Math moron, not much time... help!

Question

Cliffs: I am seriously horrible at math (no math since high school, and even then I did the bare minimum). I have 2 months to study for the GMAT and it's not going well so far. What's the best strategy?

Full story: I'm planning on taking the GMAT in about 2 months and a week ago I started studying with the Manhattan GMAT and the OG. The first thing I did was the OG's diagnostics test and I scored "above average" for the qualitative portion (worst area was sentence correction). But I didn't get a score for the quantitative area because I couldn't even do them. At all. Yeah, I'm a math moron. I haven't taken any math since high school, and even in high school I did the bare minimum.

Not knowing any better, I tried to learn the math by going through the OG. I eventually realized this was a bad idea and switched over to the Manhattan GMAT books. It's been about a week and I'm still on the first book, Number Properties. It's seriously kicking my behind. I can read about the concepts and memorize them. But put a question in front of me, and I have major problems interpreting it and figuring out what concepts and strategies I need to employ (what more when all the questions are mixed up and not prefaced by the specific topic). As per MGMAT, I've been trying to use rephrasing where possible, but I'm not always able to do this and it doesn't always help. For the majority of the question (especially DS), I hit a wall and can't figure them out.

I just ordered Manhattan Math Foundations because I'm finding that I don't know/can't remember a lot of the "basic" math rules and concepts. For example, Number Properties assumed that I knew about certain algebraic identities.

Can anyone suggest the best options for a math moron like me that has a limited amount of time? Private tutor? In-person classes? Online classes (since we're dealing with math, isn't it sometimes difficult to convey your questions via just typing?)? A different set of books? Any specific recommendations would be greatly appreciated. For reference, I'm aiming for a 600 (650 would be great) on the GMAT. Thanks in advance!

AmrithS · Answer

First Tip: Stop calling yourself a 'math moron' This kind of thinking will stall you big time man

Instead, approach the whole problem with a positive attitude. You're having difficulty applying the concepts which you have memorized while solving problems right? So, i recommend the following: 1. Stop timing yourself at this stage. Focus on answering the question correctly. See if you can recall concepts without referring back to the book. Solve all the problems in the OG without timing yourself. Take about two weeks to do this. NOTE: While solving questions, if you get some of them wrong, try and understand where you went wrong by reading the explanation given. Then solve the question again on your own from scratch. 2. After you correctly solve all the questions in the OG without timing yourself, do another round of solving. This time, give yourself a time limit of say 2 minutes. At this stage it is very important to solve for the answer - DO NOT TRY TO RECOLLECT THE CORRECT ANSWER FROM MEMORY! Take a week for this. You will feel reasonably confident by the end of three weeks

Here is an article on 'How to do Practice Problems' https://www.gmathacks.com/study-tips/how-to-do-practice-problems.html MODS: If posting external links is not allowed, please feel free to remove the link! I'll re-post the content instead of the link. Thanks

bb · Answer

I think you are doing everything right. Just keep working on the Math Foundations and don't move past this book until you are CONFIDENT in math. 
Alternatively, you don't need a GMAT tutor to explain highschool math to you, if you really need one, you can find one at almost any prep center.

southernstunna · Answer

Practice each question in the number properties guide. I think the main thing to realize is that simply working the problems while the book walks you through it is a whole different animal than actually KNOWING how to do it. To accomplish the latter you will have to put more hours of studying in, there is no shortcut imo. But you will get there.

I felt the same way you did about 2 months ago. I was scoring in the 80s (percentile) for verbal, but in the 20s for quant. I have since put 90 hours into studying ONLY quant, and I got a 690 on the gmat pro practice exam yesterday. It will come, just put the time in and you will see the results.

GSDster · Answer

Entwistle,
I'm not timing myself at all at this stage. I just get completely stuck on questions because I don't know how to approach them. When I can't solve a question, I'll check out the answer explanation, but sometimes I still don't fully understand their explanation (especially with the OG) or, more often the case, I just don't get how they thought of going that route in the first place After reading the answer explanation for a question, I'll come back later and try to solve it. I may not necessarily remember the exact answer, but my brain automatically goes "oh yeah, this is how to solve this one..." And that's my main problem. If I've done it before, I'll recognize it and know how to approach it. But give me something new and my brain freezes up.

bb,
Thanks, I'm hoping that Math Foundations will give me the building blocks that I need. I'm just concerned about my timeline.

southernstunna,
Thanks for the encouraging words. It's just extremely frustrating when I get stuck on a concept that I just don't "get" for one reason or another and end up wasting so much time on it. I guess that's why I'm considering hiring a tutor.

