hello everyone my name is Derrick and i'm a GMAT test prep expert here at Magoosh and we're going
to talk about the GMAT quant section today the GMAT quant section is 31 questions and really
in a vacuum many test takers i would say almost practically all can answer any of these questions
without breaking a sweat but what the GMAT said is let's make this a lot more interesting and
they suck a timer up there 62 minutes now to answer 31 questions that gives you a little
over two minutes to answer each question that's a bit more of a challenge one thing you don't want
to get focused on is thinking that the gmat is a math test or even a verbal test for that matter
the GMAT is really a test focused on our executive reasoning skills the GMAT wants to know if given a
challenge with a limited amount of time how would you perform will you take the necessary route of
going through all the calculations or will you know the shortcuts necessary to get to that answer
and move on to the next question in this video we're going to talk about the five
tips that you need to successfully conquer the gmat one section tip number one pacing the GMAT
quant section is 31 questions and you have 62 minutes to solve these questions the funny thing
about the GMAT is that the math on the GMAT isn't that challenging most of the math on the GMAT
is high level high school work maybe a bit of touch of work from middle school and a
few years of high school but with the GMAT being a time intensive test and you have two
minutes to solve each question you cannot spend too much time making laborious calculations
with the GMAT you have to have executive reasoning you have to see a problem think about a few ways
of solving it and then putting that plan to action and then knowing like the good songs like the song
says know when to hold them know when to fold them no one to walk away after you worked on a problem
and you see you're going past that two minute mark it's time to jump away from that problem cut bait
select an answer and move on the gmat pacing is super important to under to really conquer
in quant you want to set up your paper properly and give yourself that align those allotted time
marks to be successful on the exam we've included a few more links to videos into actual articles by
magoosh gmat experts such as myself to really help you give a deeper dive on pacing and how important
it is to the gmat tip number two know the core to solidify your floor you have to take the
time to understand the concepts of the gmat quant section thoroughly the gmat looks for those type
of test takers that say hey first prep i'm just going to study 700 level questions and that's it
and wrong the gmat will penalize you for that the gmat will give you a a very intensive exponent
question and you've mastered that but then hit you with a very nuanced question about
inequalities that focuses on the principles and the fundamentals that that underline that type of
question like jay-z's homie told him like my homie strict told me dude finish your breakfast you
gotta do your breakfast you gotta know the core the basic fundamentals of quant is what's gonna
cap your downside and give you all the upside potential so if you understand thoroughly the
principles of exponents you understand triangles you understand circles you understand ratios these
are going to give you the opportunity to create a solid floor that will cause you to do tooth
that will prevent you from doing two things one doing laborious calculations on questions that
you could solve by just looking at if you really know the basics and fundamentals two it prevents
you from making silly errors and silly errors run amok on your score as you aim for the height
the highest score that you can silly errors will cost you that and the one way to prevent
errors is to have a solid foundation when you can just look at a problem and know whether the traps
and that comes from knowing the foundation and again like i said know the core to solidify
your floor tip three math is not a spectator sport you can't sit around and look at it magoosh has a
lot of great videos even i get caught up sometimes thinking that i know a concept because i watch the
video and then i do that practice test and i get rocked and then you have to practice test thinking
to yourself like oh man i've seen this before oh man i did this before and you didn't do it you
watched it you watched it happen i watched steph curry shoot 3.00 that doesn't mean i can do it
i have to go out there and practice the skill be respectful of the art go out there and do the work
give yourself 20 problems knock them out time yourself you have to be involved with the math
daily you have to really take the time to focus on doing the problems now minnie scott many students
will say hey i've done all the problems in the og okay why don't you do them again and do them
all in a different way you have to get better at solving the problems in a clear efficient way and
the only way you're going to be able to do that is actually putting pencil pen or marker to paper
or laminate and really solving the problem getting comfortable setting up your paper physically
moving your hand is another way of engaging your brain in deeper thought this will pay
off dividends when you come to the actual test day and have to work out all these problems on paper
tip number four know the strategies plugging in numbers backwards solving doubling and having
these strategies and a lot more will really help boost your score on the gmat quant section
