated to it. Just drop us a message at  GRE Prep Club . We are here to help you on another beautiful journey.

bb · Answer

Thank you  carcass !

P.S. I can also report that a few days ago the book went down $5 or 7 on Amazon (right after I got my copy).
I have had a chance to compare it vs other edition and interesting that the book is now integrates DI quite closely. It used to be a separate book but now TPA and Graphs and MSR are all peppered in the book. Perhaps this is a better way of handling the DI - reviewing it together with quant. Curious how you find this approach.

AnuK2222 · Answer

Hi  carcass   bb  does purchasing book give access to DI and PS question bank as well? Do you think this is more beneficial for someone starting out with prep or is it structured enough to be used by somebody who is a few weeks away from the test.. thanks!

bb · Answer

Let me check about the question banks. I have not activated my online access yet.

PS. This book and the accompanying verbal book would be a fantastic product for anyone looking to. This is the Cadillac of self prep 🕺

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AnuK2222 · Answer

thaanks  bb 
I have been using the older version for self-prep (and it has helped me work on my fear of math)
I am 2-3 weeks away from the test and focusing on OG, I wish this book came out earlier

bb · Answer

if you own the previous version of the book, I think you would have access to the same question banks largely…. I compared a lot of the content and it’s re-organized and improved but the examples are the same. Not compared every exercise but it looks like this is not a major overhaul and honestly I don’t think the book needed a major overhaul. There’s no reason to throw away perfectly fine questions and concepts so if you had the previous version, I don’t think it would make a huge boost of improvement. It would clean up the topics not tested and have some small improvements here and there…

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AnuK2222 · Answer

thanks for the insights  bb !

Carcass · Answer

Thanks bb At the beginning, I thought about how it unfolded a little bit weirdly. However, after reading essentially the entire book I think they did a marvelous job. For example, MSR comes after the chapter Stories and Stats which I think is very consistent. MSR tells a story with a lot of context, and every word or detail can shift the solution's pendulum in a specific direction. The integration they made is entirely on point. I think your definition "the Cadillac" of self-preparation did not go so far from the truth. For the students who will redeem the book on their Atlas platform, I found it difficult to find the exact link for the book. Here we go some useful cookie to help you out: 1) Create a free account on the Manhattan website https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/acce ... ycheck.cfm first 2) Go to the following link https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/acce ... yCheck.cfm once you are logged in 3) Select the book manhattan prep 1.jpg 4) After that you will be located here https://www.manhattanprep.com/atlas/resource/1126, where you will have great resources both for the GMAT and GRE - GMAT Strategy Guide Question Banks - a great ebook to download with great advanced math in it GMAT companion.jpg manhattan prep 2.jpg - videos, study plan..................... They did a GREAT job, frankly speaking. I am happy with that. Even though they are part of the Kaplan'conglomerate, it seems that Manhattan maintained that sort of pioneering feeling of that era when they released their books for the GMAT—the ones with the red covers. At the time, studying for this exam was almost a breeze. I hope this helps

pc343 · Answer

thanks for the review, i've been looking into purchasing this book to round out my prep. do you know if just getting the Quant + DI will give you access to their mocks? i've read that getting the whole package (All The GMAT) will give you access to 6 mocks but not sure what it's like for just quant.

i think this cements my decision however!

i think this cements my decision however!

CapnSal · Answer

Is this available for purchase as a digital copy?

Carcass · Answer

In kindle edition on amazon https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0CM9 ... UTF8&psc=1 Ps: if you click the image in the first post, you will be redirect on amazon as well

Carcass · Answer

As far as I do know their mocks are a separate thing from the book

On Atlas I did not see anything about free access to the manhattan Mock tests

bb · Answer

Got an update from MGMAT about the question bank (I will be checking it out next week when I get back home).  So it looks like it is Worth Getting the New Edition!

First, with the new books, we've also launched a new  Dynamic Question Set Builder.  It has a big database of problems and allows you to build your own custom sets based on all kinds of parameters (question type, content area, difficulty, and so on).

The DQS Builder will go up for sale next week as a standalone product, but the books also come with different levels of access to the DQS Builder:
 
  The All the GMAT book set  (All the Quant + DI and All the Verbal) comes with full access to the entire database of problems, from Foundations to Advanced Quant. 
  The All the Quant + DI  book comes with access to a subset of Quant and DI problems. 
  The All the Verbal  book comes with a subset of Verbal problems. 
  The Advanced Quant book  comes with access to a subset of Advanced Quant problems. (The AQ book is PS-only, FYI.) 
  The Foundations of Math  free ebook comes with access to Foundations-level math drill problems. (This book is still completely free!)

