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Number properties, as you may recall from the
Problem Solving Basics module, are characteristics of numbers (i.e.,
odd/even, negative/positive, multiple/factor) that determine how those
numbers behave when mathematical operations (i.e., addition, division)
are performed on them.
Many questions that are designed to test this
type of knowledge do not include 'real' numbers. Instead, they often include
descriptions
of numbers, or variables that describe categories of numbers. For
this reason, Picking Numbers works very well on many Number Properties
questions—just choose numbers that fit the description provided,
and apply them to the question stem.
Without the Picking Numbers strategy, Number
Properties questions would have to be solved by using number property
rules and definitions—a topic we will review shortly. Therefore,
Picking Numbers is a great way to make a tough conceptual question into
a much simpler arithmetic one.
Before moving on to our review of number properties
rules, let's take a look at a particularly challenging type of Number
Properties question that is an excellent choice for Picking Numbers.
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