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How To Study From The Manhattan GMAT Prep Books?

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How To Study From The Manhattan GMAT Prep Books?

by acrowson » Tue Jun 08, 2010 3:58 pm
This may seem like a dumb question, but what is the best way to study from the Manhattan GMAT prep books?

Naturally, completing all of the practice questions is a must. I was wondering what folks do to help remember the content (i.e. flash cards, detailed notes)?

As you can tell, I am not confident with my retention ability by just reading??
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by papgust » Tue Jun 08, 2010 6:11 pm
Definitely flashcards. When you study the Manhattan books, go chapter-by-chapter and make flashcards. Flashcards must have whatever you were not aware of or you have never heard of a concept/trick. Your retention ability will improve once you go through all recorded flashcards atleast thrice in a week (if not daily).
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by Dan@VinciaPrep » Wed Jun 09, 2010 1:06 am
acrowson wrote:This may seem like a dumb question, but what is the best way to study from the Manhattan GMAT prep books?

Naturally, completing all of the practice questions is a must. I was wondering what folks do to help remember the content (i.e. flash cards, detailed notes)?

As you can tell, I am not confident with my retention ability by just reading??
For me, it helps to read things multiple times. At first I wasn't very strong in the SC so I read the book three times and took notes along the way. Each time I went through it a bit faster and by the third time I could quote a fair amount of the text.
If my post helped you- let me know by pushing the thanks button ;)

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by Stacey Koprince » Wed Jun 09, 2010 9:13 am
Received a PM asking me to respond. Good question!

Part of the answer depends upon your individual learning style - so you should think about what worked for you when you were studying in school.

In general, studies have shown that studying more frequently for shorter periods of time is better than studying less frequently for longer periods of time. I think about 1-2 hours is the best time length for one GMAT study session. It's long enough that you can get good work done, but not so long that your brain starts to get overloaded and can't retain the material as well.

I also think that "cyclical" studying is best. When I first joined the company and went through all of these books myself, I went chapter by chapter. First, read a chapter, then do some (and possibly all) of the questions given at the end of each chapter. Take notes, keep track of your work, and possibly make flash cards (if you find flash cards useful). Then do a few OG problems. Every time you run into any problems ("I forgot this formula, I used this technique incorrectly, I messed up my timing, I didn't know how to make a guess"), then go back to your source material and figure out what to do about whatever that problem was.

At the end of a study session, spend 5-10 minutes writing up a summary of your progress with that chapter. I'm really good at X. I'm okay at Y. I'm still struggling with Z. (Note: X, Y, and Z might be (1) specific facts or rules, (2) techniques, (3) timing, (4) educated guessing, or (5) some combo of the above.) Then figure out what you want to review and when. Perhaps I spend Mon through Fri doing new stuff, then Sat is for review, so I make a note that, on Sat, I want to review Y and Z, and I also want to try a few more advanced things in the X category - either from the advanced chapter, if there is one, or from higher-numbered OG problems.

At the beginning of a study session, review your summary notes from your last few study sessions in order to decide how best to spend your time.

When you finish a book, do the same summary exercise for the whole book and then think, "Okay, when am I going to come back and review the whole book, or certain chapters?" Mark it on your calendar.
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by acrowson » Wed Jun 09, 2010 3:33 pm
Stacey Koprince wrote:Received a PM asking me to respond. Good question!

Part of the answer depends upon your individual learning style - so you should think about what worked for you when you were studying in school.

In general, studies have shown that studying more frequently for shorter periods of time is better than studying less frequently for longer periods of time. I think about 1-2 hours is the best time length for one GMAT study session. It's long enough that you can get good work done, but not so long that your brain starts to get overloaded and can't retain the material as well.

I also think that "cyclical" studying is best. When I first joined the company and went through all of these books myself, I went chapter by chapter. First, read a chapter, then do some (and possibly all) of the questions given at the end of each chapter. Take notes, keep track of your work, and possibly make flash cards (if you find flash cards useful). Then do a few OG problems. Every time you run into any problems ("I forgot this formula, I used this technique incorrectly, I messed up my timing, I didn't know how to make a guess"), then go back to your source material and figure out what to do about whatever that problem was.

