Quant Triage For GMAT Notes | Study Quantitative Aptitude for GMAT - GMAT

The Quant TRIAGE

• Skipping: A ground-breaking tactic that will help you to crush the quant section by quickly moving past the questions that don’t matter. 
• Guessing: It’s also helpful in aiding you to take an educated guess on any question that you’re “stuck” on.

Types of Triage

1. Oddballs – an answer that looks structurally different from the other 4 answers
2. Repeat Numbers – any number that appears in the prompt and the answers
3. Goofy Math – If adding or multiplying numbers from the prompt gets you one of the answers, then that answer is probably wrong 

Example: 

A 10 ounce mixed drink is 30% grapefruit and the rest tonic. How many ounces of grapefruit must be added so that the drink becomes 50% grapefruit?

Why use TRIAGE

1. To get past the hardest questions on the GMAT in a quick and efficient manner (and since these questions DON’T MATTER to your score, the faster you get past them, the better)
2. To keep you on pace to finish the entire test and answer ALL of the questions (there will be some easy questions at the end of the section, they DO MATTER, and if you want a 700+, you must get to these questions and answer them correctly)
3. To remove the natural stresses that will occur on Test Day by keeping you from getting bogged down by the hard/ weird questions that have little to no impact on your score

Reasons to Triage a Question 

1. It’s really hard (and thus, it doesn’t matter)
2. You’ve spent 2-3 minutes on a question and you can’t seem to get to the answer
3. You’re out of time and forced to guess
4. With all the practice/tricks we train you for, you will know which questions don’t matter, so you simply dump them and move on to the questions that DO matter

Quant Questions worth TRIAGE-ing

These questions are worth nothing or almost nothing to your overall score:

1. Multi-Shape Geometry questions
2. Combined Rate or Chase-Down questions
3. Complex Permutation, Combination or Probability questions
4. Complex Sequence questions
5. Complex Standard Deviation questions
6. 3 Circle Overlapping Sets questions

Data Sufficiency Triage

1. In DS questions, ratio-based Facts tend to be Sufficient
2. If Fact 1 is Sufficient, then eliminate B, C and E
3. If Fact 1 is Insufficient, then eliminate A and D
4. If Fact 2 is Sufficient, then eliminate A, C and E
5. If Fact 2 is Insufficient, then eliminate B and D