Review

GRE Quantitative Comparison - Cannot be Determined

Perhaps, you'll be running out of time or else you'll be totally stuck on a quantitative comparison question. At which time, you'll need to guess. If you have employed some of the tactics discussed in the previous few pages, you may be able to eliminate some choices. And, there is one more trick that you should always remember.

When the values in both columns are numeric (there are no variables), then the answer CANNOT be D: Cannot be determined. Why? Because if the values in Columns A and B are merely two numbers, then you are comparing two entities which are constant, and so the values in Columns A and B must be equal, or one of them must be larger than the other. For example:

Column A
(312)(345)(3312)
Column B
(543)(388)(120.5)

So, because the values in columns A and B are numeric and contain no variables, the relationship has to be determined by strict calculation. Even if you cannot find the answer and you have to guess, DO NOT pick D: Cannot be determined