How to Study for the GMAT Quantitative Section

The GMAT, or Graduate Management Admission Test, is a multiple choice standardized exam used by business schools. MBA applicants are judged not only on their undergraduate grades, letters of recommendation, resume, and person essays, but also their GMAT scores. The GMAT has 3 parts: Analytical Writing, Verbal, and Quantitative.

Your performance on the GMAT math section determines about half of your final scaled score, which can range from 200 to 800. (The Analytical Writing is scored separately on a scale from 0 to 6.) To earn a high final score on the GMAT, it is necessary to get a high raw score on the Quantitative scetion, and to do that, you must learn GMAT math strategies. Here are some essential facts and GMAT study tricks used by all high scoring business school applicants.

Know how adaptive testing works.

The GMAT is a computer adaptive test, and the questions you receive are selected by a computer algorithm, one question at a time. If you answer a question correctly, your next question will be at least as difficult, and worth more points. If you answer a question incorrectly, your next question will be easier and worth fewer points. They way you earn a high score is by answering difficult questions correctly, thereby accumulating more points.

One thing you cannot do on the GMAT is skip questions. The way the algorithm works, you must answer each question before you can see the next one. Also, once you choose an answer, you cannot go back and change it. This means that you need to learn strategies for answering problems quickly, or guess intelligently when the clock is ticking.

Know the testing time limits and how to pace yourself.

The GMAT quantitative section has 37 questions and 75 minutes. This works out to an average of 2 minutes per question, or x questions every 2x minutes. One way to pace yourself while taking the GMAT quantitative test is to look at the on-screen timer. If the question number you are working on is at least half the number of minutes that have passed, you are in good shape. If your current question number is less than half the number of minutes that have gone by, start working faster! For example, if the clock shows that 42 minutes have gone by, you should at least be on question #21.

Your chances of getting a good GMAT score are better if you answer all the questions. If time runs out before you get to the last few questions, your score will be lower than if you had answered the last few questions wrong. So, if you have 1 minute left on the clock, and several questions remaining, the best thing is to guess strategically but quickly, and finish the exam. Even if you guess wrong on the last 3 questions, it is better than answering one correctly, and leaving the last two blank.

Know the two types of GMAT math questions.

The GMAT quantitative section features two types of multiple choice questions: problem solving, and data sufficiency.

Problem solving questions on the GMAT are algebra, geometry, number theory, statistics, or word problems with 5 answer choices. The 5 choices my be numbers, algebraic expressions, or math/logic statements. To find the correct answer, you need to apply high school algebra and geometry problem solving skills. Setting up a challenging GMAT math problem requires finesse and cleverness, but the actual level of math needed to solve the equations is only pre-calculus.

Data sufficiency problems may seem really strange at first if you've never seen a GMAT math question before. You don't always have to solve a problem completely in order to find the right answer to data sufficiency question. What you do need to do, is determine whether two extra pieces of data are sufficient or insufficient to solve the problem. The two pieces of data are labeled (1) and (2), and the 5 answer choices that accompany the problems are unchanging. A through E, they are:

A: (1) is sufficient to answer the question, but (2) is not
B: (2) is sufficient to answer the question, but (1) is not
C: Neither (1) nor (2) alone is sufficient, but together they are
D: Either (1) or (2) alone is sufficient
E: No combination of (1) and (2) is sufficient

Within the GMAT data sufficiency category, there are two subtypes of questions. For value questions, you must determine whether (1) and/or (2) are sufficient to find a unique number value that answers the question. For yes/no questions, you must determine whether (1) and (2) are sufficient to answer the question with a definite yes or no answer.

Apply multiple-choice strategies to save time on the GMAT.

You can drastically cut your GMAT testing time by using short cuts. For example, if you don't know how to set up and solve a word problem, but the answer choices are all numbers that you can plug into a formula, try to solve it backwards by elimination. Or if the choices are equations, plug numbers into the equations to eliminate wrong choices.

For geometry questions, learn to spot the 4 special right triangles that the GMAT uses frequently. The 3-4-5, and 5-12-13 triangles are right triangles with integer side lengths of 3, 4,5, and 5, 12, 13 respectively. The 45^o-45^o-90^o and 30^o-60^o-90^o are right triangles with angles 45, 45, 90, and 30,60,90 respectively. If you recognize that a geometry problem involves one of these triangles, you can spot many wrong answers.

On GMAT data sufficiency questions, you can apply the same elimination strategies. For example, if you determine that (1) is sufficient, you can always rule out B, C, and E. This will help if you have to make a quick guess because time is running out.

Study with the right materials.

The best way to prepare for the GMAT, and the GMAT math section in particular, is to take many practice tests. You can buy packages of computer adaptive tests from GMAT test prep companies, and you can download free practice tests from the GMAT website. Take the tests under test like conditions, that is, complete all sections of the exam in one sitting. Since the real GMAT is several hours long, you need to build up endurance, or else you can get burnt out during the real test.

The GMAT Official Guides are prep books made by the test maker, and they have hundreds of GMAT practice questions graded by difficulty from easy to hard. You can also find free GMAT sample questions on test forums, the GMAT Math Blog, and many other GMAT prep sites.