Interest

Simple Interest: principal, r is rate, and t is time

, where P is

Squares
, where s = side

Compound Interest: , where n is the number of times compounded per year

Work Rates

Rectangle
, where l = length and w = width

Sets Trapezoids

Distance, Rate, and Time

,

Polygons

Circles

, where n = # of sides

The Distance Formula

5 : the last digit is either a 5 or zero 6 : even number and sum of digits is divisible by 3 8 : if the last three digits are divisible by 8

Prime numbers and Integers

1 is not a prime. 2 is the smallest prime and the only even prime. An integer is any counting number including negative numbers (e.g. -3, -1, 2, 7but not 2.5)

9: sum of digits is divisible by 9

Combinations and Permutations

n is the total number, r is the number you are choosing

Fast Fractions

i.e.

Probability Divisibility
3 : sum of digits divisible by 3 4 : the last two digits of number are divisible by 4

Sentence equivalence 1. Break Down the Sentence and Look For Clue First, break down the sentence in your own words. Basically, nothing lasts long in the media, the media have no memory (the Clue). The sentence goes on to say that the news is only as - as the front page. What word would fit in the blank? Long-lasting. 2. Match Words with Answers Which answer choices mean long lasting? Answer choice (B) enduring and (F) long-lived. By following the steps above, you will be able to successfully handle those Sentence Equivalence and Text Completions in which you know most of the vocabulary. Here are some good strategies for dealing with Sentence Equivalence questions: Always look for synonyms. If you cant find any synonyms amongst the answer choices, given you know the definition of every word, then the correct answers will be non-synonyms. If you do not know a few of the words, do not just pick two words because they create synonymous sentences. Choose a word you do not know, and match it with one of the answer choices that work. If the above sounds like a gamble, thats because approaching Sentence Equivalence, in terms of guessing, is so complex, at least compared to the old GREs one in five answer choices. Essentially, you will want to do anything to increase the odds of guessing correctly. And, to do so, the steps above will be your most helpful strategy. Text completion Text completion is one of the new question types on the GRE. It is similar to a sentence completion, but has a few important differences. For one, there can be multiple sentences in a text completion. In fact, the question may sometimes run on for an entire paragraph. Thats because some have as many as three blanks. The Manic Reader The Manic Reader encounters a difficult Sentence Completion and begins reading it over and over and over again. The result? Well, its sort of like spinning around in circles. After one minute you havent gotten anywhere. The Plugger One of the answers has to be right. Right? Well, yes. But the Plugger keeps trying to plug the answers in the blanks seeing which one(s) sound right. Using this method, the plugger can convince himself that almost any of the answers work.

The Avoider Sometimes the sentence isnt too badits the answer choices. The Avoider usually narrows it down to two possible answer choices, one a word he knows and the other a word heand most peopledoesnt know. Even though the word he knows doesnt quite work, the Avoider will convince himself that it kind of works rather take the plunge into the unknown word. Dont avoid the difficult words; they are often the correct choice. The Smart Guesser GRE likes big words right? Well, if you read a sentence and you have no idea what it is asking just pick the answer choice that has the most difficult word(s). This is what the smart guesser does before moving on. Of course the smart guesser isnt always right (and the answer isnt always the most esoteric word(s)but if you are almost out of time then this may be the only strategy.

Now that we know our enemy, below are five important strategies you should follow if you want to do well on text completions: 1. Dont Dive In Read the entire stem first. The reason for this strategy is that the first blank is often ambiguous, unless you have read the entire paragraph. 2. Breaking Down the Text Completion Text Completions are sometimes a paragraph long, so it is easy to get lost in them. A great strategy is trying to understand the big picture. Breaking down the paragraph in your own words (paraphrasing the paragraph) will help you get a grasp on what the sentences are talking about. Then youre ready for step #3. 3. Use Your Own Words Here, were on familiar footing. Much like the sentence completions and the sentence equivalence questions, we want to use the strategy of putting in our own word(s) in the blank or blanks. To do so, you must always justify your answers not just on the context, but some of the specific words or phrases in the sentence itself. Ive commonly referred to these word(s) as the clue. 4. The Second (or Third) Blank First Because the first blank is difficult to deal with, first try finding a word for the second or third blank. Then work your way backwards to the first blank. The caveatthis technique only applies if you can come up with a word for the second or third blank. If you cant, then work with the first blank. 5. Use the Entire Text Completion as Context When youve finally chosen your two/three answers, plug them back into the blanks. Does the completed sentence make sense with how you earlier paraphrased it?

Reading Comprehension 1. Remember the Big Picture The key to success on any reading passage is, upon finishing the passage, knowing what youve just read. While this might sound simple, you should be able to paraphrase what you just read in such a way that an intelligent 6th grade student should be able to understand you.

2. Understanding Structure Science passages are oftentimes about competing theories. A scientist comes up with a theory to account for evidence. Yet, that theory is found wanting by another scientist, who interprets the evidence in a different way. Sometimes, there is a third theorist, and, sometimes, the author of the passage has his or her own theory to offer up (which he or she believes is an improvement over the other theories).

3. Embrace the Weird, Italicized Words Technical words from science abound in this kind of passage, and are often italicized. If the italics do not intimidate you, the words polysyllabic nature will: phytoplankton, oligonucleotide, phosphodiesterase you get the picture. These terms, however, are important to the passage. They usually regard some aspect of the different theories/ideas being bandied about the passage.

4. Dont Sink into the Swamp Just as there are tough terms, there are tough parts of the passage. Here, the dense language becomes even denser, the ideas even more abstract. Do not get bogged down in this part of the passage. Instead, understand how a sentence functions in the passage. Only return to this part of the passage if it is necessary to answering a question correctly. Again, your main goal on first reading is to get the big picture, not to sink into the swamp of polysyllabic terms and the minutiae of arcane theories.

5. Remember the Geography of the Passage Just as it is important to understand how the swampy parts of the passage function in the passage, it is important that you have a sense of how the different parts of the passage and paragraphs relate to each other.