Running out of time on last question?

achandwa

I vaguely recollect a recommended strategy in one of the prep books (probably Kaplan premiere, but not very sure) that if you are on the last question with a few seconds left, you could mark one of the choices blindly and then think about the solution. That way you avoid the penalty of an unanswered question (as much as 3%ile of your score? and leave yourself a 20% chance of a correct answer). Also, if the test times out on you, it would ask for confirmation of your choice. Not only that - it went even further to say that, if you find the correct answer wasn't the one you marked, you could change your answer (after the test times out). Someone know by first-hand experience if this is really true? If I recollect right, in a GMATPrep test, I ran out of time on the last question and I had marked the answer. The test just timed out. No confirmation asked. And it took my answer.
Thanks,
-Ashish

mayonnai5e · Posted: Sat Dec 01, 2007 8:42 am Post subject:

Please see this post from Stacy:

http://www.beatthegmat.com/running-out-of-time-before-confirming-answer-t6309.html

achandwa · Posted: Sat Dec 01, 2007 10:19 am Post subject:

Great! That's inline with what I saw in GMATPrep.
Thanks mayonnai5e
It's nice to know since I seem to hit this situation in every single test! Smile

beatthegmat · Posted: Sat Dec 01, 2007 6:48 pm Post subject:

achandwa · Posted: Sat Dec 01, 2007 7:59 pm Post subject:

Well, it would be nice if I do not have to blindly guess a few to make it to the end Smile

I seem to struggle with the residue effect. It may sound funny but after taking more than 10 tests, I just can't shrug off the thoughts of previous problem on hitting confirm. Need to overcome this bad habit in the last 10 days of prep I have before I take the test on 13th.
-Ashish

Stacey Koprince · Posted: Wed Dec 05, 2007 1:28 pm Post subject:

EVERYONE has to guess on a few to finish the section. You can't get good enough that you won't have to do that, because however good you get, the test can give you something harder that you can't do. So don't feel badly that you have to guess on some. Instead, pick the very hardest questions as you see them throughout the test and make those your guesses so that you actually have time to read the questions at the end - that way, you aren't making random guesses on problems you can actually do!