GMAT* Prep

If your math career ended with College Algebra, you may be a bit daunted by the prospect of sitting for the Graduate Management Admission Test. The Quantitative section of this exam consists of 37 questions and must be completed within 75 minutes. Most of these questions are the typical problem-solving exercises you would expect to find on any standardized, multiple-choice math test. Some of the questions, however, are so-called data sufficiency exercises, a question format unique to the GMAT. As part of your GMAT prep, you should familiarize yourself with the structure of these exercises. The main difference between a problem-solving exercise and a data sufficiency exercise is that, in the latter, you are not directed to solve the problem, but simply to determine whether the problem can be solved with the information given in the question. Each data sufficiency exercise will consist of a question followed by two numbered statements. Your task will be to decide whether the question can be answered with the information in the first statement only, second statement only, either statement alone, both statements together, or neither statement alone or together. Again, you will not have to actually answer the question in order to complete a data sufficiency exercise. On problem-solving exercises, however, you will be required to perform some calculations. As part of your GMAT Math Review, therefore, you should practice arithmetic, geometry, and basic algebra operations. You will not need a calculator to complete any of the exercises on the GMAT. On the contrary, all of the calculations required for the problem-solving exercises should be simple enough to complete on paper. For the most part, success on the Quantitative section of the GMAT will depend on your ability to reason rather than your skill at carrying out complex mathematical operations.

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