How to Make GRE and GMAT Math Flash Cards

Doing well on the GRE and GMAT math section requires knowing many basic formulas and arithmetic properties. Many of these are concepts you learned elementary school and high school, but if you've forgotten them, you will need to brush up! Here is a guide to making flash cards that will get you answering GRE and GMAT exam questions more quickly.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• 3x5 note cards, unlined
• marker
• formulas and times table

1. Make flash cards for the times table up to 20, that is, the largest product should be 20 x 20 for this set. In addition, make some multiplication cards for the squares, starting at 21 and ending at 40. One key to doing well on these tests is having the times table down cold so that you don't spent lots of time working arithmetic by hand.

2. Aslo make flash cards for higher exponents and powers. You should know the values of 2^3, 2^4, 2^5, 2^6, 2^7, 2^8, 2^9, 3^3, 3^4, 3^5, 4^3, 4^4, 5^3, 5^4, 6^3, 7^3, 8^3, 9^3, and 10^3. You will be surprised how often these expressions appear on the GRE and GMAT. If you know them from memory, many difficult looking questions will become much easier.

3. Make a set of cards for circle and cylinder formulas. Area = (pi)r² and circumference = 2(pi)r. The volume of a cylinder is h(pi)r², where h is the height of the cylinder.

4. To memorize formulas about triangles, write the name of the formula on one side, and the equation on the back. For example, the area of a triangle is .5(b)(h) where b=base and h=height. Also, the Pythagorean Theorem is a² + b² = c², where c is the hypotenuse and a and b are the other two sides of a right triangle.

5. Optionally, you can also make cards that show the expanded and factored forms of quadratic expressions on each side. For example on one side you can write x² - y², and on the other write (x+y)(x-y). Being able to factor things quickly will help you out a lot on the GMAT.

6. One last idea, if you are rusty on percents, fractions, and decimals, you can make flash cards for the most common conversions. For example, on one side of a card you can write the fraction 3/8, and on the other 37.5%. Make them for the conversions you don't automatically know. This will help you on data interpretation problems.

7. If you are studying for the GRE, you can mix these cards in with the flash cards you make for vocabulary. If you are studying for the GMAT, you can supplement them with additional examples or cards you make for the sentence correction section.

Resources

• Additional GMAT and GRE Math Help
• How to Ace the GRE Math Section
• GRE Study Advice

[maryellen1001]

on 12/5/2008 Great tips!