This series of emails and PMs focuses on situations that many Test Takers face during their studies. The names of the original posters have been changed to protect their identities.
Easy Ways to Deal With Absolute Value Questions
Hi Rich,
I am really struggling with the questions pertaining to inequalities and specifically when they include mods. Could you suggest a good source to develop concepts and to practice question on the same.
Regards,
EFF
Hi EFF,
Absolute Value questions aren't too frequent of an issue on the actual GMAT (you might see 1-2 in total). Sometimes these questions involve inequalities, sometimes they don't.
Assuming a variable is involved, you can normally AVOID doing algebra and just FIND the values that fit the Absolute Value/inequality.
For example:
| X + 2 | > 5
Don't over-think this, just figure out what the possibilities are. Since it's an absolute value, there should be some positive possibilities and some negative ones. With a bit of "brute force", you should be able to figure out the "borders."
Here X CAN'T = 3 because 3 + 2 is NOT > 5, but X COULD be > 3
Also, X CAN'T = -7 because |-7 + 2| = |-5| = 5 exactly, but X COULD be < - 7
Most GMAT questions can be solved with a variety of approaches, so there's some advantage to being flexible with your thinking. Sometimes the "math approach" takes too long and the "fast way" to get the answer is just a mix of TESTing VALUES and "brute force."
Elimination/Guessing vs Actual Tactics in CR
Rich,
Can you please provide guidance on how to improve upon Critical Reasoning? I've practiced with a variety of materials, but I just don't understand what I am doing wrong! I am able to nail-down the answer choices to two potential answers, however the majority of the time, I end up picking the wrong choice.
Gee
Hi Gee,
What you're describing is essentially "guessing"; even though you're narrowing the options down to two choices, probability says that you'll get half of those questions wrong (and if you're having a bad day, or just unlucky, then you'll get more than half of them wrong). Like any other question type, CR questions have patterns to them, require you to take notes and "make connections" and PREDICT what the correct answer is before you look at the 5 choices. You should focus more on a learning/using a consistent set of Tactics to approach CR – once you do, you’ll likely see a huge improvement in this area.
The Reality About Answer A in Sentence Corrections
Rich,
When I work through SCs, I’m always looking for errors to fix and patterns that I can use (parallelism etc), but I often get questions wrong where the answer is A: the same answer that is the original prompt. Is there a way to get better at just accepting the original sentence as correct?
Ache
Hi Ache,
The GMAT tends to evenly distribute the "correct" answer among the 5 choices, so each answer is equally likely over the course of the entire Test. In terms of Sentence Corrections, if you saw 15 SCs, then it's likely that about 3 of the questions would have answer A as the correct answer. This will vary, of course, depending on how you're performing and the "randomizer" computer program, but it's a point worth noting. Since Answer A is a "duplicate" of the original sentence, there will be a few SCs that are grammatically correct (and don't need to be changed). You’ll still need to continue using your grammar knowledge to determine when there is an ‘error’, but if you don’t spot any obvious errors, then the question is likely correct as is.
GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich
