Articles published in Math Basics

What’s Tested on GRE Math

by

Manhattan Prep GRE Blog - What's Tested on GRE Math by Chelsey Cooley

GRE Math is a bit like high school math, without some of the hardest parts: for instance, you don’t have to write proofs or show your work! Here’s a quick rundown of the GRE Math skills required to conquer the Quant section, along with some of our best GRE Math tips. Read more

GRE Math Misconceptions

by

Manhattan Prep GRE Blog - GRE Math Misconceptions by Chelsey Cooley

You can attend the first session of any of our online or in-person GRE courses absolutely free. Crazy, right? Check out our upcoming courses here.


Math can be counterintuitive. There are a few GRE Math misconceptions that really seem like they should be true—but actually aren’t. Being prepared for them will keep you aware on test day. Read more

Combating Careless GRE Math Mistakes

by

You can attend the first session of any of our online or in-person GRE courses absolutely free. Crazy, right? Check out our upcoming courses here.


Careless GRE Math Mistakes Cost Points

If you scored a 158 on your GRE Quant, you likely missed around 10-15 of the 40 questions you saw. A few of those may have been ones you didn’t know how to do. A few may have been ones you didn’t have enough time to solve. How many do you think were “careless GRE math mistakes”? 1 or 2? 5 or 6? Read more

Mental Math Magic (Part 2)

by

Manhattan Prep GRE Blog - Mental Math Magic (Part 2) by Neil Thornton

You can attend the first session of any of our online or in-person GRE courses absolutely free. Ready to take the plunge? Check out our upcoming courses here.


In my last article, I gave you some time-saving basic arithmetic to memorize and a few tools to calculate more efficiently, using a combination of your brain and your scratch paper.

Today I’m going to throw few fun mental math “tricks” your way. Again, you could always pop out your calculator or do long division and multiplication on your scratch paper, but learning to multiply numbers in your head can be a massive time saver, as well as a good way to double-check what you do put into the calculator. Read more

GRE Math for People Who Hate Math: Average Speed

by

Manhattan Prep GRE Blog - GRE Math for People Who Hate Math: Average Speed by Chelsey Cooley

You can attend the first session of any of our online or in-person GRE courses absolutely free. Crazy, right? Check out our upcoming courses here.


On the GRE, you will never, ever, ever, ever have to average two speeds together. If a GRE Quant problem gives you two speeds (say, 40 mph and 60 mph), and you average them (ending up with 50 mph), you’ve just gotten that problem wrong. Read more

Mental Math Magic

by

Manhattan Prep GRE Blog - Mental Math Magic by Neil Thornton

You can attend the first session of any of our online or in-person GRE courses absolutely free. Ready to take the plunge? Check out our upcoming courses here.


Quick!
What is 12 x 9?
What is 9³?
What is the square root of 196?
What is 95 – 37? Read more

GRE Math for People Who Hate Math: Ratios

by

Manhattan Prep GRE Blog - GRE Math for People Who Hate Math by Chelsey Cooley

You can attend the first session of any of our online or in-person GRE courses absolutely free. Crazy, right? Check out our upcoming courses here.


I recently had a great conversation about ratios with one of our MPrep GRE classes. It’s a tiny class, and only two students were there that day (hey guys!). When I shared a tricky ratio problem with them, both students had totally different, but equally reasonable, reactions to it. Here’s the problem: Read more

GRE Interest Problems

by

Manhattan Prep GRE Blog - GRE Interest Problems by Neil Thornton

You can attend the first session of any of our online or in-person GRE courses absolutely free. Ready to take the plunge? Check out our upcoming courses here.


Interesting Interest

Deposit money into a savings account and you will earn interest. Rack up a bunch of charges on your credit card, and you’re going to be charged interest. In the real world, the bank takes care of calculating interest for you, but if the word “interest” shows up on the GRE, you’re going to need to know how to calculate it yourself. Read more

GRE Math for People Who Hate Math: Which of the Following is a Factor of x?

by

Manhattan Prep GRE Blog - GRE Math for People Who Hate Math:  Which of the Following is a Factor of x? by Chelsey CooleyDid you know that you can attend the first session of any of our online or in-person GRE courses absolutely free? We’re not kidding! Check out our upcoming courses here.


Did you know that you can solve ‘which of the following is a factor’ problems with hardly any math at all? It just takes a little basic arithmetic, logical reasoning, and creative thinking — skills that you already have.

Take a quick look at this problem: Read more

7 Ways to Avoid Careless GRE Math Errors

by

Manhattan Prep GRE Blog - 7 Ways to Avoid Careless GRE Math Errors by Chelsey Cooley

Did you know that you can attend the first session of any of our online or in-person GRE courses absolutely free? We’re not kidding! Check out our upcoming courses here.


There’s nothing wrong with making GRE math errors because the problem is too hard. That’s just the way that the test is designed—there are Quant questions on the GRE that will challenge even the mathematical geniuses among us. However, it’s much more frustrating to miss a problem that you could’ve gotten right, just because you made a silly mistake. Try out the following tips to cut down on careless GRE math errors. Read more