GRE Calculator Strategies

[jillstadterman]

In the QC & DI guide (#6), on page 17, it talks about the GRE calculator tool online. I find a way to pull up the calculator but it also says there are instructions/strategies for using the calculator. Can you post the link to where I can find those strategies?

Thanks,
Jill

[tommywallach]

I don't know where that is, to be honest, but I can tell you all you need to know.

1. You shouldn't need the calculator very much. If you do, you're overthinking the questions, most of which revolve around theoretical math skills, not a lot of computation.

2. Pay very careful attention when doing any question involving decimal places. It's very common for people to do the math correctly, but misplace a decimal point. On these types of questions it might be worth doing a "logic check." In other words, if a question asks "What is 10,000 divided by 3 * 10^-5, make sure you think about the math and how many decimals you should have, rather that just typing.

3. In general, use this "logic check" whenever using the calculator, as many questions on which you COULD use the calculator are built in a way to make it difficult to use the calculator correctly (such as decimal point confusion, or numbers too big to fit into your calculator).

I think that's all I got. Let me know if you have other questions!

-t