how to improve DS score?

Question

my current data sufficiency scores are not improving resources to improve

AllisonBell · Answer

Great question. Data Sufficiency is a very unique question type. I’d love to provide you with more specific guidance if you could share a bit more about what you’ve done to study it so far and where you're getting stuck! But here are a few of the keys to mastering DS:

Understand the concepts of sufficiency and insufficiency.  At a fundamental level, Data Sufficiency is testing something very different than Problem Solving. It’s testing whether we have enough (sufficient) information to answer a question. So the first key is to wrap our heads around, in particular, what it means for a statement to be insufficient. It helps to... 
  Familiarize yourself with the different types of DS questions.  DS questions mostly ask for a Yes/No answer or a Value (occasionally, there will be a “Forced Choice” between a few options). If the question is asking for a Yes/No answer, proving a statement sufficient means the info is enough to definitively give you a Yes or a No. An insufficient statement will give you a maybe. For Value questions, sufficiency means finding a single, definitive value; insufficiency means more than one value is possible. How do you figure that out? You’ll need to... 
  Learn the strategies for tackling DS questions.  In particular, rephrasing and testing cases are incredibly useful. Testing cases will help you determine whether a statement is sufficient or not, and rephrasing helps you bypass a lot of work by simplifying the question — often so that it more closely matches one of the statements. It’s something that takes some good organization and practice to master, though! 
  Memorize the answer choices and learn an elimination grid.  In DS problems, the answers are always the same, so there’s no need to re-read them every time. But you do want to make sure you conceptually understand them! Many people miss questions, for example, because they forget that choice (C) doesn’t just mean both statements together are sufficient — it also means neither one alone is sufficient. In our introductory class, we teach students an answer choice elimination grid that guides them step-by-step through the statements and increases their odds of getting each question right. 
  Start with the easiest statement (for you).  You can up your odds of getting a DS question right by tackling whichever statement you feel most confident about first, and eliminating answers accordingly. That way, if you run out of time or have to guess about the other statement, you’ve at least narrowed it down to two or three options, and you hopefully have the right answer among your contenders. 
  Learn the Data Sufficiency tricks and traps.  For instance, the C trap is a common one — when both statements look like they’d obviously be sufficient together, students often bypass testing the statements alone, and end up getting the answer wrong. 
  Notice where the complexity lies.  Are the statements much simpler than the question? Then you problem need to simplify the question.

You probably have some of these fundamentals down, but you’ll need all of them to really see the needle move on DS. We do a very thorough introduction to the above content in our  Free GMAT Trial Class  — about an hour or more of free Data Sufficiency practice, led by expert instructors. I recommend checking it out!

Best,

Edskore · Answer

DS was honestly the section I struggled with the most before things clicked. The issue usually isn't computational - it's that Data Sufficiency is testing a different skill than Problem Solving. You're not solving for a value, you're deciding whether enough information exists.

One thing that helped me more than anything: I stopped trying to find the answer and started asking "under what conditions would this NOT be sufficient?" That mental shift changed everything. If you can quickly construct two scenarios that give different answers under a statement, you know it's insufficient. If you can't, it probably is.

A few concrete things I'd try:

First, make sure you've internalized what each answer choice actually means. Most people know A/B/C/D/E in theory but freeze when they're tired. Burn the elimination grid into muscle memory - if statement 1 is sufficient, you're picking A or D, and you evaluate statement 2 just to decide between them.

Second, watch out for what I call the "one statement makes you feel clever" trap. Statement 1 gives you x = 3, you feel great. Statement 2 says x is odd - feels useless on its own. But together? Sometimes both point to the same unique value. That's answer C. People miss this because they stop thinking carefully once they've evaluated each statement alone.

Third, practice specifically with questions where the answer is E. Those are where the thinking is hardest - you need to prove that even combining both statements, you genuinely can't pin down the answer. Constructing counterexamples is the real skill, and it takes reps.

What kind of DS questions are you getting wrong - the ones where you misjudge whether one statement alone is sufficient, or the ones where you evaluate each correctly but mess up the combination?

SarfrazAP · Answer

Just go through your DS error log and see if in most of the questions you answer incorrectly, you tend to go with C or E as the answer. Let me know if that's the case and I'll give you a couple of ways of fixing it.

how to improve DS score?

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