Official Guide GMAT Quantitative Review

The Official Guide for GMAT Quantitative Review, 2nd Edition

The only official quantitative review for the GMAT from the creators of the test. Anyone preparing for the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) knows it's important to study with the experts. With The Official Guide for the GMAT Quantitative Review, Second Edition, you'll get questions, answers, and explanations straight from the source. The only official quantitative review for the GMAT Exam, this book targets your study and helps you improve your quantitative skills by focusing on your ability to solve equations, interpret data, coordinate geometry, and determine probability with assurance and ease. Inside, you'll find

* 300 actual questions from past GMAT tests, including 75 questions new to this edition
* Sections on Arithmetic, Algebra, Geometry, Problem Solving, and Data Sufficiency
* Questions organized in order of difficulty to save study time

The Graduate Management Admission Council certifies all content so you can trust that you're getting expert guidance as you prepare for the GMAT Exam.

The Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) is the association of leading graduate business schools around the world. GMAC's mission is to meet the needs of business schools and students through a wide array of products, services, and programs. It is the owner and administrator of the Graduate Management Admissions Test (GMAT), the first and only standardized test specifically designed for graduate business and management programs. Available in nearly 100 countries, it is the global standard for entry to the MBA degree course.

Top Myths About the GMAT®

Myth – If I don’t score in the 90th percentile, I won’t get into any school I choose.

Fact – Very few people get very high scores.

Fewer than 50 of the more than 200,000 people taking the GMAT test each year get a perfect score of 800. Thus, while you may be exceptionally capable, the odds are against your achieving a perfect score. Also, the GMAT test is just one piece of your application packet. Admissions officers use GMAT scores in conjunction with undergraduate records, application essays, interviews, letters of recommendation, and other information when deciding whom to accept into their programs.

Myth – Getting an easier question means I answered the last one wrong.

Fact – Getting an easier question does not necessarily mean you got the previous question wrong.

To ensure that everyone receives the same content, the test selects a specific number of questions of each type. The test may call for your next question to be a relatively hard problem-solving item involving arithmetic operations. But, if there are no more relatively difficult problem-solving items involving arithmetic, you might be given an easier item.

Most people are not skilled at estimating item difficulty, so don’t worry when taking the test or waste valuable time trying to determine the difficulty of the questions you are answering.

Myth – You need very advanced math skills to get a high GMAT score.

Fact – The math skills questions on the GMAT test are quite basic.

The GMAT test only requires basic quantitative analytic skills. You should review the math skills (algebra, geometry, basic arithmetic) presented in both The Official Guide for GMAT® Quantitative Review, 2nd Edition, and in The Official Guide for GMAT® Review, 12th Edition, but the required skill level is low. The difficulty of GMAT Quantitative questions stems from the logic and analysis used to solve the problems and not the underlying math skills.

Myth – It is more important to respond correctly to the test questions than it is to finish the test.

Fact – There is a severe penalty for not completing the GMAT test.

If you are stumped by a question, give it your best guess and move on. If you guess incorrectly, the computer program will likely give you an easier question, which you are likely to answer correctly, and the computer will rapidly return to giving you questions matched to your ability. If you don’t finish the test, your score will be reduced greatly. Failing to answer five verbal questions, for example, could reduce your score from the 91st percentile to the 77th percentile. Pacing is important.

Myth –The first 10 questions are critical and you should invest the most time on those.

Fact – All questions count.

It is true that the computer-adaptive testing algorithm uses the first 10 questions to obtain an initial estimate of your ability; however, that is only an initial estimate. As you continue to answer questions, the algorithm self-corrects by computing an updated estimate on the basis of all the questions you have answered, and then administers items that are closely matched to this new estimate of your ability. Your final score is based on all your responses and considers the difficulty of all the questions you answered. Taking additional time on the first 10 questions will not game the system and can hurt your ability to finish the test.

Myth – I need to speak US English in order to do well on the GMAT.

Fact- Essay grading is not affected by dialect of English. Questions on the GMAT are evaluated to ensure they are fair for all examinees, whether in the US or around the world.

From the Back Cover:
The only study guide with 300 past GMAT questions—and their answers—by the creators of the test.

