Three Strategies You Must Know to Ace the Quantitative Section of the GRE

Essential Strategies for the GRE

http://www.BarronsTestPrep.com/gre

The GRE is not simply a test of facts and memorization. In fact, knowing the correct strategy for a question may allow you to solve a question correctly without even understanding it! If this sounds dubious, stay tuned. In this brief e-book we will show you the three most important strategies you need to get a great Quant score on the GRE.

http://www.BarronsTestPrep.com/gre

Ask yourself: Is the answer

choice reasonable?
If you have no idea how to solve a multiple-choice question, stop trying to solve and ask yourself a simple question: Is the answer choice reasonable? Since the GRE does not penalize you for wrong answers, you must attempt every question. However, before taking a wild guess, take a moment to look at the answer choices - often, two or three of them will be completely unreasonable! Eliminate those and guess one of the others. Occasionally, four of the choices are absurd. When this occurs, your answer is no longer a guess.

What makes a choice unreasonable? Well, lets just say lots of things. Here are a few. Even if you dont know how to solve a problem you may realize that: 1. The answer must be positive, but some of the choices are negative; 2. The answer must be even, but some of the choices are odd; 3. The answer must be less than 100, but some choices exceed 100; 4. A ratio must be less than 1, but some choices are greater than 1

http://www.BarronsTestPrep.com/gre

Example:
Q. The average (arithmetic mean) of 5, 10, 15, and z is 20. What is z?

0 20 25 45 50
Solution:

Start off by asking Which answer choices are unreasonable? If the average of four numbers is 20, and three of them are less than 20, the other one must be greater than 20. You can immediately see that answer choices A and B are unreasonable and can be eliminated right away. If you further realize that since 5 and 10 are a lot less than 20, z will probably be a lot more than 20. You can eliminate C, as well. You now have only two remaining answer choices with excellent odds of getting the right answer.
Direct Solution:

Lets face it. This problem is pretty easy to solve using simple algebra:
5 + 10 + 15 + = 20 4 5 + 10 + 15 + = 20 4 = 80 30 = 50 E is the Correct Answer

http://www.BarronsTestPrep.com/gre

Lets look at another example. Sometimes, the information provided with the problem is intentionally insufficient to solve the problem; but you will still be able to determine that some of the answers are absurd. In each case the solution will indicate which choices you should have eliminated. At that point you would simply guess. Remember, when you guess on the GRE, dont agonize. Just guess and move on!

Example:
Q. If 25% of 260 equals 6.5% of a, what is a?

10 65 100 130 1000

Solution:

The problems says that 6.5% of a equals 25% of 260. Based on this information, we can comfortably say that, a must be greater than 260. Why? Because 6.5% is lower than 25% and since a lower percentage of a equals 25% of 260, we can safely say > 260 . Eliminate A, B, C, and D. The answer must be E!

This example illustrates an important point. Even if you know how to solve a problem, if you immediately see that four of the five choices are absurd, just pick the fifth choice and move on.

http://www.BarronsTestPrep.com/gre

Pick Your Numbers

Mastery of this technique is critical for anyone developing good testtaking skills. This tactic can be used whenever the five choices involve the variables in the question.

The Approach:
This strategy contains three steps: 1. Replace each letter or variable with an easy-to-use number. 2. Solve the problem using those numbers. 3. Evaluate each of the five choices with the numbers you picked to see which choice is equal to the answer you obtained.

http://www.BarronsTestPrep.com/gre

This strategy works very well when easy-to-use numbers are chosen. Here are some guidelines for using convenient numbers: Use nice, round numbers whenever possible. The best choices are 1, 0, and 1. Fractions between 0 and 1 and/or -1 and 0. Large convenient numbers such as 10 or 100. In problems involving fractions and ratios, use the least common denominator of all the fractions. In problems involving percents, use 100.

Always make sure you check the limitations stated

in the question if there are any. Do not impose any conditions not specifically stated in the problem e.g. if the question pertains to negative integers, do not pick your numbers as 1, 2, etc.

Let's solve an example GRE question where this strategy can be seen in action.

http://www.BarronsTestPrep.com/gre

Example:
If the sum of five consecutive even integers is t, then, in terms of t, what is the greatest of these integers?
20 5 10 5 5 +10 5
+20 5

Solution:

1. Pick five easy-to-use consecutive even integers e.g. 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10. = 2 + 4 + 6 + 8 + 10 = 30

2. Solve the problem with these numbers: the greatest of these integers is 10. 10 20 30 40 50 3. When t = 30, the five choices are: 5 , 5 , 5 , 5 and 5 . Out of
these choices only
50 5

= 10

E is the Correct Answer.

Direct Solution:

Of course, this question can be solved without using this strategy if your algebra skills are good. Here is the solution to this problem using algebra: 1. Let n be the highest integer. Therefore n - 8, n - 6, n - 4, n - 2 and n are the five consecutive even integers. Since their sum is t, we can write:

t = n + (n - 2) + (n - 4) + (n - 6) + (n - 8) = 5n - 20 2. Therefore =
+20 5

E is the Correct Answer.

http://www.BarronsTestPrep.com/gre

Plug and Chug

This strategy, often called backsolving, is useful when you are asked to solve for an unknown and you understand what needs to be done to answer the question, but you want to avoid doing the algebra. The idea is simple: test the various answer choices to see which one is correct. On the GRE, the answers to virtually all numerical multiple-choice questions are listed in either increasing or decreasing order. Consequently, C is the middle value, and in applying this tactic, you should always start with C. For example, assume that choices A, B, C, D, and E are given in increasing order. Try C. If it works, youve found the answer. If C doesnt work, you may know whether you need to test a larger number or a smaller one, and that permits you to eliminate two more choices. If C is too small, you need a larger number, and so A and B are out; if C is too large, eliminate D and E, which are even larger.

http://www.BarronsTestPrep.com/gre

Example:
If the average (arithmetic mean) of 5, 6, 7, and w is 10, what is the value of w? 8 13 18

22
28
Solution:

1.

2. 3.

Plug in Choice C: w = 18. Is the average of 5, 6, 7, and 18 equal to 10? The answer is No. The answer 9 is too small: 5 + 6 + 7 + 18 36 = =9 4 4 Eliminate C, and, since for the average to be 10, w must be greater than 18. Therefore you can eliminate A and B as well. Try D: w = 22. Is the average of 5, 6, 7 and 22 equal to 10? The answer is yes. 5 + 6 + 7 + 22 40 = = 10 4 4

D is the Correct Answer.

Every problem that can be solved in this way can be solved directly, often in less time. So we stress: if you are confident that you can solve a problem quickly and accurately, just do so.
Here are two direct methods for solving the example problem, each of which is faster than backsolving. If you know either method you should use it, and save this technique for those problems that you cant easily solve directly. DIRECT SOLUTION 1. If the average of four numbers is 10, their sum is 40. Therefore, 5 + 6 + 7 + w = 40 18 + w = 40 w = 22. DIRECT SOLUTION 2. Since 5 is 5 less than 10, 6 is 4 less than 10, and 7 is 3 less than 10, to compensate, w must be 5 + 4 + 3 = 12 more than 10. Therefore, w = 10 + 12 = 22.
http://www.BarronsTestPrep.com/gre

Barrons GRE Course for Online GRE Prep:

Personalized Prep Based on Adaptive Learning 60+ Hours of Video Instruction 75+ Lessons 4 Full Length Tests with Projected Scores

1 Diagnostic Test with Projected Scores

1000+ Practice Questions

The Revised General Test

http://www.BarronsTestPrep.com/gre