I remember trying to take the GMAT two years out of college, I did terrible on it. When studying for it I had to call my father (retired math teacher) on so many things because I forgot all of the high school math I learned.

I scored pretty well on it but at this point I couldn't begin to tell you about Quant Analysis. Either it doesn't matter much, I've forgotten about it or the test has changed in the 30 years since I took it.

The test changed sometime in the late-90s to where the math/quant part was adaptive in nature. So the test isn't as standardized like it had been before that, basically where everyone got a test booklet and more or less took the same/similar test. The test difficulty now depends on how well each test taker is doing on the test. So someone who scored a 760 took a much harder test than someone who scored a 560 because each correct answer yields a more difficult following question.

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It's the algebraic specific questions I suck at

The basic problem solving is easy. Bob leaves at 8 am at 20moh. Joe leaves at 11am at 40moh. At what time do they report they've done 240 in total

That is easy

I am just really crap at the algebra

Well here's your problem, they are driving mph (miles per hour) See, algebra is easy. ;-)

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TEAM HD
Each day is what you make of it so make it the best day possible.

Anything involving Mohs will rank high on the hardness scale.

Reminds me of a bunch of test and measurement work I did in grad school. Early/mid-90s was about the time computerized adaptive testing (CAT) was coming into play. An adaptive test is a standardized test. Although there is a difference in questions that candidates see, the eventual score (e.g. a 760 or 560) is still the scores they would have gotten if they had seen the same set of questions.

Adaptive testing is designed to be more efficient in that instead of a test with 100 (or some number) questions, you can reliably and validly assess a candidate after 30 questions (or some other number). In test and measurement terms, reliability means measures are consistent. Validity means it accurately measures what is purported to be measured (e.g. smarts). Need both reliability and validity in the test design process.

In tests like GMAT, MCAT, GRE, LSAT, and the rest of the alphabet soup of tests, these calibrations are built in and usually on the mark. In a typical survey, often none of this is designed in at all -- which can wildly skew results.

when i took this 11 years ago, i used a tutor.. gmat is all about eliminating answer options and making strategic guesses, and less about being good at math. a private tutor was well worth the investment.

For verbal, integrated and analytical I'm fine, but I am so so crap at the quant and I know you are correct about answer elimination but you at least have to know where to start