Feeling Lost

Hi evanstar,

If your math skills are that "rusty", then you might want to spend some time practicing at Khan Academy (www.khanacademy.org) before you start your GMAT studies. The site is free and the practice material feels more like 'games' than 'work', so it's very friendly to use and adds an element of fun to the process.

The Quant section of the GMAT requires a combination of knowledge (knowing formulas and how to do math), tactics (knowing more than one way to approach a question, including alternatives to just "doing math", pattern-recognition, etc.) and "mechanics" (the physical work that comes with taking notes, staying organized and doing basic math correctly). You can't score at a high level on Test Day if you don't know the rules and/or can't do the physical work correctly. The good news is that most GMAT questions can be solved in a variety of ways, so you don't have to be a genius and you don't have to be an expert mathematician to score at a high level in the Quant section. You WILL need to be able to do the basic work perfectly though; those skills might take some time to develop.

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich