![\"Manhattan](\"http:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/18\/2017\/05\/fast-math-gmat-part-4-stacey-koprince.png\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Guess what?\u00a0You can attend the first session of any of our online or in-person GMAT courses absolutely free\u2014we\u2019re not kidding! Check out our upcoming courses here<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n We\u2019re up to part 4 of our series on Fast Math for the GMAT. If you\u2019re seeing this for the first time, start with part 1<\/a> and work your way back here.<\/span><\/p>\n Let\u2019s dive right in.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n And that brings us to awesome estimation. Some problems ask you straight up, \u201cApproximately how far has the train gone when\u2026\u201d When they tell you that you can estimate, always do so! But even when they don\u2019t, you may be able to estimate.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n While solving, train yourself to glance at those Problem Solving answer choices periodically to see how far you really need to go. The correct answer isn\u2019t the actual number\u2026the correct answer is just A, B, C, D, or E. Who cares <\/span>how<\/span><\/i> you get there?<\/span><\/p>\n In general, if you have numerical answer choices that are decently far apart, you can often estimate at some point in the problem<\/span>\u23af<\/span>possibly right from the beginning or possibly a little farther in, depending upon the nature of the problem and how far apart the answers are.<\/span><\/p>\n Also, how rough can your estimation be? Again, glance at those answers. The farther apart they are, the more loose you can be. You\u2019ll need to practice this, like any skill, so that you know how far is too far. As you gain experience, you\u2019ll start to understand both when and how much you can confidently estimate your way to the answer.<\/span><\/p>\n Have you bought the Official Guide yet (from the official makers of the GMAT)? If so, open it up to the Problem Solving chapter and start scanning down the answer choices until you find some that look decently far apart, or look for the word <\/span>approximately<\/span><\/i> in the question. Then see whether (and how) you can estimate.<\/span><\/p>\n As you get better, add some variations into the mix. For instance, one problem might have these five answers:<\/span><\/p>\n (A) \u22122<\/span><\/p>\n (B) \u22121<\/span><\/p>\n (C) \u00a0 0<\/span><\/p>\n (D) \u00a0 1<\/span><\/p>\n (E) \u00a0 2<\/span><\/p>\n These answers don\u2019t <\/span>look<\/span><\/i> all that far apart\u2026but you may still be able to estimate! Two are negative, two are positive, and one is 0. If you can estimate enough to tell that the answer must be negative, then you have a 50\/50 shot at getting this right, even if you don\u2019t have enough time or don\u2019t know how to do the problem for real.<\/span><\/p>\n Or maybe you\u2019ll see this mix of answers on a problem involving proportions, probabilities, or similar:<\/span><\/p>\n (A) \u00a0 1<\/sup>\u20445<\/sub><\/span><\/p>\n (B) \u00a0 1<\/sup>\u20443<\/sub><\/span><\/p>\n (C) \u00a0 1<\/sup>\u20442<\/sub><\/span><\/p>\n (D) \u00a0 3<\/sup>\u20445<\/sub><\/span><\/p>\n (E) \u00a0 2<\/sup>\u20443<\/sub><\/span><\/p>\n Can you estimate enough to tell whether the proportion or probability should be more or less than half? Let\u2019s say that you can tell that it\u2019s less than half. The choice is then between (A) and (B). Choice (A) is only 20%, while choice (B) is about 33.3%. Next, see whether the details of the problem allow you to estimate whether the value will be less than or more than 25%. If you can tell that, you\u2019ll know whether the answer is (A) or (B). (And, if not, you\u2019ve still narrowed it down to two answers.)<\/span><\/p>\n Start looking <\/span>everywhere<\/span><\/i> for opportunities to estimate<\/span>\u23af<\/span>certainly estimate when the problem asks for an approximate answer, but estimate wherever it\u2019s reasonable to do so, even if the problem doesn\u2019t explicitly tell you that you can estimate.<\/span><\/p>\n Join us next time<\/a>\u00a0for the 5<\/span>th<\/span> installment of our Fast Math series.<\/span><\/p>\n KEEP READING:\u00a0<\/strong>FAST Math for the GMAT (Part 5)<\/a><\/p>\n Can\u2019t get enough of Stacey\u2019s GMAT mastery? Attend the first session of one of her upcoming GMAT courses<\/a> absolutely free, no strings attached. Seriously.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Guess what?\u00a0You can attend the first session of any of our online or in-person GMAT courses absolutely free\u2014we\u2019re not kidding! Check out our upcoming courses here. We\u2019re up to part 4 of our series on Fast Math for the GMAT. If you\u2019re seeing this for the first time, start with part 1 and work your […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[873,18,929,52871,930,2,8],"tags":[52796,53022,53023],"yst_prominent_words":[57244,54235,53679,53868,54040,53653,57243,57221,57246,53877,53635,53781,57247,54127,55665,53704,57242,53797,53784,53867],"class_list":["post-13735","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-for-current-studiers","category-manhattan-gmat-blog-fdp","category-gmat-prep","category-gmat-strategies","category-gmat-study-guide","category-how-to-study","category-quant-on-gmat","tag-estimation","tag-fast-math","tag-fast-math-for-the-gmat"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13735","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13735"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13735\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19593,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13735\/revisions\/19593"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13735"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=13735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nPrinciple #4: Estimate\u2026and not just when they tell you to<\/b><\/h4>\n
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\n![\"stacey-koprince\"](\"https:\/\/cdn2.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/18\/2015\/06\/stacey-koprince-150x150.png\")
<\/a>Stacey Koprince<\/a> is a Manhattan Prep instructor based in Montreal, Canada.<\/strong> Stacey has been teaching the GMAT, GRE, and LSAT \u00a0for more than 15 years and is one of the most well-known instructors in the industry. Stacey loves to teach and is absolutely fascinated by standardized tests. Check out Stacey\u2019s upcoming GMAT courses here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"