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I DO NOT UNDERSTAND D/S PROBLEMS

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Source: — Data Sufficiency |

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by [email protected] » Tue Apr 26, 2016 6:49 pm
Hi kjone189,

It sounds like you're early-on in your studies. Is that true?

Data Sufficiency is a question type that is unique to the GMAT, so many Test Takers have difficulty with them at first. DS is predictable though, so you can learn the necessary Tactics to answer these prompts.

I'd like to know a bit more about your timeline and goals:
1) How long have you studied?
2) What materials have you used?
3) Have you taken any CATs yet? How did you score (including the Quant and Verbal Scaled Scores)?

4) What is your goal score?
5) When are you planning to take the GMAT?
6) When are you planning to apply to Business School?

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by Brent@GMATPrepNow » Tue Apr 26, 2016 6:55 pm
kjone189 wrote:I get majority wrong every time I just don't understand the technique to solve DS these scare me the most YIKESSS help.... :cry:
Your situation is very common among people preparing for the GMAT. The truth of the matter is that EVERYONE struggles with Data Sufficiency (DS) questions at first. As Rich notes, this question type is unique to the GMAT, so it's totally foreign territory.

It just takes time for the concepts and strategies to become secondary, at which point you may come to find that DS questions are actually easier than Problem Solving questions.

I could start listing dozens of DS strategies and common mistakes (like confusing the answer to sufficiency question to the answer to the target question), but it's easier to just direct you to our free set of 16 videos that cover everything you need to know to tackle DS questions: https://www.gmatprepnow.com/module/gmat-data-sufficiency

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by kjone189 » Sat Apr 30, 2016 5:19 pm
[email protected] wrote:Hi kjone189,

It sounds like you're early-on in your studies. Is that true?

Data Sufficiency is a question type that is unique to the GMAT, so many Test Takers have difficulty with them at first. DS is predictable though, so you can learn the necessary Tactics to answer these prompts.

I'd like to know a bit more about your timeline and goals:
1) How long have you studied? its been 2 weeks going on 3
2) What materials have you used? Official GMAT book 2015 I have the set and I use the GMAT prep now videos they are good for PS not D/S
3) Have you taken any CATs yet? How did you score (including the Quant and Verbal Scaled Scores)? Yes I did poor 300 **hides head under pillow**

4) What is your goal score? 550-600
5) When are you planning to take the GMAT? July
6) When are you planning to apply to Business School? After I do the GMAT but sometime in Aug-Oct

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by MartyMurray » Sat Apr 30, 2016 7:54 pm
Hi kjone189.

Seeing this thread has reminded me of something. I used to not like DS questions much either. Wow, I had kind of forgotten about that, as now doing DS questions is totally natural for me.

How did I get to that point? Partly by playing the DS game hard. I figured that if I did enough DS questions I would get accustomed to handling them, and surely enough, doing that worked.

I learned to look out for C traps, questions which are set up so that one might think that both statements are necessary for answering the question when actually only one is needed, and I learned to see key things that I needed to see in order to get DS questions right.

The GMAT is a test of vision and of skill in applying logic, and so seeing what's going on in the questions is what you have to become good at to consistently get DS questions right.

For more on how to increase your GMAT quant score, you could check out the following post. How To Increase Your GMAT Quant Score
Last edited by MartyMurray on Fri Feb 08, 2019 8:30 am, edited 1 time in total.
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by [email protected] » Sun May 01, 2016 9:20 am
Hi kjone189,

With a July Test Date, you still have plenty of time to study and improve. Your score goal is also relatively modest, so you could absolutely get to that level if you study consistently and use the proper materials.

1) On this first CAT, did you have trouble finishing any of the sections on time? Did you leave any questions unanswered?

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich
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