often i get students that come from maybe a math background or just feel really confident
in their computational skills and they could see a problem and then start doing all these advanced
calculations to get to a problem that could have easily been solved with back resolving let me
tell you one thing about the test no one sees your scratch paper so you're don't have to worry ever
about thinking that you won't get a high score because your scratch paper is not filled up with
a bunch of marks think smart be efficient you are a business leader of tomorrow it's not about
wasting your time on problems that could be solved like that we're thinking innovation we're thinking
smart we're thinking moving forward you are some of the brightest people in the world think about
simple ways to solve complex problems it's a way of changing uh your perspective on the gmat
and having a perspective more as a business leader executive because you will be that as a g as an
mba student and thinking about ways to solve this problem don't put don't take it personal don't
go to the exam thinking that you have to prove something to anyone you are good enough just the
way you are so think about the strategies that you can use that can help you circumvent some of those
time sinking heavily intensive calculations that you make believe you have to know and use
a shortcut there's nothing wrong with thinking about a problem in a different way instead of
a calculation maybe draw a picture instead of getting an exact answer in math use estimation
all of these strategies are at your fingertips it's just you your scratch paper and the computer
no one has to know how you got the right answer but just get the right answer the gmat doesn't
give you any credit for showing your work so get the answer the best way you can and fight for it
because you deserve to earn that great score that you set out to go get tip number five i put this
at the last tip because a lot of people may skip to the end and i understand wearing the skimming
we're in the skimming world a lot of people like to just get to the into the nitty-gritty
i put this at tip number five but it's the most important one that i see is the power of the error
log if you want to be successful in the gmat quant you have to have pacing you have to know the core
foundations you have to have a great development of doing the problems you also have to think about
alternative strategies but you could sum all this up together by creating a high quality error law
the error log is super important it's one of the tools that you don't have to pay much for
but could give you a lot of value if you respect and treat it like you need to the aerolog needs
to be visited it's like a pet right you can't just go outside and party and not worry about
not worry about your your pet at home you may come home and they may they still be hungry you have to
spend the time with the error log take the time and energy and effort to make a quality error log
and this is done in a few steps we have links to more detailed analysis of an error log and
how to create it but here's a few things you should think about after you completed a problem
what went right what went wrong why did i make that decision what's a better way to approach
it next time and the fifth key one is when will i do this problem again too many times students come
they complete the entire o.g back and forth they even get old oh geez i had one student have an
official guide from 2004 and they completed them all and they said that after they've done this
problem all they've had was just entire wrist and a bunch of marks in a book i said we have to take
a more strategic approach it's about learning from our past mistakes developing those powerful
behaviors and the error log will do just that so those are my five tips on how to be successful
in the gmat quant section and really take your score to the next level let's bring them all
together pacing make sure you understand that each question you have to make a decision quickly if
you can solve this problem and go down the path or skip and guess the second idea make sure you
understand you need to know the fundamentals don't worry about those 700 level questions
you will get there soon enough but it's those 400 500 600 level questions that are pivotal for you
to advancing onto the next round third do the work it's one thing to watch the video the videos are
great i love watching the videos myself but you will never learn the concept and the thoroughness
that you need to until you actually put pen to paper and get that work done number four focus
on the strategies understand the various ways to solve a problem in efficient ways you solve
the problem in three minutes now solve it in two minutes now solving in one minute you got to think
game time scenarios not every time you're going to have a total two minutes to solve a problem
sometimes you get down to three questions left and you have two minutes what are the quick ways you
can eliminate problems and boost your possibility the opportunity and the greater chance for you to
get that answer right again and then number five understand the error log the power of the error
log it's a low cost high touch tool that could really drive your score to the next level if
these tips were helpful like the video also drop a hello in the comments section would love to
hear from you and if you want to hear more about the gmat and the option in the test prep options
magoosh has to offer subscribe to our youtube channel until then stay up and stay sharp you