Hi I'm Melody with Magoosh and I'm here today to share some tips for how you can be prepared
to minimize the number of mistakes that you make in the Quant section on the GMAT. Now I
don't want you to think that all mistakes can be avoided completely, almost no one can do that even
the most prepared students are still likely to make a few mistakes on test day, that's part of
the human experience. Instead we want to focus on how we can be prepared to reduce the number
of mistakes we're making and make sure that they don't hold us back from reaching our score goals.
So to do that we're going to talk about some of the most common mistakes that students tend
to make and we're going to talk about some tips to counteract those potential mistakes.
Before we do that I want to encourage you as you think about what I'm going to mention.
Think of which mistakes are most likely to affect you personally that really varies
from person to person, so you need to be aware of where your personal weaknesses and mistakes are
most likely to come from. A great way to do that while you're studying is to keep an effective
error log and really note what mistakes you make either in wrong answers that you get or
questions that you guessed on didn't know how to do.What was missing? Was there a gap in your
knowledge? Did you perform poorly because of stress? What was it as you keep your error log?
Here are some common mistakes that you can think about and be prepared for in advance.
First a very common mistake in any kind of mathematical test is just making an error in
the calculation, so that can come from trying to do calculations in our head or feeling like we're not
so good with numbers or struggling with algebra on the GMAT. It's very important you understand that
you're not going to have access to a calculator for the Quant section so while you're preparing
while you're practicing it's important that you brush up on your basic arithmetic skills. Things
like multiplication, division, subtraction, addition and you want to be able to solve those problems
without a calculator. Don't use a calculator on Quant questions while you're preparing, instead
work on techniques that you can use to make sure that you are finding the most accurate answers
possible write out your quests- your calculations on your scratch paper and if you come to a
question that seems like it cannot possibly be solved without a calculator then you're doing
something or understanding something incorrectly. So stop and rethink, see what piece of the puzzle
you're missing because you should not have to do a calculation that is too complicated to do by hand.
Another common source of mistakes is from misunderstanding what the question really
says or what it's asking for. Sometimes we may try to read too quickly but instead even though we're
going to be timed on the test it's important to read the question slowly enough and carefully
enough that you can really understand what it's saying, even taking notes on your scratch paper
if you need to. Also when you finish up a question it's good to double check and make sure that you
solve for the correct part of what the question was asking for before you submit your final answer
Now we can understand the question, we can be ready to make calculations
but we're only going to get so far on the Quant section if we don't actually
know the mathematical concepts being tested. So you will need to make sure that you have
a good well-rounded understanding of the most common math concepts tested on the GMAT that it
could include brushing up some arithmetic skills that you might not have seen for several years
things like working with ratios and fractions and percents, properties of integers, including using
remainders in division. Things that maybe went away when we started using calculators in life.
Concepts like factoring and primes and exponents and greatest common factor fill in the gaps in
your memory or your understanding to have a good command of general arithmetic after
arithmetic as we grow we learn algebra and algebra has to do with solving equations
evaluating expressions and specifically some of us really need to brush up again on skills such as
factoring or solving a quadratic equation look for gaps in your algebra knowledge as well. Practice
those and fill in your understanding. Geometry is also extremely important for the exam there
are lots of geometry facts uh information about shapes informations about angles informations
about different properties especially in triangles. The test has a real love for triangles,
geometry facts that you will not have access to, you're not going to have a formula sheet on the
exam so you do need to brush up on remember and learn geometry before you're ready for the test.
Okay so we've read the question carefully we're ready to do the calculations without a calculator.
We know our concepts, what else could go wrong? Well sometimes students will start solving a problem,
I've seen it happen many times and once they reach a number that appears somewhere in the answer
choices they're going to circle that, choose that answer choice, move on but it could be that you've
only gotten part way toward the solution you're on a step that's in between the question and the
right answer but there is another step or two or three to go. That intermediate step, that number
is likely to appear in the wrong answer choices so be cautious of that. Make sure that you've actually
finished solving the problem. Likewise sometimes the question might have a few different factors.
For example we have the stereotypical standardized test question where one person is three years
older than that person was five years ago and we get all confused with their different names right.
So maybe we have figured out uh Jake's age but we haven't figured out Susan's age and the question is
asking for Susan but the age of Jake is in the answer choices. So don't just circle a number
that you come across make sure you're answering the right value the right part of the question
so speaking of that we can see that there are obviously wrong answers in the answer choices.
