Choose Your Own GRE Math Adventure
10/13/2020
(Vince's 2 main options to help you with your GRE prep are HERE.)
GRE Math Tips and Tricks
hi GRE mathletes,
To be good at GRE math, you've gotta speak the language. In other words, you have to know the concepts the GRE is going to use in its math questions and you have to be fluent in those concepts.
I've got a free guide to learning GRE math concepts here - be sure to check it out, since my new math practice app, GRE Math Knight, is available there!
However, you'll also greatly benefit from having some GRE-specific math strategies to use to make certain types of questions easier to do. Good news - I've made short videos to demonstrate my favorite strategies using official ETS quant questions.
My #1 GRE Math Strategy
First, I want to tell you about my most important math strategy of all. If you remember nothing else for GRE math strategies, remember this:
It's unlikely you'll instantly know what to do when a new GRE question pops up on the screen, so ease into it. Most questions will require multiple steps and a little bit of thinking.
These three tips should help with almost any question:
- Close your eyes long enough to take a deep breath. Do not skip this step!
- Read the question, but then give yourself about 10 seconds to consider your options. Do not skip this step!
- Start working on the question by doing whatever you can first, then pause to reflect, then work on another step, pause again, etc., until you either solve it or become stuck. If you're stuck, guess and move on!
The magic is in the pauses. They'll give you the chance to notice the best way to proceed.
GRE Math Strategy Videos
The point of all this is to:
1. Teach you cues that you can recognize to try certain GRE math techniques that give you alternate ways of solving problems than "the math teacher way".
2. Explain those techniques using real GRE questions.
3. Urge you to focus on one of these strategies at a time, in a series of deliberate practice sessions. By that, I mean to work on a block of 20 questions, UNTIMED, and to find problems on which you can apply the strategy you're focused on.
For example, let's say you're focused on the strategy for simplifying quantitative comparison questions. Look at about 20 quantitative comparison questions, perhaps from the ETS Big Book, and simplify any of the quantities you can. Do not solve any other questions! Just drill that strategy.
NEW: I had to take down my math strategy videos from YouTube for copyright reasons, so I now recommend you learn quant strategies from Prepswift.
What are you waiting for? Check out Prepswift - you will be glad you did.