Note: these strategies are intended for advanced students. Use them if you have done some GRE preparation already or have very good math skills. If not, review some math chapters and return to this page later.
1. Plow
2. Don't Do That Math!
3.
Backsolving
4. Plug-In (Testing Numbers)
5. Ballpark (Possible Range Strategy)
6. Experiments 7. Find Patterns
8. Ladder of Difficulty
Plow means to simply run the numbers and start doing calculations. This is time intensive. There is little in the way of tricks here; you are simply putting marker pen to dry-erase paper and grinding out calculations.
There are two times when you Plow:
1) When you first read a question it often helps to start writing out the numbers. This process of simply translating the question into numbers will stimulate your brain and help you get a handle on the question. If this fails, start playing with the numbers and see if you see any patterns or anything that might help you get a conceptual handle on the question.
2) If you do have a game plan and know how to answer the question, Plow is just the tedious process of crunching answers and solving the question. Often this process can get feverish if you are running behind pace.
Obviously, be very wary of investing too much time mindlessly on calculations, which brings us to our next strategy........