* Actual questions from past GMAT tests, including 75 questions new to this edition
* 300 past Problem Solving and Data Sufficiency questions and answer explanations spanning Arithmetic, Algebra, Geometry, and Word Problems
* Questions organized in order of difficulty to save study time

From the Graduate Management Admission Council

Trust the only official quantitative review for the gmat from the creators of the test!

Anyone preparing for the GMAT exam knows it's important to study with the experts. With The Official Guide for GMAT Quantitative Review, 2nd Edition, you'll get questions, answers, and explanations straight from the source. An excellent supplement to The Official Guide for GMAT Review,12th Edition, this book helps you target your study and further hone your math and reasoning skills.

Inside you'll find:

* 300 actual questions from past GMAT tests—including 75 questions new to this edition
* Problem Solving and Data Sufficiency questions spanning Arithmetic, Algebra, Geometry, and Word Problems
* Questions organized in order of difficulty to save study time

Visit www.mba.com to:

* Get 2 free downloadable tests and practice questions
* Sign up for the GMAT Teasers, a weekly practice question
* Register to take the GMAT exam

Product Details:

1. Paperback: 216 pages
2. Publisher: Wiley; 2 edition (September 8, 2009)
3. Language: English
4. ISBN-10: 0470449764
5. ISBN-13: 978-0470449769
6. Product Dimensions: 10.7 x 8.4 x 0.4 inches
7. Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces

Most Helpful Customer Reviews:
A good way to practice, but not to study..., March 21, 2006 By GMAT 760
This book is a quick way to jam through some GMAT practice math questions, nothing more and nothing less. I sat down and did it in a weekend without too much effort. I agree with other reviews that this book is not a good place to begin your studying in that there aren't many pages devoted to concepts - it really is just a tool for practice. As mentioned in other reviews, the questions are in order of difficulty. I found this useful because it gives you a very clear sense of what the GMAT considers difficult versus the types of questions that are considered easy. If you're like me, you'll zip through the bulk of the questions and then hit a wall where you notice you're getting more and more wrong - a good thing, while you're still studying! Kaplan questions are generally harder than these, Princeton Review a bit easier, and Barron's are just plain bizarre. Given the huge inconsistency across books - it's nice to ground yourself in "official" questions once in awhile.

Nothing's better than test-like practice, August 15, 2006 By Jeff Sackmann
This book is slimmer than the orange Official Guide, weighing in at about 300 problems, but if you need more math practice, it's a great resource. One caveat: the average difficulty level of questions in this book is somewhat lower than that of the questions in the Official Guide. If you're already getting a 650 or better on practice tests, or if you are comfortable with the vast majority of math problems in the Official Guide, go ahead and skip this one. If you're not yet at that level, this is an excellent supplement to the orange book.

It can't be emphasized enough the importance of doing "authentic" practice questions: while some test-prep companies are better than others, none have completely mastered the exact tone and nature of GMAT questions. As these questions are written by the same folks who write the test, you can't really improve on the authenticity.

The Quant Review book does have some actual math "review" material, but it's very official in nature. Not a shortcut in sight. Buy it for the questions; read the review if you're stuck in the subway without a pencil and scratch paper.

Fairly useful, March 12, 2006 By J. Cohen
I bought this after going through the 2005 Kaplan GMAT book. The pro's are that it has a lot of actual past math questions (176 problem solving & 118 Data Sufficiency) and they are very similar to the type of question you will encounter on the real test because the book is by GMAC (the makers of the actual GMAT test). Therefore, it's great as a source for additional practice. The con's are that it has a very brief instructional section that isn't very useful at all and the problems are organized in order of increasing difficulty. This means that approximately the last 20 questions of both P/S and D/S type problems will be like the real thing, assuming you are doing fairly well on the real thing and only receiving difficult level questions. All in all, I highly recommend using this in conjunction with another more thorough GMAT review (such as Kaplan), but not on its own. And if you want an accurate full-length practice test then definitely use the 2 FREE practice tests downloadable from MBA.com when you register to take the GMAT - they are much better indicators of actual performance than Kaplan.