Geometry Overview

Just as with the algebra and arithmetic sections of the GRE, the geometry questions test you knowledge
of basic, simple geometry that you probably learned in middle school or earlier! Sounds simple, right?
Again, it's simple, but deceptively so -- the GRE is infamous for making easy questions look hard.
You'll need to know the basics about:

• Degrees
• Lines
• Angles
• Squares and Rectangles
• Triangles, including Equilateral, Isosceles, Right, Obtuse, Acute, and 30-60-90
• Pythagorean Theorem
• Circles, including radius, diameter, circumfrence and arcs
• Coordinate System, including y-intercept and slope
• Solid Geometry, including volume, diagonals and total surface area.

You've probably heard of these things already, and probably know a trick or two about some of them.
Again, you need to know your basics, because the harder geometry questions involve several steps, and
in each step you will be required to know what you need to do in order to get closer to the desired answer.

Geometry: Lines
The facts that you need to know about lines are closely related to the facts that you need to know about
angles. There are not many questions on the GRE that will specifically required you to determine facts about
a line, but you'll need to know about various line relationships on various angle problems.

A line is always assumed to be a straight line, and it extends indefinitely in both directions. Lines can be
designated by single numbers or letters, or they can be designated by two points that lie on the line. A
segment is part of a line and is denoted by the two endpoints. Here, we show two lines and one segment,
where p is the name of the first line, the second line is denoted by points AB, and the segment CD has a
midpoint of F, which means that the distance from F to C is the same as the distance from F to D.

Parallel lines are lines that lie in the same plane and which never intersect; here line p2 is parallel to line p3,
but line p3 is NOT parallel to line p4 because if you were to extend lines p3 and p4, they would eventual
intersect, as show by the dotted lines.
 Geometry: Angles
An angle is formed when two lines meet at a point, which is called the vertex; the two lines are called the
sides of an angle. Degrees is a measure of the angle; the higher the degree, the wider "open" the angle is.
By definition, an angle that is 90 degrees is called a right angle, while an angle of 180 degrees is simply a
straight Line.

Angles can be designed in one of several ways:

1. An angle can be designated by a letter

2. An angle can be designated by using the vertex
3. An angle can be designated by using the vertex and two points that lie on the sides of the angle.

Below are shown several angles; notice that several of them are the same, but because of different naming
conventions, different angles are given different names.
 Geometry: Lines and Angles
When two lines intersect, then the angles that are formed are special. Namely, you should be familiar with
the terms transversal, supplementary angles, complimentary angles.

If two lines intersect, then the angles that are opposite of each other are equal, and the angles that are next
to each other are supplemental, meaning that they add up to 180 degrees. Also, in the case that two lines
intersect at 90 degrees, then all for angles are equal and are 90 degrees, and the two lines are said to be
perpendicular to each other. Below, when lines L1 and L2 intersect, angle A is equal to angle C and angle B
is equal to angle D. Also, angle A+B=180 degrees because they form a straight line, and likewise, B+C=180,
C+D=180, and D+A=180. For Lines L3 and L4, the two lines intersect at 90 degrees, so all four angles
formed by their intersection are 90 degrees and are hence equal

If a line intersects two other lines, then it is called a transversal, and there are a total of 8 angles formed.
Four of the angles are called interior angles, and four of the angles are called exterior angles. These angles
have special relationships. It's best to explain this visually. In the 3 lines below, line t is the transversal of
lines p and r, and the interior angles are 3, 4, 5 and 6, while the exterior angles are 1, 2, 7 and 8. And IF
lines p and r are parallel, then there are several angle relationships, namely:

• angle 2 is equal to angle 3

• angle 1 is equal to angle 4
• angle 5 is equal to angle 8
• angle 6 is equal to angle 7
• angle 2 is equal to angle 6
• angle 4 is equal to angle 8
• angle 3 is equal to angle 7

• angle 1 is equal to angle 5

In the above three lines, since angles 6 and 8 form a straight line, then they add to 180 degrees. Using
substitution, since angle 4 is equal to angle 8, then angles 6 and 4 also add to 180 degrees, and hence are
complimentary. Likewise, similar substitution relationships can be derived from the graph.

