GRE Quantitative Reasoning Multiple Choice

Quantitative Reasoning comprises two of the five sections on the GRE (along with Analytical Writing and Verbal Reasoning), and test developer, Educational Testing Service (ETS) notes that these sections are intended to assess:

Basic mathematical skills
An understanding of elementary mathematical concepts
The ability to reason quantitatively
And the ability to model and solve problems through quantitative methods

There are 12 questions on the first Quantitative Reasoning section and 15 questions on the second Quantitative Reasoning section. Test-takers must complete 27 Quantitative Reasoning questions and are given less than two minutes per question to arrive at the correct answer.

Quantitative Reasoning Section	Time Given for Section
#1	21 minutes
#2	26 minutes

Questions will be presented in one of three ways:

In “real-life” scenarios
In purely mathematical settings
In “word problems” that require you to translate and model the problem mathematically

Quantitative Reasoning questions cover content from four discrete areas: 1) Arithmetic; 2) Algebra; 3) Geometry; and 4) Data Analysis (usually statistics and probabilities). Questions in these sections do not cover trigonometry, calculus, inferential statistics, or advanced-level mathematics, and the content is generally taught in high school algebra classes or introductory statistics courses.

There are several different types of questions within the Quantitative Reasoning sections, and while they may sometimes be referred to by slightly different names, what matters is your ability to recognize the type of question you are being asked, not what that type of question is called. Below are the types of questions you can expect to find on the GRE Quantitative Reasoning Sections:

1) Discrete questions

2) Data Interpretation Set questions

3) Quantitative Comparison questions

4) Multiple-Choice questions (one correct answer)

5) Multiple-Choice questions (one or more correct answers)

6) Numeric Entry questions

Below we will explore the two types of Multiple-Choice questions commonly seen on the GRE, as well as techniques for recognizing these problems, differentiating between the two, and solving them efficiently and accurately.

GRE Quantitative Reasoning Multiple Choice

When you are taking the GRE, it is critically important to distinguish between the two different types of Multiple-Choice questions. If you confuse the two, you may only submit one answer when you should have submitted more. There is no partial credit on the GRE, which means you must select every correct answer (if there is more than one) in order to receive credit for the question and raise your score.

The best way to remember what type of question you are answering is to pay attention to the formatting of the test: single-answer multiple choice questions use “bubble” formatting for the answers (so you can only select one answer at a time), whereas multiple-answer multiple choice questions use “box-selection” formatting for the answers (so that you can select one or multiple answers, as appropriate).

One way to remember this might be to memorize the phrase, “You can fit more in a box than a bubble,” helping you to associate “bubble” formatting with ONE answer and “box” formatting with ONE OR MORE answers.

Select One Answer

In the Multiple-Choice “Select One Answer Choice” questions, you will be provided five answer choices, and your job will be to select the one correct answer. The best strategy here is to utilize the fact that the answer has been provided, which means you should start by carefully evaluating the answer choices.

If possible, quickly solve the problem without consulting the solutions, then see whether your answer is equivalent to one of the listed answers. If the answer you arrived at is not one of the given options, carefully reread the question and check your computations. If you still do not reach one of the given answers, try to change your solution method.

For questions that require approximations, it is helpful to scan the provided answers to see how close of an approximation is required. With these types of problems, it may be useful to scan the answer choices early onto get a better sense of what the question is asking.

Select One or More Answer Choices

For the Multiple-Choice “Select One or More Answer Choices” questions, the question may or may not specify the number of choices to select, and there may be one or more than one correct answer. This is where you must look at the answer formatting and distinguish between a “bubble” format (one answer only) and a “box” format (one or more answers may be selected).

Be sure to note whether you are trying to select a specific number of choices or all that apply; in the latter case, be sure to consider all of your choices carefully, as there may be only one correct answer even though you could select more. For some questions, it may be useful to limit the possible answers, which can be done by determining the least or greatest possible correct value. Wherever possible, try to avoid lengthy calculations by recognizing and continuing the numerical patterns that have already been started.

Sample Problems

Question: The mean of 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10 is:

Answers:

While the question may make it fairly clear that only one answer is being sought, you can also tell that only one answer is required by looking at the “bubble” formatting of the answer choices. In this case, 2+4+6+8+10=30. To find the mean, you divide the sum of the given numbers by the total count of numbers. In this case, there are 5 numbers, and 30/5=6, making 6 the single correct answer.

Question: You are given the following numbers:

2 2 4 6 8 8 10

From these numbers, you can calculate:

The mean
The median
The mode
The interquartile range
None of the above

While the question may make it fairly obvious that there is more than one correct answer, you can also tell that more than one answer may be correct by noting the “box” formatting of the answer choices. In this case, you can easily calculate the mean, the median, the mode, and the interquartile range of the numbers you were given, which means you would want to select each option as a correct answer.

To find the mean, you divide the sum of the given numbers by the total count of numbers. The mean is 2+2+4+6+8+8+10=40/7=5.7

To find the median, arrange the numbers in ascending order. If the number of data points is odd, the middle data point is the median. If the number of data points is even, the median is the average of the two middle values. In this case, we have 7 data points, and the middle number is 6, having three values below it and three values above it. Therefore, the median is 6.

To find the mode, simply find the value that appears most frequently in the data set. There may be one mode or multiple modes. In this case, we have two numbers that are each repeated twice: 2 and 8. Therefore, we have multiple modes of 2 and 8.

And finally, to find the interquartile range, you subtract the first quartile (Q1) from the third quartile (Q3). Start by arranging the numbers in ascending order. Then find the median. Q1 is the median of the lower half of the data, and Q3 is the median of the upper half. In this case, the median is 6. The median of the lower half is 2 (2 2 4) and the median of the upper half is 8 (8 8 10). This means Q1=2 and Q3=8. If we subtract Q1 from Q3 (8-2), we reach the answer of 6 as the interquartile range.

Conclusion

There are several different types of questions you should be familiar with on the Quantitative Reasoning sections of the GRE, and Multiple-Choice questions can be especially challenging. The best way to increase your familiarity with Multiple-Choice questions is to regularly take practice GRE exams as part of your overall study program.

Successfully completing a Quantitative Reasoning section requires you to have excellent time management skills, and being able to identify the question you are being asked and differentiate it from other similar questions will help you move quickly and accurately through each problem. Once you recognize the problem type, you can apply the most useful strategy for solving that particular problem, earning yourself a top Quantitative Reasoning score and increasing your chances of being accepted by top graduate, business, or law programs.