Student From Another GMAT Course (ManhattanGMAT) Writes In For Help

Oftentimes, we hear stories from students who have used other GMAT prep programs multiple times. Some of these programs are upwards of $1,000 so we cringe when we hear students forking over thousands of dollars multiple times. In this case, the student used ManhattanGMAT multiple times and is looking for an alternative solution for her situation.

It’s really not about the money though. It can definitely be worth it if you pay $1,000 and actually get the help that you need. But why would you do the same thing over and over?

Remember – if something doesn’t work – don’t just keep doing the same thing! Change the way you think. I can’t emphasize it enough! The most important thing on the GMAT exam is HOW YOU THINK.

No, it’s not about how fancy the web platform of whatever online course you are using is. It’s not about how many different ways they slice and dice your performance analytics. That’s all just for show.

The real way to improve on the GMAT is to change or adopt a more efficient way of thinking so that you can avoid all the booby traps because you know where they are. You can answer questions without necessarily reading every single word of each answer choice.

That’s the key to success on the GMAT.

This student above reminds me of the Oxford MBA who came and told us about how we helped him conquer the GMAT monster that had haunted him for 2 years while he was with ManhattanGMAT.

To the student who wrote in, here’s our response:

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GMAT Official Guide 12: PS #148

Zeke– is there any possible way of going about this problem without having to simplify and then find the boundaries of x and y? The explanation in the OG12 is very confusing. I wanted to know if there was a more efficient way to solve this problem.

Thanks!
Katie

Hi Katie,

The question implies that there are certain values that k cannot be. Indeed, the OG explanation is confusing. Most people would not be able to simplify expressions to that level of depth.

But because you know that k cannot be certain values, you can always try the various values of x, y, and k. Put together a chart and do some quick math in your head. Make sure you write it out and that you only test values of x

You can simplify it up to the expression 10y/(x+y)..then put the following table together

x y expression (10y/(x+y)
———————
1 2 6.7ish
1 3 7.5
2 3 6
2 8 8
2 20 ~10

So it seems like we found values of k in the range of 6-10ish is doable. You need to add 10 to it since the expression you simplified it to was

10 + 10y/(x+y)

So the range of k values is roughly 16-20. Of the answer choices, only 18 fits in (D). And you can assume that the reason why you haven’t been able to generate values outside of that range is because those are invalid values of k. So you can safely assume all the other answer choices are no good.

Hope that helps!

GMAT Pill Support Team

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NYC Mayor Bloomberg on Steve Jobs, Entrepreneurship, and NYC

Entrepreneurship is increasingly becoming a popular field of study at top MBA programs across the country. My alma mater (Stanford) is most well known for its entrepreneurial spirit, but other programs including Wharton and MIT Sloan have solid programs in the study of entrepreneurship as well.

Last, GMATPill had the luxury of listening to Mayor Bloomberg give a speech about entrepreneurship at NY Tech Meetup. For those of you who don’t know, Mayor Bloomberg used to work on wall street–in the back office way back in the early 70s. He actually got FIRED and rumor has it that he “cried like a baby.”

Getting fired can’t be fun so I’m sure a lot of us would be pretty desperate in his shoes as well.

But Bloomberg didn’t give up. He figured with all the work that he did at the investment bank, he could just independently start his own business and sell that same stuff to clients. It wasn’t easy but he mustered through.

As he says in the speech, the first year is easy because you’ve got all your hopes up and your motivation is there. The third year is easy as well because you see the light at the end of the tunnel and you know you’re results are about to come.

But it’s the middle year that is the toughest – when you’ve gone a long way but haven’t gotten any results yet. Motivation isn’t quite as strong as it was in the beginning and you don’t know if you’re on the right track.

This is the risk in entrepreneurship. But Bloomberg adapted with things like the rise of the PC at the time and other trends in the market. He started selling terminals to all the banks in NY – and today it’s one of the most well-established brands in data services for all of finance.

Oh, right to top all of that, he’s also the MAYOR OF NEW YORK – the epicenter of all business in the western hemisphere and possibly the entire world.

So listen up to Bloomberg’s speech. He talks about Steve Jobs – similarities they both have (both got fired from their company and rebounded to the point where the former company worked for them) and both believe in listening to your customers — but not TOO much.

He also talks about his vision for driving NYC to be the a hub of entrepreneurship and innovation at the same level as Silicon Valley.

If you want to start your own business one day, you’ll learn a thing or two! Take a listen!

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Verbal Videos: Sentence Correction | Critical Reasoning | Reading Comprehension
Quant Videos: Problem Solving | Data Sufficiency