GMAT Tip of the Week The Curry Twos Remind You To Keep The GMAT Simple

Happy Friday from Veritas Prep headquarters, where were actively monitoring the way that  Twitter is reacting to UnderArmours release of the new Steph Curry shoes. Whats the problem with the Curry Twos? Essentially theyre too plain and buttoned up much more Mickelson than Michael, son. OK, so what? The Curry 2s are more like the Curry 401(k)s. Why should that matter for your GMAT score? Because on the GMAT, you want to be as simple and predictable as a Steph Curry sneaker. What does that mean? One of the biggest study mistakes that people make is that once theyve mastered a core topic like factoring or verb tenses, they move on to more obscure topics and spend their valuable study time on those. There are two major problems with this: 1) the core topics appear much more often and are much more repeatable, and 2) in chasing the obscure topics later in their study regimen, people spend the most valuable study time that coming right before the test feverishly memorizing things they probably wont see or use at the expense of practicing the skills and strategies that theyll need to use several times on test day. Consider an example: much like Twitter is clowning the Curry Twos, a handful of Veritas Prep GMAT instructors were laughing this time last week about an explanation in a practice test (by a company that shall remain nameless) for a problem similar to: Two interconnected, circular gears travel at the same circumferential rate. If Gear A has a diameter of 30 centimeters and Gear B has a diameter of 50 centimeters, what is the ratio of the number of revolutions that Gear A makes per minute to the number of revolutions that Gear B makes per minute? (A) 3:5 (B) 9:25 (C) 5:3 (D) 25:9 (E) Cannot be determined from the information provided Now, the Curry Two approach the tried and true, dont-overcomplicate-this-for-the-sake-of-overcomplicating-it method is to recognize that the distance around any circle (a wheel, a gear, etc.) is its circumference. And circumference is pi * diameter. So, if each gear travels the same circumferential distance, that distance for any given period of time is circumference *  number of revolutions. That then means that the circumference of A times the number of revolutions of A is equal to the circumference of B times the number of revolutions for B, and you know thats: 30Ï€ * A = 50Ï€ * B (where A = # of revolutions for A, and B = # of revolutions for B). Since you want the ratio of A:B, divide both sides by B and by 30, and you have A/B = 50/30, or  A:B = 5:3 (answer choice C). Why were our instructors laughing? The explanation began, There is a simple rule for interconnected gears Which is great to know if you see a gear-based question on the test or become CEO of a pulley factory, but since the GMAT officially tests geometry, youre much better off recognizing the relationship between circles, circumferences, and revolutions (for questions that might deal with gears, wheels, windmills, or any other type of spinning circles) than you are memorizing a single-use rule about gears. Problems like this offer the Curry Two students a fantastic opportunity to reinforce their knowledge of circles, their ability to think spatially about shapes, etc. But, naturally, there are students who will add gear formula to their deck of flashcards and study that single-use rule (which 99.9% of GMAT examinees will never have the opportunity to use) with the same amount of time/effort/intensity as they revisit the Pythagorean Theorem (which almost everyone will use at least twice). Hey, the Curry Twos are plain, boring, and predictable, as are the core rules and skills that youll use on the GMAT. But simple, predictable, and repeatable are what win on this test, so heed this lesson. As 73 regular season opponents learned this basketball season, Curry Twos lead to countless Curry 3s, and on the GMAT, Curry Two strategies will help you curry favor with admissions committees by leading to Curry 700+ scores. Getting ready to take the GMAT? We have free online GMAT seminars running all the time. And as always, be sure to follow us on  Facebook, YouTube,  Google+  and Twitter! By Brian Galvin.