Data Sufficiency is the trickiest of all the sections in GMAT even though it seems quite easy and manageable at the outset. Taking the feedback from the past few GMATs, experts from TCYonline.com predict that DS comprises of nearly 60% of Quantitative reasoning questions and the actual GMAT. Still it is a saving grace for all the test takers that Data Sufficiency revolves around the standard five options to choose from. It is just that data per question will be different. Before going on to the strategies given by TCYonline.com to answer a data sufficiency problem, the following options are to be kept in mind.

(A) If statement (i) alone is sufficient but statement (ii) alone is not.
(B) If statement (ii) alone is sufficient but statement (i) alone is not.
(C) If both (i) and (ii) together are sufficient but neither of them is sufficient independently.
(D) If both statements are independently sufficient.
(E) If both (i) and (ii) together are not sufficient.


Different strategic steps that should be used to solve a DS problem, as recommended by TCYonline.com:

STEP (1) Read and comprehend the basic data given in the question. No information should be assumed except for the basic rules and formulae.

STEP (2) Consider statement (i) and combine the available data with the already existing information. Check if you can arrive at a solution. Don’t solve the question. The question only ensures that a solution can be obtained. There can be two cases while considering statement (i) (a) It will give you the exact answer. If there is exactly one answer it would mean that it will be sufficient enough to answer the question. So options (B), (C), and (E) can be ruled out.

(b) It will not give you the exact answer but can either give you more than one answer or no answer at all. If an exact answer is not found then options (A) and (D) will be ruled out.

STEP (3) Irrespective of whether a solution can be obtained from statement (I) alone or not, take statement (II) and check if you can arrive at a solution. Remember not to use the data available in statement (i). If you arrive at an answer by using this statement alone, it can result in picking two different options.

(a)The first way is, when your statement is also helping you arrive at an answer(i) then your answer should be option (D) and

(b) The second way is, when statement (i) is not helping you arrive at an answer, the correct answer choice should be option (B).

STEP (4) If you can not arrive at an answer from statement (ii) there will be two different cases.

(a) Statement (i) alone is sufficient to answer the question. Then your answer will be option (A)

(b) If statement (i) alone is not sufficient to answer the question, then again two

different cases can be arrived at.

(i) If the information available in both the statements taken together leads to the answer, the answer will be option (C).

(ii) If the information available in both the statements taken together does not answer the question, the answer will be option (E).


Note: Always read the instructions given for Data Sufficiency questions before solving them.

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