I sat down to think about a topic and suddenly realized that I’m writing my 201^st  GMAT article! How do I have anything left to write about?!?

The GMAT is actually a pretty fascinating topic (in my opinion, at least!). I have to give a big shout-out to all of my students (class, tutoring, and forums!) because you guys have inspired most of my articles. I just think about what my students have been struggling with lately and, boom, I’ve got a topic.

A fellow teacher, though, is the inspiration for this particular article. We were teaching a 9-session course together recently and he asked me how I always had an article to recommend when a student had a question on any particular topic. I keep a list of every article I’ve written, so I sent it to my colleague not really thinking about how very long that list is, or how unhelpful it is to be handed something that contains a couple of hundred titles. : )

Sure enough, he replied, Um, yeah this is great. So, which ones do you think are the most important?

Point taken. There are too many”nobody’s going to read all 200”so which ones should you read? Where should you start?

What would I do if I were about to start my studies?

We’ll start today with the highest-level stuff: what we’re really trying to do here and how to approach studying in general. Next time, we’ll take a look at more nitty-gritty details. Also, I’m going to limit the list to just my own articles”but you shouldn’t limit yourself in this way! Obviously there are a lot of great study resources out there.

The one article Everyone Should Read

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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:

A point Q is located within the interior of a square ABCD so that it is 1 unit from vertex A, 2 units from vertex B, and 3 units from vertex D. The measure of angle AQB is

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Here are the free GMAT events we’re holding this week. All times are local unless otherwise specified.

6/24/13– Santa Clara, CA – Free Trial Class– 6:30PM- 9:30PM

6/25/13– West Hollywood, CA – Free Trial Class –  6:30PM- 9:30PM

6/25/13– Online – Free Trial Class –  9:00PM- 12:00AM

6/25/13– London – Free Trial Class-  6:30PM-9:30PM

6/25/13– Arlington, VA – Free Trial Class – 6:30PM- 9:30PM

6/26/13– New York, NY- Essay Writing Workshop presented by mbaMission– 7:00PM- 8:30PM

6/26/13– San Francisco, CA- Free Trial Class– 6:30PM-9:30PM

6/29/13– Austin, TX – Free Trial Class- 1:00PM- 4:00PM

6/30/13– Online – Free Trial Class–  4:00PM- 7:00PM (EDT)

6/30/13– Chicago, IL- Free Trial Class– 10:00AM- 1:00PM

Looking for more free events? Check out our Free Events Listings Page.

Catch up on some business school news and tips with a few of this week’s top stories:

Heading to Business School? An Essential Pre-MBA Strategy To Hit The Ground Running (Forbes)

Given your considerable investment of time, money, and effort in pursuing an MBA education, can you afford not to have a pre-matriculation strategy?

Business Schools Keep the Admissions Process Interesting (Graduate Guide)

Stiff competition between applicants has led some business schools to get creative in terms of how they select their ideal MBA candidates.

Business School Lessons From the Top of the World (Bloomberg Businessweek)

Professor at University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business plans to integrate his experience of climbing Mount Everest into a required leadership course for MBA students. Pretty cool!

Learning to Appreciate the Nuts and Bolts of B-School (Bloomberg Businessweek)

Associate dean of corporate partnerships at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management asks grads which aspects of their MBA experience they enjoyed most.

Find Health Care Opportunities for B-School Students (U.S. News Education)

A business school residency can prepare MBA candidates to be leaders in health care.

Did we miss your favorite article from the week? Let us know what you have been reading in the comments below or tweet @ManhattanGMAT

I recently tutored a student “ let’s call her Jane “ who came to me two weeks before her test. Here’s the discussion we had:

Jane: Right now, I’m doing well on the verbal section, consistently scoring in the 80^th to 90^th percentile on my practice tests. However, my math isn’t as good “ the highest I’ve scored is 48^th percentile. I got a 630 on my most recent practice test, but I’d really like to score a 720. My GMAT date is two weeks from today.

Ryan: Why a 720?

Jane: I don’t know, I just heard that’s what you need to get into a top school.

Ryan: Well, let’s assume that you score in the 85^th percentile on the verbal section, an average performance for you. To get a 720, you’d need to hit the 90^th percentile on the quant section. Did you know that?

Jane: OH MY GOD NO! WHAT AM I GOING TO DO?

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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.

Which Critical Reasoning question type drives you crazy? Boldface? Find the Assumption? Inference?

I’ve put together what I’m calling the Master Resource List for Critical Reasoning. A couple of disclaimers. First, this list includes only free resources, no paid ones. There are a lot of good resources out there that cost some money—they’re just not on this list!

Second, this list for Critical Reasoning is limited to my own articles. I’m not trying to claim that only my articles are good enough to make such a list—far from it. I’m most familiar with my own articles, so that’s what I’m using. (And, okay, I will admit that I think the Manhattan Prep Critical Reasoning process is the best one out there. But I’m biased. ?) Read more

New York University’s (NYU’s) Stern School of Business jumps on the less is more bandwagon this application season by reducing its essay count from three to two. However, that is the only change”Stern’s essay questions are actually the same as last year’s, but for Essay 2, candidates can now choose between two prompts that were previously both mandatory.

For Essay 2, it will be interesting to see whether candidates favor Option A, taking the rather straightforward path and exploring their envisioned careers in greater depth, or the challenging creative essay in Option B, hoping to provide a far deeper personal picture for the admissions committee. Our guess is that most applicants will choose the latter”doing so will allow the candidates to differentiate themselves from many careerists in the applicant pool. We also suspect that some candidates will worry that if they choose Option A, they will be inadvertently revealing themselves to be uncreative and will therefore feel compelled to choose Option B. But do not try to guess what the admissions committee wants! If the school wanted everyone to respond to one option in particular, they would not have offered two! Let us reassure you that this is not some sort of test. Take the time to consider how you would respond to both questions,  and then select the one that you believe would offer the admissions committee the more compelling picture of you.

Essay 1:  Professional Aspirations

(750 word maximum, double-spaced, 12-point font)

• Why pursue an MBA (or dual degree) at this point in your life?
• What actions have you taken to determine that Stern is the best fit for your MBA experience?
• What do you see yourself doing professionally upon graduation?

The three points that make up Stern’s Essay 1 question this year basically constitute a Personal Statement, and because Personal Statements are similar from one application to the next, we have produced the mbaMission Personal Statement Guide, which helps applicants write this style of essay for any school. We offer this guide to candidates free of charge. Please feel free to download your copy today.

And for a thorough exploration of NYU Stern’s academic program/merits, defining characteristics, important statistics, social life, academic environment and more, please check out the mbaMission Insider’s Guide to New York University’s Leonard N. Stern School of Business.

Essay 2: Choose Option A or Option B

Option A: Your Two Paths

(500 word maximum, double-spaced, 12-point font)

The mission of the Stern School of Business is to develop people and ideas that transform the challenges of the 21st century into opportunities to create value for business and society. Given today’s ever-changing global landscape, Stern seeks and develops leaders who thrive in ambiguity, embrace a broad perspective and think creatively about the range of ways they can have impact.

• Describe two different and distinct paths you could see your career taking long term. How do you see your two paths unfolding?
• How do your paths tie to the mission of NYU Stern?
• What factors will most determine which path you will take?

Given that the school is asking about two possible paths for your long-term career, you may be wondering whether you can be vague or uncertain about your goals in this essay. Quite simply, No. In fact, you will instead need to present two feasible career options and relate your skills and experiences to them very clearly to create an effective, coherent statement and show both that you are versatile and that you know yourself well.
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Data sufficiency question are a strange animal that exists only in GMAT land.  The newness of this question type creates high levels of anxiety because we don’t know how to react when we see something new (How do you think you would react if you were standing face to face with a unicorn?).   Once we get over this newness, data sufficiency questions all follow a specific morphology, and in my opinion actually contain less diversity than problem solving questions.  There is always either a yes/no question (is ab even?) or value question (how many boys are in the class?), followed by two statements, and the five answer choice are always the same and in the same order. (If you are completely unfamiliar with data sufficiency questions take a look at an example here)

Because of this very confined structure, there are actually cases where the structure of question and statements can give you information regardless of the specifics of the problem. There are at least four instances where a specific form of the statement(s) will allow you to eliminate several responses without evaluating the full content of the problem.

1) A value statement for a yes/no question

If a statement provides a value for the sole variable in the question, it is definitely sufficient to answer any yes or no question.

For example:

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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:

Triangle ABC is cut by a line DE parallel to side AC, as shown in the diagram. If side AC has length 1, and the area and perimeter of triangle ABC are both twice the corresponding values for trapezoid ADEC, what is the perimeter of triangle DBE?

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Here are the free GMAT events we’re holding this week. All times are local unless otherwise specified.

6/17/13– Santa Monica, CA – Free Trial Class– 6:30PM- 9:30PM (EDT)

6/17/13– Boston, MA – Free Trial Class –  6:30PM- 9:30PM

6/17/13– Atlanta, GA  – Free Trial Class –  6:30PM- 9:30PM

6/17/13– Evanston, IL – Free Trial Class-  6:30PM-9:30PM

6/18/13– Berkeley, CA – Free Trial Class – 6:30PM- 9:30PM

6/18/13– Online- Writing a Standout HBS Application Essay presented by mbaMission– 9:00PM-10:30PM (EDT)

6/19/13– Glendale, CA- Free Trial Class– 6:30PM-9:30PM
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