Here’s one of the most common math questions my students ask: “What’s up with

negative numbers and square roots on the GMAT?” Luckily, the answer doesn’t involve
a lot of complex rules. In this quick article, I’ll lay out the issues surrounding square
roots and negative numbers, and share everything you need to know to handle them
confidently.

If you’ve been studying for a while, or if you’ve worked your way through Foundations of
Math, you probably know that there’s a strange interaction between negative numbers
and exponents. If you square a negative number, the result is positive. If you square a
positive number, the result is also positive. Squaring a number makes the negative sign
‘go away.’ This is where the problem with square roots comes in.

Suppose you’re looking at an equation that looks like this:

x² = 4

You want to find the value of x. Before you start writing out square root signs, think for a
moment about what this equation actually means. “When you square some number, the
result is positive 4. What is that number?” Well, the number could be positive 2. It could
also be negative 2. There’s no way to know which. You have to give two answers: one
positive answer, and one negative answer.

On the other hand, suppose you’ve got an equation that looks like this:

x=√4

Wait. Isn’t that just the same equation? Not quite. When the GMAT gives you a square
root symbol, it’s referring to one specific value: the positive square root. In other
words, on the GMAT, the square root of 4 is 2. If the GMAT gives you this equation, you
only have to give one answer: the positive one.

That’s pretty weird, and it might not be what you learned in your middle school math
class. But it is how square roots on the GMAT work. Here’s what you need to memorize:
If I see “x² = something,” I think “x could be positive or negative.”

If I see the square root of a value, I think “the answer will always be positive.”