meds4life Posted May 18, 2011 Report Share Posted May 18, 2011 Hey everyone I've been looking at this site for a while, but never really posted. I actually started preparing for my MCAT recently using a prep-course (the princeton review) if it can help answer my question. I've been going through questions and I am getting the concepts and can answer the majority of questions right, however whenever I approach questions involving decimals and multiplication it takes me a lot longer and sometimes I get them wrong because I tend to round values etc. I was wondering if there are anyways/tools that you guys found useful to do quick multiplication of 2 numbers with decimals in your head. In simpler terms is there any tools/sites that you guys know that might help speed up/improve your basic math for the MCAT. Thanks for the help! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
psqu Posted May 18, 2011 Report Share Posted May 18, 2011 Rounding numbers is fine, e.g. using 10 for 'g' (acceleration) or just looking at the order of magnitude of the values. This isn't your first year physics exam where two choices differ by 0.1, where you'll pick the wrong answer because you rounded incorrectly. The MCAT looks to test you on a more holistic level, the tricks in the available responses look to exploit misunderstanding rather than miscalculation. You don't have to do the math in your head, you have an plenty of scrap paper during the MCAT. Use it! Think back to grade school when you had to multiply and divide by hand; assuming you know your multiplication tables, it's hard to screw up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
obi Posted May 18, 2011 Report Share Posted May 18, 2011 If you're rounding and getting questions wrong because of it its because you're not rounding properly. Addition: If you round one number up, you must round the other number down to prevent a cumulative error occurring in your answer. 5.2 + 4.8 = 10 5 (down) + 5 (up) = 10 Subtraction: Round in the same direction 5.2 - 3.8 = 1.4 5 - 3.5 = 1.5 (close enough) Division: Round in the same direction 10.2 / 5.2 = 1.96 10 / 5 = 2 (close enough) Multiplication: Round in opposite directions 5.2 * 3.8 = 19.76 5 * 4 = 20 (close enough) Hope it helps Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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