Geometry: Triangles
 A triangle is a 3-sided figure with exactly three points and 3 lines, and a triangle is named according to its
vertices. The three lines which make up the triangle are called the sides of the triangle, and they can be of
different lengths, but the sum of the lengths of the two smaller sides of a triangle cannot be shorter than the
longest side of the triangle, or else the triangle is not closed. Shown here are several triangles, as well as a
shape that is not a triangle, because the sum of the two smaller sides is less than the length of the longest
side, and so the shape is not closed and is not a triangle.

By definition, the sum of the angles of a triangle ALWAYS adds up to 180 degrees. Also, certain special
triangles have unique names. A right triangle is a triangle that has an angle of 90 degrees; an isosceles
triangle has two sides of equal length; an equilateral triangle has three sides of equal length; an acute
triangle is one where all of the angles are less than 90 degrees; and an obtuse triangle is one where there
is one angle that is more than 90 degrees. Show here are several triangles.

The area of a triangle is one-half the base times height, or, as more commonly written, (1/2)bh, where b
designates the length of the base and h designates the height. The height of the triangle, h is always
perpendicular to the base. Here are several triangles and their bases, heights, and areas indicated.

In the left-most triangle, you are explicitly given the base and the height, and so to arrive at the answer you
multiply the two numbers and divide by two. In the center triangle, the area of the entire triangle is the total
length of the base, which is 8 plus 2, times the height, and all divided by 2 to get 50. In the right-hand most
triangle, note that he "base" does not need to be at the bottom of the picture; it's only important that the
height segment be perpendicular to the base. Also, note that in the right-hand most triangle x is denoted as
4mm, so plugging in the values of x and using the formula, you can quickly arrive at the area of the triangle.
 Geometry: Pythagorean's Theorem
Pythagorean's theorem exploits very important characteristics of a right triangle, and you should be
familiar with this formula. Visually, given a right triangle, with sides x, y, and z:

the following relationships is derived:

x2 + y2 = z2

Note that z here is the hypotenuse of the triangle. This is a very handy relationahips, as it allows you to
determine the length of a third side of a triangle given only two sides of a right triangle. The Pythagorean
Theorem is used widely on the GRE, so you should definitely be familiar with it.

Geometry: Rectangles
A rectangle is a four-side figure where opposite sides are equal in length and the four angles are all right
angles. The formula for a rectangle is simply base times height, while the perimeter of a rectangle, or the
total distance of its sides, is 2 times the length plus 2 times the width. Rectangles are fairly straight
forward and you should definitely know the area and perimeter formulas by heart. Examples of rectangles,
their areas, and perimeters, where A = Area and P = Perimeter:

Notice the following facts:

• In the third triangle, the height is x and width is y, and the values for x and y are given, so simple
substitution gives the desired area and perimeter values.
• There is no relationship between the height and width of a rectangle. For example, in the first
triangle, the area is much greater than the perimeter, while in the third triangle, and perimeter is
much greater than the area.
• A square, the fourth figure, is also a rectangle, in which the height and width are equal.

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 Geometry: Squares
A square is a special kind of rectangle, in that all of the sides are equal in length, not just opposite sides.
The area of a square is base times height, but because all sides are equal, we usually say that the area of a
square is length of a side squared. The perimeter of a square is four times the length of one of the sides.
Examples squares, with their area and perimeter indicated:

Notice that a square can be designated in one of several ways. All sides can be labeled, the sides can be
given variables, such as x and y, the shape can be indicated to be a square, etc. As long as you know that a
shape is a square, all that you need to know is the length of one side, after which it is then easy to determine
the area and perimeter.

A few of the trickier GRE math problems will require you to calculate or use diagonals. A diagonal is just
what is sounds, it diagonally connects two opposite corners of a square (a rectangle can have a diagonal,
too). In the case of a square, we use the Pythagorean Theorem to derive the relationship between a side of
a square and the diagonal of a square.

Geometry: Parallelograms
A parallelogram is a four-sided figure, just like a rectangle or a square. However, unlike a square, all sides
do not have to be of equal length, and unlike a square or a rectangle, the angles that are formed by the
sides of the parallelogram do not have to be 90 degrees. Here are a few examples of parallelograms:

The only facts that you have to remember about parallelograms is that the area is the same as a rectangle,
base times height, and that in order for a shape to be a parallelogram, opposite sides must be of equal
length and angles opposite of each other are the same measure.
 Geometry: Polygons
A polygon is a closed figure composed of line segements that meet at endpoints. We've already seen
triangles, squares, parallelograms, and rectangles, and all of these are polygons, but there are non-
regular polygons that you should be aware of. For example, here are several polygons that are not a
triangle, a square, a parallelogram, or a rectangle:

Notice that all of these shapes are closed, and lines intersect only at their ends.

