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mepinoargote
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In the quant section, is it true every answer is presented in either an ascending or a descending order?
order of answers
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Source: Beat The GMAT — Problem Solving |
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mepinoargote
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It could help eliminate more answers quicky, lets say after reading the problem you figure out your answer must be bigger than 300, and your answer choices are:
a 200
b 250
c 300
d 310
e 600
You can quickly eliminate a, b, and c without even having to test them, and it will be faster to do it if the answer were ordered.
a 200
b 250
c 300
d 310
e 600
You can quickly eliminate a, b, and c without even having to test them, and it will be faster to do it if the answer were ordered.
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kvcpk
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I see what you are saying. I will leave it to the experts to comment onmepinoargote wrote:It could help eliminate more answers quicky, lets say after reading the problem you figure out your answer must be bigger than 300, and your answer choices are:
a 200
b 250
c 300
d 310
e 600
You can quickly eliminate a, b, and c without even having to test them, and it will be faster to do it if the answer were ordered.
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Brian@VeritasPrep
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Great strategic point, mepinoargote! As a general rule, it is true that the answer choices will be in ascending or descending order.
There are a few exceptions, such as questions that ask "which of the following has the greatest value" or questions in which all of the answer choices contain variables, but when you're asked to calculate a value, they'll be in order.
This can be helpful in a few ways:
-If you're plugging in numbers, you can start with C and determine whether you need a higher or lower number to use process of elimination (if you need something bigger, then try D, and if that's still too small it must be E)
-If you're plugging in numbers and have a pretty good hunch that you need a bigger (or smaller) number, you can try B (or D) and have a 40% chance (or better, since your hunch is probably good) of nailing it in one try (if D is too small, it's E). This can be really useful if a question asks for "the volume of the larger container" or "the length of the longer side" or a case in which you know that the "other", smaller number is likely to be an answer choice.
-If the answer choices contain square roots that are added/subtracted/multiplied, those quantities will be in order, so you can often estimate without having to directly calculate them (e.g. 10sqrt2 will be listed in a space that's bigger than 14 and less than 15)
So, definitely use that to your advantage!
There are a few exceptions, such as questions that ask "which of the following has the greatest value" or questions in which all of the answer choices contain variables, but when you're asked to calculate a value, they'll be in order.
This can be helpful in a few ways:
-If you're plugging in numbers, you can start with C and determine whether you need a higher or lower number to use process of elimination (if you need something bigger, then try D, and if that's still too small it must be E)
-If you're plugging in numbers and have a pretty good hunch that you need a bigger (or smaller) number, you can try B (or D) and have a 40% chance (or better, since your hunch is probably good) of nailing it in one try (if D is too small, it's E). This can be really useful if a question asks for "the volume of the larger container" or "the length of the longer side" or a case in which you know that the "other", smaller number is likely to be an answer choice.
-If the answer choices contain square roots that are added/subtracted/multiplied, those quantities will be in order, so you can often estimate without having to directly calculate them (e.g. 10sqrt2 will be listed in a space that's bigger than 14 and less than 15)
So, definitely use that to your advantage!
Brian Galvin
GMAT Instructor
Chief Academic Officer
Veritas Prep
Looking for GMAT practice questions? Try out the Veritas Prep Question Bank. Learn More.
GMAT Instructor
Chief Academic Officer
Veritas Prep
Looking for GMAT practice questions? Try out the Veritas Prep Question Bank. Learn More.
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mepinoargote
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Ian Stewart
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It is not true that answer choices are always presented in increasing or decreasing order on GMAT Problem Solving questions. When answer choices are simple numbers, they will be, but when the answer choices are more complicated - say they include square roots or exponents - you cannot assume they are listed in any particular order. See questions 236, 290 or 315 in the PS section of OG10 for some obvious examples involving square roots. Q236, for example, asks you to find the value of sqrt(16 + 16). The answer choices are:
4*sqrt(2)
8*sqrt(2)
16*sqrt(2)
8
16
Clearly C is the largest of the five choices, and not A or E.
4*sqrt(2)
8*sqrt(2)
16*sqrt(2)
8
16
Clearly C is the largest of the five choices, and not A or E.
For online GMAT math tutoring, or to buy my higher-level Quant books and problem sets, contact me at ianstewartgmat at gmail.com
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