Help with strategies that work best on DS questions?

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Hi,

This isn't a doubt regarding any particular question as such. I would really appreciate any thoughts on how best to approach DS questions? The same mathematical concepts when checked in PS I seem to be doing alright, but am doing dismally when the concepts are checked in DS.

Can someone please help?

Thanks!
Source: — Data Sufficiency |

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by winniethepooh » Thu Jul 28, 2011 1:42 pm
The only key is to practice.
Get the Og and quant review, solve all the problems in them.
There are more than 10000 questions on this forum. Solve them too.
For some conceptual clarity you can join <anhattan Gmat forum and attend sessions or watch recorded videos of tthursdays with Ron.
This should be more than enough.

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by Brian@VeritasPrep » Fri Jul 29, 2011 9:39 am
Great question, shimmer - keep in mind that Data Sufficiency is as much about logic as it is about math (if not more so), so you probably need to spend some time getting comfortable with the "game" of DS. The way that the questions are asked can give you some insight in to how to best answer them. For example, answer choice C says:

(C) BOTH statements together but NEITHER statement ALONE is sufficient.

Well, even though a lot of times it feels comforting to have both statements, you're not allowed to use both statements if one alone will get the job done. The GMAT will reward you for managing your resources efficiently - if you can answer the question without both statements, you need to do that. C is a great trap answer in many cases because you're conditioned to use all available information to solve a problem so a natural inclination is to start using everything you're given. But if you don't need statement 1 - if 2 alone is sufficient - you have to answer as such. So your strategy should be that, if you know pretty quickly that both together are sufficient, you have to try to get one alone to work.

There's obviously more to that but that's just one example - if you know the way that the DS game is played then you'll work much more effectively toward those answers. This article may help:

https://www.veritasprep.com/blog/2011/07 ... trategies/
Brian Galvin
GMAT Instructor
Chief Academic Officer
Veritas Prep

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