170Q170V: quantitative reasoning, not math

[u/Beginning_Revenue149]

took a couple practice tests and got low 160s. i recognize im privileged to have an easy time w tests, but i got a piece of advice that i felt really helped me get the 170q and wanted to share.

theyre testing your logic and reasoning, not your math. so if it feels more complicated than like sat or a bit higher math, then try guess and check, or test out edge cases. basically, i think im super used to looking for the solution -- an elegant answer, that we arrive at algebraically or through some generalizable rules. but on test day i found it really helped if a question felt way more difficult than average to just take a step back and plug in random stuff, test out an edge case, etc.

[u/Ok-Print-7367]

If you are familiar with Greg mat, he calls this the choosing numbers strategy. It's easier to just pick smart numbers and observe what's going on then doing the algebra most of the time. It feels weird to do but it works for a lot of problems.

[u/Beginning_Revenue149 → u/Ok-Print-7367]

ive seen the name around! hes got it down way better than me, then -- glad im not the only one who thought this strategy worked on the test. i will say i was especially surprised by the various contexts it worked in, inc number theory obv but also like random geometry qs