GMAT Ninja Quant Ep 4: Inequalities & Absolute Values

Do questions involving inequalities & absolute values mess with your head on the GMAT or Executive Assessment quant section? Or do you spend an eternity on an inequality or absolute value question because you just can't see the "quick way" to a solution?

In this video, Harry -- a GMAT Ninja tutor -- will show you how to think about EA and GMAT inequality & absolute values questions efficiently and effectively. He'll help you understand how to blend logic, algebra, and flexibility to maximize your performance on these questions.

This is video #4 in our series of full-length GMAT quant lessons. For updates on upcoming videos, please subscribe!

This video will cover:
➡️ Inequalities
➡️ Absolute values
➡️ Questions with both inequalities AND absolute values
➡️ What to do when things get really nasty

This video is for you if:
➡️ Inequalities and absolute values terrify you
➡️ You “know” everything but still struggle
➡️ You don’t know the most efficient tool to use
➡️ You don’t have a consistent approach to the “hard” ones

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Want more GMAT test-prep tips and advice?

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Chapters:
00:00 Introduction
01:28 Q1 - Intro to absolute values
10:14 Q2 - Be careful with negatives
17:52 Q3 - Inequalities AND absolute values
27:53 Q4 - Simultaneous inequalities
35:39 Q5 - Combining inequalities
43:44 Q6 - Things are getting nasty
51:03 Q7 - Just looks intimidating

[uinnn]

This format of video is SO good. Covering the basics of inequalities with the first few questions was the perfect setup for the later questions and helped make the last question super easy to solve. Harry's also an amazing teacher, the way he explains everything made it super simple and not overbearing at all. Hope he's the teacher for a lot of the remakes of the quant section.

[ChelseaTesvara]

Most amazing teacher I've ever come across to, extremely easy to understand and to the point

[ShaadMulla]

This format i.e.easier to harder... gives more confidence to go for the impossibly hard ones

[deobitales]

This was so helpful! So well explained, thank you!

[ignaciopazcruzat]

Harry in high definition is another person!

[GGGMAT-bo]

Great video, probably one of the best I have come across explaining the concepts of inequalities and absolute values. I do have a follow up though, what would be the best way to practice more questions on these concepts. Does GMATNinja have its own question bank, or do you recommend some other material? Also, how many Qs per concept does it take for an average student to master the concept?

Thanks.

[BeautyInDifference]

Harry was saving his good looks for quite some time!
Charles was right, he is not the most good looking one :P

[PaulNathanGibson]

For question 7, at around 58:47, can the equation |p-q+r| - |p-q+r| be equivalent to (p-q+r) - (p-q+r), since the expression inside the absolute value will always return a positive number, regardless of whether it's negative?
As always, incredible videos!

[vikashinirao]

Very meticulous video! I have a question though. If Belmira made more than 1/6th of her sales in September, it reads like 1/6 . Bs < B Can you please explain how the equation came to be 1/6B < Bs

[gayathrireddy]

Hello im very new to gmat prep and i hsve forgotten all my math concepts. So where can i start because though these videos are very understandable, i need conceptual learning. So where can i find the concepts to learn first before jumping right to the problems?

[PaulNathanGibson]

For question 6, how did you determine that x + 5 > 0? In other words, I'm failing to understand how you put 0 in the middle of x + 1 and x + 5. Any help on this would be greatly appreciated!

[premk]

For Q3, is it ok if we substitute the values of the shaded line for x and verify the options. The equation that stays true for all values is the correct answer. I tried solving it like it and it worked. Is this acceptable in all cases or should i stick to solving it by your method?

[gojosatoru]

Shouldn't option 1 be correct as well in question.2 because -

As given,
x > y - 2/c
= x > (cy - 2)/c
= cx > cy - 2
= cx + 2 > cy, which is same as the equation given in question itself

[abhimanyuchaturvedi]

Is Q2 also having the constraint for 1 that c!=0 which would tell us that its not always true. I mean to say that if c is 0 then we cant write the inequality with c in the denominator and hence get that as not an answer.

[lavv]

why dont we test for the other case also : numerator negative, and denom positive?

[kenyaschwarz]

some of them were way easier with testing the extreme values or rewrite the equations

[preetisehrawat]

In Question 4, How can you flip the sign without multiplying by -1

[giorgiafontana]

I don't get why at 25:55 we say that it has to be |x-3| and not |x+3|.... don't they both represent a certain distance from x??? send help pls

[EhabMAhmed]

In Question 7, it’s not clear why I placed a negative sign (-) before (r - q). Shouldn't the absolute value of r - q equal a positive (r - q)? This is the first time I've heard that I can make changes the signs outside of the absolute value. could you please clarify?

[lamissboughamoura]

In Q6 isn’t the answer supposed to be 4? Who can explain please