This question asks: Both 'n' and 'm' are integers. When 'n' is divided by 'm', the remainder is 3. If 'm' is divisible by 4 and 'n' is less than 20, which of the following could be the value of 'n'?

A) 10
B) 11
C) 13
D) 17
E) None of the above

The correct answer is "B)". I answered incorrectly by choosing "E)" because all the info that I received for this question was that n/m = "some quotient" + 3. The other bits of info is that "n" is less than 20 and "m" is divisible by 4. I was frustrated with this one so I chose "E)" and I moved on. In the solution sheet, could you explain how we got a table with: (1) two different quotients, (2) four multiplied by these two quotients, and (3) four multiplied by these two quotients plus 3.

I think that I did poorly in this entire section of the pre-test. Could you let me know where I should concentrate in the review part so that I can better grasp the concept intended by this section? Does it have to do with translating English into mathematical concept?

Ok. WHen n is divided by m, we get an answer and a remainder of 3.
Thus, the answer here is p, which is a randomly assigned variable, with a remainder of 3.
This is where they get n = mp+3
(n is equal to m times p with 3 more added.)
q is another randomly assigned variable, and since we know that m is a multiple of 4, we know that m is 4 times something, or 4q.
Then, we can use our original equation: n = mp + 3 and replace the m with 4q, leaving us with:
n = 4pq + 3

Then they start picking values for p and q, beginning with 1 for both, and then 1 for one of them and 2 for the other to find our smallest values...

This *could* be an English translation issue, or more likely, it's a product of the fact that a lot of this math is rusty for those of us starting to study for the GMAT, and the approach we use may be slightly different than the approach to which you're accustomed. Start into the class, work on the processes they give you, and see if it gets better. Practice is your best friend here as far as making sense of this test. The pre-test is in no way a prediction of how well you'll do on the test. Rather, it's a gauge for you to see where you might need to work, and a tool to get you used to doing math problems in a test-like setting again.

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