GMAT Strategy

Thought to share my experience. I purchased ipad version of Critical Reasoning 1 just to get a hang of it. It costs $19.

I was not really happy with Veritas's CR on iPad. For one thing - Vertitas didn't think about how a student will use it. I have a question in Pg 34 and answer in Pg 72. Going back and forth takes a lot of time in iPad and definitely not user-friendly. Veritas has created the CR just like a novel or its hard book. I think that they need to either create a new app for their books so that we can see the question in one screen and answer with a click of one button, or they need to redesign their book that fits iBook standard but doesn't take a toll on students. With this experience, for now I am not buying any iPad version. I also posted my comment on their blog a couple of days back. I don't think that they are going to approve it to share with public.

I could not find Manhattan GMAT in iPad' iBooks or Kindle. I heard that Manhattan is also working on their iPad version. Will wait to see how it will work for GMAT students and not for common readers?

Hi Vishal,

Thanks for your feedback. While a very vocal minority of students has demanded that we make our books available on -book platforms such as the Kindle and the iPad, we don't plan on devoting a great deal of resources to reinventing our books for these electronic platforms in the short term. You're correct that effectively presenting so much content in an e-reader is a challenge. To appease the minority of students who don't want to carry around our 15 heavy GMAT books, we have made the books available on the iPad, but you're correct that, while still useful, they are not "optimized" for that platform.

It's the same sort of thing that caused Darden to dump the Kindle after testing it for one semester -- it's not necessarily better, at least not unless the information is presented in a radically different format. For many of the same reasons you mentioned -- such as needing to quickly jump around within the text, from one section to another -- students said they simply prefer the paper books to the Kindle.

That doesn't mean that the iPad and Kindle are non-starters for books... It's easy to envision a world in ten years in which we're mostly using devices like those, rather than books. But the information will need to be presented much more like it is on a web page (rather than how it's presented in a book). For now, our resources are devoted to making our GMAT strategies even stronger (especially in light of the new GMAT question type coming out) rather than in developing a new mobile or e-reader platform for our existing content. But for those who really, really want to be able to get our books on the iPad, we have made them available.

We know that our content and strategies are second to none. If you're unhappy with your Critical Reasoning 1 book, please PM me and we'll hook you up with a complimentary print version!

Scott

Thanks Scott for the prompt response. I have pm'ed you.

Also, the fever of digital books is catching up fast. Three of my friends who all own iPad asked me about the Veritas digital version. I shared the same comments. Now they are planning to buy hardbooks instead of digital books.

Thanks again Vishal. Your book is on its way!

Scott