least significant digits? You mean units place?

lsd is units for ints. for floating point it's based on the operands.

quote:

Originally posted by shake:
lsd is units for ints. for floating point it's based on the operands.

Can you explain that please?

The units place is the first digit to the left of the decimal point. So for integer math, this is also the least significant digit. For numbers that have a fractional component in the operands and the answers presented have a fractional component, you would just calculate what the appropriate lsd was for those operands.

Can you give me an example?

Or link me to this cool shortcut somewhere? i haven't encountered it anywhere yet in all the books I have.

quote:

Originally posted by shake:
For numbers that have a fractional component in the operands and the answers presented have a fractional component, you would just calculate what the appropriate lsd was for those operands.

You mean for questions that have a fractional component?

I am still not clear on this without an example. Math is like Linear A to me right now.

like 2.5 * 2.3, you know the lsd is a 5. All answers that do not have 5 as the lsd can be eliminated immediately.

Also the trick to squaring numbers that end in 5 is good to know. The trick is the last 2 digits are 25, the leading digits is the product of the leading digits and the leading digits +1. ie. 35*35 is XX25 where XX is 3*4 so 12 the ans is 1225

How often did you get to use the first trick on the test?

Constantly.

Do you have more?

these are just speed tricks mostly, the math isnt that hard usually from the practice tests I have been taking.

The math isn't hard but I can't seem to remember which process to apply to which question.

Which books have you been using, Edit?

This message has been edited. Last edited by: UberDog,

Isn't the process you apply defined in the question?

Just the EDT book. There are a lot of others out there but the material isn't really that hard so I just wanted to go over the practice tests and learn about the writing portion and that seemed to be the best source.

quote:

Originally posted by shake:
Isn't the process you apply defined in the question?

Theoretically, yes.

quote:

Originally posted by editengine:
Just the EDT book. There are a lot of others out there but the material isn't really that hard so I just wanted to go over the practice tests and learn about the writing portion and that seemed to be the best source.

Do you mean the EST book? I didn't know EST had one. i got a CD from them, but no book. I have Kaplan and a bunch of others.

So you have difficulty parsing the word problem? Practice. Write down the givens, write down what is desired, perform dimensional analysis if need be to determine how to get there.

Sorry I meant ETS and here is what I have

http://www.amazon.com/GRE-Practicing-Take-General-Test/dp/0886852129

I used a Barron's book, back when I took the test. Seemed pretty good.

Cool, I'll check out both.

Yes, thw word problems often have me looking at it like it is Chinese. of course, I have been trying to do it in my head as well, which doesn't work for me.