| Quantitative Section Made Easy: Strategies |
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If you've read my earlier
GMAT lessons you should know what to
expect on the Quantitative Section. I will now help you with
general tips about actually writing your GMAT - specifically the Quantitative
Section. First of all, how does the GMAT work? Remember that GMAT is a totally computerized test, which means that it works unlike any other pen-and-paper test you've ever taken. You won't see questions progressing from easy to hard, or randomly scattered around with varying difficulty levels. Those guys actually have a computer program that works on getting your score right. Which leads us to tip 1: Be right early on. The way the computer works is this - you start off with a medium-difficulty question. If you get the answer right, you move on to a tougher question. If you get it wrong you'll be given an easier question. This means that if you're right early on, you've got better chances of staying in the relatively high position and ending up with a higher score. While it's possible to work your way back up from a few early mistakes, it puts more pressure on you throughout the test, so being right early will help you out. Wait, the last questions don't count? Sure they count, every single question counts. They just help placing your specific score rather than your overall range like the earlier questions do, so they count less. On that note, keep in mind tip 2: Answer every question. The GMAT method gives a harsh penalty for not finishing a section, so if you don't finish on time you won't do well. You can't skip questions, unfortunately, so if you don't know something, don't kill yourself over it- guess the best you can. We'll come back to guessing in a bit, but remember - pace yourself so that you don't leave any questions blank. If I don't know the answer, what do I do? First of all, don't panic. The GMAT contains several experimental questions, which means they're only used to ensure that the test is fair and standardized. About 25 percent of the questions don't count, so if you don't know the answer to a question, it may not affect your score at all. As a matter of fact, you should be happy about not knowing the answer. Getting stuck on a difficult question usually indicates that you've answered the last question right. Remember the order of difficulty concept. How about guessing? The GMAT has no correction factor, since you can't leave questions blank. So guessing is always to way to go if you don't know what the answer is. But how do we guess? Some general principles apply. Most questions will include answers that just represent playing around with the numbers given, like adding them all up. These usually are never the right answers, except for the really easy problems. Difficult questions will usually feature obvious answers that seem right. More often than not, these answers are there to throw the average person off, and they'll usually be wrong. Note that the Data-Sufficiency questions have a whole guessing-theory to them. Here is a review of the data-sufficiency problems, and here are the basics of the guessing mechanics:
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But what if I actually want to answer the question
right without guessing? Of course, that's the ideal situation. The number one trick for most math questions is to Plug In: |
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When dealing with geometry problems, use the
diagrams. Unless stated otherwise they're drawn to
scale, and they'll always help. And if they don't give you a
diagram, just draw one yourself. One more thing - you get no calculator to work with here. So if you're uncomfortable solving simple two-digit multiplication and division, or working with fractions on pen and paper, practice until you are. You don't want to get caught with your pants down on the calculations when you know how to solve the actual problem. The most important tip is, of course, come prepared. Practice as much as possible before you face the actual GMAT so that you're comfortable with the material and you already know how to pace yourself correctly. Don't just smile and hope for the best, do work- as much as work possible, until you're sick of GMAT material. Trust me, if you do enough work you'll do so well on the GMAT you can forget about it forever, whereas if you don't prepare well enough you may have to retake the test and study all over again (and nobody wants that!). |
» Additional GMAT Lessons
»» Quantitative: Problem Solving I
»» Quantitative: Data Sufficiency
»» Quantitative: More Strategies
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