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.

Are you having trouble finishing GMAT Quant word problems within two minutes? Here’s a technique that will help. Read more

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.

What does it take to be a GMAT expert? It’s not just content knowledge (although of course that’s necessary). A GMAT expert knows how to quickly identify patterns and choose quickly from a variety of strategies. In each of these segments, I’ll show you one of these expert moves and how to use it. Read more

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

Last time, we talked about how to avoid annoying calculations on Data Sufficiency. It’s not so surprising that you can do this on DS, since you don’t “really” have to solve all the way on this question type.

But you can avoid annoying calculations on Problem Solving, too! Try this problem from the GMATPrep® free exams to learn how. Read more

Whenever I see a story problem, I immediately make myself think, “How would I solve this in the real world?” I don’t want to get sucked into doing a bunch of annoying textbook math. In the real world, we lay things out on paper very differently than when we’re in “I’m taking a math test” mode.

Want to see what I mean? Try this GMATPrep® problem from the free exams and then we’ll talk! Read more

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.

Read more

The Quant section of the GMAT is not a math test. Really, it isn’t! It just looks like one on the surface. In reality, they’re testing us on how we think.

As such, they write many math problems in a way that hides what’s really going on or even implies a solution method that is not the best solution method. Assume nothing and do not accept that what they give you is your best starting point!

In short, learn to reorient your view on math problems. When I look at a new problem, one of my first thoughts is, “What did they give me and how could it be made easier?” In particular, I look for things that I find annoying, as in, “Ugh, why did they give it to me in that form?” or “Ugh, I really don’t want to do that calculation.” My next question is how I can get rid of or get around that annoying part.

What do I mean? Here’s an example from the free set of questions that comes with the GMATPrep software. Try it!

* ” If ½ of the money in a certain trust fund was invested in stocks, ¼ in bonds, ¹/₅ in a mutual fund, and the remaining $10,000 in a government certificate, what was the total amount of the trust fund?

“(A) $100,000

“(B) $150,000

“(C) $200,000

“(D) $500,000

“(E) $2,000,000”

What did you get?

Here’s my thought process:

(1) Glance (before I start reading). It’s a PS word problem. The answers are round / whole numbers, and they’re mostly spread pretty far apart. I might be able to estimate to get the answer and I should at least be able to tell whether it’s closer to (A) or (E).

(2) Read and Jot. As I read, I jot down numbers (and label them!):

S = ¹/₂

B = ¹/₄

F = ¹/₅

C = 10,000

(3) Reflect and Organize. Let’s see. The four things should add up to the total amount. Three of those are fractions. Oh, I see—if I had four fractions, they should all add up to 1. So if I take those three and add them, and then subtract that from 1, that’ll give me the fractional amount for the C. Since I know the real value for C, I can then figure out the total.

But, ugh, adding fractions is annoying! You need common denominators. I’m capable of doing this, of course, but I really don’t want to! Isn’t there an easier way?

In this case, yes! Adding decimals or percents is really easy. Adding fractions is annoying. Plus, check it out, the fractions given are all common ones that we (should) have memorized. So change those fractions to percents (or decimals)!

(4) Work. Let’s do it!

S = ¹/₂  = 50%

B = ¹/₄ = 25%

F = ¹/₅ = 20%

C = 10,000

Wow, this is a lot easier. I know that 50 + 25 + 25 would equal 100, but I’ve only got 50 + 25 + 20, so the total is 5 short of 100. The final value, C, then must be 5% of the total.

So let’s see… if C = 10,000 = 5%, then 10% would be twice as much, or 20,000. And I just need to add a zero to get to 100%, or 200,000. Done! Read more