Events & Promotions
It is currently 18 Apr 2024, 23:54 |
Customized
for You
Track
Your Progress
Practice
Pays
08:30 AM PDT
-09:30 AM PDT
10:00 AM PDT
-11:00 AM PDT
12:00 PM PDT
-01:00 PM PDT
08:30 AM PDT
-09:30 AM PDT
08:30 AM PDT
-09:30 AM PDT
11:00 AM IST
-01:00 PM IST
11:00 AM IST
-01:00 PM IST
06:45 AM PDT
-12:00 PM PDT
FROM Veritas Prep Blog: GMAT Tip of the Week: Started From the Bottom, Now We Here |
As Hip Hop Month rolls along in the GMAT Tip space, we’ll pass the torch from classic artists to the future, today letting Drake take the mic. In MBA-speak, Drake is a natural Kellogg candidate, a collaborative type who loves group projects, always appearing on tracks with other artists and bragging not just about his own success, but “now my whole team here.” So in that teamwork spirit, let’s work with Drake to help him solve his most famous math problem with some lyrics of his own: The problem: “The square root of 69 is 8 something; I’ve been trying to work it out” The solution: “Started from the bottom, now we here.” On the GMAT, a problem that asks you for the square root of a not-that-common square (you have to have the squares memorized up to about 15 and you should know that 25^2 is 625, too) is almost always going to be an exercise in “starting from the bottom,” using the answer choices to help guide your work. The GMAT doesn’t care if you can calculate the square root of 69, but it does care about whether you can leverage assets like answer choices to help you solve the problem. So on a problem like Drake’s, answer choices might look like: (A) Between 6 and 7 (B) Between 7 and 8 (C) Between 8 and 9 (D) Between 9 and 10 (E) Between 10 and 11 And in that case, starting from the bottom – looking at the answer choices before you begin your work – can tell you two things: 1) You don’t need an exact number; an estimate will suffice. 2) They’re giving you the numbers to use as an estimate; if you start in the middle of the range (using 8 and 9), you can determine whether you need bigger or smaller numbers. So if you try 8^2 to give yourself a range of numbers, you’ll see that the square root of 69 is going to be bigger than 8, since 8^2 is 64. So then try the next highest integer, 9, and when you see that 9^2 is 81, bigger than 69, you’ve bracketed in the range at between 8 and 9 and you don’t need to do any more work. When math looks like it could be labor-intensive, the answer choices often show you that you don’t have to do it all! Even if the problem were a bit tougher, and gave exact numbers like: (D) 8.31 (E) 8.66 You could again lighten the load by picking an easier-to-calculate number in between, like 8.5. That’s not the easiest math in the world, but multiplying by 5s is typically fairly quick and you’d see that the number has to be less than 8.5 (since 8.5-squared is 72.25). So the lesson is this – on most Problem Solving and Sentence Correction questions, it pays to “start at the bottom” so to speak, at least taking a quick glance at the answer choices to see if anything jumps out to help you guide your work on the problem. For Problem Solving, some of the prime candidates are:
Are you studying for the GMAT? We have free online GMAT seminars running all the time. And, be sure to find us on Facebook and Google+, and follow us on Twitter! By Brian Galvin |
|
||
Hi Guest,
Here are updates for you:
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Tuck at Dartmouth
|