Quant intro | Quantitative reasoning

The quant section of the GRE has a wide variety of question types and math topics. You will be given 21 or 26 minutes to complete 12 or 15 questions for each quant section. It may seem daunting at first, but with a little bit of creativity and experience with practice problems, GRE quant problems are in fact very straightforward. This course will teach you all the math principles you need to know to attack any problem. You will also learn many strategies and tricks that can make exam day much easier.

However, it would be impossible to offer you a perfect template for every exact way a question may be thrown at you. We can only offer you the tools to attack the problems. The ability to be creative with the tools you learn comes from experience and practice. Fortunately for you, this course includes a unique feature to give you as much practice as you can handle. As you take the chapter quizzes, these questions will be added to your review queue. Based on how well you do, our adaptive learning engine will schedule these quizzes for repeat reviews in the future to ensure that the techniques come naturally to you on exam day. You should prioritize setting a study schedule and making it through all the course content, but with extra study time, do your best to visit your dashboard and take all the quizzes ready for review by clicking the Review button.

If you get a practice problem incorrect, please pay close attention to the details in the explanation to understand why you got it incorrect to ensure you’ll get it right the next time. Perfect practice makes perfect!

GRE quantitative question types

Each GRE quantitative section has either 12 or 15 quiz questions, drawn semi-randomly as shown in the table below.

	Average number of questions	Description
Quantitative comparison	4-5	Choose A, B, C, or D
Multiple choice	3-7	Choose one correct answer
Multiple choice (select multiple)	1-2	Choose all answers that are correct
Number entry	1	Type the answer
Data interpretation	0-3	Examine the charts to find the answer

Quantitative comparison

These questions are always at the start of any quant section. They are the quintessential question type for the quant section. It is of great importance that you are very comfortable with this question type in order to get off to a good start on the exam. You will be presented with two values: Quantity A and Quantity B. It’s your job to determine the relationship between these two quantities. Here are the answers and their meaning.

A. Quantity A is greater than Quantity B
B. Quantity B is greater than Quantity A
C. The two quantities are the same
D. It is impossible to know the relationship between the two quantities

This will always be the format of the four choices for quantitative comparison problems. Learn it now and remember it! The more comfortable you are with this format, the less time you will take rereading the instructions on test day.

Multiple choice

There are two kinds of multiple-choice questions, one where a single answer is correct and one where multiple answers can be correct. The question will specifically let you know what kind of question is being asked. Additionally, there is a GRE convention that can help you quickly recognize the question type. If the answer choices have ovals around them, then only one answer can be correct. If the letters have squares around them, then multiple answers can be correct. You’ll see this convention in the verbal section as well.

Select the correct choice:
(A.) Only
(B.) One
(C.) Correct
(D.) Choice

Select all correct choices:
[A.] Multiple
[B.] Correct
[C.] Choices
[D.] Possible

Our UX isn’t exactly the same as the official GRE exam since that wouldn’t be the best study experience, so instead, just pay attention to the Select the correct choice or Select all correct choices prompt.

Number entry (a.k.a. numeric entry)

These question types simply require you to type the answer into a box.

Be careful not to write the answer too quickly! These questions often ask you to round to the nearest whole number or a specific decimal precision.

Data interpretation

These questions are generally located somewhere in the first half of the 12-question quantitative set and they generally come in groups of three. You will be presented with graphs, charts, tables, or other forms of data visualization. Each question will relate to the data presented, and it’s common for there to be extra data to distract you. It’s easy to misread the charts and make careless mistakes, so take these slowly, maybe even flagging and skipping them to start, and returning to them later!

Sidenote

Conventions for GRE math equations

The GRE expresses equations in a variety of ways. Here are the most common symbols and the correct way to interpret them.

Multiplication

$2 \times 3 = 6$
$2 * 3 = 6$
$2 (3) = 6$

Division

$6 \div 2 = 3$
$6/2 = 3$
$\frac{6}{2} = 3$

Exponents

$(- 3)^{2} = 9$
$- (3)^{2} = - 9$
$- 3^{2} = - 9$

Pay careful attention to the placement of parentheses, particularly when dealing with exponents! Notice how $(- 3)^{2}$ equals positive nine and $- 3^{2}$ equals negative nine. This is because $- 3^{2}$ is actually $- (3 * 3)$ , i.e. the $3$ is squared first, and then the negative is applied.