Did you know that you can attend the first session of any of our online or in-person GMAT courses absolutely free? We’re not kidding! Check out our upcoming courses here.

In a world where we are often carrying at least one device, if not multiple devices, that can complete calculations, there is little need to do calculations manually. For this reason, the lack of a calculator on the GMAT Quantitative section is a significant point of concern—or perhaps even fear—to many test takers, even some with strong quantitative skills. That brings me to some good and some bad news for prospective GMAT takers. Read more

I love teaching, but I also love to travel. In 2009, I took a year off to travel around the world. And the thought that kept returning was, What would have been different in my life if I’d done this ten years ago? So Loop Abroad was born.

Loop is a high school travel program that brings students to Southeast Asia. Amidst traveling and volunteering, we connect students to with NGOs and other inspirational leaders who are passionate about what they do.

Two organizations we love are the Elephant Nature Foundation (ENF) and the Save Children in Asia Foundation (SCAO). The ENF is working to rescue and rehabilitate Asian elephants who have been abused in the logging and trekking industries. The Elephant Nature Park in Thailand is now home to almost 40 of these gentle giants. This year, the ENF has been granted a portion of a record-breaking one-million-acre wildlife preserve in Cambodia upon which elephants will be able to interact as if in the wild. This is a huge and exciting step toward replenishing the Asian elephant population. And because elephants require so much continuous land to thrive, replenishing their habitat means saving the habitats of thousands of other species and, in the process, preserving an entire ecosystem.

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Remember out immensely popular free Integrated Reasoning workshops from last month? Well, they’re back! Due to overwhelming student demand, we’ve added four more workshops, which you can now register for.

Sign up fast before they sell out!

Tuesday, May 8th (8:00 “ 10:00pm EST)
Instructor: Tommy Wallach

Saturday, May 19th (1:00 “ 3:00pm EST)
Instructor: Stephanie Moyerman

Monday, May 21st (8:00 “ 10:00pm EST)
Instructor: Whitney Garner

Saturday, June 2nd (1:00 “ 3:00pm EST)
Instructor: Stephanie Moyerman

We invite you to test your GMAT knowledge for a chance to win! Each week, we will post a new Challenge Problem for you to attempt. If you submit the correct answer, you will be entered into that week’s drawing for a free Manhattan GMAT Prep item. Tell your friends to get out their scrap paper and start solving!
Here is this week’s problem:

The expression x[n]y is defined for positive values of x and y and for positive integer values of n as follows:

1. x[1]y = x^y
2. If n is odd, x[n+1]y = (x[n]y)^x
3. If n is even, x[n+1]y = (x[n]y)^y

If y = ½ and x[4]y = 2, then x =

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Has anyone not heard yet that the GMAT is changing on June 5th? If you’re sure you won’t need to take the new test, you don’t need to read this article. If you are planning to take the new test, though, or if you think you might have to, then read on.

Scoring

Over the past week, GMAC has released some additional information about the new Integrated Reasoning (IR) section “ in particular, some very key details on how the scoring is going to work.

When GMATPrep 2.0 launched a few weeks ago, it became apparent that the scoring scale would be from a low of 1 to a high of 8, and GMAC has since confirmed that the scores will be given in integer increments “ no 6.5 or 7.5 scores.

More importantly, we now know that the IR section scoring will be based on percentage correct, unlike the quant and verbal portions of the test, and there will be no penalty for incorrect answers. Integrated Reasoning is not an adaptive test, so the primary determinant of our score really is just how many we get right. (Note: although the test is not adaptive, we still can’t go back to questions we’ve already finished. Once you confirm an answer, that question is gone for good.) Further, the different question types will all be weighted the same “ so it’s not the case that, say, Graphics Interpretation questions will be any more or less important than Table Analysis questions. Read more

Then this article’s for you. Everyone I’ve talked to recently falls into one of two camps:

• I need to take the test before it changes and I’m running out of time! Help!
• I need to take the new GMAT with IR and I don’t know what to do! Help!

If you’re in the latter category, read last week’s article and check back again next week, when I’ll have an article for you regarding how to study for IR. This week, we’re going to talk about what to do for those who are still trying to get the test done before it changes on June 5th.

