Frequent question areas

[kenny_145]

Hi,

I wondered if there was a list of the more frequent question types that have been coming up recently in the quant and verbal sections, and whether I should focus on these areas for an upcoming test?

Many thanks,

Ken.

[StaceyKoprince]

Hi! Good question.

More frequently tested / more important
Algebra: the major topics (exponents, linear equations, quadratics, that kind of stuff)
Fractions and percents
Word problems in any form (every type of math can be given as a word problem, so learn to translate from words to math)
Statistics (average, median, weighted average)
Some number properties (divisibility, pos and neg, odd and even)

SC: Structure, Meaning, Modifiers, Parallelism
CR: Find Assump, Strengthen, Weaken, Draw Concl / Infer
RC: specific questions - look-up and inference

[kenny_145]

Hi Stacey,

Many thanks for your response, that is great.

Thanks also for all the material you have posted - this is a great resource and has really helped with final preparation and (hopefully) moving my scores upwards.

I gone through your articles and have re-analysed my last 2 practice exams (1 official GMAT, 1 MGMAT).

I always thought I had identified what my weak areas were (exponents and roots / quadratic equations and triangles), but this analysis has allowed me to go a level deeper to look for patterns that I can apply across all question types.

Most weaknesses are specific gaps in knowledge, timing, or identifying better ways of doing a problem. I’ve read your article on developing a strategy for each type of question, and I'm going through my past exams and problems to methodically do this. I think this will hopefully with these issues (due to take final practice tomorrow so will see how this impacts).

However, I have noticed a specific pattern that is happening across a number of question areas: I seem to often struggle setting up the relationship between two or more variables when presented with this in a question or answer choices.
I’ve noticed that this happens across a few question areas including:

Word problems (as per question below from MGMAT CAT 5).

S and T are two-digit positive integers that have the same digits but in reverse order. If the positive difference between S and T is less than 40, what is the greatest possible value of S minus T?

Percents and algebra (question below from MGMAT CAT 5)

A driver paid n dollars for auto insurance for the year 1997. This annual premium was raised by p percent for the year 1998; for each of the years 1999 and 2000, the premium was decreased by 1/6 from the previous year’s figure. If the driver’s insurance premium for the year 2000 was again n dollars, what is the value of p?

Rates and work questions

Especially questions in 700-800 level where there they start to introduce a "˜hypothetical rate’

I know that I could use smart numbers for the percents and algebra, but keen to try getting at this from a few different angles. For the other 2, it’s more difficult to look at a different method as this is such a fundamental in setting up a framework to answer the question.

Are there any drills or tips that you would advise I focus on for this?

Any help much appreciated.

Rgds,

Ken

[StaceyKoprince]

Glad to hear that you've found helpful resources here. :)

Interesting that you should ask that question - I just wrote a two-part series on translation. Check our blog next week - I'm not sure exactly when it will go up.

The main theme is this: turn story problems into your reality. Don't think about writing equations, setting up charts, whatever. Ask yourself: is this were happening to me in reality, how would I figure it out?

eg, for the S and T problem below, if your boss asked you that, what would you do? He's not a math teacher, you don't work in a school - who cares about equations.

First, you'd just try to figure out what your boss was talking about. Hmm, two digit integers... like 54 is a 2-digit integer. Okay. Oh, I see, and 45 would be the same digits in reverse order. Then the different is less than 40... Okay, the difference between 54 and 45 is 9, so that's less than 40. Oh, but they want the greatest possible difference that's less than 40.

So, what about 63 and 36? That difference is... 27. So 27 is one possible difference. Is there a larger one that's still less than 40?

Hmm. 62 and 26? (keep going)

See what I'm doing there? I'm just "logic-ing" it out with real numbers. Now, you might not get all the way to the end every time in the timeframe you have - but you will most of the time, and other times, you'll be able to narrow down the answers and make a good guess.

For the auto insurance one, yuck, that's complicated! but wait... the answer choices represent the value of p, right? So pick a smart number for n and then plug the answers in till you find the one that works!

Think of it as: your boss says, hey, I know the percent that my premium increased was one of these 5 numbers (in the answers), but I can't remember which - can you tell me? You wouldn't start writing abstract equations - you'd just try the numbers till you found one that worked. :)

Try that now, go read my articles next week whenever they go live and come back here to tell me what you think. It's going to take some time to get used to doing the problems this way - but I think it'll make these a LOT easier. (And it'll also help you to know when something is just too hard - because if you can't even "logic" your way through it, then the abstract math is going to be horrible. Guess!)

[ajaym8]

Glad to hear that you've found helpful resources here.

Interesting that you should ask that question - I just wrote a two-part series on translation. Check our blog next week - I'm not sure exactly when it will go up.

The main theme is this: turn story problems into your reality. Don't think about writing equations, setting up charts, whatever. Ask yourself: is this were happening to me in reality, how would I figure it out?

eg, for the S and T problem below, if your boss asked you that, what would you do? He's not a math teacher, you don't work in a school - who cares about equations.

First, you'd just try to figure out what your boss was talking about. Hmm, two digit integers... like 54 is a 2-digit integer. Okay. Oh, I see, and 45 would be the same digits in reverse order. Then the different is less than 40... Okay, the difference between 54 and 45 is 9, so that's less than 40. Oh, but they want the greatest possible difference that's less than 40.

So, what about 63 and 36? That difference is... 27. So 27 is one possible difference. Is there a larger one that's still less than 40?

Hmm. 62 and 26? (keep going)

See what I'm doing there? I'm just "logic-ing" it out with real numbers. Now, you might not get all the way to the end every time in the timeframe you have - but you will most of the time, and other times, you'll be able to narrow down the answers and make a good guess.

For the auto insurance one, yuck, that's complicated! but wait... the answer choices represent the value of p, right? So pick a smart number for n and then plug the answers in till you find the one that works!

Think of it as: your boss says, hey, I know the percent that my premium increased was one of these 5 numbers (in the answers), but I can't remember which - can you tell me? You wouldn't start writing abstract equations - you'd just try the numbers till you found one that worked.

Try that now, go read my articles next week whenever they go live and come back here to tell me what you think. It's going to take some time to get used to doing the problems this way - but I think it'll make these a LOT easier. (And it'll also help you to know when something is just too hard - because if you can't even "logic" your way through it, then the abstract math is going to be horrible. Guess!)

I was analyzing the S minus T question. I am required to make S-T greatest. So I started with one max digit (9) and one min digit (1). SO I started from numbers 91-19= 72. Finally came down to 95-59 and this was it. Took less than a minute in mock.
Good to know the algebraic approach. It didn't come to my mind during the mock.

Thanks,

[StaceyKoprince]

Nice!

Yes, sometimes you do need to know an algebraic approach, so it's good to know—but often, on a test like the GMAT, the "logic" or "real world" approach will save you time and mental effort. Since both time and mental effort are "precious resources" on the GMAT, an opportunity to save them up for other problems is great!