At the end of a study session, spend 5-10 minutes writing up a summary of your progress with that chapter. I'm really good at X. I'm okay at Y. I'm still struggling with Z. (Note: X, Y, and Z might be (1) specific facts or rules, (2) techniques, (3) timing, (4) educated guessing, or (5) some combo of the above.) Then figure out what you want to review and when. Perhaps I spend Mon through Fri doing new stuff, then Sat is for review, so I make a note that, on Sat, I want to review Y and Z, and I also want to try a few more advanced things in the X category - either from the advanced chapter, if there is one, or from higher-numbered OG problems.

At the beginning of a study session, review your summary notes from your last few study sessions in order to decide how best to spend your time.

When you finish a book, do the same summary exercise for the whole book and then think, "Okay, when am I going to come back and review the whole book, or certain chapters?" Mark it on your calendar.
Thanks for the great information Stacey!! I am going to try to incorporate your strategies!
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by piyushk » Mon Jul 26, 2010 7:42 pm
Stacey Koprince wrote:Received a PM asking me to respond. Good question!

Part of the answer depends upon your individual learning style - so you should think about what worked for you when you were studying in school.

In general, studies have shown that studying more frequently for shorter periods of time is better than studying less frequently for longer periods of time. I think about 1-2 hours is the best time length for one GMAT study session. It's long enough that you can get good work done, but not so long that your brain starts to get overloaded and can't retain the material as well.

I also think that "cyclical" studying is best. When I first joined the company and went through all of these books myself, I went chapter by chapter. First, read a chapter, then do some (and possibly all) of the questions given at the end of each chapter. Take notes, keep track of your work, and possibly make flash cards (if you find flash cards useful). Then do a few OG problems. Every time you run into any problems ("I forgot this formula, I used this technique incorrectly, I messed up my timing, I didn't know how to make a guess"), then go back to your source material and figure out what to do about whatever that problem was.

At the end of a study session, spend 5-10 minutes writing up a summary of your progress with that chapter. I'm really good at X. I'm okay at Y. I'm still struggling with Z. (Note: X, Y, and Z might be (1) specific facts or rules, (2) techniques, (3) timing, (4) educated guessing, or (5) some combo of the above.) Then figure out what you want to review and when. Perhaps I spend Mon through Fri doing new stuff, then Sat is for review, so I make a note that, on Sat, I want to review Y and Z, and I also want to try a few more advanced things in the X category - either from the advanced chapter, if there is one, or from higher-numbered OG problems.

At the beginning of a study session, review your summary notes from your last few study sessions in order to decide how best to spend your time.

When you finish a book, do the same summary exercise for the whole book and then think, "Okay, when am I going to come back and review the whole book, or certain chapters?" Mark it on your calendar.
Thanks Stacey, very useful advice.
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by vista18 » Thu Aug 26, 2010 8:10 pm
on a slightly different note..i am having problems in going thru and grasping the advanced portion of the manhattan math books...while i like going thru the 1st set..when i reach the advanced set i seem to lose interest...may be because the concepts become complex..i am experiencing this for the second time while going thru these books.

i dont know what the problem is as i feel that these books are so really user friendly and i have enjoyed going thru them..

also when i gave gmat i did not see any tough questions..absolutely nothing related to the advanced portions of the mgmat math books..but then that could be because i wasnt doing well..i scored only 35 in math as i spent too much time on 2 ques and ended up guessing last 10 ques..which i could easily solve. so the ques is:

1) do the advanced concepts get tested on real gmat.? if yes, then what level of difficulty.. 600-700 or beyond??

i am writing gmat again and trying to up my score from 530 (q35,v28) to a 680-700+ but i seem to be hitting the wall on this one again..

thx.

while comments are welcome from all..i would request mgmat instructors to throw some light on this..
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