So why are polygons important? For several reasons, the most important of which is that polygons appear
on some of the more challenging problems on the GRE. Luckily, with a little bit of practice, you should be
able to manipulate polygons as easily as you can manipulate squares, triangles, rectangles, etc.

First, noitice that there are several special polygons (aside from a triangle, square, rectangle), etc., that
are given special names. These names are related to the number of sides and angles in the polygon. The
term "gon" means shape, and if preceded by a numerical identifier, then the combined word descrbies the
polygon. For example, "hexa" means 6, and "penta" means 5, so a hexagon has 6 sides and a pentagon
has 5 sides. In addition, a regular polygon is one where all of the sides are equal in length. To designate
that sides are equal in length, we either indicate that by writing the length of the side or by drawing hatch
marks indicating equal lengths. Here are several examples of polygons, both regular and non-regular.
Notice that a square is alos a polygon -- all squares are also polygons, but not all polygons are squares.
Don't let the terminology fool you.

So what's the big deal about all these polygons? Well, there really isin't one. Once you have the basics
down, the GRE geometry questions involving polygons should be straight-forward. Most importanly, you
should understand that complex polygons can be divided into smaller polygons, which then makes the
 computation of area and perimeter much easier.

Test To calculate the area of the perimeter of copmlex polygons, divide the polygon into simple
shapes such as triangles, rectangles, and squares, and then you can easily perform the
Tip required calculations.

For example, assume you are asked to calculate the area of the polygon on the left. There is no straight-
forward formula, but if you divide the polygon into smaller, easier polygons, you'll see that you can easily
perform the area calculation. The polygon can be sectioned into two triangles and a rectangle, after which
it is easy to then calculate the total area:

The above question is precisely the type of GRE question that you can expect -- questions that rely on
only the most basic math concepts, but which require you to use those concepts in a creative fashion.

Geometry: Circles
A circle is a set of all the points that are an equal distance from a common point called the center. The
distance is called the radius, and twice the radius is called the diameter. Note that the diameter, by
definition, passes through the center of the circle. Finally, the circumference of a circle is the distance
around the circle, and is calculated as pi times the diameter. If you recall, pi is approximately 3.14, while the
diameter is twice the radius. Most often, circles are designated by the letter that is given to the center point
of the circle. For example, circles A, C and O are shown here, along with several diameters, circumferences,
and radii.
 Summary of basic circle formulas
Diameter 2r
Circumference (pi)(diameter) = (pi)*(2r)
Area of a circle (pi)(r2)

Circle topics that appear on more difficult GRE questions include Central Angles, Chords, Arc Measures,
and Inscribed Polygon questions.

A central angle is the name given to an angle that has the vertex as the center of a circle. In all cases, the
total measure of the degrees in a circle is 360 degrees. Most often associated with central angle topics is the
topic of an arc, which is a segment of the entire circumference. Most importantly, the degree measure of an
arc is equal to the central angle that forms the arc. Here are a few examples of circles, along with their
interior angle measures and arc measures.

Notice that in the circle on the left, BA is the diameter, so the angle measure of BDA is one half of 360, or
180 degrees. Also, the extended arc angle measure is always the same as the interior angle measure. For
the circle in the middle, you can arrive at the length of the arc HF by first calculating the diameter and then
circumference of the circle, and then using the fact that 120 degrees is one-third of 360 degrees, you know
that the length of the arc must be one-third of the circumference. In the circle on the right, note that you
cannot see the entire circle, but you can infer the radius easily by noting that the arc MP has length 7, and
since 60 degrees is one-sixth of the total 360 degrees of the entire circle, then the arc MP is one-sixth of the
 circumference, so the circumference is 6*7 =42. From then on, use the diameter and circumference
relationships to arrive at the radius.

