GMAT Math

I'm not sure what the reply you got above means. According to Lawrence Rudner, GMAC's VP of research and development, "For the Quantitative section, the mix of data sufficiency, problem solving, algebra, geometry, arithmetic function, applied and formula-based questions will always be the same." That's from one of GMAC's official research reports about test "reliability".

So content balance is carefully controlled, and is the same for all test takers, regardless of their level. That said, many of the categories the test uses are quite broad. So while you will see the same number of 'applied' questions as everyone else, those questions might sometimes be concentrated in one specific area, just by fluke luck; sometimes you'll see a lot of rates questions, sometimes a lot of Venn diagram questions, sometimes a lot of weighted average questions, sometimes a lot of percent/ratio questions, or whatever. So if you see a lot of questions on some very specialized area -- absolute value, say -- on one test, it's always possible that will happen the next time you take the GMAT, but it's very unlikely.

Inequalities are a different story, though; that's a very big part of algebra, and inequalities are often heavily tested on the GMAT. Absolute value is nowhere near as important a topic.