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Re: The graphic displays the results of a study in which subjects were ask
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16 Jan 2015, 18:23
Hi minwoswoh,
In the IR section, you'll face at least one prompt that is real "data heavy." You've correctly noted that you don't need to understand all of the data to answer the given question (and oftentimes, you only need to "find" and "pull out" the small chunk of relevant data to get to the correct answer). You should always start with a quick analysis of the table (what does each axes represent and are there any general trends/patterns that you can quickly spot), then read the text description next to the table. While it's tempting to want to try to immediately understand everything involved, you shouldn't put too much energy into trying to define every detail because the attached question(s) almost never require that level of work.
Your approach was fine, although some of the work was unnecessary (given the question that came with this prompt). Test Day requires some flexibility on your part - sometimes you'll have to do more work to answer an IR question, sometimes you'll have to do less. Instead of trying to process every nuance though, take a broad assessment of what you have to work with, then note what information the question requires you to focus on.
GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich