Increase speed in Quant

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Abdulla
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Test Date: November 30th, 2009
Target GMAT Score: 700
GMAT Score: 550

Topic: Increase speed in Quant
Thu Oct 29, 2009 4:19 pm

Hi Guys, Does anyone managed to solve every single problem in the Quant. in two minutes regardless of the level of difficulty? I spent tons of hours studying for the GMAT, but I can't get in the place where I solve each problem in two minutes. This is a major problem for me that don't let my score go over 42. My last option was to guess 4 to 5 questions in the middle of the test rather than rushing out at the last five minutes. This strategy increased my score to 44-45. I think if I solved each question without any guess it would boost my score easily over 48. Do you guys have a solution for my problem? Please help !!! _________________ Abdulla

cbenk121
Really wants to Beat The GMAT!

Joined: 09 Sep 2009
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Test Date: 11/17/2009
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Thu Oct 29, 2009 10:07 pm

Abdulla wrote: Hi Guys, Does anyone managed to solve every single problem in the Quant. in two minutes regardless of the level of difficulty? I spent tons of hours studying for the GMAT, but I can't get in the place where I solve each problem in two minutes. This is a major problem for me that don't let my score go over 42. My last option was to guess 4 to 5 questions in the middle of the test rather than rushing out at the last five minutes. This strategy increased my score to 44-45. I think if I solved each question without any guess it would boost my score easily over 48. Do you guys have a solution for my problem? Please help !!! EVERY problem under two minutes? I don't think the real test works like that - I think you could still get an 800 and spend over 2 minutes on some problems, as long as there's some problems you spent fewer than 2 minutes on! Do I have a magic pill? No. First off, you haven't specified if PS or DS problems are giving you trouble: those are fairly different in approach. Here's what I would do: buy the OG 12. That has 200+ PS problems and 100+ DS problems. Do every PS problem (or every other, whatever you have time for). STOP after each one, and jot how long it took you (minutes and seconds). Once you complete 50 problems, enter all the times into a spreadsheet, and average them: what did they come out to? It should be signficantly under 2 minutes, because the first 50 problems are the easiest. As you advance, you may find more and more problems taking longer than 2 minutes. The question is if your AVERAGE is under 2 minutes. Have a sense of urgency: quickly look for an efficient way to solve the problem. if nothing comes to you, then brute force it just to get going. Often times my approach has been correct, but I could've made some shortcuts to make the calculations easier. As you practice problems, you'll see more and more of these "time saving" shortcuts in the solutions, and be able to recognize them! Finally, just because you spent lots of time studying for GMAT doesn't necessarily mean you have concepts down cold. Let me share a rule I believe is true: NO MATH PROBLEM WILL TAKE LONGER THAN 2 MINUTES IN PURE CALCULATION. If you know the concepts cold, then you should see what you need to solve and how to get there very quickly. From there it's just calculations. Where losing time comes from is when the path forward is not clear - that means you need more practice with concepts tested in that problem. That's the gist of what I'm saying though - you may encounter a few problems that just stump you. However, if you have most concepts down cold, you'll make up the time later. I'd get studying and practicing, good luck!

chris6
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Fri Oct 30, 2009 10:08 am

When you say know the concepts cold, what do actually mean? Can you list the concepts and to what depth of knowing them? I noticed that often GMAT questions will disguise the concepts that are being tested. Do you always identify what concept is being tested? Thanks

Abdulla
GMAT Destroyer!

Joined: 07 Aug 2008
Posts: 327

Thanks given: 47
Thanked 4 times in 4 posts
Location: Philadelphia

Test Date: November 30th, 2009
Target GMAT Score: 700
GMAT Score: 550

Fri Oct 30, 2009 1:13 pm

cbenk121 wrote: Abdulla wrote: Hi Guys, Does anyone managed to solve every single problem in the Quant. in two minutes regardless of the level of difficulty? I spent tons of hours studying for the GMAT, but I can't get in the place where I solve each problem in two minutes. This is a major problem for me that don't let my score go over 42. My last option was to guess 4 to 5 questions in the middle of the test rather than rushing out at the last five minutes. This strategy increased my score to 44-45. I think if I solved each question without any guess it would boost my score easily over 48. Do you guys have a solution for my problem? Please help !!! EVERY problem under two minutes? I don't think the real test works like that - I think you could still get an 800 and spend over 2 minutes on some problems, as long as there's some problems you spent fewer than 2 minutes on! Do I have a magic pill? No. First off, you haven't specified if PS or DS problems are giving you trouble: those are fairly different in approach. Here's what I would do: buy the OG 12. That has 200+ PS problems and 100+ DS problems. Do every PS problem (or every other, whatever you have time for). STOP after each one, and jot how long it took you (minutes and seconds). Once you complete 50 problems, enter all the times into a spreadsheet, and average them: what did they come out to? It should be signficantly under 2 minutes, because the first 50 problems are the easiest. As you advance, you may find more and more problems taking longer than 2 minutes. The question is if your AVERAGE is under 2 minutes. Have a sense of urgency: quickly look for an efficient way to solve the problem. if nothing comes to you, then brute force it just to get going. Often times my approach has been correct, but I could've made some shortcuts to make the calculations easier. As you practice problems, you'll see more and more of these "time saving" shortcuts in the solutions, and be able to recognize them! Finally, just because you spent lots of time studying for GMAT doesn't necessarily mean you have concepts down cold. Let me share a rule I believe is true: NO MATH PROBLEM WILL TAKE LONGER THAN 2 MINUTES IN PURE CALCULATION. If you know the concepts cold, then you should see what you need to solve and how to get there very quickly. From there it's just calculations. Where losing time comes from is when the path forward is not clear - that means you need more practice with concepts tested in that problem. That's the gist of what I'm saying though - you may encounter a few problems that just stump you. However, if you have most concepts down cold, you'll make up the time later. I'd get studying and practicing, good luck! Thank you cebenk121 for your explanations. Well, Basically I did all the necessary analysis needed and I know exactly in which topic I'm slow but I can't fix it. I spend 3-4 minutes in the 600-700 level Geometry, word translations ( variables in the answer choices), combinations, and probability word problems because of the wording otherwise my average is 2 minutes and most of the DS problems are less than 95 seconds. In order to get high score I need to solve these problems let's say not more than 2.5 - 3 minutes, but I can't reach this target and I'm searching for a solution. _________________ Abdulla

