In need of general DS advice

Question

Hi all. For the past two months I've been getting myself ready for the gmat, with exception for a few weeks that were devoted to Risk Management with Derivatives exam. I'm one week shy of taking the GMAT in Stockholm and right now I'm quickly finishing up MGMAT Sentence correction book while doing OG12 questions (bots PS and DS). I've started gauging my performance with the help of the MGMAT practice tests and it varies from 33 to 45 on the quant section. My big weakness of course is the DS type of questions. I can't seem to think of every possible scenario when I look at a question and hence when I think that f.ex A is not sufficient, it bloody hell is according to the answer key. DS really weighs down on my quant score and I don't like it.

Does anyone have any ideas, hints or clues?

skipjames · Answer

I agree that the DS are harder than the problem solving. I have written an algorithm which only served to prove that there are no shortcuts. You must know if statements 1 and 2 are sufficient and lastly if their combination is suffiicient. I have to think with all your preparation you will do fine. That is a wide range of scores but likely you will be on the high side come test day. Certainly I wish you luck.
Skip.

dimitri92 · Answer

i might sound a bit harsh but to be honest ...i dont think you are prepared at this point ....if you are still struggling with DS ..the only solution is practice practice and practice .....at this piont you dont know what parts of DS is bothering you ...sometimes its the content ..sometimes its the DS e.g selecting A or B or C or E .....all this comes with practice .....

placebo · Answer

Alright, thank you. I know I'm not ready, hence the post! 8-)

pardeepattri · Answer

Apply the technique of AD/BCE. Eliminate choice BCE immediately if you find choice A correct. Or if choice A is not sufficient, then your answer is going to be from BCE. In this way you can save much time and you work will be easy on DS..

placebo · Answer

Alright, thank you for the tip. I'll implement that into my brain right away.

shaselai · Answer

besides the "splits" people mentioned, also make sure to not fall to "obvious" answer traps. as an example:
What is X?

1) X^2 = 4
2) X >0

This is easy to spot and sometimes easy to select the wrong answer if you are not careful. But there will be harder problems where you still can see an "obvious" answer but you should always try to plug in any values that are 'weird" - Like negatives, fractions, 0 etc. These values almost always weed out the obvious wrong answers like the one above.

Again, you will spot obvious wrong answers much more easier as you do more problems. There are only so many variations of DS questions before they run out.

placebo · Answer

Thank you! <img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/1f602.png" class="forumSmileyItem" width="20" height="20" alt=":lol:" title="Laughing" />

In need of general DS advice

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