Help!--DS

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vinay1983: Legendary Member; Posts: 643; Joined: Wed Aug 14, 2013 4:27 amFollowed by: 7 members; Thanked: 48 times

by vinay1983 » Thu Aug 22, 2013 6:29 am

I have this difficulty of solving DS problems.I can somehow do PS,but DS bugs me.Especially topics such as Co-ordinate Geometry, number testing, finding unknown variables.

What should I do?

Does it mean that I am not clear of my concepts?but, questions on these topic if they appear in PS, I am able to solve those.

I really need to improve my DS, since this is where i get most of my questions wrong.

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Source: Beat The GMAT — Data Sufficiency | Thu Aug 22, 2013 6:29 am

GMAT/MBA Expert

Brent@GMATPrepNow: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 16207; Joined: Mon Dec 08, 2008 6:26 pmFollowed by: 1268 members; Location: Vancouver, BC; Thanked: 5254 times; GMAT Score:770

by Brent@GMATPrepNow » Thu Aug 22, 2013 6:38 am

Not to worry - everyone struggles with Data Sufficiency (DS) questions at first. This question type is totally unique to the GMAT, so it's foreign territory. Problem Solving (PS) questions, on the other hand, are very familiar. You've been solving these kinds of questions since you were a kid.

It's important to recognize that DS questions very very very very different from PS questions. For PS questions, we simply find the answer to some question. For DS questions we are first given a question (target question) that cannot be answered without extra information. Then we must determine whether or not some statements provide enough (sufficient) information to answer the formerly-unanswerable target question. In fact, we don't even need to answer the target question!! We just need to determine the sufficiency of the statements. VERY WEIRD STUFF.

Although DS questions represent a huge shift in how we view math questions, this question type can be mastered. It just takes time.

If you're looking for some extra DS resources, we have a free set of videos that cover everything you need to know: https://www.gmatprepnow.com/module/gmat-data-sufficiency

Cheers,
Brent

Brent Hanneson - Creator of GMATPrepNow.com

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vinay1983: Legendary Member; Posts: 643; Joined: Wed Aug 14, 2013 4:27 amFollowed by: 7 members; Thanked: 48 times

by vinay1983 » Thu Aug 22, 2013 9:18 am

Brent@GMATPrepNow wrote:Not to worry - everyone struggles with Data Sufficiency (DS) questions at first. This question type is totally unique to the GMAT, so it's foreign territory. Problem Solving (PS) questions, on the other hand, are very familiar. You've been solving these kinds of questions since you were a kid.

It's important to recognize that DS questions very very very very different from PS questions. For PS questions, we simply find the answer to some question. For DS questions we are first given a question (target question) that cannot be answered without extra information. Then we must determine whether or not some statements provide enough (sufficient) information to answer the formerly-unanswerable target question. In fact, we don't even need to answer the target question!! We just need to determine the sufficiency of the statements. VERY WEIRD STUFF.

Although DS questions represent a huge shift in how we view math questions, this question type can be mastered. It just takes time.

If you're looking for some extra DS resources, we have a free set of videos that cover everything you need to know: https://www.gmatprepnow.com/module/gmat-data-sufficiency

Cheers,
Brent

Dear Brent,

I have seen your videos on DS. Actually after seeing those, I gained some tiny weeny courage to solve DS, else it would be something different.

But, what can i do to improve?That is the question.The moment I see DS questions on Coordinate Geometry or Unknown variables, I freeze!

(I am basically a Biology student, Maths was/is not my "Forte".Even Co-ordinate geometry i managed to scrape through)

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GMAT/MBA Expert

Brent@GMATPrepNow: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 16207; Joined: Mon Dec 08, 2008 6:26 pmFollowed by: 1268 members; Location: Vancouver, BC; Thanked: 5254 times; GMAT Score:770

by Brent@GMATPrepNow » Thu Aug 22, 2013 11:35 am

vinay1983 wrote:
Dear Brent,

I have seen your videos on DS. Actually after seeing those, I gained some tiny weeny courage to solve DS, else it would be something different.

But, what can i do to improve?That is the question.The moment I see DS questions on Coordinate Geometry or Unknown variables, I freeze!

(I am basically a Biology student, Maths was/is not my "Forte".Even Co-ordinate geometry i managed to scrape through)

It sounds like you haven't solved a lot of DS questions yet, so I suggest that you immerse yourself in them.

Also, you can focus on one topic at a time by using BTG's tagging feature. For example, here are all of the questions tagged as Coordinate Plane questions: https://www.beatthegmat.com/forums/tags/ ... nate-plane
Then just choose those questions tagged as Data Sufficiency.

I also suggest that you spend a lot of time reviewing the responses from the Experts on this site. They model the steps you should be taking when tackling math problems.

Cheers,
Brent

Brent Hanneson - Creator of GMATPrepNow.com

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vinay1983: Legendary Member; Posts: 643; Joined: Wed Aug 14, 2013 4:27 amFollowed by: 7 members; Thanked: 48 times

by vinay1983 » Thu Aug 22, 2013 6:44 pm

Thank you Brent!.You are right in saying that I haven't solved many DS questions.

The more i delve deeper into things the more I feel "PRACTICE MAKES MAN PERFECT"

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