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The Guessing Game

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by serendipiteez » Sun May 26, 2013 7:41 am
To quote the the BTG Flashcards:
On harder DS questions, answer choices tend to be more sufficient than they might appear.
"¢ DON'T CHOOSE (E) if you have to guess.
"¢ Pick between (A) or (C), if you can eliminate (B).
"¢ Historically, (A) is slightly more common as the right answer.

Guessing
If you have to guess in a problem solving question, go with (D) or (E).
Especially with problems that force you to use or plug in the answer choices
Is this backed by any stats or has there been some analysis on this? Would really appreciate if someone can point me to this.

Cheers.
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by vomhorizon » Sun May 26, 2013 10:47 pm
The people who would have researched into this must have some basis on which they are basing their advise. The best guessing tactics on the quant side of the test are from Manhattan Gmat in the MGMAT Advanced quant book.
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by Brent@GMATPrepNow » Mon May 27, 2013 6:07 am
Here's an article I wrote about guessing on DS questions: https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2012/08/ ... -questions
As you'll see, advanced DS questions are more likely to have A,B or D as the correct response.

I concur with the tip regarding PS questions.

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by serendipiteez » Mon May 27, 2013 6:27 am
Nice, good to know that D far outnumbers the rest.

A: 23% B: 23% C: 7% D: 37% E: 10%
A: 19% B: 19% C: 18% D: 26% E: 17%
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by Brent@GMATPrepNow » Tue May 28, 2013 6:45 am
serendipiteez wrote:Nice, good to know that D far outnumbers the rest.

A: 23% B: 23% C: 7% D: 37% E: 10%
A: 19% B: 19% C: 18% D: 26% E: 17%
Just remember that those numbers are based on the questions in the Official Guide (13th edition).
It's conceivable (though unlikely) that the test-makers have made changes to the live questions so that the discrepancy isn't as great.

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by serendipiteez » Wed May 29, 2013 1:46 am
Brent@GMATPrepNow wrote:
It's conceivable (though unlikely) that the test-makers have made changes to the live questions so that the discrepancy isn't as great.
Has anyone seen analysis similar to Brent's for the Verbal section as well?
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