# GMAT Problem Solving: Tips for Roman Numeral Questions

March 10, 2014 by

It’s finally time! You’ve waited all weekend for it, and we’re finally going to share the solution, and more importantly, helpful tips for dealing with GMAT Roman Numeral questions. If you didn’t see Friday’s practice question, take a look now:

#### GMAT Problem Solving

##### Roman Numeral Question

If x, y, and z are consecutive odd integers, with x < y < z, then which of the following must be true?

I. x + y is even

II. $\frac{x+z}{y}$ is an integer

III. xz is even

• A) I only
• B) II only
• C) III only
• D) I and II only
• E) I, II, and III

#### Strategy and Tips for Solving GMAT Roman Numeral Questions

For Roman Numeral questions, start by finding the statement that appears most often in the answer choices, and evaluate it first. Therefore, if it is untrue, you can eliminate the highest number of answer choices.

In this case, … Read full post

# Get Your Fresh GMAT Practice Question Here!

February 27, 2014 by

Yesterday, we posted a GMAT practice question on Facebook. It got a lot of attention and many responses. Here it is again:

What is the value of b if a = $\frac{b}{c^{2}}$ ?

(1) $ac^{2}&space;=&space;50$

(2) $c^{2}=&space;10$ and $a^{2}=&space;25$

First, you can multiply both sides of the equation in the question stem by $c^{2}$ to make it clear that $ac^{2}&space;=&space;b$. Then, look for values a, c and $ac^{2}$.

• Statement (1) is exactly what is needed – it gives you a precise value for $ac^{2}$. Statement (1) is sufficient, so eliminate answer choices C and E.
• Statement (2) alone, however, leads to two possible values for b, because you’d have to substitute the square roots of 25 for a, and those square roots are BOTH positive AND negative 5 (remember this! The GMAT likes

# GMAT Data Sufficiency Practice Question – The Solution

January 9, 2014 by

Did you try out our GMAT Data Sufficiency practice question? If not, take a couple minutes now to give it a try before reviewing the explanation.

Now, let’s get down to brass tacks on the Geometry and DS skills you need to solve this one…

One way to find the area of a quadrilateral is to divide it into triangles and add the areas of the triangles, which can be found using the formula for the area of a triangle: (1/2)(Base)(Height).
If you add dashed lines to the diagram connecting points A and C and points B and D, you will see that the quadrilateral is composed of 4 right triangles:

You can see that one side of each triangle is a radius of one of the circles; for example, AB is a radius of circle A and is the hypotenuse of triangle ABE. Also, you’ll … Read full post

# GMAT Average Speed Problems

May 30, 2012 by

Imagine you are driving from Chicago to Los Angeles, and you want to know what your average speed needs to be to reach Los Angeles in a certain number of hours.  You would probably start by determining the speed you will be able travel during certain parts of your journey.  Since most of the distance will be covered by highway, you might plan to travel most of the distance at 70 miles per hour.  However, you will also want to plan for some traffic when you are still in or near Chicago and when you get close to Los Angeles.  During these parts of your journey let’s say you can plan to travel at 30 miles per hour.

When calculating the average speed at which you will be traveling, you need to avoid the trap of just averaging these speeds together and planning on an average speed of 50 miles … Read full post

# GMAT Data Sufficiency: Say Yes, Saying No

May 21, 2012 by

The trickiest question type in the quantitative section of the GMAT for most students is yes/no data sufficiency questions.  When approaching these problems, it is imperative that you keep in mind the purpose of data sufficiency.

Let’s start with a review of data sufficiency.  On these questions, your goal is not to find the answer.  Rather, it is to determine if you have enough information to find the answer, regardless of what the answer is.  On value questions, this is fairly straightforward.  If you are asked for the value of x and you know it is 4, that’s sufficient, but if it could be 4 or 6, that’s not sufficient.  In the former case we could narrow down the possibilities to one answer.  In the latter, we could not.

Now let’s see how this same concept applies to yes/no questions.  If a question asks us if x is positive and … Read full post

# Avoid a GMAT Train Wreck

May 17, 2012 by

Ever since I started teaching GMAT classes, I have taken note of any references to standardized tests I come across in television shows and movies.  In the six years of doing so, I have found that these references almost always follow the same pattern.  One of the characters needs to take a standardized test that they find difficult or boring.  In order to illustrate this to the other characters, they will read an example of one of the questions on the exam.  Invariably, the question they read involves two trains leaving two different stations at two different times and traveling towards each other.

Because of this, rate problems that feature two trains (or cars or people or anything else) have a bit of a bum rap.  These questions are seen, unjustly, as difficult, time consuming and complicated.  However, by learning only a few basic rules, you can handle these … Read full post

# On the GMAT, Use Primes to Crack Big Numbers

May 12, 2012 by

Everyone studying for the GMAT wants to identify the skills that will lead directly to the greatest point increases.  While this can be difficult to do, given the adaptive nature of the exam, some skills definitely do come into play more often than others.

One of the most important skills to master for the GMAT is prime factorization.  Finding prime factors can be useful on many different types of questions.  On test day, if you are stuck on a question and unsure of how to solve, remember the big number rule.  The big number rule is simply this: if you see a big number, one that is so large it is unreasonable to work with, find its prime factors.  Once you have those factors, you should be able to simplify.

Every positive integer that is not prime, with the exception of 1, can be broken down into a … Read full post

# GMAT Combinations Problems Demystified

May 2, 2012 by

Not surprisingly, most GMAT test takers have a background in the business world.  As such, many readers have worked on a committee formed from a larger group of employees.  Every time a committee is formed in this fashion, you are, in fact, doing a GMAT problem.   More specifically, you are attempting one of the most dreaded question types on the GMAT quantitative section – combinations.

While these questions can be tough, by thinking about the real life experience of forming a committee, you can more easily understand exactly what a combinations question is asking you to do.  Let’s say that your business has ten employees and needs to create a committee of four people.  If you want to determine how many different possible committees you could create, you would use the combinations formula, n!/[k!(n - k)!], where n is the number of people with which you start (in this case … Read full post

# Translation on the GMAT

April 21, 2012 by

One of the big GMAT skills that is often overlooked by students is translation.  Any time you decide approach a word problem using algebra, you will need to translate the English in the question stem into an algebraic equation.  While this seems as if it would usually be fairly straightforward, the GMAT will often find ways to make it more difficult.  A translation error will often lead to a trap answer, so it is essential that you learn how to translate difficult statements before test day.

To understand why translation can be more difficult than it seems, think about translating a foreign language.  If you only need to translate one word, you can usually just find the equivalent word in English.  Similarly, if a GMAT problem uses the phrase “more than” you know that it must translate to addition.

However, when you try to translate an entire sentence from … Read full post

# Absolute Value on the GMAT

April 19, 2012 by

Most students learn that absolute value is the positive version of a number.  Thus, the absolute value of 7 is 7 and the absolute value of -7 is also 7.  While these absolute values are correct, many GMAT problems will be more straightforward if you learn the true definition of absolute value, which is the distance a number is from zero on a number line.  Thus, the absolute values of 7 and -7 are 7 because both numbers are 7 away from zero on a number line.

To understand how absolute value works, imagine you live in a house right in the middle of a block.  The street has 5 houses to the left of your house and 5 houses to the right of your house.  Whether you walk two houses to the left or two houses to the right you will be 2 houses away from your home.  Now, … Read full post

Drag/Scroll

" "