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Number, % Problems in LR

Posted: Sun Jun 14, 2015 6:13 pm
by 179orBust
LR questions of this type give me such problems. Not insofar as getting the question correct, but with timing. Not really a big math guy, so I guess it makes sense why I'm struggling with them.
With level 1 & 2 questions I never really have a problem, but when the questions get more difficult my brain freezes and I don't really know what to focus on. I start playing around with the percentages and numbers and am usually able to arrive at the correct answer through brute force/process of elimination. Problem is that they typically take me around 2:00-2:45.

I make flashcards for LR that gave me a lot of trouble and I'd say around 60% of them are questions that involve numbers and percentages. Getting these questions right QUICKLY would help me out immensely. I realize that this is something I must work on and so I'm looking for any advice on how I can get better with these questions. If anyone can help I'd really appreciate it. TIA.

Re: Number, % Problems in LR

Posted: Sun Jun 14, 2015 10:14 pm
by Oskosh
Can you post the Test No., LR Section, and Q# of the questions you find difficult? Perhaps they are an iteration of each other, and that would help me to understand your difficulty more clearly. Number/percentage questions can be tricky, but they boil down to a few principles, such as bigger number does not mean bigger percentage, smaller number does not mean smaller percentage, etc.

Re: Number, % Problems in LR

Posted: Sun Jun 14, 2015 11:03 pm
by 179orBust
Oskosh wrote:Can you post the Test No., LR Section, and Q# of the questions you find difficult? Perhaps they are an iteration of each other, and that would help me to understand your difficulty more clearly. Number/percentage questions can be tricky, but they boil down to a few principles, such as bigger number does not mean bigger percentage, smaller number does not mean smaller percentage, etc.
Really appreciate your help. Won't write out every question but two that I found difficult were 12,1,22 and 34,3,21. For the latter, it was very easy to arrive at the answer through POE , but I still don't know if I fully understand the question. Thanks again.

Re: Number, % Problems in LR

Posted: Sun Jun 14, 2015 11:15 pm
by RZ5646
Are you talking about the basic number / proportion disconnect, or some sort of venn diagram / overlap thing (e.g., "70% of A are B and 40% of A are C, so some B are C")?

The former should be very easy to fix. Whenever you've given a number, ask if it's being used in an absolute or relative way. If it's being used in a relative way, then you had better also have access to the number it is being related so, either some other number of the same type if it's a simple relation, or the whole if it's a proportion.

The latter is just logical some / most with maybe a little arithmetic.