GMAT Tips: The Numbers Game

Experts offer advice on improving your score on the business-school admissions test's quantitative section

by Alina Dizik

Before he began studying for the GMAT exam, Jason Adler had been working in public relations for six years and hadn't taken a math course since his freshman year in college. "I had spent the last six years writing, and as an undergrad I majored in communications and politics," says Adler, who started full-time at the Fordham University Graduate School of Business Administration this fall.

So he did what many prospective business school applicants did: He started from scratch, studying sample test problems and GMAT test prep materials: "I threw out any lingering things that I remembered from school." It worked O.K. for him. He ended up scoring a total of 670 on the exam and did well on the math portion.

When it comes to the GMAT, not all students start out with the same level of mathematical understanding. So if you're anything like Adler, taking the quantitative portion of the exam will require some extra steps. But you don't need to go back to high school or ask embarrassing questions in a prep class to get closer to 800. In addition to books and courses, there are nontraditional ways that can help pump up your math score. And while none of these should replace looking at annotated past exams and reading through specially formulated study materials, they are a good starting point to get you thinking quantitatively.

No Trick Questions

Lawrence Rudner, vice-president for research and development at the Graduate Management Admission Council (publishers of the GMAT), said that while math questions on the exam are designed to test a basic level of math knowledge, there are no trick questions. "We're assuming most people are coming to the plate with basic math skills. If you're coming in really weak at math you do need to brush up," he says.

And even though the GMAT quantitative exam only asks data sufficiency (BusinessWeek, 5/8/07) and problem-solving questions, problems are still grounded in basic mathematical concepts. Rudner's main advice is for applicants to look through previous GMAT exam questions in order to understand these question types, which are rarely encountered in other tests. Rudner also recommends doing real world data sufficiency problems. "In everyday life, you can come up with real problems and ask yourself if there is enough information [to solve them]," he says.

Indeed, working through one or more of the many exam prep books that are available is always the first step towards restoring math skills that may have gone fuzzy since high school. But there are other ways to prepare. Here are a few tips offered up by experts.

TRY A PUZZLE: Completing puzzles that require problem-solving abilities can be a good way to exercise the math portion of your mind, says Robert Moyer, a professor at Southwest Minnesota State University and author of McGraw-Hill's Conquering GRE/GMAT Math book. (McGraw-Hill is also the publisher of BusinessWeek.) "After a while people can look at [too many sample questions] and cannot solve another math problem. At that point they can switch over to a recreational puzzle, which some people look at as a lot of fun," he says.

DO MENTAL EXERCISES: When it comes to exams, some experts believe games can help a test taker become more used to the challenge while providing a level of entertainment. "In terms of assessing information, patterns, and strategic problem solving, [there are] many games foster that skill, especially those with multiple levels of strategy, like chess or Civilization," says Ben Sawyer, co-founder of the Serious Games Initiative, which looks at the usefulness of video games in situations beyond entertainment.