How Data Sufficiency Works
Data sufficiency problems are really weird—they were literally created for the GMAT, so if you’re new to the test, you’ve never seen math problems like this before. Even if you’ve been studying for a while, there’s a good chance you feel a little uncomfortable whenever a DS question pops up on the screen.
Why? Because you could completely mess up a DS question and still get to one of the 5 answer choices, having no idea that you messed something up. That’s a really uncomfortable feeling when taking a test! So let’s demystify the DS process.
Know the GMAT Code: Story Problems
Did you know that you can attend the first session of any of our online or in-person GMAT courses absolutely free? We’re not kidding! Check out our upcoming courses here.
How are the GMAT test writers going to hide information in plain sight and get you to fall into traps? Read more
Here’s What to Do When You Don’t Know What to Do on the GMAT
You’re staring at a GMAT problem that you just don’t understand. There’s a minute left on the clock. What do you do? Read more
Three things to love about GMAT Roman numeral problems
I. Roman numeral Quant problems aren’t a whole lot of fun.
II. A lot of my students choose to skip them entirely, which is much smarter than wasting five minutes wondering what to do!
III. However, it’s possible to turn this rare and tricky problem type into an opportunity.
Read on, and learn why many GMAT high-scorers love Roman numeral problems. Read more
Avoiding Calculations on GMAT Data Sufficiency
Did you know that you can attend the first session of any of our online or in-person GMAT courses absolutely free? We’re not kidding! Check out our upcoming courses here.
The beautiful thing about GMAT Data Sufficiency is that we’re allowed not to do all of the calculations that a Problem Solving problem might require. Still, leave it to the GMAT to try to suck you into doing more than you need to do in order to get to the answer.
Normally, I just toss you into a problem and then we discuss, but today I’m going to warn you: the GMATPrep® problem that I’m about to give you is going to do its best to make you waste time. As you try this problem, ask yourself, “Do I really need to do that calculation? Is there an easier way?”
Try this problem from the GMATPrep free exams. Read more
Here’s why you might be missing GMAT Data Sufficiency problems – Part 2
Did you know that you can attend the first session of any of our online or in-person GMAT courses absolutely free? We’re not kidding! Check out our upcoming courses here.
In our previous article, we divided the logical errors that test-takers make on Data Sufficiency questions into two types:
Type 1: You thought that something was sufficient, but it was actually insufficient.
Type 2: You thought that something was insufficient, but it was actually sufficient.
We already covered the most common reasons for Type 1 errors to occur and a few good ways to avoid them; now, let’s cover Type 2 errors. Read more
Here’s why you might be missing GMAT Data Sufficiency Problems – Part 1
Did you know that you can attend the first session of any of our online or in-person GMAT courses absolutely free? We’re not kidding! Check out our upcoming courses here.
Let’s talk about GMAT Data Sufficiency.
Specifically, let’s talk about getting GMAT Data Sufficiency (DS) problems wrong. And I don’t mean those problems that you missed because of careless math errors, or because of concepts you hadn’t learned yet. No, I’m talking about the missed DS problems that make you want to bang your head against the wall: How on Earth did I not get that?
There are two reasons you might have this experience: Read more
GMAT Data Sufficiency Ratio Stories — Part 1
How are you with story problems? Most math concepts can be presented in story form on the test and the GMAT test writers do like to get wordy with us. You’ve got a double task: you have to translate the words into math and then you still have to do the math! How can we get through these as efficiently as possible?
Try the GMATPrep® problem below and then we’ll talk about it. Give yourself about 2 minutes. Go!
The Importance of Getting to No on the GMAT — Part 1
Recently, a colleague of mine shared this very interesting puzzle published by the New York Times. (Thanks, Ceilidh!)
Go ahead and try it. I’ll wait. After you’ve tried the puzzle, you can read the short article that goes with it.
What did you learn about how humans tend to think? More important, what did you learn about how you think?
That tendency to look for the no, or to try to disprove something, is a trait shared by scientists, devil’s advocates, and great standardized test takers. You can learn to make this your natural reaction, too!
Everything you need to know about the New Official Guides, Part 3
I have now done every last one of the new quant problems in both new books—and there are some really neat ones! I’ve also got some interesting observations for you. (If you haven’t yet read my earlier installments, start here.)
In this installment, I’ll discuss my overall conclusions for quant and I’ll also give you all of the problem numbers for the new problems in both the big OG and the smaller quant-only OG.
What’s new in Quant?
Now that I’ve seen everything, I’ve been able to spot some trends across all of the added and dropped questions. For example, across both The Official Guide for GMAT® Review (aka the big book) and The Official Guide for GMAT® Quant Review (aka quant-only or the quant supplement), Linear Equation problems dropped by a count of 13. This is the differential: new questions minus dropped questions.
That’s a pretty big number; the next closest categories, Inequalities and Rates & Work, dropped by 5 questions each. I’m not convinced that a drop of 5 is at all significant, but I decided that was a safe place to stop the “Hmm, that’s interesting!” count.
Now, a caveat: there are sometimes judgment calls to make in classifying problems. Certain problems cross multiple content areas, so we do our best to pick the topic area that is most essential in solving that problem. But that 13 still stands out. 🙂
The biggest jump came from Formulas, with 10 added questions across both sources. This category includes sequences and functions; just straight translation or linear equations would go into those respective categories, not formulas. Positive & Negative questions jumped by 7, weighted average jumped by 6, and coordinate plane jumped by 5.
Given that Linear Equations dropped and Formulas jumped, could it be the case that they are going after somewhat more complex algebra now? That’s certainly possible. I didn’t feel as though the new formula questions were super hard though. It felt more as though they were testing whether you could follow directions. If I give you a weird formula with specific definitions and instructions, can you interpret correctly and manipulate accordingly?
If you think about it, work is a lot more like this than “Oh, here are two linear equations; can you solve for x?” So it makes sense that they would want to emphasize questions of a more practical nature.