GMAT Time Management

[Bright]

Hi Guys/gals,



On the GMAT, we, most of the people find the the Time restriction very troublesome. I have made a rough timing schedule for the GMAT Quantitative Section. Could you plz give your comments/advice/suggesstions on below:



Timing schedule for the Quantitative schedule:



1st and 2nd question should be done within 3 minutes. (As I have heard from most of the people that the 1st 2 questions are generally reasonably easy.your comment plz on this.........)



If we get these 2 questions right, then surely the difficulty level will increase and as the 1st 10-12 questions are extremely important for the final scaled score so for the next 8 questions, we can spend



Question 3- Question 10: 3 minutes per question = 24 minutes ( 3 minutes because these questions are extremely important, what do u guys think?)



So, total time spent for the 1st 12 question= 3 + 24 + 1 minute miscellaneous= 28 minutes.



Question 11- Question 15: Total 12 minutes



So, Previous 28 + 12= 40 minutes.



Now we can take a gamble for the next 7 questions as we have to speed up, and I think by the 15th question ETS has already estimated our scoring range. So at this time, they will throw the experimental questions.what do u guys think on this?



Question 16- Question 22: 7 Minutes



Even if these are not the experimental questions, still you have sufficient time to get back to the harder bins.



Question 23- Question 35: Total 26 minutes for 13 questions(2 minutes/question).



Up to the 35th questin the Total Time spent:



40 + 7 + 26 = 73 minutes



I should say that we should select the answer for the last 2 questions in 1 minute, if we have to guess without even looking the question, as at this point this shouldn't lower our scaled score that much, although we have to answer all the questions as this is extremely important.....



So the Total Time Spent for the Quantitative Section:



73 + 1(for the last 2 questions) + 1 minute miscellaneous = 75 Minutes.



Guys, I have made this post a bit long........and I might be wrong in some cases........so plz shoot your comments on this...........................................

[bala977]

Makes sense - Can the folks who took the test give their $.02?

[sidnim]

Seems quite logical, but I feel there are 2 issues with it:

1. Will such micro-time-management be possible as there are hundred other things on my mind when I am taking the test.
2. I feel uneasy when I've to attempt the last 2 questions in the last minute or so. Just even thinking of attempting the last 2 questions in a minute pressurizes me and blocks my thinking.

However on the whole I think, the plan abt spending 3 minutes for the first 2 questions and subsequently 3 minutes for the next 9 questions seems workable.
i.e. 30 mins for the first 14 questions.

Subsequently that still leaves us with approx 2 minutes for each question from there on which seems to be comfortable enough.


Obviously these are my 2 cents, this is the plan I feel comfortable with.

[arjmen]

I feel that sticking to a set "timing schedule" would be counter-productive.

On average, you have a little more than 2 mins to answer a question in the quant section. Quite a few of the questions are of a level that can be answered in well under a minute as long as you don't get flustered.
By setting time limits to answer questions or groups of questions, you could end up getting flustered or hurrying through sections when there is no real need to. I'm not saying that it is not important to keep an eye on the clock, but I'd suggest doing this in a less regimented way. The way I used to keep track was to check whether [Time left/{37 - (Question I was on) + 1}] >= 2. An approximation is enough here!

Funnily enough, the best method I've found to get on top of the clock in the test is to practice problems from varied resources and practice doing them in under 2 mins.

The great thing about standardized tests is that the type of questions that you get is pretty fixed; and there is usually atleast one way that always works in solving a particular type of question.
The easy questions need you to just follow this solution path; and the difficult ones need you to break the question into smaller easier questions and follow the solution paths for these.
When you practice solving many problems (from varied resources), you will get to see all the types of questions and their solution paths. Your job is to remember the type and the solution path; this becomes second nature as you practice more and more.
Most folks spend the most amount of time figuring out how to start solving a question than on actually solving the question. Once they learn to identify the question type and its associated solution path, their total solution time gets cut a lot.

[CTG1983]

arjmen,
U rock man. I take ur suggestions for Quants as divine scriptures.
Thanks for ur $0.02 or is it more than 2 cents?

[zash]

I will go with arjmen and sidmin.. both are right in many aspects, specifically on the effect of pressure on the performance. Time is definitely a very serious affair to hit anybody while taking a standardised test, because it is meant to be so but it could be used to leverage it for our own use as well.

Instead of focusing on time management based on time per question, we should be focussing on time per question block. I have quant and verbal into three blocks. Time for each block should not be more than 25 minutes.

For Quant Section..
Block I: 1 to 10 - total of 10 questions.
Block II:11 to 22 - total of 12 questions
Block III:23 to 37. - total of 15 questions.

For Verbal Section...
Block I: 1 to 12 - Total of 12 questions
Block II: 12 to 26 - Total of 14 Questions
Block III: 27 to 41 - Total of 15 Questions

Look for the time only three times during the section duration, first time when you finished first block (in quant after 10th Q, and in Verbal after 12th Q), you should be left with approx. 50 minutes. Second time you should stop to see the time is after finishing second block (in Quant after 22nd Q, & In verbal after 26th Q), you should be left with 25 minutes at that stage. And last time to look out for time is when you are at 30-31th question in Quant and 34-35 Q in Verbal, unless your 5 minutes clock has already started on the screen, If you are at the last five minutes of the test at that section then move on with intellegent guessing.

First block should be completed in exactly around 25 minutes, if you do it early even then also you need to stop & observe whether you are getting easy questions or difficult ones, because if you get easy questions and you are able to do it fast then also it is against the good score.

I hope this will help you all, do post your comments on validity of my suggestion.

Best of Luck!

[parag_bhadra]

Havent took the test yet - still my 0.02$ http://www.urch.com/forums/showthread.php?t=34604 (Time Scale for GMAT)

2 reasons I feel it may work

1. Its really simple to follow. Takes care of both situations, that is to check if extra time is available for hard qs or to see if time is running short.

2. The 1st-few-questions-are-critical theory seems to be giving way to the string-of-correct-questions-to-jack-up-your-score theory. Hence no point in investing more on the 1st few qs.

Some critical reasoning would be real good !

Adios

Parag

[Bright]

Thanks guys for your suggesstions............

So we will go time/group of questions instead of time/per question?isn't that?????????