The Quantitative section is one of the three core categories on the GMAT Test. This section tends to be tough if you don’t know what you’re up against. So, here are all the details to help you prepare for this major part of the exam. Let’s start with the basic structure.
Firstly, you have 31 questions to answer in 62 minutes. This section can earn you between 0 to 60 points. In addition, the Quantitative section is computer adaptive, i.e., you will get harder or easier questions depending on whether your previous answer was correct or incorrect. Also, as with all questions on the GMAT, once you answer a question, you can’t go back to it.
Now, there are 2 types of questions in the GMAT Quant section:
- PS—Problem solving (around 20 questions): standard, 5 answer multiple choice questions which test your basic math knowledge and application.
- DS—Data Sufficiency (around 10 questions): these questions are unique to the GMAT math section. They measure your ability to analyze a problem and recognize relevant information and decide if you have enough information.
There are several key strategies with the help of which you can train yourself to master this section:
- Be familiar with your answer choices: Memorize your answer choices; they will be the same for all the questions so you don’t waste your time reading them. In some questions, if you know that Statement 1 is insufficient, you can eliminate choices A and D directly without any hesitation.
- Evaluate each statement separately: Check out each statement separately and explore all the possibilities offered by the statement individually. If you find Statement 1 is sufficient to answer the question, you can knock off options B, C and E directly.
- Know when it’s necessary to solve the question: Remember here that you are looking for sufficiency and not the actual answer. You are just trying to find out if there’s enough information available to solve the question.
- Write down what you absolutely need to answer in the question: Each statement alone will be sufficient if both of the statements on their own contain all the information necessary to answer the question. The statements will be sufficient together if they contain every piece of necessary information between them.
- Study prime factorizations and divisibility: Questions based on prime factorization and divisibility occur frequently in this section; so it’s good to have a strong hold on them.