How far are you from your goal?

Have you taken a practice test recently “ under official testing conditions? Official conditions means you did the essays, you stuck to roughly 8 minute breaks, you didn’t pause the test and come back to it later basically, you did what you’re going to have to do on the real test. Also, you hadn’t already seen the questions before, right? One or two might still be okay, but if you recognized more than that, or if you deviated significantly from official test conditions, take another test.

You’re doing this to get a good idea of your current scoring level. Compare that to your desired score on the real test. How far apart are the two scores? Read more

We invite you to test your GMAT knowledge for a chance to win! Each week, we will post a new Challenge Problem for you to attempt. If you submit the correct answer, you will be entered into that week’s drawing for a free Manhattan GMAT Prep item. Tell your friends to get out their scrap paper and start solving!
Here is this week’s problem:

From 2008 to 2009, the number of Easter eggs in a certain egg hunt rose 20%, then fell 17% from 2009 to 2010. From 2008 to 2009, the ratio of Easter eggs to Easter bunnies in the same hunt fell 20%, then rose 22% from 2009 to 2010. By what approximate percent did the number of bunnies change over the full period from 2008 to 2010?

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In keeping with our 5th Edition Release Week festivities, we’re really excited to bring to you an interview with three of the people behind our awesome new 5th Edition Manhattan GMAT Strategy Guides.

Below is part 2 of a 2 part interview with David Mahler, Stacey Koprince, and Liz Moliski. Learn what part of the books was hardest to write, what part was our interviewee’s favorite, and how a student should work their way through the books. Part 1 is here.

What was it like to finally finish the books? What was the final rush to beat the deadline like?

Stacey Koprince: I was lucky in that I received the research relatively early on for my book, so I was done in advance of the eventual deadline. I say the “eventual” deadline, because the first deadline I was given didn’t end up being the final deadline. Because some of the other books were delayed, all of the deadlines were pushed back several times, so I finished on time. I’ll admit, though, that I might’ve missed the original deadline if it hadn’t been moved back. : )

For the quant books, though, I would sometimes receive part of the galleys (the files that needed to be proofed) one day and need to give my edits the next day or the day after. Towards the end, we were all working to turn things around so quickly that I would often only be given a chapter at a time, and by the time I was done with it (an hour or two later), the next chapter would be ready to edit.
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In keeping with our 5th Edition Release Week festivities, we’re really excited to bring to you an interview with three of the people behind our awesome new 5th Edition Manhattan GMAT Strategy Guides.

Below is part 1 of a 2 part interview with David Mahler, Stacey Koprince, and Liz Moliski. Learn what it’s like to write a textbook, how long the process takes, what it’s like approaching the final deadline, and more! Be sure to check back tomorrow for part 2.

What’s it like to actually write a textbook? Where do you start? What is the day-to-day process like?

Stacey Koprince: We do a lot of research before we can even think about starting to write. We examine every all of the most recent official questions to determine patterns, language structures, traps, and so on. We use that data to determine the best solution methods and what and how our students need to study in order to succeed with that question type or content area.

After several months, we’re finally ready to start writing. The process isn’t that different from writing a school paper – a really long school paper! I start with an outline, and then I expand the outline chapter by chapter. Once I have a clear idea of the sub-sections I want to have in each chapter, then I dive into the actual writing.

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In celebration of the release of our 5th Edition Strategy Guides, we’re giving away a complete set (10 books!) to one lucky person. For a chance to win the beautiful books you see to your left, head over to our Facebook page and “like” our post announcing the giveaway. We’ll pick one person at random Friday afternoon. If we get over 100 “likes”, we’ll give away a second set of books, so get as many people to “like” it as you can!

We’ll also be giving away a complete set of 5th Edition Strategy Guides on Twitter at some point this week, and in the next issue of our newsletter, GMATTERS, as well as a few other places online. Keep your eyes peeled for a chance to win! Or, if you can’t wait, head over to our store and pick up the books now and see how great they really are.

Update, 4/26/12: We’re giving away a set of 5th edition books on GMAT Club and Beat the GMAT. Post on the linked threads for a chance to win!