TEST THE ANSWERS: The Shortcut Math Lovers Refuse to Use

I watch this happen every week. A strong math student hits a GRE word problem. Out come the variables. Two equations. Substitution. A sign error on line four. Back to the top. Three minutes later they finally land on 9, and 9 was sitting in choice D the whole time.

Here is my verdict: if you are a 'math person' and you refuse to TEST THE ANSWERS, you are leaving time on the table on every Quant section. The test gives you the answer. It is one of the five choices on your screen. Your only job is to find which one.

The answer is ALREADY on the screen

Many GRE Quant questions are multiple choice with five answer choices. Exactly one of them is right. That changes the job. You do not have to build the answer from scratch. You have to check five candidates and keep the one that works.

Checking is almost always easier than building. Think about a lock. You can study the gears and work out the code. Or, if someone hands you five keys and promises one of them opens it, you just try the keys.

That is what TEST THE ANSWERS means. You take an answer choice, plug it into the story the question tells, and see if everything fits. If it fits, you are done. If it does not, the miss usually tells you which way to go next.

Why math lovers refuse to do it

Stop reading for a second and answer this honestly. When you see a question you COULD solve with algebra, do you ever even look at the choices first?

I'll bet the answer is no. And I'll bet the reason is not speed. It is pride. Plugging in feels like cheating. It feels like something you do when you can't do the 'real' math. So the strongest math students keep doing it the long way, rushing at the end of the section, and then wondering why their score is stuck. It is the same trap I wrote about in working in your head.

The GRE is not a math class. Nobody grades your method. Each Quant section gives you 20 questions in 35 minutes, which is an average of 1 minute 45 seconds per question. The test rewards the right answer in a reasonable amount of time. That's it. So you have to decide what you want MORE: a higher Quant score, or the feeling of having done it the 'proper' way.

How to TEST THE ANSWERS, step by step

This is a skill you train, like a tennis player hitting the same forehand a thousand times. Here is the routine:

1. Read the question and take notes. Write down every number and circle what they want.
2. Look at the choices before you do anything. If they are numbers and the story lets you check one, testing is on the table.
3. Start in the middle. When the choices are listed from smallest to biggest, start with (C). If it's too big or too small, you can often cross off two more choices at once.
4. Write each test on paper. One line per choice. No checking 'in your head.' The on-screen calculator can help with ugly arithmetic, but your notes are what keep you from mixing up which choice you just tried.
5. Stop when one fits. Only one choice is right. Once you find it, check it a second time and move on.

The mistakes I see over and over

1. Ignoring the choices until the end. You only look at them after you've solved, to find your number. INSTEAD: look at the choices right after you read the question. They tell you what kind of answer to expect and often how to get there.
2. Testing in random order. Starting with (A), then (E), then (B). INSTEAD: start in the middle when the choices are in order, and use 'too big' or 'too small' to cut the list.
3. Testing 'in your head.' You plug in 7, get a total, forget it, and plug in 7 again. INSTEAD: one written line per choice, every time. It takes seconds and kills silly mistakes.
4. Forgetting what the number stands for. You find a number that works, but it's the pens, not the notebooks. INSTEAD: circle what the question asks for in your notes, and check your final choice against it.
5. Saving it as a 'backup strategy.' You only test the answers after the algebra falls apart, so now you've spent four minutes. INSTEAD: decide in the first ten seconds which route is faster, and commit.

When it's NOT the right tool

Be a strategist here, not a fan. Some Quant questions ask you to type in your own number, so there are no choices to test. Some choices are expressions with letters in them, and for those you pick your own numbers instead. And some questions are so short that the algebra really is one line. Even with data questions, the choices can tell you how rough an estimate can be; more on that in reading the chart first.

The point is not that testing the answers is ALWAYS faster. The point is that you should know BOTH routes and pick the better one on purpose. Right now, most strong math students only know one route. That's not strength. That's a ceiling.

Your challenge for today

Pull out 10 GRE multiple choice Quant questions you got RIGHT with algebra. Redo every one of them by testing the answers, on paper, starting in the middle. Time each one both ways and write the two times side by side.

I'll bet at least a few of them were faster the 'cheating' way. When you see that on your own paper, in your own handwriting, the pride starts to crack. Go do it now, before you open a new set of questions.