Lesson: Data Sufficiency Challenging - 05

There’s No Partial Credit In Data Sufficiency

Remember, in Data Sufficiency you won’t get any points for doing the calculations. After all, it’s not like you can get partial credit for your work! All the computer cares about is sufficiency vs. insufficiency. How you arrive at those conclusions doesn’t factor into your score at all. But many test-takers react to Data Sufficiency questions by trying to prove that the statements are sufficient or insufficient.

You will be more savvy than that. Instead, you will figure out whether the statements could, if taken to their mathematical conclusions, provide a definitive answer to the question asked. And once you see that light at the end of the tunnel -- the glimmer of definite sufficiency or insufficiency – you’ll stop, submit your answer and move on to the next question. Why? Because neither you nor the test cares what the exact answer really is, only whether you could get it if you wanted to.

What difference does this make? If you pull up stakes and move on as soon as you can foresee definitive sufficiency or insufficiency, you’re looking at an average savings per question of roughly 30 seconds, an eternity in Exam time. Add up those seconds over the entire math section and you’ll have quite a nice cushion to devote to hard Problem Solving questions, where you often do need more time to slog through calculations.

This doesn’t mean that you’ll never have to calculate in Data Sufficiency, only that doing so shouldn’t be your first reaction. Many Data Sufficiency questions can be answered correctly with minimal or no calculation at all.

Keep all of this in mind, and let’s try out some questions.

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