Geometry: Coordinates
Coordinate questions on the GRE will require you to infer from your knowledge of the coordinate plane,
which is formed when two lines meet at right angles. One of the lines, the "up-and-down" line, is generally
called the y axis, while the "left-and-right" line is called the x axis

The coordinate plane is an easy way to designate unique points, as each point is given an x coordinate and
y coordinate value. When reading from or determining the location of a point on the coordinate plane, note
the following: Points to the right of the y axis have positive x values, while points to the left of the y axis have
negative x values. Likewise, points above the x axis have positive y values, and points below the x axis have
negative y values. In the coordinate-plane above, and assuming that each tick mark is one unit, point z has
the coordinates (2,3), where the first number, 2, designates the x-coordinate, and 3 designates the y-
coordinate.

Aside from a few "what is the coordinate of point P" or "what is the distance between point m and n" type of
questions, there are not too many coordinate questions that have ever appeared on the GRE. Therefore,
you'll need to be familiar with how to read a coordinate graph, how to calculate distance, and in rare
instances, how to determine the slope of a line.

• Find the coordinate This is the easiest type of coordinate question, which requires you to simply
read from the provided coordinate plane or infer a location from the information that you are given.
For example, what is the coordinate of point z in each of the following coordinate planes?
 In the graph on the left, the x coordinate of point z is a little bit more than 1, and the y coordinate of
point z is almost 9, so a feasible coordinate for point z in the coordinate plane on the left is (1.2,
8.7). In the graph in the middle, notice that each tick mark on the x-axis is 1 unit, but each tick mark
on the y-axis is two units; also, z has a negative x value because it is to the left of the y-axis. A valid
coordinate of point z for the middle coordinate plane is therefore (-2.4, 6.4). Finally, on the graph on
the right, notice that each tick mark on the x-axis is 0.5 units, while each tick mark on the y-axis is 2
units; therefore, a plausible coordinate value for point z is (0.8, -5.1).

• Distance between points Coordinate distance questions, too, are relatively straight forward,
especially if you notice that the coordinate plane is really a grid, and so you can either count the
grid marks to determine distance or you can use the distance formula, which itself is derived from
the Pythagorean’s theorem.

Looking at the graph on the left, you are asked to find the distance between points z and w.
Because the coordinate plane is really a grid, you can form a right triangle, denoted by sides a, b,
and c on the right coordinate plane, from which you can use the Pythagorean’s theorem to
determine the length of the hypotenuse, which is the distance between the two points.
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Geometry: Solid Objects

Questions that pertain to solid geometry will require you to be familiar with the "volumes" of solid objects,
most often simple rectangular shapes and cylindrical shapes. On a few of the harder GRE math questions,
you'll need to be familiar with the concept of a diagonal in a rectangular shape. You'll need to be able to
distinguish between the surface area and volume.

For a rectangular or cylindrical 3D object, you'll need to memorize the formulas for the volume and surface
area.

Any tricks that you may encounter will most likely involve having to change between units or will require you
to use various properties of triangles.

Geometry: General Tips

The geometry questions on the GRE will require you to draw from basic geometry knowledge, only, but you'll
need to be familiar with all of the basics and you'll need to know how to employ different concepts to solve a
single problem. For example:

If a triangle with a base of 10ft

has the same area as a circle with radius 3ft,
then what is the height of the triangle?

A triangle, a circle? Areas? Huh? Is there a formula? How do they relate? They don't, but what you'll need to
figure out is that you are merely dealing with the area formula for a triangle and a circle, both of which are
 easy formulas. A circle with radius of 3ft has an area of pi*r2, and if r=3, then the area of the circle is 9pi. So
9pi is equal to the area of a triangle, and we know that the area formula for a triangle is base times height,
divided by 2 (and we know that the base is 10), and so we set up the following equation, and follow through
with the calculations:

(10 * height) /
9pi =
2
18pi = 10 * height
18pi/10 = height

Test Don't be fooled! The geometry questions are generally straight forward, and if you think you
need to use a complicated formula to get the answer, then think harder, because most likely
Tip there is a shortcut. As a rule of thumb, write down what you know and what is given, and from
that information, you should be able to arrive at the answer in at most 3 or 4 steps.