What do you guys think of the Kaplan Premier book for someone like me? Is it a better "beginner" book than the MGMAT series?

ibbys · Answer

I think the MGMAT Math Foundation book will give you the math basis that you need for the other MGMAT Quant books.

If you find the answers in the OG12 confusing, check out the MGMAT Official Guide Companion. It walks through every single Quant problem and shows different ways to approach a single problem (charts, formulas and ways to eliminate answer choices). I think they have an online version as well that's cheaper.

TwoThrones · Answer

Keep working at it GSDster, looks like you have the right plan and mindset. I'm not sure about the Kaplan Premier book, as I will be using that later, but the Manhattan Math Foundations book seems to be the best for your situation. You can persevere, keep working at the examples. Maybe the Math forum can help too. If you need anything, do not hesitate to contact us.

shawdaff · Answer

You r a moron if you think you are a moron...so start thinking in a diff direction. beyond that I have no advice. Math's not my expertise either. good luck

roshpat · Answer

The Manhattan Foundation of Math book is just perfect especially if you are going to be using MGMAT Quant books. Kaplan premier is more of a general guide - not very helpful if you want to get your Math basics down.

1. Do the MGMAT Foundation of Math - learn everything and practice all the drills (several times, if you need to - Do NOT proceed to the other books until you are confident that you really KNOW everything in this book.
2. Do each of the MGMAT quant book and the corresponding OG questions - at least a few in each topic for both DS & PS - Get the OG companion from MGMAT if you want more MGMAT type explanations - they do break down the problems nicely
3. Repeat for other MGMAT quant books 
4. Start doing timed sets of mixed topics in OG

GMAT Hacks - Total GMAT Math book is excellent if you want more some additional GMAT type questions to do along in Phase 2, not wanting to use up too many OG questions but it is NOT a good starting point if your basics are weak.

If you are still struggling with not knowing how to get started in the OG questions even after referring to the OG guide companion or any other, then you could consider getting external help.

Good luck and dont stress too much - this exam can be make you want to bang your head against the wall, but just remember it can be overcome.

GSDster · Answer

Thanks everyone. This forum has been a tremendous help so far! Unfortunately, I already ordered the Kaplan Premier book (in addition to Manhattan Math Foundations) and now I'm wishing I ordered the OG Companion instead.

As far as the MGMAT books go...

1. I take it that I shouldn't immediately do ALL of the OG questions that they list. I should save some for after I've learned everything and can do a more realistic test with mixed topics.

2. Do you guys recommend that I "master" each book before moving on to the next one? I mean, should I stay on Number Properties until I'm completely confident with it? Or should I just go through all of the quant books, and then go back to work on my weaknesses? I feel like the former is the way to go, but the latter will allow me to actually complete a diagnostics test sooner to see where I stand and better gauge my progress. I'm really curious to see how I will perform once all the topics are mixed up.

ibbys · Answer

I saved all the OG questions until the end so that I could be more realistic with mixed topics. In order to solidify the concepts, I did all the "In Action" Problems/Question Banks and sometimes even did them twice. In case you need more enforcement, maybe you can do the OG Supplements (Quant and Verbal) alongside the MGMAT books and save the OG 12 for the end. This would be a mix of both worlds.

Number Properties is an extremely important book so I would definitely master that. You need to be realistic about your time frame because the MGMAT guides can be extremely time consuming. You don't want to run out of time and actually miss out on applying the strategies you learned to real practice problems. I was able to get through the FDP book and the Geometry books very easily. I spent considerable time on the Number Properties book, Inequalities and Word Translation books. Each time I read it, I seemed to learn something new.

Useful tip that I learned while studying (although it seems kind of obvious): Don't force yourself through books. If something doesn't sink in at the time, give it a rest and revisit it. If I was feeling burnt out over a certain topic, I would temporarily switch gears and regain my confidence doing another/different section. Then I could come back to the difficult topics with a fresh and open mind.

I mentioned this earlier but the OG 12 Companion is definitely a good investment for someone struggling with the concepts. It provides detailed explanations on each Quant problem whereas the Official Guide explanations cover it in a few sentences. It gives insights on how to solve each problem via a "text book" approach, backsolving/process of elimination and algebraic reasoning when applicable.

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Math moron, not much time... help!

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