Guest Post: The Gmat Coach & Mixtures

Hello All,

I hope you all are preparing well for your GMAT test. We “The GMAT Coach” sincerely wish you great success in your test. As a part of a series of articles to help students ace the GMAT test , today I am writing on the topic “Mixtures”. This “Mixtures” is an extension to the topic “Ratios & Proportions”.

The topic “Mixtures” is very interesting and sometimes tricky if you do not know how to set-up the questions the right way. Today I plan on discussing a strategy to tackle “Mixtures” problem by setting it up in the right & smart way.

“Mixtures” is basically when you combine two or more things in different proportions to form a new product. The best example of mixtures that we use in our day to day life is when we take a shower.
In our shower we mix hot water and cold water in a certain proportion depending on our comfort levels.

A typical GMAT question on this is going to be something like –

A hot water which is (80 degrees) and cold water (30 degrees) solutions are mixed to form a solution which is 50 degrees. What is the ratio of Hot Water to Cold Water in the mixture for 50 degree water solution?

A. 3 : 2

B. 2 : 3

C. 3 : 1

D. 1 : 3

E. 3: 4

Now taking this an example, lets learn a  strategy and smart way to approach this question.

1. First you set-up the questions as hot & cold water with their respective temperatures (80 & 30)
2. After you mix them we get 50 Degrees.
3. 80 – 50 = 30 and  30 – 50 = 20 (Ignore Negative Sign)
4. 20 Relates to Hot Water & 30 relates to Cold Water
5. After reducing we say that to get 50 degrees solution we need to mix Hot & Cold Water in the ratio of 2:3

This strategy helps you in solving the question in less than 30 seconds. Save you a lot of time and stress.

Any questions/concerns on this and for extra practice questions on this topic please feel free to e-mail me, Dhiraj co-founder of “The GMAT Coach” at  Dgoverd@TheGmatCoach.com

Wishing you all a great success in your GMAT prep and test.

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GMAT Math Trick

There are a lot of math tricks out there to help improve your quant score but who knows them all?  I had the chance to have some tutoring sessions with one of the co-founders of the gmat coach .  This guy had the best way to solve problems. I LOVED his approach to problems. If only I would have found him earlier. Sadly, I found him 1.5 weeks before my exam but during the time I worked with him, the tips helped out a lot!!
This is one of the tricks he showed me. 

How many of you all can do all these problems in less than 30 secs? Go ahead take a moment and try. When I first saw these, I wanted to say "really sir, you joking right". I had memorized a few of these but there was no way I was going to finish the calculations in a 30 secs or less.

Well here is the trick to quickly solving squares that end in 5.  I'm assuming everyone knows that 5^2  is 25.  All numbers that end in 5 that are squared will end in 25. Now to get the begining numbers, take the first number multiply by the next consecutive number. Join those to numbers together and you have your answer.

Yea, its hard to understand math with words right? lol .... lets do 15^2 as an example.   1*2=2, join 2 with 25 and you get 225.  Now lets look at 25^2. 2*3=6 now join that with 25 and you get 625.  Lets go ahead and do one more, 35^2.  3*4=12, now join 12 to 25 and you get 1225. Now try and complete the rest in 15 seconds.

Brilliant right?!? The gmat coach showed me a better way to approach problems. With his approach I began to find myself solving problems faster which allowed me to spend more time on the harder problems. His tutoring sessions were well worth the money. For those who are starting their gmat prep or for those who are looking to raise their quant score,  I would seriously consider checking him out. His approach makes everything so simple!!!

-Ms. HR

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