Geometry: Plug and Test

Just as on Algebra or Arithmetic questions, you can plug in different answer choices into appropriate parts of
the question in an effort to work "backwards". This tactic is especially useful if you want to bypass difficult
calculations -- and in fact, often-times the makers of the GRE try to trick you into doing complicated math
when in fact you can use the plug and test method to arrive at the answer much quicker. Consider that you
are asked to find the radius of a cylinder given the height and volume of the cylinder:

For method 1, the formal calculation, you can use the formula for the volume of a cylinder, but notice that to
solve for r, you need to form a complicated fraction and then take the square root of that fraction. Right away
you should realize that this is too much tedious calculation, and in fact there should be an easier method. In
method 2, the plug and test method, pi is approximated as 3, and each of the answer choices is plugged into
the volume equation in an attempt to find out which of the answer choices gives the closest approximation to
the given volume. Choice 3, 2.0081, is the best answer because in the approximation calculating, the
volume is computed as 36, which is very close to the value of the given volume, 38.
 Geometry: Educated Elimination
One of the most successful (and easier) methods to employ when you are stumped on a geometry problem
(or, any math question, for that matter), is to look at the various answers and see which of them is or are not
possible. If you can eliminate at least one of the possible answer choices, then your chance of guessing
correctly is dramatically increased. Consider the simple example:

If a box three feet wide, 2 feet tall,

and 1 foot in depth is filled with balls
that are 0.7 feet in diameter, then which
of the following values is a likely indicator
of the maximum number of balls that
can fit into the box?

a. 03
b. 07
c. 11
d. 15
e. 24

Okay, we admit that this is a complicated problem, and it would take some time to figure out because of the
fact that you are not told beforehand exactly how the balls can be aligned. Regardless, you are told that the
narrowest dimension of the box is 1ft, and the balls are 0.7 feet in diameter, so at most one ball can fit
across the narrowest dimension, and at most two balls can fit along the next smallest dimension, which is 2
feet. So if the question were asking how many circles of diameter 0.7 can fit inside a box that is 1 by 2ft,
then the answer would be 2. The last dimension, 3ft, divided by 0.7ft is approximately 4, so four balls can fit
within the largest dimension if the balls are aligned along a straight line. The rest takes some tricky
calculations, but already you can eliminate choice a and b, because we know that at least 8 balls can fit into
the box.

Can 15 balls fit into the box? Two balls (which fit into the two smallest dimensions), times approximately 4
balls (which fit into the largest dimension), equals 8, so even if the balls were aligned in a criss-cross
pattern, chances are that 15 balls could not fit; which leaves only c, 11 balls. The important thing to notice
here is that no lengthy calculations were required, but instead you can arrive at the answer (or at least
eliminate impossible choices) by thinking through the problem. Here is what you may have drawn on your
scratch paper as you work through the problem:
 Geometry: Figure to Scale
First, it's important to note that unless you are told otherwise, figures are NOT drawn to scale, so just
because one angle looks as if it were equal in measure to another angle, then you can't assume that the
angles are equal (or close). However, often-times you will be told explicitly Figure is drawn to scale,
meaning that if an angle looks as if it is bigger than another angle, then it is so.

Geometry: Use that Paper!

Finally, one of the best tools that you can use when working on the math section of the GRE is to use your
paper to your advantage. Of course it's expected that you'll use the paper for scratch work, but when taking
the GRE, which is timed, you'll want to be well organized and make sure that you don't waste any time.

At the end of the algebra tutorial we showed you how to portion off your scratch paper so as to minimize
confusion. Yes, you'll want to do the same for geometry questions, but, in addition, you can use the paper as
a ruler! How? Simple. Consider the following problem, where you are asked to find the distance of side a:

You are not told much information at all, and, most likely the answer choices that you would be given for
such a problem would make the answer obvious, but assume that you've been able to narrow down to three
answer choices, and now you are stuck. What can you do next? Use the scratch paper to measure the
length of one of the sides and then use your home-made ruler to measure the length of side a Is this silly?
No! Is this some whacky "secret"? No! Is this clever and smart? Yes! There is no single right way to arrive at
the answer, and many people employ different tactics, and if it so turns out that using the paper as a ruler
helps you out, then go ahead, use it. A single question, especially at the beginning of a section, can be worth
20 or even 30 points towards your final section score, so don't be bashful. Do whatever you have to.

Here is how you may want to use the edge of the paper as a ruler: