GRE · Quantitative reasoning strategy
I have a maths degree but my GRE quant score is mediocre. How is that possible?
Because GRE quant is not testing advanced mathematics. The content stops at roughly secondary level — arithmetic, algebra, geometry, basic statistics. What it tests is whether you can handle that content quickly, under pressure, and without falling for traps designed by people who know how mathematicians think.
A maths degree helps with none of those directly, and can actively hurt.
Why strong mathematicians underperform
Three habits transfer badly.
Solving properly when estimating would do. Given a question asking which of two quantities is larger, a mathematician often computes both. The test wants you to notice that one is obviously larger and move on. Rigour costs time you do not have.
Not using the answer choices. On a multiple-choice question, substituting options or picking convenient numbers is frequently faster than solving. People trained to derive find this distasteful and lose time to it.
Assuming figures are to scale. They are often not, and a geometry question can be built specifically to punish eyeballing. Conversely, some figures are usefully accurate. Knowing which is a test-specific skill, not a mathematical one.
Quantitative comparison is its own skill
The comparison format — decide whether quantity A is larger, B is larger, they are equal, or it cannot be determined — is where scores are won and lost, and it has little to do with mathematical ability.
The decisive habit: try to break it. Before concluding two quantities are equal, test values that might behave differently. Specifically:
- Negative numbers
- Zero
- Fractions between 0 and 1
- Very large values
If x² > x seems obviously true, try x = 0.5. It is not. That single class of oversight accounts for a large share of wrong answers on this section, and it catches people who would happily prove a theorem about the same objects.
"Cannot be determined" is a real answer and it is correct more often than people expect. If you can find two valid cases giving different relationships, you are done — no further work needed.
What to actually practise
Not harder mathematics. Speed and trap recognition on easy mathematics.
Work timed from the start. Review the questions you got right but slowly, since those are the ones costing you the end of the section. And keep a log of the traps that caught you — after thirty questions the list will be short and repetitive, which is the point.
Most people who go from a mediocre to a strong quant score do it by getting faster on content they already knew, not by learning anything new.
Working from a past paper? Mark your attempt against the published mark scheme before reading an answer like this one. Finding out where you lost the marks is worth more than seeing a correct solution, because the correct solution rarely tells you what you did instead.
Related questions
Ordered by how close they are to this one: same topic first, then the same subject.
Is memorising GRE word lists worth it, or is there a better use of the time?
Partly worth it, and most people do it in the least efficient way available — flashcards with one-word definitions, learned in isolation, in alphabetical order.
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