Two-Part Analysis Is Two EASY Questions Wearing a Costume

By EMPOWERgmat on July 12, 2022

Here's a scene I watch play out every week. A Test Taker gets to the Integrated Reasoning section, clicks to the next screen and sees a little table: a list of choices with two columns of bubbles beside it. Two answers. One prompt. You can almost hear the brain go, "Wait, I have to be right TWICE?"

That panic is the whole problem. Two-Part Analysis is not a harder question. It's two EASY questions wearing a costume. Once you see what's under the costume, it's often one of the friendlier screens in the section.

First, what you're actually looking at

Integrated Reasoning (IR for short) is the section with 12 questions in 30 minutes. It's separate from Quant and Verbal, which are the two sections that build your 200 to 800 total score. You can see the full layout of the exam on GMAC's page on the sections and timing.

Two-Part Analysis is one of the IR question types. Here's how it works:

You get a prompt. Sometimes it's a short story problem with numbers. Sometimes it's a short argument or a situation with rules.
Below it sits a table. Each row is one possible answer.
The table has two answer columns, one for each thing you're asked to find.
You pick ONE row in each column. The same row can be the right pick for BOTH columns.
You need both picks right to get credit.

That last point is what scares people. Two picks, one shot at credit. It feels like double the risk. It isn't, and here's why.

Why the costume is a lie

The two parts share ONE prompt. They're almost always tied together: the price of one thing and the price of another, a fact that strengthens a plan and a fact that weakens it, the first step of a schedule and the last step. That tie is not a trap. It's a GIFT.

Stop reading for a second and think about it. If two answers come from the same set of facts, what happens when you nail one of them?

Right. You now have one more fact than you started with. In a lot of Two-Part questions, that one extra fact makes the second half a single line of work. Solve the easier half first, and it hands you the harder half.

A single key in a lock opening two side by side doors at the same time. — Solve one half, and the other half usually opens with it.

I'll bet that when you go back through the Two-Part questions you've missed, you'll find something uncomfortable. You probably got one half RIGHT. You lost the question to something small on the other half: a number in the wrong column, a condition you skipped, a step you did in your head. Those aren't 'hard' questions. Those are gettable points you handed back.

The mistakes I see, and what to do INSTEAD

Trying to solve both halves at the same time, in your head. You hold two unknowns, two rules and six choices in working memory, and something slips. INSTEAD: write both targets on your pad and label them. Then solve ONE of them. Just one.
Doing full algebra when the choices are sitting right there. A Two-Part table gives you a short list of possible answers. That's a cheat sheet. INSTEAD: TEST THE ANSWERS. Plug a choice into the prompt and see if it holds up.
Putting the right answer in the wrong column. This one is brutal, because you did all the thinking and still lost the point. INSTEAD: before you click anything, reread both column headers and match them to the labels on your pad.
Starting with whichever half is listed first. The order of the columns tells you nothing about which half is easier. INSTEAD: spend a few seconds asking which half you can pin down with the least work, and start THERE.
Assuming the two answers have to be different. They don't. INSTEAD: check every row against both columns, including the row you already picked.
Picking by feel on the word based ones. If you're down to two rows and choosing the one that 'sounds right', you've built yourself the same kind of probability problem that sinks people in Verbal. INSTEAD: find the line in the prompt that proves your pick. No proof, no click.

Notice that not one of those mistakes is about being bad at math or bad at reading. They're all about PROCESS. That's good news, because process is trainable.

Watch it unlock

Try it

A shop sells every notebook at the same price and every pen at the same price. Maria buys 3 notebooks and 2 pens and pays $26. Sam buys 1 notebook and 4 pens and pays $22.

In the table, select the price of one notebook in the first column and the price of one pen in the second column. Make only two selections, one in each column.

Price of one notebook	Price of one pen	Price
○	○	$2
○	○	$3
○	○	$4
○	○	$5
○	○	$6
○	○	$7

Show the answer

Step 1: notes on paper. Write N for one notebook and P for one pen. Then write the two facts: 3N + 2P = 26 and N + 4P = 22. Label your two targets: N = ? and P = ?

Step 2: pick the easier half. Look at Sam's fact. N = 22 minus 4P. Every price on the list is a whole number, so 4P is even, and 22 minus an even number is even. That means N has to be EVEN. On the list, that's only $2, $4 or $6. You just cut six choices down to three without any real algebra.

Step 3: test the answers.

N = $2: then 4P = 22 minus 2 = 20, so P = $5. Check Maria: 3(2) + 2(5) = 6 + 10 = 16. She paid $26. WRONG.
N = $4: then 4P = 22 minus 4 = 18, so P = $4.50. That's not on the list. WRONG.
N = $6: then 4P = 22 minus 6 = 16, so P = $4. Check Maria: 3(6) + 2(4) = 18 + 8 = 26. Correct.

Step 4: let the first half unlock the second. Once N = $6 worked, the pen price was already sitting on your pad: $4. No second round of solving. Check Sam one more time: 6 + 4(4) = 6 + 16 = 22. Both facts hold.

Answer: notebook column, $6. Pen column, $4.

The trap: lots of people solve for the pen first, get 4, and click $4 in the NOTEBOOK column because it's the first column and the first number they found. Right math, wrong column, zero credit. Matching your labels to the headers before you click kills that mistake. A second trap: someone who sees $4 in the pen column assumes $4 can't also be a notebook answer. In this question it isn't, but on Test Day it might be.

Look at what actually happened there. One quick observation about even numbers, three plug ins, and the second answer came for free. That's not a scary question. That's a small one.

What about the clock?

Twelve questions in 30 minutes works out to two and a half minutes per question on AVERAGE. That's an average, not a speed limit. Some IR screens take longer, and Two-Part questions done the smart way can take less. If you keep running out of time in IR, the clock isn't your disease. It's a symptom of re-reading, working in your head, or taking the long route. Spend some time defining your pacing problem before you try to 'fix' it.

So here's the forced choice. What do you want MORE: to feel clever by solving both halves at once in your head, or to actually get credit for the question? You can't reliably have both.

Your challenge for today

Pull 5 Two-Part Analysis questions from GMAC's official practice materials. For each one, before you solve anything, write down three things on paper: your two labeled targets, which half you think is easier, and WHY. Then solve that half first and see if it hands you the other one.

When you're done, count how many of the 5 unlocked that way. Then count how many columns you almost clicked wrong. Both numbers will tell you something about how you've been working. Go find out.