{"id":3156,"date":"2010-05-27T15:00:35","date_gmt":"2010-05-27T23:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/?p=3156"},"modified":"2010-07-24T22:02:14","modified_gmt":"2010-07-25T06:02:14","slug":"veritas-prep-gmat-tips-problem-solving-the-michael-dell-way","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/veritas-prep-gmat-tips-problem-solving-the-michael-dell-way\/","title":{"rendered":"Veritas Prep GMAT Tips: Problem Solving The Michael Dell Way"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brian Galvin is the Director of Academic Programs at Veritas Prep, where he oversees all of the company\u2019s GMAT preparation courses<\/a>.<\/p>\n

If your goal is to become the youngest Fortune 500 CEO at the age of 27, you have no choice but to be efficient and direct.\u00a0 Those virtues define the business model of Dell founder and CEO Michael Dell, who turned a direct manufacturing and sales model into a revolution of the computer marketplace and made himself over $13 billion in the process.\u00a0 (His earliest employees nearly all became millionaires via stock options, earning them the nickname \u201cDellionaires\u201d around Austin, Texas)<\/p>\n

Because Michael Dell is such a titan of business, it is only natural that business schools continue to seek\u00a0 those \u201cDell Direct\u201d virtues in their applicants.\u00a0 Borrowing from Dell\u2019s philosophies on efficiency and directness as you take the GMAT will help you demonstrate these qualities to business schools.\u00a0 Consider the question:<\/p>\n

What is the square root of 1089?<\/p>\n

(A)\u00a0\u00a0 23<\/p>\n

(B)\u00a0\u00a0 28<\/p>\n

(C)\u00a0\u00a0 31<\/p>\n

(D)\u00a0\u00a0 33<\/p>\n

(E)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 43<\/p>\n

On a question like this, there are plenty of ways to be inefficient and indirect as you attempt to solve it.\u00a0 Theoretically, you could square each answer choice as you attempt to determine the solution, but that commits you to doing several, if not all five, double-digit multiplication problems.<\/p>\n

Michael Dell would see a more direct and efficient way.\u00a0 He would note that:<\/p>\n

302<\/sup> is 900 and 402<\/sup> is 1600, so the answer must be between the two, as we need a number that, when squared, falls between those two parameters.<\/p>\n

Only a number ending in 3 or 7 can, when squared, end in a units digit of 9.\u00a0 312<\/sup> will end in a 1, so 31 cannot be the square root of 1089.<\/p>\n

Therefore, the only number that even has the potential to be the square root of 1089 is 33, and the logic is airtight \u2013 you can check 33 by squaring it to be certain, but because you can definitively eliminate each of the other choices you can be even more direct and trust that judgment.\u00a0 332<\/sup> is, indeed, 1089, but given the answer choices provided, it has to be without your needing to calculate it.<\/p>\n

Michael Dell became a billionaire by recognizing inefficiencies in the current business model and finding a more direct way to solve a problem \u2013 consumers want high-quality, inexpensive computers, and Dell found a way to deliver on both quickly and profitably.\u00a0 Similarly, you can capitalize on more direct ways to reach your \u201cend consumer\u201d (or correct answer choice) by surveying those choices first.\u00a0 Often, you can find a more direct way by narrowing down a potential range for your answer choices and\/or eliminating answer choices that simply do not fit (does the correct answer need to be odd?\u00a0 End in 9?\u00a0 Be a multiple of3?).\u00a0 Like Dell, you should seek out efficient answers to problems, and reap the rewards: dude, you\u2019re getting a 700+!<\/p>\n

Read more GMAT advice on the Veritas Prep blog<\/a>. Ready to sign up for a GMAT course<\/a>? Enroll through GMAT Club and save up to $180 (use discount code GMATC10)!<\/p>\n

\"Veritas<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Brian Galvin is the Director of Academic Programs at Veritas Prep, where he oversees all of the company\u2019s GMAT preparation courses. If your goal is to become the youngest Fortune…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":101,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3156","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3156","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/101"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3156"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3156\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3872,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3156\/revisions\/3872"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}