Why the problems with GRE Quant?

[giannig]

Hi,

I`m having a hard time with the math section on GRE General. I took the test before in january after a month's preparation and I did a Q610 & V450 score, while on the ETS Powerprep I was doing Q700-750. I returned to study in August and went since then through Nova Math Bible and some Score800 materials I borrowed.
Although I can solve most of problems within a 30 sec range and deal with some more annoying problems in 2-3min, the scores on PowerPrep and Princeton are anywhere between Q 550-780. Some mistakes do slip away, but if for Verbal I can see a rise of 100-150 points, for Quant the situation is inconsistent. I am very upset and I simply can't put my finger on the problem. I feel at times the time put in preparation just isn't bringing any advance. It is unconceivable to me after 6 years of doing Calculus, that high school math would keep me stuck at Q 650, especially after an additional 2-3months of study.
I have scheduled my new test for the 29th Oct. Please if you have some suggestions for me, if you have dealt with such a situation, I'd very much like to hear about it.
Gianni

[shabbirahsan]

Relax! It happens! Try Std Deviation and Permutation/combination and probability questions. You are not alone!

[killmurer]

Hi there. I took the GRE this month. Quant was actually relatively easy. I felt most of the questions didn't require much hard logic. Although MOST of them seemed easy to make careless mistakes on. I usually mess up most of my tests being careless. My prep for quant was about 1.5 days. I only took 2 Barron's test and the two power prep tests. First power prep test i scored a 770. I reviewed the test thoroughly and found out i went wrong mostly in Col A Col B type of questions. And that too careless ones (As usual). The second power prep test i was extra careful. I ended up with a 720 score though. Was majorly dejected at that. I spent the rest of the time skimming through the points in Barron's Math Review. Didn't do any questions though.

At the actual test, i told myself to be extra extra careful. I thought with proper time management i was bound to get the score i deserved. Whatever that may be. With such low prep i couldn't afford to make mistakes either.

The test was intriguing. For all the Col A Col B type of questions, i would immediately arrive at A or B as the answer, but on more careful thought i found D to be more likely. For MOST of the questions. This sort of rattled me, cause there really were quite a bit of Ds. I managed my time time well, and i had about 1.5 mins per question towards the end. Some were slightly tricky. Two questions i made educated guesses after spending 3 minutes on them. I made it a point never to spend more than 3 mins per question.

Finally i wound up with a 790 score. Not bad for my prep time. Got an absolutely stellar score of 460 for verbal. Heh i guess someone gets screwed somewhere.

My don't mess up strategies for quant were:

All Col A Col B type of questions
Bulk of the questions. Bad score deterrent if you get these right. Cause there are just way too many of them.
Check if theres an opening sentence (eg: x is an +ve integer )
If theres no such thing(unconstrained variables), consider D as a choice, else straight forward.

DI questions
Potentially time consuming. Spend too much time here and you might mess up the discrete quant questions following it.
Spend about a minute reading the headings and look at the figures before moving on the question.
Careful about the units, make sure quantities are in the same unit.
median? - Don't forget to sort in asc order.

Discrete Quant questions.
Possibly tougher and score boosting. Make sure you have enough TIME for this. Time is all these questions need.

Good luck with your prep.