READ BEFORE YOU POST: General Math folder guidelines

[StaceyKoprince]

In addition to regular forum rules and information, this sticky contains rules specific to the General Math Questions folder; read this information even if you have already read stickies in other folders.

This folder is for GENERAL MATH questions that do not fit into one of the other specific math categories. ManhattanGMAT Math Strategy Guides, ManhattanGMAT CAT Math, and GMATPrep Math all have their own folders; please post any questions from those sources in the appropriate folder.

Before you post, please search! Your problem may already have been posted by someone else, in which case you can read the instructor's response right now instead of waiting. :)

It is ILLEGAL to reproduce / post questions that you (or someone) saw on the test when you took an official GMAT. Any offending posts will be deleted immediately from our forums. We also strongly recommend that you don't post official questions on any other forum; if you are caught, the people who make the test can ban you from taking it forever AND cancel any scores you already have (and there go your b-school hopes).

The following sources are also BANNED; do not post questions from these sources:
- Scoretop (being sued by GMAC for posting "live" test questions)
- "GMAT Sets" (uses copyrighted material from GMAC without permission)
- "Gmatter Software" (uses copyrighted material from GMAC without permission)
- OG and paper-based official GMAT tests (copyrighted material currently sold by GMAC)
- GMAT Focus (copyrighted material currently sold by GMAC)
- 1000SC (uses copyrighted material without permission; also many questions are of poor quality or contain typos that materially alter the problem)
- Platinum GMAT (poor quality)
- PowerScore (copyright request from PowerScore legal department)

Multiple-Choice Question Posting protocol
Please follow the below rules; if you don't, your question will not be answered.

1) Use the first five to eight words of the problem as your Subject heading. Also, post the entire text of the question and answer choices. Do not use abbreviations.

2) Cite the source (author or company name) and question number (if applicable) for any problem you post.

3) Be very explicit about your question / problem. Don't just post the text of a question without telling us why you're struggling!

4) Post one problem per thread; if you have more than one problem to review, start a new thread for each problem.

5) Only use image files for complicated diagrams or other things that cannot easily be typed in (eg, geometric shapes or seriously complex fractions). If a question is posted as an image, it will not appear in any search results for that particular problem. Also, it takes significantly longer for us to download and view image files - the more we have to do that, the fewer problems we can get through.

6) Please be polite and respectful. Inflammatory, profane, or otherwise unacceptable posts will be deleted and the poster banned.

Other Notes

We instructors will strive to respond to posts within 5 business days, but we can't always guarantee this during high-volume times. We will do our best though! If you are currently a student in one of our classes, use sections and/or your instructor for any pressing questions.

If one user posts 5 or more questions in a short period, it may take longer for that user to get a response to all questions because we will try to allocate our time evenly over all posters (to ensure that one person doesn't get a monopoly on instructor time).

We may respond to some very open-ended questions with a request to narrow the topic. For example, "How do I get better at Data Sufficiency?" is too broad to be answered in a forum (we spend hours on this in class!).

Happy studying!

[tejal777]

just one ues.If we come across a problem while browsing another site how do we post it here(if its not banned)You guys are saying that the name of the site is not enough.How do we find out who the author is?Sorry for the inconvinience!

[JonathanSchneider]

We can only post questions here if we know the author. Thus, if you come across something on another bulletin, etc., you cannot post it here unless the author was cited on that bulletin, etc. In addition, there are some websites from which we ban all content, because it is known that those sites have posted unauthorized material in the past.

[StaceyKoprince]

Just to add to Jonathan's post: you can ask whoever posted the other question to tell you who wrote it / where they got it. If they reply, then you can check to see whether the source is on the banned list here and, if not, you can post it here (with the author cited, of course!). :)

[RonPurewal]

finally:

when you cite the source of a problem, it is not acceptable to cite another forum as the source.

you need to cite the ORIGINAL source of the problem - i.e., the source in which it was originally published.

(if you don't have this information, you could always create your own problem, based on the unsourced one - i.e., change a few numbers, equations, etc. until the problem is substantively "different" from the original one.)

thanks!

[carlosamplus]

In many ways, tackling these elite math problems are similar to trying a solo climb in the Himalayas. Many of these problems have a history littered with previous attempts ending in insanity or even death. If you have studied ...

[tim]

okay...?

[mohitbhadauria]

I LOVE YOU Stacey

[jnelson0612]

I LOVE YOU Stacey

That's sweet! She'll be glad to see that. :-)

[StaceyKoprince]

lol - thanks Mohit

Posting to say that Platinum GMAT has been added to the list of banned sources. Multiple teachers have indicated that problems from this source are of poor quality.

[bhanotshreya9]

Great! With these guidelines now there will be some sanity in all the responses :)

[RonPurewal]

Great! With these guidelines now there will be some sanity in all the responses :)

That is our great hope, but, realistically, the proportion of posts to which we'll have to respond with "Please read the forum rules, thanks" is not likely to decline anytime soon.

[StaceyKoprince]

Please note that PowerScore has been added to the list of banned sources. PowerScore's legal department asked us not to allow their questions to be posted on our forums.