I am no expert but still would like to advice.
Firstly, DONOT assume anything.
Till you get a fair idea about how GMAT DS work, solve the problems using both the choices independently,without looking at the other one.

Best way to crack DS is to practice, practice, and practice! I must have practiced on over 800 DS questions.

Hey Rakesh,

Where to begin! I have a few suggestions for you and obviously there's a lot more where that came from:

1) Follow the logic of Data Sufficiency. In order to be sufficient, an answer must give EXACTLY ONE answer to the question. so when a question asks:

What is the value of x?

It's not asking "what could be the value". It's asking "What MUST BE the value"

When a question asks:

Is x > 0?

It's asking "MUST x be >0" not "could it"

Because of that, you can try to use the statement to find two different answers - if you can get two different answers, the statement is NOT sufficient.


2) Manage your assumptions.

The easiest trick for DS question writers is to get you to think you have enough information when you really don't - namely because you assume information that isn't really there. When a statement says:

x is a value such that 3 < x < 5

x is NOT NECESSARILY 4. It could be 3.5 or 4.9999. You cannot assume that x is an integer unless specifically told so. The same goes for positive numbers. If you were to see:

x^2 = 16

x COULD BE 4, but not necessarily - it could be -4 as well.

Be careful to only use information that is explicitly given or that can be logically deduced from what's given.


3) Beware the "easy answer". Often one answer choice - and quite often C, or both statements TOGETHER (but neither alone) will look very tempting. But if they're about to hand you that answer on a silver platter, see if you can get more information out of one of the statements to make it sufficient on its own. This test will reward you for maximizing the value of your resources - for getting a higher Return-on-Investment, which is the name of the game in business, after all - so keep that in mind. This article can show one method for doing so:

https://www.veritasprep.com/blog/2010/03 ... cant-c-me/


That's at least a start - keep us posted on your progress!

rakeshrajagopal wrote:Hi.

I am just not able to crack DS. I did 2 mock tests last week and in both the tests out of 11 questions of DS I got 10 wrong. Kindly please help me with this.

Rakesh

Rakesh, my friend DS are not supposed to be barrier for successful GMAT attempt. DS type of questions should even consume less time than problem solving questions.

See how I tackled DS from 0% accuracy rate at the beginning. I will list ABCs for DS and then flow towards total murder of this staff

DS is a question which must be answered on GMAT. All DS questions ask you for 2 answer categories:

1) Yes/NO
or
2) Value

1) When you see Yes category do not forget that DS question may ask either Yes or Yes/No. The same, DS may ask you to confirm No only or leave you with the choice to introduce an alternate Yes/No. When you practice DS please carefully note this feature with the questions. Tip: never keep in mind Yes or No only, this will hurt the delivery of your correct solution for question to correctly marking its answer on A...D.

2) Value, this category of DS requires you to apply the same concepts as you would do for Problem Solving. The difference here is that you eliminate tedious calculations and just pick up the statements needed for solution only.



Before you begin tackling DS, read the stimuli (question text without statements). If it says 2x/3=12/4^2 then this stimuli is taking away your attention and you must simplify this beforehand. 2x*4^2=3*12 >>>> 2x*4=3*3 >>>> x=9/4 here you go the DS 2x/3=12/4^2 is equivalent to x=9/4 forget the cumbersome initial staff (slap ETS here!)

when you see DS do not feel any fear, many statements (1) and (2) are either simple linear equations, FDPs or exponents. Try to link your revised stimuli (x=9/4) to the statements given...

Always start with statement (1). If a question says x=9/4 see whether the question mark was placed after an expression, like x=9/4? If this is the case, do not assume that x=9/4 is an expression that you can use for pairing it to the statement (1). Follow your logic here; if the value is given without any question mark, then count it. Leave your solution choice with the statement (1) only for this moment. In case you could not find a solution for DS question with the statement (1) look up the statement (2).

Statement (2), the same rules as for the statement (1) apply here.



Next, If the statements (1) and (2) separately do not allow for the solution, take them together to help you answer the question.

If not any possible solution was found, select 'E' bravely. Tip: watch your progress for DS, if your incorrect answers for DS questions tend to be 'E' more times than 'C' or 'A', etc. then you are either weak in math concepts or do not put much effort for the question's solution.

After you read my suggestions for DS, practice with theory and practice of math on each topic by doing DS questions.

do PS well first, then think of DS. If you are not doing that well in PS either, DS will inflate your quant problems, showing higher failure rates. DS is meant to be like that.