GRE Quantitative Comparison
You are shown Quantity A and Quantity B and asked which is greater. The four answer choices are always the same, which is the type's great advantage: you are not finding a value, you are finding a relationship, and often that needs no calculation at all.
The four choices, every time
- Quantity A is greater.
- Quantity B is greater.
- The two quantities are equal.
- The relationship cannot be determined from the information given.
Option D is impossible when both quantities are pure numbers. If neither contains a variable, the relationship is fixed — it can be computed — so D can be eliminated before you start, leaving three.
Working the relationship, not the values
- Operate on both sides. Add, subtract, or multiply by a positive on both quantities to simplify. It does not change the relationship.
- Never multiply or divide by a variable unless you know its sign — if it could be negative, the inequality flips.
- Test strategically. Try 0, 1, a fraction between 0 and 1, and a negative. Those four break most patterns that hold for ordinary positive integers.
- Two different relationships mean D. Find one case where A is bigger and one where B is, and you are finished.
The fraction between 0 and 1 is the single most productive test value on the GRE, because squaring makes it smaller — which reverses the intuition nearly every candidate brings.
Quantitative Comparison — FAQs
2 questions
Whenever both quantities are built only from numbers, with no variables. The relationship is then computable.
Usually not, and doing so is where the time goes. Simplify both sides until the comparison is obvious.
More quantitative question types
Sources
Written from the test board's own published material and checked on 1 October 2026.