Need advice on math texts...

[fmohsin]

I've alway thought math was my strong area in GMAT but recently I have been doubting on my skill on some advanced topics, such as, inequalities/absolute value combined, probability, advanced number properties etc. I bachelored in engineering so my strength lies in math. Yet, I believe I need imrpovement for consistently high score in math (e.g.50+). Currently I range from 44 to 50.

Can you recommend a math book that is up to par to achieve my goal? I've seen some people raving about manhattan math books and others about Kaplan math workbook. Which one would you recommend provided my goal for a 50+ and overall a 700+?

Thanks in advance!

[DanaJ]

I think it depends. In my experience, Kaplan quant questions are slightly more "academically oriented", so to speak. They usually focus on the straightforward math problems and tend to neglect word problems, a section that I've had trouble with.

I suppose that if you have specific weak areas you could go for the MGMAT guides, since that's targeted practice. I for one have not tried those...

If no one answers here, you should check out customer reviews on amazon.com...

[zainabubu]

MGMAT quant books are the way to go if you want to boost your scores. I'm currently going through the Word Translations book that targets word problems, and my head is starting to hurt already. They are quite more difficult that the questions in the GMAT itself, which helps, because after going through the basic section of the books, GMAT practice questions are somewhat of a breeze. And each book has a section that delves into more Advanced questions... triple headache! Note that another great thing about the books is that they list problems sets from the OG 12 and GMAT Quant Review (they only tell you the page and #, so you'll need those books in order to practice the corresponding questions, which would really help you get some extra practice asides from the ones the books already offer)
Good luck! I have one week before my exam, so I hope I'm not singing their praises too early!

[fmohsin]

Thank you both for your advice!

Zainabubu - Just curious, how are your scoring in your practice CATs?

[fmohsin]

I just ordered the whole set of manhattan quant today. It's a bit expensive but I hope it will be worth the price.

[zainabubu]

Yes the books are quite expensive. Sadly, I purchased the books at the full price at Barnes and Noble before noticing the discounts offered through this site.

Anyway, prior to using the MGMAT books, my CAT avg'd an embarrassing score of 360 (yea, really, really bad and this was after going through Kaplan's Math Foundations book). After using the bk 1, 2, and 5 MGMAT quant books I was on a 620-650 scale, but after 3 weeks of no studying (long story) I've been averaging 550-560. Which isn't great. But once I go through book 3 and 4, then I can accurately let you know where I stand in terms of the practice CAT's but for now;

After the 3 weeks away from the GMAT books (not my fault!)
It was way too late for me to change my test date, which I sat for today and ended up with a 550, Q40 V26.
Not great but, I know that if I had gone through the Word Translations book (which is my greatest Math weakness, it gives me headaches) and learned the VIC's, my Quant score would have been much higher, along with some much needed practice to refresh what I learned from the previous MGMAT books.

While with Verbal, the score can pretty much tell you that I didn't even study the Verbal questions except for the ones I went through while taking the CAT tests. Again, time was against me, and with my schedule off by 3 weeks, I was unable to cover the subjects I needed help with. Anyway, I plan to take the test in December, which should be enough time to spend getting accustomed to the Verbal questions and its nuances.

Oh yea, I noticed yesterday that on the MGMAT student center page, you can generate an assessment report based on the past practice tests (I wish I had known that earlier!) because it breaks down how well you are doing under each subject. Great tool to help you figure out and fix your weaknesses.

Right now, I'm just going to take a break for a month, then go over every crook and cranny of the MGMAT books, reset my MGMAT CATs, take all 6 tests with one week apart. Once I get my scores to an average of 700+ then I'll take the GMAT prep questions to see if my scores remain on the same range as MGMAT. Then I will re-take the test. (Hopefully, I will be done with this by December, I really don't want to deal with the GMAT next year)

[gmattering]

Hi people, anyone has the ez solution book? i've heard the maths are comparable to mgmat and some say even more comprehensive. if you have, i have a question. does ez solution come with CAT or online test like the mgmat test?

[theK]

gmattering,

You may want to search around first on ez books. I read that some of them contain calculation errors.

What made me turn away from them was the fact that there a few Amazon users who gave suspiciously similar and all positive lengthy feedbacks on all EZ books listed on Amazon. No negative comment at all on those books from those users.

If those glowing feedbacks are indeed from the author or from someone who works for EZ, then that's just wrong.