Your 'Weak Spot' Might Not Be the REAL Problem
Say you just finished a practice Quant section. You missed five geometry questions. You close the laptop, sigh and announce the verdict: "I'm bad at geometry." By the weekend you've ordered a fat geometry workbook and planned a month of circles and triangles.
That plan might be a TERRIBLE IDEA. The good news is that it's an easy one to fix.
Here's my wager. I'll bet that if you sat down right now, with no clock and a pencil in your hand, you could solve at least half of those five questions correctly. If I'm right, then geometry isn't your problem. Something ELSE is, and a month of geometry drills won't touch it.
Stop and think before you read another word
You missed five geometry questions. What could POSSIBLY be the reasons? Don't say "I don't know geometry" and move on. That's one answer, and it's the lazy one. Come up with at least three other causes before you keep reading.
Seriously. Grad school will ask you to diagnose much harder problems than this. Start practicing now.
Got your list? Let's compare.
The 5 real reasons people miss 'geometry' questions
On the GRE, each Quant section gives you 20 questions in 35 minutes. That's an average of 1 minute and 45 seconds per question. An average means some questions take 40 seconds and some take 3 minutes. When people feel that clock, they do strange things. Here's what I see over and over.
- You rushed. You saw a triangle, felt the clock and jumped at the first number that looked right. INSTEAD: Slow down on the first read. Ten extra seconds spent understanding the question saves you a full minute of fixing a wrong start, or a lost point you never get back.
- You did the work in your head. You "knew" the side was 5, so you never wrote it down. Then you used 6 in the next step. INSTEAD: Write down every given fact and every step on your scratch paper. Draw the figure yourself and label it. Skipping notes isn't speed. It's pride, and pride costs points.
- You answered the wrong question. The question asked for the perimeter and you found the area. It asked for the radius and you gave the diameter. You did beautiful math for a question nobody asked. INSTEAD: Before you start, write what the question wants at the top of your notes and circle it. Check your answer against that circle before you click.
- You trusted the picture. An angle LOOKED like 90 degrees, so you treated it like one. A line LOOKED like it cut the shape in half. INSTEAD: Only use what the question actually tells you. If a fact isn't written down, you can't assume it.
- You really didn't know the rule. This one happens. Maybe you forgot how the sides of a triangle relate to each other. INSTEAD: Learn that ONE rule and practice it on a handful of questions. You don't need a month. You need a target.
Notice something? Only ONE of those five is a geometry problem. The other four are habit problems. They'll follow you into algebra, word problems and data questions, too. A geometry workbook fixes number 5 and does nothing about numbers 1 through 4.
Run the 'redo it cold' test
Here's how you find out which one is yours. It takes an evening, not a month.
Take every question you missed. Don't look at the explanation. Redo each one on paper with no clock, writing down every step. Then sort it into a pile.
| What happened on the redo | What it probably means | What to work on |
|---|---|---|
| Got it right, quickly | Rushing or misreading | How you read and take notes |
| Got it right, but it took 4 minutes | You know the math, but your method is the long way | Faster routes, like testing values or testing the answers |
| Got it wrong again, same mistake | A real gap in the rule | That one rule, in short drills |
| Got it right, but you had to draw the figure first | You skipped notes on test day | Drawing and labeling every time |
Now count your piles. If most of your misses landed in the "got it right" piles, you just saved yourself a month. Your fix is HOW you work, not WHAT you know.
Try it yourself
Here are two questions where the math is easy and the mistakes are not. Do them on paper.
The next one is a Quantitative Comparison question. You compare two quantities and pick one of four fixed answers.
If you got either one wrong, look at WHY before you blame geometry. Did you circle what the question wanted? Did you test more than one value? Those are habits, and habits are trainable.
Why this matters more than you think
The GRE is a predictable, standardized test. The Quant section covers the same kinds of math every time, as you can see in ETS's overview of the Quant section. That's great news. It means the test gives you the score you EARN, and the way you earn it is by fixing the actual cause of your misses.
If you spend a month on the wrong fix, you lose more than a month. You lose confidence, because you "studied geometry" and your score didn't move. That's why it pays to start training now instead of in August. You want time to find the real problem, not just time to cram.
And this isn't just a Quant thing. A low essay score might not mean you can't write. It might mean you've never written under real time pressure, which is why you should write practice essays under the clock. Same idea. Find the cause before you pick the cure.
One more thing. When you measure yourself again, use a realistic test. ETS offers official POWERPREP practice tests. A practice test is a measuring device, though. It tells you where you are. It doesn't make you better. The redo is where the training happens.
Your challenge for tonight
Pull up your most recent practice Quant section. Find every question you missed, geometry or not. Redo each one cold, on paper, no clock, no peeking. Sort them into the piles from the table above.
Then look at the tallest pile and be honest about what it tells you. You are NOT allowed to say "I have no idea why I missed these." You have the data. Read it, and pick the right fix.
