Volume is the three-dimensional area — the amount of space enclosed by a shape or object. Remember that you need three different values to find volume and surface area (the length, the width and the height) on the GMAT.

Think of any box — a “rectangular solid” is a just a 3-D rectangle. Find the volume by calculating the length x width x height. Find the surface area by calculating 2lw + 2lh + 2wh.

Like the rectangular solid, to find the volume of a cylinder you will calculate the area of the base and multiply it by the height. For a cylinder, the area of the base will always be equal to the area of a circle: pi x r^2. Just multiply it by “h” to find the volume!

Try a couple practice questions on this GMAT – Volume learnboard!