Carcass · Answer

The All the Quant + DI book comes with access to a subset of Quant and DI problems. Mgmat.jpg

StaceyKoprince · Answer

Hi, thanks so much for the great review! I'm thrilled that you found the materials so helpful—we worked really hard to update everything as quickly* and also as thoroughly as we could after the test change.

*Publishing cycles are unbelievably long. Believe it or not, we turned in all of our text for the new books last October. It takes almost a full year to format, edit, proofread, print, and ship books to Amazon / bookstores. (At least, it does for books that are this long / complicated!)

One piece of news: Our new GMAT Dynamic Question Set Builder (aka DQS Builder) tool just went live today. It can be purchased by itself, but full access also comes with the All the GMAT book set—so, if you get All the GMAT, you don't have to separately buy anything.

If you prefer to get individual books, we have three books total, each of which comes with access to a relevant *subset* of the DQS Builder problems:
(1) All the Quant + DI
(2) All the Verbal
(3) Advanced Quant (ebook only)

The All the GMAT set includes the first two books (AtQ+DI and AtV) along with a host of additional online resources—these resources are why All the GMAT is more expensive than buying the two books individually. For example, All the GMAT comes with full access to the DQS Builder, as well as full access to GMAT Navigator, which has our own solutions for every problem in the 5 most recent editions of the main Official Guide (note: OG itself is sold separately by the test-makers). All the GMAT also comes with our full 12-week study syllabus—it'll tell you exactly what assignments to do every week—along with other lessons on time management, analyzing your practice tests, etc. (There's a reason we called it All the GMAT!)

One more note: We did also publish a new edition of our free Foundations of Math ebook; it's available (nearly 500 pages, totally free!) on Amazon. We no longer separately publish our Foundations of Verbal book; now, our verbal foundations study material is all included as the first unit in the All the Verbal book.

So we're very happy and also we now need a vacation.

Happy studying, everyone!

StaceyKoprince · Answer

p.s. We no longer have our own practice tests—so our books no longer come with our practice tests. I recommend using the official practice tests on mba.com (that's what we give to students who join our study programs).

There are two free tests and four paid tests. The four paid tests can each be taken twice with no repeated questions, so they're really eight tests total. So, at minimum, you're guaranteed 10 unique tests. The two free tests aren't guaranteed to be able to be repeated without questions, but my colleagues and I have taken the free tests multiple times and nobody has seen repeated questions the second time (the first repeat), so you can probably get to at least 12 unique tests. That's more than enough for anyone (if you're using practice tests the right way...).

Carcass · Answer

@ StaceyKoprince Thank you very much to you and the entire Manhattan team for the huge efforts you have made. This is fundamentally a wise strategic evaluation upfront. Like a GMAT problem, always evaluate upfront before solving. For the rest, you could rely on Manhattan!!

bb · Answer

Sorry for a late reply and for all those wondering, I had a chance to test out the new ATLAS Quiz builder. Here are some screenshots. It is a fairly simple system (though has a ton of instrustions and it seems like features - it has pages and pages of instructions

) The only part I could not find is how many questions were total in the question bank. So that I cannot report on. Let me know if you have any questions. set-builder.gif access-mgmat.gif

StaceyKoprince · Answer

The full bank currently has a little over 1,000 questions (including the Advanced Quant bank, which your screen shot shows you don't have access to**). We're adding more every week—our goal is to get to 2,500+ and I'm hoping to get there by Q4 of this year. (We're currently in the process of vetting all of our CAT problems from the old GMAT exams and moving over the ones that "survive" the test changes. And we're doing the same from our Challenge Problem banks.)

**The  All the GMAT  book set includes full access to all questions. If you buy individual books, then you get the questions that are associated with the book that you bought. So you can get the Advanced Quant questions either by buying the  Advanced Quant  book or by buying the  All the GMAT  book set. (Note: The book set includes two books— All the Quant + DI  and  All the Verbal —but still gives access to all the problems, even the Advanced Quant problems.)

bb · Answer

That’s fantastic and super helpful to know!

Thank you Stacey!

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