Most Frequent Quant problems on GMAT

[coussa]

I was wondering, what are the most frequently tested types of problems tested on the actual GMAT? I know it changes over time, but are there types that seem to be much more frequently tested? E.g. much more exponent problems than probability?

Thank you,
Greg

[jnelson0612]

I was wondering, what are the most frequently tested types of problems tested on the actual GMAT? I know it changes over time, but are there types that seem to be much more frequently tested? E.g. much more exponent problems than probability?

Thank you,
Greg

Hi Greg,
A rough characterization would be:
8-10 Number Properties
8-10 Algebra
8-10 Word Translations
6-8 Fractions, Decimals, and Percents
4-5 Geometry

It's difficult to get into a lot more delineation of all the different topics, but I can say that you will probably see no more than one probability problem on your test. :-)

[thomas.lowell.hall]

I did some calculations based on the MGMAT division of practice problems in the OG 13th and Quant Companion 2nd edition. For instance, there are 205 OG questions categorized as Word problems in the two official guides out of a total of 740 quant problems. So, word problems make up 28% of the problems.

Based on this analysis, the expected number of Quant questions by subject on a 37 problem section looks like this:

4.6 Number Properties
8.2 Algebra
10.3 Word Translations
9.1 Fractions, Decimals, and Percents
5 Geometry

This distribution is different than rough characterization you laid out. Does this indicate that the number of practice problems in the official guides do not accurately represent the actual test? Or is it something to do with how the MGMAT guides categorize problems that fall in multiple subjects?

I'm especially curious as to the relative importance of Number Properties and FDPs. This analysis makes Number Properties seem much less important than FDPs, but your characterization says the opposite.

Thank you so much for your help and explanation here!

[jlucero]

Part of it has to do with difficulty- you won't see many probability and combination problems unless you're doing really well on the test. These are listed as NP problems in our characterization. However, I wouldn't read too much into the OG's distribution of questions, as there is no way to guarantee that this reflects the distribution on the real test and no one is able to go and take a real test and write down the problems they see.

Also, I know it would be helpful to know how many questions of each type are on the test, but truthfully, there's quite a bit of overlap. You use algebra and lots of computation to solve word problems. You need FDPs on number property questions. So I'd recommend not spending so much time trying to figure which questions are most common and spending more time on figuring which questions you need the most help on.