Quant Geometry

Question

Hello everyone

I'll be straightforward with my query, I'm not doing well in Geometry part of Quant. I'm able to solve the lower level questions, between 500 and 600, but once the question is twisted a bit I'm just not able to comprehend it. What's worse is that initially I tried to understand but eventually I gave up and I haven't practiced geometry for like 2 months, I am trying my best to minimise errors in other topics, but I would like to know the impact of leaving geometry on my GMAT score. I haven't gave any mocks yet, I'm still practicing from GMAT club 600-700 and 700+ questions, making sure my accuracy is good before I start the mocks and I'm hoping to get 700+, with a bottom score of 680, which is the average score for IE Spain, the university I'm targeting. I would like to know, considering the quant score of Q51, if I leave Geometry part to guess/not answer what's the highest possible score I can get? Thank you.

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MahmoudFawzy · Answer

Hi  Neprotox 
What you are doing is gambling. You may be lucky or maybe not.
But surely, Geometry is an integral part of GMAT.
if you reviewed any of the ESRs of other fellows who took the exam, the report clearly says that 5 fundamental skills are examined:
1- Geometry
2- Ratio/percent/rates
3- value/order/factors
4- Equality/Algebra/Inequality
5- counting/sets/series.

so the advice is that you should at least master the 600-700 level questions in geometry in GMATCLUB question bank.

kavach · Answer

Hey If you are aiming for Q51 then I would suggest not to leave geometry, Its an important topic.

eakabuah · Answer

@Netprotox, the solution to mastering tough geometry questions is not avoiding them. When you identify a weakness, you tackle them head on. You focus your attention on that area, and put in extra efforts in order to overcome it. You hit it hard until it becomes a strength. Preparation for the GMAT can be very daunting with highs and lows, and your approach in managing the lows will go a long way to determine how well you perform on the actual test. Don't be in a hurry, take your time and master every aspect of the GMAT quant if your aim is to attain Q51. Last but not the least, have an open mind towards the tougher geometry questions, because an open mind will help you to comprehend the solutions posted by the math experts and other forum members who are able to solve the difficult questions.

ccooley · Answer

Have you done some targeted studying regarding Geometry, or have you just tried practice questions? I'd recommend picking up the MPrep Geometry study guide for both reading material and specific Geometry exercises.

IanStewart · Answer

It's not clear to me why other posters above think you're aiming for a Q51, but if you are, a Q51 would be almost impossible (impossible without extraordinarily good luck) if you didn't know much Geometry.

Considering how big a topic Geometry is, it's actually not tested all that often, but it shows up often enough that you can't really get away with not learning it. If you can't answer 500-level Geometry questions, say, then as Mahmoudfawzy83 says above, you're taking a big risk. On some tests you take, you won't see many easy Geometry questions, and then it won't hurt you so much if you get those questions wrong (since getting hard questions wrong isn't that bad on an adaptive test). But on other tests, you'll be guessing at easy and medium Geometry questions, and without very good luck, you'll really be hurting your score. That's the much more likely situation. If you take several tests, I think you'll find your Quant scores are much more volatile than average if you have one glaring weakness in a certain-to-be-tested topic.

Geometry requires more memorization than any other subject -- you need to learn area formulas, Pythagoras, etc -- and it also often requires a different way of thinking than other subjects. So you should, as ccooley suggests above, be learning the theory of the subject first, before doing practice problems. So I'd suggest you find a good Geometry book to use (mine if you want a high-level book, another source if you want an easy/medium book, which is probably what you need right now) in conjunction with a good supply of official practice problems.

Quant Geometry

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