The following excerpt comes from Top GMAT Prep Courses, a helpful resource for comparing your GMAT prep options, gathering  in-depth course reviews, and receiving exclusive discounts. Top GMAT Prep Courses had the chance to connect with Ron Purewal, one of Manhattan Prep’s veteran GMAT instructors, to ask questions about the GMAT that we hope all prospective MBA candidates will benefit from. Want more? Head on over to the full article!

What are the most common misconceptions of the GMAT that you notice on a regular basis?

“There are two BIG misconceptions in play here.

The first is “knowledge.” Too many people view this test as a monumental task of memorization. A test of knowing stuff. If you’re new to this exam, it’s understandable that you might think this way. After all, that’s how tests have always worked at school, right? Right. And that’s exactly why the GMAT doesn’t work that way. Think about it for a sec: When it comes to those tests, the tests of knowing stuff, you already have 16 or more years of experience (and grades) under your belt. If the GMAT were yet another one of those tests, it would have no utility. It wouldn’t exist. Instead, the GMAT is precisely the opposite: It’s a test designed to be challenging, and to test skills relevant to business school, while requiring as little concrete knowledge as possible.

If you’re skeptical, go work a few GMAT problems.  Then, when the smoke clears, take an inventory of all the stuff you had to know to solve the problem, as opposed to the thought process itself.  You’ll be surprised by how short the list is, and how elementary the things are.  The challenge isn’t the “what;” it’s the “how.” …Continue reading for the second misconception.
 

How common is it for a student to raise his or her GMAT score 100 points or more, and what is the largest GMAT score increase you’ve personally seen while working at Manhattan Prep?

“We’ve seen such increases from many of our students. I’ve even seen a few increases of more than 300 points, from English learners who made parallel progress on the GMAT and in English itself. I don’t have statistics, but what I can give you is far more important: a list of traits that those successful students have in common.

1) They are flexible and willing to change. They do not cling stubbornly to “preferred” or “textbook” ways of solving problems; instead, they simply collect as many different strategies as possible.

2) They are resilient. When an approach fails, they don’t internalize it as “defeat,” and they don’t keep trying the same things over and over. They just dump the approach that isn’t working, and look for something different. If they come up empty, they simply disengage, guess, and move on.

3) They are balanced. They make time to engage with the GMAT, but they don’t subordinate their entire lives to it. They study three, four, five days a week—not zero, and not seven. They review problems when they’re actually primed to learn; they don’t put in hours just for the sake of putting in hours. If they’re overwhelmed, exhausted, or distressed, they’ll shut the books and hit them another day. In short, they stay sane… Continue reading for more traits of successful students.

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Manhattan GMAT’s Live Online Spring P2 Course is a comprehensive GMAT course designed specifically for high-achieving, international students looking to earn an MBA from a top business school. Taught by famed GMAT instructor, Ron Purewal, our Live Online Spring P2 Course will be hosted in the early morning (5:30AM-8:30AM PDT) from Silicon Valley, California.

We’re inviting students from all around the world to join, with the hope that this unique time will fit more conveniently into international students’ schedules. The course aims to teach mastery of GMAT content and the test-taking skills and strategies that are necessary to conquering every question type with confidence.

The Live Online Spring P2 Course with Ron Purewal begins April 16^th, 2014 and includes:

• 54 hours of class time & coaching – at a time specifically selected to best support international GMAT test-takers.

• Strategy Guides that equip you for the entire GMAT: math and verbal theory, problem solving techniques, essential formulae, and hundreds of examples

• Every Official Guide for GMAT Review (that’s over 1400 real GMAT problems!)

• Foundational math and verbal primers—including books, question banks, and online workshops to help you review

• Full Integrated Reasoning training, plus an online bank of questions for additional practice
• Six full-length Computer Adaptive Practice Tests, designed in-house by our veteran instructors to simulate the GMAT’s uniquely adaptive format
• Detailed practice dashboards that show you how you’re performing (including stats on accuracy, speed, and difficulty level) across every specialized math and verbal topic
• On Demand Class Recordings so you can review course concepts anytime
• eBook downloads of every Manhattan GMAT Strategy Guide, accessible on your iPad, Nook, smartphone, or other compatible mobile device
• Challenge problems, interactive labs, essay grading software, and dozens of additional resources

Space is limited and filling quickly, so be sure to register for Ron Purewal’s upcoming Live Online GMAT Course at this special international time before it’s too late.

Not sure if this class is right for you? Attend the first session for free and try it out before signing up for the complete program.

At Manhattan GMAT, we take pride in the quality teaching of our instructors. In fact, we value their Socratic method so much that for a long time we have been worried about posting videos, which are a decidedly not interactive media (unlike our classes).

However, to show our continuing commitment to preparing our students for the GMAT, we have been hosting a live free study hall series called “Thursdays with Ron:” every other Thursday, our instructor, Ron Purewal, hosts a free 1.5 hour long session. Anybody can submit questions ahead of time, and Ron chooses some questions to answer. The event itself is interactive (in fact, you can submit your own questions and sign up to attend the next study hall session here) and therefore continues to help students in the way that we feel best suits their needs: having them actively participate.

Still, in 90 minutes of lesson, there are some sections that help you understand certain aspects of the GMAT better, without requiring too much additional interaction. We’ve found those highlights of our Thursdays With Ron series, and we’ve posted them in easily digestible chunks on our youtube channel. Below is a sample of one of the most popular videos, in which Ron explains a new way to easily find the point of a reading comprehension passage:

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