This amazing math wedding cake is from Pink Cake Box.

This past week, I was attempting to plan a wedding, and came across yet another “GRE math in real life” situation. (When you’re a GRE instructor, you tend to spot these quite often!)

I’m going to give you three different GRE math problems using the same real-life wedding scenario. Here goes!

Question 1: To hold a wedding at NYC Private Club costs $130 per person, including food and open bar. There is also a $500 ceremony fee and a 20% service charge, as well as 8.875% NYC tax on the entire bill. Which of the following represents the total cost C of a wedding at NYC Private Club as a function of the number of people, p?

A. C(p) = (130p + 500)(0.8)(91.125)
B. C(p) = (130p)(0.2)(1.08875) + 500
C. C(p) = (130p)(1.2)(0.08875) + 500
D. C(p) = 130p + 1.2p + 1.08875p + 500
E. C(p) = (130p + 500)(1.2)(1.08875)

Question 2: To hold a wedding at NYC Private Club costs $130 per person, including food and open bar. There is also a $500 ceremony fee and a 20% service charge, as well as 8.875% NYC tax on the entire bill. If a wedding at NYC Private Club cost, to the nearest dollar, $10,334, how many guests attended the wedding?

Question 3:

To hold a wedding at NYC Private Club costs $130 per person, including food and open bar. There is also a $500 ceremony fee and a 20% service charge, as well as 8.875% NYC tax on the entire bill.

A. Quantity A is greater.
B. Quantity B is greater.
C. The two quantities are equal.
D. The relationship cannot be determined from the information given.

Select your answers before reading any further! Read more

Harder quant questions combine two different areas of math, and that’s what we’re going to take a look at today.

First, try this problem (© Manhattan Prep) from our Geometry lesson during class 5.

If 2m + 20 > 100, which of the following could be the value of n?
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During class 2 of our program, we teach a lesson entitled Math Refresher. I thought it would be fun to share one of the problems with you and talk through two things: (1) the actual algebra (real math) we would need to solve the problem, and (2) the standardized testing skills that allow us to solve the problem much more easily.

First, try this problem (© Manhattan Prep). Note: there are no multiple choice answers: you have to come up with a number on your own!

Sarita and Bob together contribute to the cost of a $40 gift. If Bob contributes $12 more than Sarita does, how much does Bob contribute?

How did you do it? Did you write some equations? Try out some numbers? Find some other cool shortcut?

On this one, the best approach is a very neat shortcut that I’m going to show you “ but only after I show you the actual algebra. It’s important to know how to do the algebra, just in case you don’t know or can’t find any good shortcuts.
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When I make an error, I get excited. Seriously—you should be excited when you make errors, too. I know that I’m about to learn something and get better, and that’s definitely worth getting excited!

Errors can come in several different forms: careless errors, content errors, and technique errors. We’re going to discuss something critical today: how to learn from your errors so that you don’t continue to make the same mistakes over and over again. First, let’s define these different error types. Read more

While problems with charts and tables can look intimidating, it is often the case that the questions simply require you to be able to 1) read carefully, 2) do arithmetic, and 3) convert fractions to percents, and calculate percent change. That’s it.

Try this Data Interpretation problem set with five questions.

Ninth-Grade Students at Millbrook High School

1. What fraction of the girls are enrolled in Spanish?
2. What fraction of the students are boys who are enrolled in Spanish?
3. What is the ratio of 9^th grade girls not enrolled in Spanish to all 9^th grade students at Millbrook Middle School?
4. If x% more students are not enrolled in Spanish than are enrolled in Spanish, what is x?
5. If 2 of the boys not enrolled in Spanish decided to enroll in Spanish, and then 8 new girls and 7 new boys enrolled in the 9^th grade at Millbrook Middle School and also in Spanish, what percent of 9^th grade students at Millbrook would then be taking Spanish?

Record your answers on paper before continuing!

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Here are two hilarious — but mathematically GRE-like — problems written by Manhattan GRE instructor Tommy Wallach.

As on the real GRE, both questions use the same set of two charts. The first question is multiple choice; the second requires you to enter your own answer. You may use a calculator.

1. If the five categories of irony were placed in the slice appropriate to them in the first chart, approximately what would be the internal angle of the slice labeled nostalgia, in degrees?

1. 7
2. 21
3. 25
4. 57
5. 70

2. If a hipster’s priorities were expressed as a percentage of 500 priority points, what would be the point difference between knowledge of craft beers and ironic attitude, rounded to the nearest tenth?

Give these problems a shot before reading further.

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This Valentine’s Day, Drake Martinet proposed to Stacy Green, Mashable’s Vice President of Marketing and Communications, via an infographic on Mashable.

Here’s the part of it that reminded me of a GRE problem:
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//www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-P5RGdjICo

Watch this silent video for a new (to most of us) visual way to multiply!

What does this have to do with the GRE? Note that the 3 at right (which ended up in the ones place) was completed before any of the “big” numbers at left. That is, we didn’t need to know what our answer started with to know what our answer ended with.

Regardless of the method of multiplication you use (even if that “method” is a calculator), you will want to remember this very important principle for the GRE:
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This comic from XKCD is making a very nerdy joke:

The 70, upon opening a package, is “exploded” — into its prime factors.

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Come GRE test day, there isn’t much left to do in the way of studying. Cramming new material on the day of your exam is stressful and won’t give you much of a positive return on time invested. However, there are some things that you can do on test day to further your GRE success. One thing that I found very useful when I took my GRE was performing a math warm-up. Read more