Manhattan Prep GRE Blog

First-Time GRE Mistakes

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Manhattan Prep GRE Blog - First-Time GRE Mistakes by Cat Powell

You can attend the first session of any of our online or in-person GRE courses absolutely free. Ready to take the plunge? Check out our upcoming courses here.


Taking a practice test is one of the most important first steps that you can take as you embark on studying for the GRE—even (especially) if you feel totally unprepared or anxious about doing so. Confronting this anxiety can be an important hurdle to overcome. You’ll also likely find some surprises in your results, both positive and negative, that will shape your study plan. Read more

GRE Verbal is Not a Rorschach Test

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Manhattan Prep GRE Blog - GRE Verbal is Not a Rorschach Test by Tom Anderson

You can attend the first session of any of our online or in-person GRE courses absolutely free. Crazy, right? Check out our upcoming courses here.


GRE Verbal is Not a Rorschach Test

Manhattan Prep GRE Blog - GRE Verbal is Not a Rorschach Test by Tom Anderson

What do you see in the image above? A butterfly? A twisty rollercoaster? Your mother’s disapproval? Read more

Mission Admission: How to Show Rather than Tell and Write with Connectivity in Your MBA Essay

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Manhattan Prep GRE Blog - Mission Admission: How to Show Rather than Tell and Write with Connectivity in Your MBA Essay by mbaMission

Taking the GRE for your business school application? You’re in luck. Each month, we are featuring a series of MBA admission tips from our exclusive admissions consulting partner, mbaMission.


You may have heard the old journalistic maxim “Show, don’t tell,” which demands that writers truly illustrate the actions involved in an event or a story rather than simply stating the results of what happened. Read more

What to Bring to the GRE

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Manhattan Prep GRE Blog - What to Bring to the GRE by Chelsey Cooley

You can attend the first session of any of our online or in-person GRE courses absolutely free. Crazy, right? Check out our upcoming courses here.


Congratulations—it’s almost test day! Do you know what to bring to the GRE (and what you should leave at home)? Read more

When to Stop Studying for the GRE

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Manhattan Prep GRE Blog - When to Stop Studying for the GRE by Ceilidh Erickson

You can attend the first session of any of our online or in-person GRE courses absolutely free. Ready to take the plunge? Check out our upcoming courses here.


Studying for the GRE might be one of the hardest things that you’ll ever do. It may even be harder than some of your graduate school classes! Read more

MBA Admissions Myths Destroyed: I Have No Real Options

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Manhattan Prep GRE Blog - MBA Admissions Myths Destroyed: I Have No Real Options by mbaMission

What have you been told about applying to business school? With the advent of chat rooms, blogs and forums, armchair “experts” often unintentionally propagate MBA admissions myths, which can linger and undermine an applicant’s confidence. Some applicants are led to believe that schools want a specific “type” of candidate and expect certain GRE scores and GPAs, for example. Others are led to believe that they need to know alumni from their target schools and/or get a letter of reference from the CEO of their firm in order to get in. In this series, mbaMission debunks these and other myths and strives to take the anxiety out of the admissions process.


In the late 2000s, Harvard Business School (HBS) made a change to its application essay questions that surprised many. Its previously mandatory “long- and short-term goals” essay prompt changed its focus more broadly to “career vision” and became one of four topic options from which applicants could select two. Immediately, MBA candidates tried to read between the lines and decipher HBS’s hidden agenda behind the change. As a result, many perplexed applicants called us, asking, “Every other school asks about goals, so HBS must want to know about them, too. I need to answer the essay question option about career vision, right?” Read more

GRE Math for People Who Hate Math: Remainder Problems

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Manhattan Prep GRE Blog - GRE Math for People Who Hate Math: Remainder Problems by Chelsey Cooley

You can attend the first session of any of our online or in-person GRE courses absolutely free. Crazy, right? Check out our upcoming courses here.


The secret to understanding GRE remainder problems is in the word remainder itself. Suppose you bake a dozen brownies, and while you’re at work, your roommate eats ten of them. The two brownies left over are the remainder of the batch. The mathematical term remainder refers to the same thing: what’s left over after something is taken away. Read more

Play to Your Strengths on the GRE

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Manhattan Prep GRE Blog - Play to Your Strengths on the GRE by Cat Powell

You can attend the first session of any of our online or in-person GRE courses absolutely free. Ready to take the plunge? Check out our upcoming courses here.


In the first class of our GRE curriculum, we begin by talking about growth mindset vs. fixed mindset. If we approach a new task with a fixed mindset—i.e. I am or am not good at this—we’re a lot less likely to improve at it. When we believe instead that we can and will improve if we work hard, we get better faster. The stories we tell ourselves about our abilities shape what we’re actually able to accomplish. Read more

MBA Admissions Myths Destroyed: I Need to Tell It All! (Part 1)

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Manhattan Prep GRE Blog - MBA Admissions Myths Destroyed: I Need to Tell It All! (Part 1) by mbaMission

What have you been told about applying to business school? With the advent of chat rooms, blogs and forums, armchair “experts” often unintentionally propagate MBA admissions myths, which can linger and undermine an applicant’s confidence. Some applicants are led to believe that schools want a specific “type” of candidate and expect certain GMAT scores and GPAs, for example. Others are led to believe that they need to know alumni from their target schools and/or get a letter of reference from the CEO of their firm in order to get in. In this series, mbaMission debunks these and other myths and strives to take the anxiety out of the admissions process.


In your pursuit of acceptance to business school, you are competing against thousands of other applicants. Because you do not actually know these individuals, you may naturally assume that you need any and every edge available to stand out. As a result, you may feel compelled to provide every single detail of your life, exploiting your MBA resume in particular to do so. We want you to maximize your opportunities, of course, but we also want to be sure you do not jeopardize your application by offering too much information. Read more

Perfectionism is the Enemy of the GRE

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Manhattan Prep GRE Blog - Perfectionism is the Enemy of the GRE by Tom Anderson

You can attend the first session of any of our online or in-person GRE courses absolutely free. Crazy, right? Check out our upcoming courses here.


Do you consider yourself a perfectionist?

Maybe you wouldn’t normally use that word to describe yourself, but be honest, didn’t the typo in the sentence above drive you at least a little bit crazy? Read more