Product Description

The Critical Reasoning Guide simplifies arguments by illustrating innovative diagramming techniques designed to increase comprehension and improve accuracy.Each chapter builds comprehensive content understanding by providing rules, strategies and in-depth examples of how the GMAT tests a given topic and how you can respond accurately and quickly. The Guide contains a total of 70 'In-Action' problems of increasing difficulty with detailed answer explanations. The content of the book is aligned to the latest Official Guides from GMAC (12th edition).

Special Features:

Purchase of this book includes one year of access to Manhattan GMAT's online Critical Reasoning Question Bank (accessible by inputting a unique code in the back of each book).

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #22451 in Books
• Published on: 2009-05-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 200 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780982423806
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From the Publisher
Chapter by Chapter

1. ARGUMENT STRUCTURE
Parts of an Argument, Finding a Conclusion, Common Signal Words, Identifying Conclusions and Premises, An Alternate Way

2. DIAGRAMMING
The T-Diagram, Efficient Diagramming, Model Arguments

3. GENERAL STRATEGY
Question Stem, 'Except' Questions, Boundary and Extreme Words in Question Stem, Process of Elimination, Boundary and Extreme Words in Answer Choices

4. FIND THE ASSUMPTION
Close Ties to the Conclusion, Categories of Assumptions, Wrong Answer Choice Types, Least Extreme negation (Advanced)

5. DRAW A CONCLUSION
Stay Close to the Premises, Use Real Numbers, Make an Inference, Wrong Answer Choice Types

6. STRENGTHEN THE CONCLUSION
S-W-Slash Chart, Decide Between Two Attractive Answer Choices, Wrong Answer Choice Types

7. WEAKEN THE CONCLUSION
Argument/Conterargument, S-W Slash Chart Revisited, Wrong Answer Choice Types

8. MINOR QUESTION TYPES
Explain an Event or Discrepancy, Analyze the Argument Structure, Evaluate the Conclusion, Resolve a Problem, Provide an Example, Restate the Conclusion, Mimic the Argument

About the Author
Manhattan GMAT's 8 preparation guides were developed by Manhattan GMAT's talented staff of real teachers, all of whom have scored in the 99th percentile on the official GMAT. As the company focuses solely on the GMAT (no other tests), it continually updates the guides to reflect the GMAT's most current trends.

Customer Reviews

Not the finest of the bunch
As one who teaches the GMAT for a living, has written around 250 Critical Reasoning practice questions and is presently working on a Critical Reasoning manual, one thing that I have found remarkable about the GMAT Critical Reasoning section is the lack of good guides or practice materials.

Part of this is due, I suppose, to laziness: GMAT test prep companies cater largely to the Anglo-American market, which is largely not worried about the Verbal portion. The Verbal section encompasses far more than simply language, however--this is not the TOEFL--and in order to break the 700 ceiling a firm mastery of Critical Reasoning is absolutely essential.

Manhattan GMAT's Critical Reasoning guide, like nearly every other one on the market, appears eager to reassure students that "no knowledge of formal logic is necessary" to ace the Critical Reasoning questions. That is true but unhelpful information: most people of whatever nationality are simply SLOPPY thinkers and sloppy readers and need a serious recalibration. Perhaps no questions hinge on your knowledge of the terms "modus ponens," "modus tollens," "affirmation of the consequent," or "denial of the antecedent," but most people do not realize just how many arguments contain serious flaws and accept them without thinking critically, rendering themselves unable to dig out the problem when faced with it.

Furthermore, the refusal to structure the lessons along the lines of deduction and formal logic lead Manhattan to ignore the widely accepted mathematical conventions for diagraming arguments and suggest a great many vague and confusing symbols to that end. Diagramming arguments is useful in some situations, but only if you recognize what a valid argument (modus ponens or modus tollens) should look like.

The classification of questions is okay, but the excessive focus on GMAT content at the expense of developing logical skill sets severely mars this book, as well as a great many others. Sadly, at the moment it is the best of the major prep books on the market. Clearly, the amount invested in pedagoigical development has not kept pace with the great salaries Manhattan GMAT teachers receive.

Just what you need to study for the GMAT
This and all the other Manhattan GMAT guides were really helpful in helping me prep for the GMAT. My colleagues had recommended them over other guides and I continue to do the same after getting the score I needed on my first try.

Overall, good book
Overall, this is a good book, with detailed and accurate explanations on methods and what to expect in the exam.
One thing can be improved though - the questions/quizzes. Very small portion of the questions are not really good ones.