GMAT strategy Approach - Foundations first and then what?

[StevenP680]

I have been out of school for nearly a decade and I bought the Math Foundations book (6th edition). I found that I had several videos from previously recorded live/interactive webcasts in Atlas as a result of my purchase from the activation code in the back of the book taught by Mr. Gutman (I believe). Great teacher by the way.

So here is my first questions: As I purchase the verbal foundation book from Amazon, will that also include several more pre-recorded videos? I found them very helpful in conjunction with reading the book.

So here is my second question: Do all books include such video tutorials? For example, if I get the GMAT Advanced Quant book, does that also include some videos?

And here is my third question: I like to read from the book and move through videos at my own pace. I don't like the live videos as I have other commitments I attend to and cannot sit down for a 3 hour block of time. That being said, what review program/strategy on here is best for the aforementioned constraints?

Overall, I am really happy with Manhattan prep so far, seems like a great culture around the GMAT. Sorry if these questions seem self-evident but I'm a bit confused as to what comes with what since I can buy books individually from retail vendors or amazon, but then can only purchase them in groups or bundles here.

[StaceyKoprince]

Welcome! Love that you're starting with Foundations of Math! Smart. Glad you like Avi's videos. There are 5 total (with about 7 hours of instruction overall); I think you have access to the first part (about 45-50 minutes of lessons) with FoM. If you like those, there are more. They can be bought just themselves, but from the questions you're asking, you might like a certain program that also comes with those. But first, let me answer your other questions.

We do not have equivalent videos for Foundations of Verbal (FoV), no. In general, we find that almost everyone in North America (which is where most of our students are) can use a thorough Foundations brush-up on the math side. On the verbal side, more people in this region can skip FoV and start with the main All the Verbal strategy guide. If we were located in another part of the world, we might have done the reverse.

You might try taking a practice test to see what your starting Verbal score is; that will help you to know whether you need FoV. (Feel free to discuss with me here if you're not sure.)

And, yes! You noticed part of our business strategy. We don't sell the individual guides on our site because Amazon Rules All. It's better for the Amazon rankings to have all your book sales go through that site. (Sigh. Capitalism.)

So we restrict our own site to selling "programs." Our full GMAT program comes in various flavors—you can take a live class or work with a tutor, yes, but we also have GMAT Interact, which consists of...I'll call them "enhanced video" lessons. It contains all of the same lessons we teach in our live classes, but the video components include other things you're doing to interact with the lessons that result in a sort of choose-your-own-adventure path (choose an answer to this problem—if you get it right, you get sent to one video, but if you get it wrong, you get sent to another video...that kind of thing).

You can actually try the first session for free (this is true for most of our programs)—you're on the GMAT Starter Kit syllabus in Atlas? Look under Try More For Free and click on Try GMAT Interact. You'll get access to the first session (for 7 days, I think?) for free, so you can see whether Interact works for you. That program comes with all of our main strategy guides as well as FoM and FoV, and it includes all 7 hours of Avi's FoM videos, too. It also comes with the latest Official Guide from the real testmakers.

Basically, that program comes with almost all of our materials, both physical and online. (There's another program, the Self Study Toolkit, that doesn't include any of the video stuff but is just all the books and online non-video stuff—but it sounds like you find the videos useful.)

I have also had students who, like you, didn't want to sit for a three-hour class, but did want to see a tape of a live teacher's class (like you're seeing with Avi) and have the ability to email a specific teacher if they had questions or needed advice. In that case, they've actually paid for a live course but just watched the master recordings of the class rather than actually attending live. This is a more expensive route to go, though—I would check out Interact first. I'm just mentioning it because others in the past have said similar things to what you're saying and then have decided to do this.

Let me know if you have any other questions! Or if you want to talk to someone on the phone, you can also call our 800 number (800.576.GMAT).

[StevenP680]

Hi Stacey,

Thanks for replying. Your response is incredibly insightful. I think I am leaning towards interact for now. That sounds like the right fit for me at the moment given my budget constraints and timeline. I will probably go through the "try me" stuff you mentioned first.

I will chime in soon to either thank you again or let you know if I have any issues.

This helps tremendously - fyi.

Best.

[StaceyKoprince]

Good, I'm glad the info is helpful! Yes, definitely do the free trial first—might as well take advantage of anything free before you buy.

And, like I said, feel free to ask me more questions here or to use the chat feature on our website or call someone. (I answer questions here 2 days a week, so if you want an answer right away, then call or use the chat feature.)

Happy studying!

[StevenP680]

Good, I'm glad the info is helpful! Yes, definitely do the free trial first—might as well take advantage of anything free before you buy.

And, like I said, feel free to ask me more questions here or to use the chat feature on our website or call someone. (I answer questions here 2 days a week, so if you want an answer right away, then call or use the chat feature.)

Happy studying!

Heya, so about two days into the interact program, full version. I'm really loving it actually. I found out I don't even need to take the GMAT (it was waived) but I'm taking it anyways because I find the skillset I'm developing from this incredibly useful for brain fitness and to see if I can get a high enough score to land another program.

That being said, I really like the way interact is structured. Each lesson allows me to cover the relevant parts of each guide. Without this program I would have linearly progressed through foundations without hitting the harder concepts - time waisted.

I strongly recommend you keep expanding, developing, refining this program. It's great for self-starters and people who have kids and need to study on their own plan.

[StaceyKoprince]

Thanks for the feedback—that's really helpful! As you continue, please keep the feedback coming (positive and negative).

I do think there's a way to do what you're describing even if someone only has the guides—it's similar to what we do in our syllabus for our courses, in fact. You basically go back and forth—so do 1-2 chapters in Foundations of Math, then the first few chapters of the All the Quant guide, etc. The only issue is knowing exactly which FoM chapters precede which AtQ chapters (which we know, of course, so that's why it's valuable to have a syllabus telling you what to do ).