samara15000 wrote:
Hello everyone,
I need some tips to solve maths problems quickly.
I know I need to memorize the squares and roots and certain formula..I also know the divisibility rule (e.g how do u know if a no. is divisible by 2,3,4,5..etc)
But I was hoping if you could share your Math tips..for quicker multiplication perhaps, or any other point that people make mistakes in.
Pls share your interesting math facts!
Thanks alot!
Hi Samara15000,
The very first thing I recommend to my students is to know their multiplication tables down cold. If you can answer any multiplication from 1x1 up to 12x12, you'll save a lot of time on the GMAT over all the questions. Considering this is something we all learned in grade school and forgot, it's not exactly something difficult to get back. The grid isn't even that daunting as all perfect squares (1, 4, 9, 16, etc) should be pretty clear and then the table is a mirror image of itself along the main diagonal (i.e. 6x8 = 8x6), which necessarily yield the same result by the basic law of commutativity. Beyond that, knowing the squares up to 15 (or even better 20) can't hurt.
Second thing I recommend is learning the fractions. You'd be surprised how often it comes up that 0.375 is 3/8 or 0.143 is 1/7. Just knowing everything from 1/2 to 1/10 and being able to apply that in real problems will help put you at ease with numbers on these questions.
Obviously there are dozens of other math shortcuts or tricks but in my estimation these are the two most useful and the ones with the biggest ROI (Return on Investment... also the French word for king!)
Oh and Pythagoras! Can't forget about him because half of geometry questions come back to right angle triangles
It's only like one quick step though so I don't really count this one.
Hope this helps!
-Ron
Thanks alot for your advice...will see how it goes...
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