GMAT Strategy

Hello, everyone:

As I was discussing with a group of Veritas instructors yesterday in one of our instructor development sessions, there are a lot of GMAT strategies that I've learned over the years that I now wonder how I ever took the GMAT without! In discussing the curriculum for our new strategy-heavy Essentials Course, we all agreed that there are quite a few strategies that make taking the GMAT infinitely easier that we wish someone would have told us from day one.

So I thought it would be a good thread if people want to chime in with the one GMAT strategy/tip/concept that they've learned recently that they wish they had known all along. Who's with me?

Probably my personal favorite is Prime Factorization. The more I break numbers down into their primes, the more useful I find that whole thought process.

For example, on a problem like:

How many unique factors does 36 have?

Instead of trying to list them all, you can break 36 down to:

2*2*3*3

And then build up from there with combinations of those numbers:

2
3
2*2
2*3
3*3
2*2*3
2*3*3
2*2*3*3
And, of course, 1, which is a factor of all numbers. So 36 has 9 factors, and there's a systematic way to arrive at that. And using the Prime Factorization technique has taught my how to break down a lot of questions that have "factor" or "divisible" in them somewhere - it's a guiding principle that so often works.


Does anyone else have a favorite "wow, I wish I had known that all along" GMAT strategy? I'm interested to hear yours...

There's a much faster way to do that one, Brian.

Rewrite 36 as a product of its prime factors.

(2^2)(3^2)

Take each of the exponets, and add one to each.
(2+1)(2+1)
Multiply those
(3)(3) = 9

36 had 9 factors.

That works all the time.

Laura GMAT Tutor wrote:There's a much faster way to do that one, Brian.

Rewrite 36 as a product of its prime factors.

(2^2)(3^2)

Take each of the exponets, and add one to each.
(2+1)(2+1)
Multiply those
(3)(3) = 9

36 had 9 factors.

That works all the time.

I agree with Laura, the prime factorization of a number determines all of its factors at any time.

Hi there!!
I had my GMAT exam yesterday and it was: oh so bad!
I got the worst possible grade, even worse than I imagined, I'm shocked it could go so wrong.
When the test started I forgot everything I studied, I was more preoccupied about the time that making a good process to answer the questions correctly (quantitative); and in verbal, I had to guess the last 7 questions, because I was running out of time!! Terrible.
Now, it's like I'm back at the beginning, the approach I made two months ago with my studying was obviously wrong.
I have to start all over again, but this time I would like to ask you guys, who are experts in these sorts of things, where to start (?)!!!
Where would someone that studied Fashion Design start their study plan for the GMAT??
I got a private tutor before, but he only teached me like the basics of math so I could remember what is all about, I remember, but now I need to start thinking of it like the GMAT guys do, so, where do I read that?? Where can I learn that?? Who can help me?!!! LOL!!
Well I hope one of you is so kind to illustrate the way for me, because as of now, I feel like a total ignorant of this exam!
Thank you!!

Hey ame84,

Sorry to hear about your exam! Obviously it's going to be tough to give you all that you're looking for in one forum post, but it sounds like your preparation stayed mainly at the "skill" level and not at the concept/strategy level.

The GMAT is not a test of "what you know" but rather of "how you think", and accordingly it's not sufficient to memorize rules, formulas, and tricks. Those may help, but more importantly you need to learn to think of GMAT content in a more conceptual way. You mentioned that you "forgot what you learned" - that tends to happen when you've memorized rules or steps; it's much more powerful and useful to deal in concepts or guiding principles that keep you flexible when the exam asks questions from different angles. Honestly, this very thread is an example of that - people love that "how many factors" trick posted above, but what's much more important to know is the underlying concept behind it, that problems that deal with factors, multiples, and divisibility tend to require you to know the "essential" components of a number: its prime factors. This blog post explains that more: https://www.veritasprep.com/blog/2010/12 ... bluth-way/

It's just a hunch, but based on what you wrote it sounds like you may have focused more in your initial studies on the "what" of those math basics (what's the rule? What's the formula?) and not on the "Why" (why does the rule hold? Why are they asking about this?). For GMAT content, I'd highly recommend looking at it from a conceptual framework - don't look up rules when you need them in practice; try to derive them yourself. When you do learn a rule or concept, ask yourself how they could ask about it in a unique way (e.g. for 45-45-90 triangle rules, look at the diagonal of a square, which forms that exact triangle).

The GMAT is different from most tests you've taken - those tests are usually designed to gauge whether you've learned the facts or concepts tested in that class or grade. The GMAT only uses its requisite concepts and skills to test how you can apply knowledge or assets to solve larger problems, so you'll need to challenge yourself to think that way. See each concept from different angles so that you can anticipate how they'll test you on it. For example, the distributive property:

a(b+c) = ab + ac

Is often better used when they have you do the reverse and factor out the common term:

x^2 + x = 0

x(x + 1) = 0

x = 0 or x = -1

There are plenty of high quality articles here and at other sources (I love that blog I referenced...but I'm obviously a little biased!) to give you some of that insight, and the community here can recommend books and courses that you can take, too. Ultimately your goal should be to see the test from a perspective that's probably broader than you did on your first trip through. If you're interested in a quick tour of that, I'd love to invite you to the next free seminar that I'm hosting online...it should be hyperlinked at the right of this screen under "Upcoming Events".

Best of luck as you reengage with the GMAT - honestly, I think the conceptual, think-like-the-testmaker way of studying is more fun and more productive, so I think you'll enjoy this!

ame84 wrote:Hi there!!
I had my GMAT exam yesterday and it was: oh so bad!
I got the worst possible grade, even worse than I imagined, I'm shocked it could go so wrong.
When the test started I forgot everything I studied, I was more preoccupied about the time that making a good process to answer the questions correctly (quantitative); and in verbal, I had to guess the last 7 questions, because I was running out of time!! Terrible.
Now, it's like I'm back at the beginning, the approach I made two months ago with my studying was obviously wrong.
I have to start all over again, but this time I would like to ask you guys, who are experts in these sorts of things, where to start (?)!!!
Where would someone that studied Fashion Design start their study plan for the GMAT??
I got a private tutor before, but he only teached me like the basics of math so I could remember what is all about, I remember, but now I need to start thinking of it like the GMAT guys do, so, where do I read that?? Where can I learn that?? Who can help me?!!! LOL!!
Well I hope one of you is so kind to illustrate the way for me, because as of now, I feel like a total ignorant of this exam!
Thank you!!

Hi Ame,

You sent me a PM about your dilemma but sadly I am not an Expert. Though I can try to help you my best. I sent a PM in BTG but it did not get delivered to your BTG Inbox. Please check your Inbox if it is full. Let me know if u are not getting mail then send your concern as a new topic in this Strategy Section.

You will no doubt get lots of valuable advices.

Thank you Shovan, I did read your PM, I didn't know the 60 day study plan even existed, it's going to be very helpful since I was quite lost in the "where to start studying" area. Now I just have to wait for my first email, I'm guessing will arrive today.
So thanks a lot, excellent suggestion.

And thank you Brian. Yes you are definitely right about my approach last time I started to study, it was more memorizing formulas than really thinking about the questions, that was my problem in the exam.
I am very interested in attending to your online seminar, this time I want to get more informed.

Thank you again guys.

I'll probably be writing a lot here, so I guess we will be e in touch.