Princeton Review - Math Workout for the GRE

Editorial
Rob Franek, Senior VP, Publisher
Mary Beth Garrick, Director of Production
Selena Coppock, Senior Editor
Calvin Cato, Editor
Kristen OToole, Editor
Meave Shelton, Editor
Alyssa Wolff, Editorial Assistant

Random House Publishing Team
Tom Russell, Publisher
Alison Stoltzfus, Publishing Director
Ellen L. Reed, Production Manager
Dawn Ryan, Managing Editor
Erika Pepe, Associate Production Manager
Kristin Lindner, Production Supervisor
Andrea Lau, Designer

TPR Education IP Holdings, LLC
111 Speen Street, Suite 550
Framingham, MA 01701
E-mail:

Copyright 2013 by TPR Education IP Holdings, LLC
Cover art Jonathan Pozniak

All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Random House LLC, New York, and in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto.

eBook ISBN: 978-0-8041-2463-8
Trade Paperback ISBN: 978-0-8041-2462-1
The Princeton Review is not affiliated with Princeton University.

Editor: Selena Coppock
Production Editor: Harmony Quiroz
Production Artist: Deborah A. Silvestrini

v3.1

Im indebted to Ellen Mendlow for her patient leadership (and keen eye for writing talent) and to Tricia McCloskey, the R&D guru who was a rare source of answers in a maelstrom of questions.

And last, thanks to my family, who understood when Daddy had to run off and write.

The Princeton Review would like to thank Sarah Woodruff for her invaluable expertise in revising and updating the third edition of this book and John Fulmer, our National Content Director for GRE, for his careful review and guidance with this project.

Welcome to The Princeton Reviews Math Workout for the GRE, the one-stop shop for all of the mathematical knowledge and practice youll need to effectively tackle the Math section of the GRE.

Youve bought this book, which means you may be one of many grad school candidates who are approaching the math, or quantitative, portion of the GRE with a little bit of trepidation. This might be for any of several reasons, including the following:

• You come in contact with the word variable only when its used to describe the weather.
• Your first thought about Pythagoras is that he might have been a character in The Lord of the Rings.
• You regard standard deviation as more of a psychological problem than a mathematical one.

If any of the above pertain to you, youre definitely not alone.

But dont worry, thats what this book is all about. Its two main objectives are (1) to give you an overview of all of the math concepts you could see on the GRE, and (2) to give you simple strategies for handling even the most complex math you could encounter on test day.

The good news is that the GREs math sections dont test anything that you learned after your sophomore year of high school, so the concepts arent extremely advanced.

The bad news is that the GREs math sections dont test anything that you learned after your sophomore year of high school, so it may have been a long time since you studied them.

Thats largely why this book was written: to help you build up an impressive canon of math knowledge that will (1) help you score your best on the quantitative portion of the GRE, and (2) set you up to knock em dead at your next cocktail party.

The GRE supposedly was written so that graduate schools might get a better sense of an applicants ability to work in a post-graduate settinga goal that is lofty and unrealistic at best. The test doesnt even measure how intelligent you are; if you take a test-prep course and your score improves, does that mean youre any smarter? Nope. Yet you can improve your score just by learning about what to expect on the GRE.

All the GRE really tests is how well you take the GRE.

Succeeding on the quantitative portion of the GREor any standardized math test, for that matteris as much about relearning math concepts as it is about modifying the way you think. There are several very important skills to cultivate when youre preparing to take the GRE, and each of them is attainable with the right guidance, a strong work ethic, and a healthy dose of optimism.

Well discuss the math basics youll need for the GRE, but if you need a quick reference, consult the glossary at the back of the book.

Lets talk about the different sections of the GRE. The GRE contains five scored sections:

• One 60-minute Analytical Writing section, which contains two essay questions
• Two 30-minute Verbal sections, which contain approximately 20 questions each
• Two 30-minute Math sections, which contain approximately 20 questions each

The first section will always be the Analytical Writing section, followed by the Math and Verbal sections, which can appear in any order. All of the Verbal questions are multiple choice. The Math questions are mostly multiple choice with some numeric entry questions, which require typing in an answer.

You will be able to see your Verbal and Math scores immediately upon completion of the test, but you will have to wait about two weeks before your Analytical Writing section is scored.

Scores are given on a scale from 130 to 170, in 1-point increments. The questions within each section are always worth the same amount of points. So the easy questions in a section are just as important to get right as the hard questions in a section.

Once youve completed one Math section, the GRE will use your score on that section to determine which questions to give you in the next Math section. The same applies for the two Verbal sections. (This doesnt really affect how you will approach the test, so dont worry about it too much.)

You will get a 1-minute breakenough time to close your eyes and catch a breathbetween each section. You will also get a full 10-minute break after the first multiple choice section. Be sure to use it to visit the bathroom, take a drink of water, refresh your mind, and get ready for the rest of the exam.

Heres where ETS, the maker of the test, starts to get mean. In addition to the five scored sections listed above (one Analytical Writing, two Math, two Verbal), you may also have an unscored experimental section. This section is almost always a Math or Verbal section. It will look exactly like the other Math or Verbal sections, but it wont count at all toward your score. ETS administers the experimental section to gather data on questions before they appear on real GREs.