Integrated Reasoning and Essay GMAT Strategy Guide (Manhattan GMAT Instructional, Guide 9)

This book is suppose to do a number of things according to its covers:1. "Illuminates the Two Initial sections of the GMAT"2. "Teaches Effective Strategies for the New IR Section."3. "Enables Optimal Performance on the Argument Essay"4*. This book is also "Updated for The Official Guide for GMAT Review 13th Edition"(*I am sure some of you are wondering why #4 is relevant. I will get to that point in a bit.)5. "Includes 6 Free Online Exams"To rate this book, I will explain whether this book delivers the above 5 promises on the cover.IR section:Long story short, this book does indeed provides comprehensive overview of IR section.So item #1 on the cover is true.At first, I thought it was organized little bit weird because this book breaks down the problem types into two types (IR quant and IR verbal) instead of the actual problem types (table, graphs, etc).However, this approach works and helped me understand what these problems are about.On the flip side, I didn't feel that the "strategy" in the book was very good.Below is the strategy of the book:1. Understand the prompt2. Understand the question3. Plan your approach4. Solve the problemI mean, come on. I don't need to buy a book to know this "4 step approach".I was hoping to get some tips on how to get through the problem quickly because I kept running out of time during practice test.This book didn't really help in that regard.So item #2 was not true for me.Essay section:Again, this book provides comprehensive overview of essay section as it did for IR section.So item #1 on the cover is true.It also gives you insight on how essays are graded and how you can improve your essay score.This really helped me figure out the right writing style to use for essay section.Essay section is not like Verbal and Quant section where you can check the score after taking a practice test.There is really no way to know how well you are doing with Essay section unless you buy the essay grading software from MBA.com.I was rather nervous about essay section but this book provided some good insight and that was very helpful.So I would say item #3 on the cover is true.Now, do you remember item #4 on the cover?4*. This book is also "Updated for The Official Guide for GMAT Review 13th Edition"When you read through the essay section of this book, this book basically advertises "The Official Guide for GMAT Review 13th Edition". It literally tells you to go to Chapter 11 of "The Official Guide for GMAT Review 13th Edition".Why the hell do I need to buy another book to use this book? Why isn't this book a standalone product?I wouldn't say this is a bait-and-switch but it is kind of like a bait-and-switch.So item #4 on the cover is true but in a bad way.Misc:Now to one of the best part of this book, item #5 on the cover.5. "Includes 6 Free Online Exams"When studying for GMAT, I realized that it is very important to build mental stamina, to familiarize myself with the GMAT problems and to train myself to work under time pressure.When I was studying, I did as many practice exams as possible.Manhattan GMAT website provides 6 practice tests (1 free + 5 paid) that are invaluable to test takers.I found these tests rather difficult but it was really helpful because the actual GMAT was easy compared to the practice test.Also, note that this book is much cheaper than the full version of the book but provides the same access to practice tests.In conclusion, I gave this book 3 start because it only delivers 3 out 5 promises on the cover.1. "Illuminates the Two Initial sections of the GMAT" - Good. This book provides comprehensive over view of IR and essay sections.2. "Teaches Effective Strategies for the New IR Section." - Bad. Strategy in this book is basically pointing out the obvious and was not helpful3. "Enables Optimal Performance on the Argument Essay" - Good. Explains how essays are graded and how to improve the score.4*. This book is also "Updated for The Official Guide for GMAT Review 13th Edition" - Bad. This book basically advertises the full version of the book.5. "Includes 6 Free Online Exams" - Good. Extra practice test for cheaper price.

I've tried three different GMAT strategy guides and I have to say that GMAT is the most comprehensive. It has easy, normal, and hard difficulty questions and does a good job of teaching you concepts.

I was really disappointed in this book. It barely tells you any strategies for the questions other than read the question and use the skills you learned from quant and verbal. And there are no practice problems, just a few examples. There are some practice essay prompts, but they basically tell you if English is your first language and you write well you don't need to worry about the essay because most B-schools won't even read essays that score a 4 or better. The only good thing about purchasing this book was access to the "six" practice exams. I put six in quotation marks because one of the free tests is available to everyone without buying anything, and I had already taken it before buying this book. It is not a full exam and does not include IR or essay practice. So really you get 5 full length practice exams by buying something from Manhattan. HOWEVER if you buy any of the other Manhattan books you also get these tests- they only have 5 tests total available with the same questions no matter how many books you buy. I am glad I have access to more practice tests but this is a really weak resource. If you want a much better explanation of IR with strategies for the section, targeted strategies for each question type and lots of practice problems check out Cracking the New GMAT 2013. I got it from my library for free.

The good thing is that the book actually relaxes you about the IR section. Shows you how to look beyond the questions. Some of the strategies are helpful and when I started reading them I actually developed some on my own. There isn't much to practice on in the book but they do give you a special code in the end page for 6 full-length computer adaptive exams which are very useful considering how hard it is to find full exams. But what the book did for me is that it taught me how to overcome the panic and annoyance with the IR questions. I actually started to enjoy them and appreciate their trickiness. The Writing Strategy Section was ok, it points out the things that you should bear in mind to get a high grade. In general, I am very happy with the Manhattan books, they have helped a lot! Especially with Math so I would recommend them all, including this one.

You can really get prepared for the GMAT exam by using this book. Have "fun"... Hah! Nope the exam wasn't fun but thanks to this book and a couple of others I scored high enough to get admitted to a good graduate program. Don't kid yourself. The GMAT is NOT an easy exam. This is a great book you can use.

Although IR comes before the quantitative and verb sections, Manhattan offers sound advice in focusing of quantitive and verb review before devoting much time to IR. Likewise, developing the analytica skills for CR should come before spending much time on the Argument Essay. Buying the book provides access to Manhattan's online resources--another reason to buy this book.

Manhattan GMAT products are great and simple to understand. The content is logically organized and easy to digest. I already have the whole package.

I purchased several review books, but ended up only having time to use the best of the bunch. This was one of the best.

Fast Delivery !Very Good

As the IR section is relatively new, people preparing for GMAT often are not able to find enough practice material or even any good material to improve their IR scores. Manhattan GMAT IR Guide provides enough insight into the section with example for each type of question. Personally this book helped me a lot during my preparation. From 3-4 out of 8 in IR section, this book improved my score to 6 out of 8.Regarding the essay portion, the book provides detailed break up explanation of how to write an argument essay in GMAT. Additionally this book has evaluated an example 6.0 rated essay line by line explaining the methodology and line reasoning that is to be followed while writing the GMAT essay.

Das Buch wurde kurz nach der Änderung des GMATs veroffentlich als noch wenig Info über diesen neuen Teil verfügbar war, was natürlich damals genial war. Heutzutage alles was im Buch steht kann man locker in Internet finden. Die Didaktik ist immer noch cool (wie alles von Manhattan) aber wie gesagt, nichts neues.Das coolste dran ist bestimmt die 6 online Exams. Das finde ich richtig cool vor allem für wenig als 8 Euro (Kindleversion - Stand Sep. 2014)

Está bien para introducirte en los nuevos problemas pero se requiere de mucha más práctica para superar con nota esta parte en el examen,

Die Erklärungen zu IR und Essay sind mir zu oberflächlich gehalten. Beispiele und Lernmaterial sind knapp bemessen. Format und Qualität sind ok.