Importance of Smart, Quick Calculations The quant section of the GMAT is often perceived by a lot of test-takers to be a test of Math. While this is not entirely wrong, there’s more to it than meets the eye.
GMAT does make it clear that it
tests specific areas from high-school level Math. However, it does mention in the same breath that
GMAT Quant is not a test of Math skills alone. 1) The GMAT Quant section is also a test of your analytical and logical reasoning skills
2) It also tests your ability to comprehend clues – language and visual ones – and also your ability to understand implied ideas
Pick up any edition of the
GMAT Official guide and most of these things are explicitly mentioned for a test-taker’s benefit. However, most students preparing for the GMAT tend to ignore these details and treat the
OG as a mere repository of practice questions and in some cases, also as a ready reference for Math (& Verbal) concepts, which is a bit unfortunate.
What’s more,
students who believe that GMAT Quant is a test of Math, somehow
ignore one critical component, with respect to getting their Math in place
for GMAT Quant. And that is – no surprises –
the importance of being good at calculations.
There cannot be bigger paradoxes than this one
– on the one hand, I believe that I need to be good at Math to be able to score well on the GMAT Quant section, on the other I do not think that it is important to know something as basic as multiplication tables by memory – that’s a huge paradox for sure.
Here at
GMATWhiz, it’s our firm belief that a GMAT aspirant should leave no stone unturned while preparing for the test. And if you ask us if that would include ‘being good with calculations’ we would definitely answer that in the affirmative.
Now,
this certainly
does not mean that we want you to run to the nearest bookstore and pick up the best edition of Vedic Math/Speed Math and
memorise all the techniques. However,
it definitely means that you need to change your perspective towards calculations and develop a mindset of keen observation and application of smart calculation techniques to get to the answer.
In the first 2 articles of this series on Quant Fundamentals, we have highlighted the importance of being good with Numbers in general and also the significance of knowing certain numbers (like Zero, One, Two, perfect squares and cubes) in more detail. You can gain access to these articles by clicking on these links which will lead you to the first part of the respective article:
A must read on Numbers for GMAT QuantPerfect Squares & CubesIn this article, we would like to further reinforce that idea by
demonstrating some calculation techniques, which will not only
make your calculations more efficient and effective but also more fun.
And this also ties in with the emphasis that we are placing on
a topic like Numbers, which we feel
is the bedrock of all Math. After all,
being good with your calculations automatically translates to being good with Numbers and hence, to some extent, to being more confident about your Math.
As you learn some of these methods and start perfecting them, you will see for yourself, an improvement in your accuracy which will then impact your confidence in a positive way. Of course,
it will require a fair amount of practice, but once you have practiced enough – enough for these methods to become second nature to you – you will start seeing results.
However, some of you may still have a question on your mind and we read that.
"Why is it important to be good with calculations?" After all, GMAT is not a test of speed math; GMAT doesn’t treat us as human calculators.
1)
Well, yes! That’s absolutely right and that’s exactly the reason why you should stop being human calculators, using mundane approaches to calculating, say the square of a two-digit number, and pick up some of these smart and fun methods to calculate faster. 2) That apart, we have already mentioned how
this can cause a morale boost and hence, in a lot of cases, improve your chances to even get difficult questions right.
3) Additionally,
smart methods of calculation not only
reduce the chances of a calculation error but
also provide you methods to review your answer and correct your mistake if you have made one.
So, we fully agree with you when you say “I don’t wanna be a human calculator”. However, we want you to understand that
there is nothing that you stand to lose if you add some of these methods to your repository;
on the contrary, you only stand to gain.
This article will be divided into at least 4 parts, unlike our previous 2 articles which had only three, since every part involves a lot of examples and demonstrations. In the first part, tomorrow, we shall discuss techniques to help you add and subtract faster and with more accuracy.
In the subsequent parts, we shall discuss methods to multiply fast, compute perfect squares and cubes and use fractions to hasten your percentage calculations. We shall also discuss the importance of learning to approximate and estimate your answers.
Until then, it's goodbye!