Only one of the answer choices is correct on your average multiple choice question and the other
answer choices aren't just random wrong numbers but they are carefully crafted wrong answer
choices to sound tempting to someone. So we want to be careful that we're being deliberate in the math
that you do so that you can minimize those traps. However you can make those answer choices work in
your favor in many cases. For example if the answer choices all contain algebra and your question
contained algebra there are some variables that could change you could try plugging in
some number for that variable or those variables in the question and in the answer choices and see
if they line up if the answer choices are numbers you can take those numbers and plug them back into
the question see if all of the other pieces of the problem come out to be the same numbers or
different. You can eliminate the ones that don't match up when the answer choices are compared
with the original question so that can make the answer choices work for you instead of against you.
I want to take a quick moment to note that Data Sufficiency questions have their own special
set of requirements and also potential mistakes. So I want you to make sure that you understand what
a Data Sufficiency question is really asking you first of all you should understand that the answer
choices are always going to be the same they will always follow the same pattern. You should not
spend time reading them on the exam you should be very familiar with what the answer choices.
Say and what they really mean and data sufficiency is not about doing the calculations to actually
find a specific number or to answer the question that can be really difficult because that's what
we're used to doing on tests but instead the question is, is the data the information
sufficient is it enough? Is it adequate to let you find the answer to that question a lot of times
we can answer that without ever actually finding that value or that final answer to the question.
So be careful that you're not spending extra time doing that when it's of no benefit. It's
really important to make sure you're answering the question of whether you have enough information
and a key to getting that right is to make sure you're considering each of statements one and two
individually before you decide on your final answer. Okay, so now it's test day, we've studied,
we've prepared. We've got all these concepts, we know what mistakes we tend to make, what
could still go wrong? Well many many of us feel an increased level of stress or anxiety when
we're actually taking a timed exam, especially if you feel pressure that the results of this
particular exam score are going to have an impact on your future. Realistically test anxiety is a
very big part of many people's lives and so you do need to work to counter that if that's something
that affects you. One great way to do that is to feel confident and feel prepared, so a lot of that
comes from measuring your progress while you're practicing while you're preparing for the exam
seeing how far you've come and reflecting on how much you have learned since you began your studies.
Another important part of that is really trying to figure out which things help you to focus the most
in a situation that brings you stress. It might help to close your eyes for 10 seconds and take
a deep breath if you feel stress overwhelming you. It might help to make sure that you're feeling
well rested on exam day, it might help for you to not have your stomach grumbling if you didn't eat
breakfast, think about the things that make you feel the best that you can and really
take the steps to give yourself the best chance of success. That way we can also make some mistakes.
If we are trying to move too fast and trying to do a lot of things in our head so make sure you make
good use of your scratch paper to take notes to make calculations and especially to work through
the process of elimination. I find it's really helpful to actually write out a b c d e for the
answer choices on my scratch paper and physically cross out answer choice b once I figure it's wrong
that process helps me stay focused and identify when I'm down to just one right answer or even if
I only get it down to two or three I've increased my chances of choosing the correct answer.
And the piece of the puzzle that we all have to to work against on standardized tests like the
GMAT is the timer. The clock, it's definitely true that timing is an issue on the GMAT especially
since the test does not allow you to come back and forth and come back to a question later you
have to answer every question before you move on. You really need to complete all of the questions
in the section so you need to be preparing in advance for the amount of time that you'll have
on the Quant section. It's important that you do a lot of timed practice and that you work
on developing your pacing strategy, that includes knowing how many questions should be completed
after five minutes or ten minutes or how many minutes should have passed when you've completed
a certain number of questions. There's some great guidelines in uh different videos on our channel
as well as some of the blogs on magoosh.com/gmat that can help with that you need to choose the
timing strategy that works best for you. And a key piece of that which could be so hard is knowing
when it's the right time to just answer a question and move on even if you haven't fully answered it.
That could mean that you're not done with the calculations or you think if you had
more time you might be able to solve it but maybe that's going to take a lot of
time and it's not really worth it to spend all of your time on a couple of questions and not
finish the section, so you have to learn when it's time to choose the best answer you can use the
process of elimination to increase your chances of choosing correctly answer that question and move
on to make sure that you can finish the section. Practice these strategies fill in your co- your
concept learning your actual information regarding math and do lots and lots of practice on authentic
GMAT style Quant questions in time settings make you good use of an error log and you will
have the best chance of minimizing the number of mistakes and getting a great score. Good luck!