cbenk121
Really wants to Beat The GMAT!

Joined: 09 Sep 2009
Posts: 188

Thanks given: 15
Thanked 7 times in 7 posts

Test Date: 11/17/2009
GMAT Score: 760

Sat Nov 07, 2009 9:03 am

chris6 wrote: When you say know the concepts cold, what do actually mean? Can you list the concepts and to what depth of knowing them? I noticed that often GMAT questions will disguise the concepts that are being tested. Do you always identify what concept is being tested? Thanks Check it out: http://www.beatthegmat.com/thought-this-might-help-list-of-quant-topics-on-gmat-t2972.html Get a math book, like Manhattan or Kaplan, for an indepth review of concepts. Then, practice .

cbenk121
Really wants to Beat The GMAT!

Joined: 09 Sep 2009
Posts: 188

Thanks given: 15
Thanked 7 times in 7 posts

Test Date: 11/17/2009
GMAT Score: 760

Sat Nov 07, 2009 9:07 am

Abdulla wrote: cbenk121 wrote: Abdulla wrote: Hi Guys, Does anyone managed to solve every single problem in the Quant. in two minutes regardless of the level of difficulty? I spent tons of hours studying for the GMAT, but I can't get in the place where I solve each problem in two minutes. This is a major problem for me that don't let my score go over 42. My last option was to guess 4 to 5 questions in the middle of the test rather than rushing out at the last five minutes. This strategy increased my score to 44-45. I think if I solved each question without any guess it would boost my score easily over 48. Do you guys have a solution for my problem? Please help !!! EVERY problem under two minutes? I don't think the real test works like that - I think you could still get an 800 and spend over 2 minutes on some problems, as long as there's some problems you spent fewer than 2 minutes on! Do I have a magic pill? No. First off, you haven't specified if PS or DS problems are giving you trouble: those are fairly different in approach. Here's what I would do: buy the OG 12. That has 200+ PS problems and 100+ DS problems. Do every PS problem (or every other, whatever you have time for). STOP after each one, and jot how long it took you (minutes and seconds). Once you complete 50 problems, enter all the times into a spreadsheet, and average them: what did they come out to? It should be signficantly under 2 minutes, because the first 50 problems are the easiest. As you advance, you may find more and more problems taking longer than 2 minutes. The question is if your AVERAGE is under 2 minutes. Have a sense of urgency: quickly look for an efficient way to solve the problem. if nothing comes to you, then brute force it just to get going. Often times my approach has been correct, but I could've made some shortcuts to make the calculations easier. As you practice problems, you'll see more and more of these "time saving" shortcuts in the solutions, and be able to recognize them! Finally, just because you spent lots of time studying for GMAT doesn't necessarily mean you have concepts down cold. Let me share a rule I believe is true: NO MATH PROBLEM WILL TAKE LONGER THAN 2 MINUTES IN PURE CALCULATION. If you know the concepts cold, then you should see what you need to solve and how to get there very quickly. From there it's just calculations. Where losing time comes from is when the path forward is not clear - that means you need more practice with concepts tested in that problem. That's the gist of what I'm saying though - you may encounter a few problems that just stump you. However, if you have most concepts down cold, you'll make up the time later. I'd get studying and practicing, good luck! Thank you cebenk121 for your explanations. Well, Basically I did all the necessary analysis needed and I know exactly in which topic I'm slow but I can't fix it. I spend 3-4 minutes in the 600-700 level Geometry, word translations ( variables in the answer choices), combinations, and probability word problems because of the wording otherwise my average is 2 minutes and most of the DS problems are less than 95 seconds. In order to get high score I need to solve these problems let's say not more than 2.5 - 3 minutes, but I can't reach this target and I'm searching for a solution. Ok, here's what you need to do. Search Beat the GMAT articles - there's a wonderful article on permutations and combinations that will solve all your worries. Makes it uber simple. As for probability, remember this: number of desired outcomes / number of possibilities. That's ALL you're looking for. There's a good article on Beat the GMAT as well that reviews probability, makes it uber simple as well. As for Geometry...ALWAYS DRAW OUT THE SHAPE ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS. Without that, you're dog meat. Then, suddenly it's a regular geometry problem...which you didn't mention you have problems with? Look through Beat the GMAT articles, there was a 7 part series recently on triangles, and a video on circles. Between those two, and some other basic properties, you should pretty much have geometry down.

Abdulla
GMAT Destroyer!

Joined: 07 Aug 2008
Posts: 327

Thanks given: 47
Thanked 4 times in 4 posts
Location: Philadelphia

Test Date: November 30th, 2009
Target GMAT Score: 700
GMAT Score: 550