subject: Gmat Inequalities Form An Important Part Of The Gmat [print this page] The GMAT is employed by graduate business schools all over the globe to help them select the best students into their programs. It forms an important part of their total array of selection tools. The GMAT is intellectual property owned by the GMAC or Graduate Management Admission Council. The GMAT includes a quantitative assessment section and inequality expressions form part of that section. They may be termed GMAT inequalities.
The overall GMAT divides into three separate assessments. The first is an analytical writing test. The second is a quantitative test. The third is a verbal test. The time allowed is for these three sections is 60 minutes, 75 minutes and 75 minutes respectively. These three tests total 3.5 hours. There is an optional 10 minutes break allowed between the second and third test sessions. Students intending to sit the GMAT are advised to memorize its broad format.
The quant section has thirty seven questions. About twenty two of those questions deal with problem solving. Most inequality type questions will occur in the problem solving section. Another fifteen questions deal with data sufficiency.
The GMAT was originally a simple paper test. Modern technology however has allowed it to increase its sophistication. It is now a computer-based. Students sit at a computer in a supervised testing center. The computer-adaptive test format allows for the difficulty of the questions to vary or adapt based upon the test-performance of the individual examinee.
For instance, if a student solves several questions correctly, subsequent questions may be delivered at an increased level of difficulty. This adaptive technique is incorporated into the final test scoring.
By definition, an inequality compares two separate expressions or statements with different values. For example, x greater than 10 is an inequality whereas x = 10 is an equation. There are five types of inequalities, namely, greater than, less than, greater than or equal to, less than or equal to and, finally, not equal to.
Just as there are rules governing operations with equations, so too are there rules governing operations with inequalities. The basic rule to remember is that if one action is performed to one side of the inequality (addition, multiplication, subtraction, or division) then the same action must be performed to the other side of the inequality.
One key exception exists; when both sides of the inequality are multiplied or divided by a negative number, the inequality sign must be reversed. This important rule will help students beater handle GMAT inequalities when sitting the test.
