Any Advice is Appreciated..

[Vintage]

While studying for my first attempt at the GMAT exam, I've noticed that each of the Manhattan Strategy Guides have an "Advanced Section" towards the end of the book. Are these sections crucial to scoring approximately a 650 on the test in your opinion? I'm currently at the Data Sufficiency section, and although I haven't looked at the Data Sufficiency Advanced portion of the book in depth yet I'm sure that it will be nearly impossible to comprehend since the normal portion of Data Sufficiency is embarrassing me.

Also, I've seen on numerous sites that the average amount of time to spend on each question is approximately 2 minutes in order to complete the test on time. What are some tips as to how to solve some of these Data Sufficiency questions in such a short amount of time? It seems almost impossible.

I'm doing pretty well with most of the Quant stuff, but I definitely hit a brick wall with DS. Please tell me that I'm not the only one who's found these questions discouraging..

Also, I've decided to take a Prep course as I'd like to enter a grad school this year. Because of my preference I need to have my final application placed before mid-July. Typically, I would've studied by myself and decided whether or not to take a prep class AFTER getting my GMAT score back, but I don't want to risk taking it in April after studying alone, getting a low score and then having to take a prep class before retaking the test. That would obviously make it impossible to retake the GMAT after a course BEFORE July. Because of this, as mentioned, I plan on joining a course for confidence/comfort.

That being said, my career won't allow me to go in person, so it's either the Online Session or the Interact Program. Any reviews of either program by previous students?

Thank you for your assistance.

[StaceyKoprince]

No, you probably don't need the Advanced / Extra chapters for a 650 score. There is one exception: if you are MUCH better at one section (Q or V) and you're depending on that score to be quite high to help your overall score, then you may need to do some Extra work in that section.

There isn't an advanced chapter for Data Sufficiency. That extra stuff refers to more advanced math topics (that can then be tested on DS or PS problems).

Lots of people find DS hard because...well, because it is so strange. :) But you can get better. Take a look at these articles:
Intro:
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/2013/ ... ncy-works/

more advanced:
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... questions/

even more advanced (note: the stuff discussed in this one can apply to PS or DS):
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... -Problems/

But I actually think it's important for you to start with these two articles:
http://tinyurl.com/executivereasoning
http://tinyurl.com/2ndlevelofgmat

They explain why your goal is actually NOT to try to get every question right. Part of your task is to identify questions that will take too long / be too hard and let those go.

Re: a course, there's a significant difference between the online course and the Interact program. The Interact program is still a self-study program; you don't have direct communication with an instructor. The lessons are far better than just reading a book because they include lots of video instruction and they also adapt to you based on your strengths and weaknesses - but you are not actually interacting with a live instructor.

If you want an actual class with a live teacher, someone to whom you can ask questions, etc, then you'll want to take one of our live online classes.

If you want to look for student reviews, I'd recommend taking a look at the website Beat the GMAT. I don't know how much they'll have on Interact because we only launched that 6 months ago, but they'll have lots of stuff on our regular classes.

If you want to ask (us) about our programs, send an email to gmat@manhattanprep.com and our student services team will be happy to answer anything. (You can ask here, too, but I don't know everything they know - like prices and schedules, etc.) Good luck!