Examples of GRE General Quantitative Comparison Questions
Question: p > 1, p is a real number
| Column A | Column B |
| 1/p | 1/2 + 1/5 |
(a) The quantity in Column A is greater.
(b) The quantity in Column B is greater.
(c) The two quantities are equal.
(d) The relationship cannot be determined from the information given.
Answer:
The quantity in column B is 1/2 + 1/5 = .7.
p > 1, 1/p < 1. For some values of p, 1/p is greater then .7 (e.g. p = 1.1), for others 1/p is less then .7 (e.g. p = 5).
(d) is the correct answer.
Question: The rectangle solid in the figure below has w = 3 and l = 9.
| Column A | Column B |
| The area of rectangle ABCD | 27 |
(a) The quantity in Column A is greater.
(b) The quantity in Column B is greater.
(c) The two quantities are equal.
(d) The relationship cannot be determined from the information given.
Answer: The area of ABCD is AD·l.
We cannot calculate AD from the information given since we don't know the height of the solid.
(d) is the correct answer.