GMAT Mixture Problems

October 12, 2010

I recently received the following email:

I have in past purchased Total GMAT Math as well as the 1800 question bank. I am struggling with mixture related problems. Can you please tell me where can I find those in 1800 question bank? Is there is a dedicated section for that in the question bank?

Thanks for your help.

You're not alone. Mixture problems on the GMAT can be tough. The good news is that they are rare, and you are unlikely to see more than one when you take the exam.

Roughly speaking, my problem sets reflect the distribution of question types on the actual test. Since there aren't many mixture problems on the GMAT, there aren't many mixture problems in my sets. You'll find the most of them in the Word Problems: Challenge set. The majority of mixture questions are Problem Solving, not Data Sufficiency.

It is also helpful to recognize that mixture problems are very similar to weighted average problems. Explicit weighted average problems are more common than mixtures, so they provide more practice with a closely-related question type.

Finally, there are a handful of mixture problems in The Official Guide. Last week, I published a list of OG questions by content area, so you can find them by clicking here and finding the entry for "Word Problems > Mixture Problems."

About the author: Jeff Sackmann has written many GMAT preparation books, including the popular Total GMAT Math, Total GMAT Verbal, and GMAT 111. He has also created explanations for problems in The Official Guide, as well as 1,800 practice GMAT math questions.

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