Remember, in Data Sufficiency you won’t get any
points for doing the calculations. After all, it’s not like you can get
partial credit for your work! All the computer cares about is sufficiency
vs. insufficiency. How you arrive at those conclusions doesn’t factor
into your score at all. But many test-takers react to Data Sufficiency
questions by trying to prove that the statements are sufficient
or insufficient.
You will be more savvy than that. Instead, you
will figure out whether the statements could, if taken to their
mathematical conclusions, provide a definitive answer to the question
asked. And once you see that light at the end of the tunnel -- the glimmer
of definite sufficiency or insufficiency – you’ll stop, submit your answer
and move on to the next question. Why? Because neither you nor the
test cares what the exact answer really is, only whether you could get
it if you wanted to.
What difference does this make? If you pull up
stakes and move on as soon as you can foresee definitive sufficiency or
insufficiency, you’re looking at an average savings per question of roughly
30 seconds, an eternity in Exam time. Add up those seconds over the entire
math section and you’ll have quite a nice cushion to devote to hard Problem
Solving questions, where you often do need more time to slog through calculations.
This doesn’t mean that you’ll never have to calculate
in Data Sufficiency, only that doing so shouldn’t be your first reaction.
Many Data Sufficiency questions can be answered correctly with minimal
or no calculation at all.
Keep all of this in mind, and let’s try out some
questions.
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