Inequalities (Lesson 1)

Here is the first lesson of GRE math for people who don’t consider themselves “math people”. We are going to focus on the instructions for inequalities. The instructions are written as if authored by someone without a soul. Being comfortable with the instructions ahead of time will save you a few minutes, and also will avoid you being distracted in a test situation by this soulless language, questioning your life plan.

Official language for inequality problems:

Compare Quantity A and Quantity B, using additional information centered above the two quantities if such information is given, and select one of the following four answer choices:
A.      Quantity A is greater.
B.      Quantity B is greater.
C.      The two quantities are equal.
D.      The relationship cannot be determined from the information given.
A symbol that appears more than once in a question has the same meaning throughout the question.

Okay then. If you didn’t catch all of that, don’t worry about it. Here is a sample question with my own instructions: put your finger on the one that you would want.

Quantity A		Quantity B
$1,000,000		$1

While they say $1,000,000 doesn’t go as far as it used to, I think we could make do, and it is certainly larger than $1. The answer is A, since a million dollars (Quantity A) is larger than one dollar (Quantity B).

Another question, put your finger on the one you want:

Quantity A		Quantity B
$1		$1,000,000

The answer now is B! Yes, a million dollars is still greater than one dollar. Because the million dollars now sits as Quantity B, the answer is B.

Let’s keep going! Put your finger on the one you want:

Quantity A		Quantity B
$1,000,000		$1,000,000

You would happily take either pile of money in this case, right? (No, you can’t take both – nice try!) Rereading the options, what would your answer be: A, B, C, or D?

A.      Quantity A is greater.
B.      Quantity B is greater.
C.      The two quantities are equal.
D.      The relationship cannot be determined from the information given.

It would be C, the two quantities are equal.

Let’s do one more question.

Put your finger on the one you want:

Quantity A		Quantity B
Some pile of money		A different-sized pile of money

Hmmm. Looking at the choices, what would your answer be?

A.      Quantity A is greater
B.      Quantity B is greater
C.      The two quantities are equal
D.      The relationship cannot be determined from the information given

Do you know which pile of money you want? You want the larger one, but can you tell which one is larger? You can’t. So the answer would be D. D for don’t know!

I think we’ve had a productive lesson for today. That wasn’t much math, you may be muttering. I thought you were going to help me with math. Oh don’t worry, think of today as a light bite of math. You got a taste without losing your appetite. You got very comfortable with the directions. For the next lesson, we will tackle the math behind these types of questions.

More practice (just for fun):

Compare Quantity A and Quantity B, using additional information centered above the two quantities if such information is given, and select one of the following four answer choices:
A.      Quantity A is greater.
B.      Quantity B is greater.
C.      The two quantities are equal.
D.      The relationship cannot be determined from the information given.
A symbol that appears more than once in a question has the same meaning throughout the question.

Question 1:

Quantity A		Quantity B
3		10

Question 2:

Quantity A		Quantity B
2		2

Question 3:

Quantity A		Quantity B
a number		a differnet number

Question 4:

Quantity A		Quantity B
42		9

Answer Key:

1. B

2. C

3. D (D for don’t know!)

4. A

See you soon!

Inequalities (Lesson 2)