GRE Quantitative Reasoning Tips

[djulien1993]

I took the GRE about a 2 months ago. I am really happy with all of my scores other than my math. If anyone has tips or tricks for getting faster at doing the problems please let me know. I have studied a lot so exposure at this point isn't helping much. Please help and give advice that is out of the box. 

[Brent@GreenlightGRE]

One way to solve math questions faster is to recognize that in pretty much all cases, you really don't need to use the onscreen calculator. The calculator is VERY CLUNKY and time-consuming. In most cases, you can avoid tedious calculations by estimating or applying other techniques. 

Here are a few examples: 

- Approximation

- Multiplying by doubling and halving

- Shortcut for dividing by 5

- Squaring numbers ending in 5

- The Something Method (for solving some kinds of equations)

- Using the informal definition of Standard Deviation

- Calculating combinations in your head

I hope that helps. 

Cheers,

Brent

 

 

[djulien1993]

thanks so much for the help!

[Wanumman]

I thought my score was hurt by first tackling fill-in questions. I figured I'd be too nervous if I postponed them till the last ten minutes, and that I'll be able to make an educated guess much faster with multiple choice. Big mistake. Spending the same amount of time on multiple choice almost guarantees the right answer, because it is much easier to see if you made an error somewhere. With fill-in, all that time might be wasted if you miscalculated something, since there is no way to check. What's more, I more or less realised all of that before taking the test, but still panicked and optimistically went for fill-ins.

I will be re-taking the GRE in two months, and I will definitely go for multiple-choice first this time.

I presume it doesn't matter if you are aiming for 165+, but I was expecting 161-165, and ended up with 158. If not for that tactical mistake, I probably would have reached the target.

Edited July 25, 2016 by Wanumman

[Brent@GreenlightGRE]

12 minutes ago, Wanumman said:

I thought my score was hurt by first tackling fill-in questions. I figured I'd be too nervous if I postponed them till the last ten minutes, and that I'll be able to make an educated guess much faster with multiple choice. Big mistake. Spending the same amount of time on multiple choice almost guarantees the right answer, because it is much easier to see if you made an error somewhere. With fill-in, all that time might be wasted if you miscalculated something, since there is no way to check. What's more, I more or less realised all of that before taking the test, but still panicked and optimistically went for fill-ins.

I will be re-taking the GRE in two months, and I will definitely go for multiple-choice first this time.

I presume it doesn't matter if you are aiming for 165+, but I was expecting 161-165, and ended up with 158. If not for that tactical mistake, I probably would have reached the target.

That's great advice! 

To add to that, students can typically answer Quantitative Comparison questions in the least time, so answer all of those first. 

Cheers,

Brent

 

[MrsGrad]

I am horrible at math, so the quant section gave me the most stress (thankfully it's not important for my program). I found the study aids that helped me the most were the Magoosh strategy videos. I did watch the subject videos, but I'll be honest, I'm never going to be any good at quadratic equations, so it probably made little difference. The lessons that taught me how to tell instantly whether a number is divisible by three or six or nine were really helpful, and saved me time on the calculator. Similarly, the double and half rule was great. Not only were these lessons that helped with the GRE, they are lessons that I now use in my every day life, so that's a bonus! Finally, it really helped to realize that the quant section is less about math and more about logic. When I found myself spending too much time on long division, I stopped and re-evaluated my understanding of the problem. The GRE isn't about whether I can do long division, so it was a good indicator that I was going down the wrong path. 

[Brent@GreenlightGRE]

19 hours ago, MrsGrad said:

Finally, it really helped to realize that the quant section is less about math and more about logic. When I found myself spending too much time on long division, I stopped and re-evaluated my understanding of the problem. The GRE isn't about whether I can do long division, so it was a good indicator that I was going down the wrong path. 

This is an important observation! The test-makers (ETS) are not interested in whether or not you are a human calculator. In many cases, they are testing your number sense and logic skills. Here's an article I wrote on this topic: The Reasonable Test-Maker

Cheers,

Brent