Product Description

Introduction Over the past few years, the number of GMAT (Graduate Management Admissions Test) questions involving statistics, permutations & combinations, and probability has increased substantially. Unlike the vast majority of GMAT concepts, most people do no cover these subjects in high school or college. Consequently, the makers of the test rely on these topics to create the most challenging problems, heightening the difficulty of the test. However, despite the growing number of these questions, their presence in test preparation guides and courses remains conspicuously limited. In other words, the test preparation companies are lagging behind the recent trends, short-changing their customers. Project GMAT addresses that need. A New Focus This is the first publication that focuses entirely on statistics, permutations & combinations, and probability and offers a comprehensive coverage of all material in one source. The guide concentrates on strategies unique to the most difficult test problems and illustrates them with a number of exercises and problems devoted solely to statistics, permutations & combinations, and probability. Because it focuses on the most advanced topics, this text provides more problems and covers a wider spectrum of questions on these topics than does any other preparation guide. High Scores Because of its advanced content, this text is for students aiming to score at least in the 80th percentile on the quantitative section. The reader should be familiar with the structure, content, and general strategies of the GMAT and have a good command of algebra and arithmetic. By focusing on an advanced audience, we can concentrate on the most value-added strategies and analyze the hardest questions, omitting elementary information and trivial algebraic concepts. By contrast, the topics on statistics, permutations & combinations, and probability are covered in comprehensive detail at the test level and do not assume any familiarity on the part of the reader. If you have achieved a strong command of the mathematical concepts covered on the GMAT, this guide will help you make the final push to achieve your desired score. Beyond the GMAT Since the material on statistics and probability is a part of many quantitative courses in business school, this book will give you an advantage when you begin your MBA program. Rather than waiting to learn these subjects in school, you can master them now and gain entry into a better MBA program. Structure of the Book Each of the three main topics —statistics, permutations & combinations, and probability— is given its own chapter in this book. Each section starts with a thorough review of theoretical concepts and formulas, illustrated with examples and exercises. Throughout the example sections, we provide strategy tips and shortcuts aimed at improving your accuracy and time efficiency on the test. After a series of exercises, we illustrate each concept with two representative test problems, usually of intermediate or high level of difficulty, followed by explanations of the shortcuts and strategies applicable to the particular type of question. We classify each question according to its level of difficulty: from 1 (easy) to 4 (very difficult). Each section painstakingly develops strategies unique to the particular topic —statistics, permutations & combinations, or probability. A summary of the key concepts, formulas, and strategies is included at the end of each chapter. Finally, to respond to the growing diversity of questions at the highest levels of difficulty, this text provides a number of exercises, and 101 problems in the test format, each with detailed solutions and explanations. All of the exercises, and 36 of the problems, appear in the text to reinforce the material in the chapters. We organized the remaining 65 questions in the problem sets, by topic, providing invaluable material for practice.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #515588 in Books
• Published on: 2005-04
• Binding: Paperback
• 218 pages

Customer Reviews

For advanced students-- Great content, bad editing
This is the only book dedicated to the topic of statistics, permutations/combinations, and probability for GMAT. As it says on the cover, this covers advanced strategies for high scorers. One reviewer wrote that the 80% of the things here, you won't see on GMAT. You're right, in a sense. Only when you get to the high end of the adaptive test, will you see some (more like a few) of these problems. Does this diminish the value of this book? Not at all! To the contrary, these are the concepts that will separate 80%tile from 90+ %tile. I could not find better coverage on this topic from any other leading test prep companies and books. Kaplan (I'm a former Kaplan instructor) and Princeton review only does a cursory review of these topics, and Manhattan GMAT isn't too much better (I do think Manhattan GMAT's advanced classes are some of the best, however). This book is the only book that provides the SYSTEMATIC approach to solving these types of problems with some excellent tips to avoid pitfalls on the GMAT.

However, this books isn't without flaws. I found a number of problems with unclear phrasing that's open to ambiguous interpretations, which will result in different answers (ex. problem #69 is ambiguous, # 73 has question altering typo, #94 needs to specify one of each color, etc.). Regardless, by reviewing the detailed answer explanation, you can figure out the meaning of the question and, more significantly, the intent of the concept tested in the question.

You are aiming for scores in the 95%tile or better, but having problems with math? Do the entire official GMAT guide. Then, take the three advanced courses from Manhattan GMAT and supplement with this book afterwards.

Bottom line: there is no better alternative in covering these topics.

another Veritas Prep achievement
I took the Veritas Prep GMAT course and enjoyed it immensely. The developers of the book let me look at an advanced copy of Project GMAT while I was preparing for the exam.

CONS: the book is designed for people who already have above average math skills. Project GMAT is not for beginners!

PROS: I found it to be extrordinarily useful during my studies. In fact, it's the only book I know of that covers the truly difficult math problems on the quantititive section of the GMAT.

I ultimately scored above the 99th percentile on the GMAT!

An ABSOLUTE MUST if you want a Q47+
If you plan on getting a Q47+, I would highly recommend this book. Although it is very unlikely that you will get any problems as difficult as the ones laid out in this book, you need to know how to answer the questions. I personally found the section that covers Venn diagrams to be very helpful (3 questions using this on the real deal).

There is no possible way of avoiding these types of questions once you get in the high 40's to 50's range.