Data Sufficiency

Data sufficiency questions are probably not like any test problem you've encountered before. They don't ask you to answer the question. Instead, they ask you to determine whether or not you can answer the question with the information given. Every data sufficiency question should be answered by continuing with the same technique. Simply by determining the sufficiency of just one statement, you should be able to eliminate approximately half of the answer choices. That way, you should be able to avoid completely random guessing on data sufficiency questions.

A data sufficiency question has a question followed by two statements. you will be expected to answer if the information provided in the statements is sufficient to answer the question.

You answer will be

Choice 1 if the question can be answered using one of the statements alone, while the other statement is not sufficient to answer the question.

           Choice 2 if the question can be answered using each of the statements independently

          Choice 3 if both the statements together are needed to answer the question

          Choice 4 if both the statements independently or taken together are not sufficient to answer the question

Please be careful to read the instructions before the data sufficiency questions.

Some probable mistakes can be avoided 

1) To be more specific, please do read the instructions for Data Sufficiency (DS) very carefully.

Many people have suffered here. Hope we don’t repeat it this time.

2) Read the instructions on the front page carefully. Don’t ignore them.

Data sufficiency questions to test your ability to "reason quantitatively." This stands in sharp contrast to the problem solving section, which is designed to test how well you manipulate numbers. If you find yourself doing a lot of number crunching on the data sufficiency questions, you are doing something wrong.

Math Concepts You Should Know

The data sufficiency questions cover math that nearly any college-bound high school student will know. In addition to basic arithmetic, you can expect questions testing your knowledge of averages, fractions, decimals, algebra, factoring, and basic principles of geometry such as triangles, circles, and how to determine the areas and volumes of simple geometric shapes.