GMAT Strategy

Will you get penalized by the algorithm if you spend 3-4 minutes carefully reading the prompt and quickly answering each question afterwards, taking about 1 minute for each? I realize this may count as 4 minutes for one question and much less for the others on a per question basis, but will the computer take into account the discrepancy in time and not penalize you for taking so much time reading the passage to begin with? Or should I do a quick read-through for the first question and simply skim the passage for the other problems, evening out the amount of time I take for each one?

How long you spend on a question isn't factored into your score, so feel free to pace yourself the way you described. Personally, I use the same approach as you do - slow down on the passage, spending 3 or 4 minutes to really "get it" before hitting the questions. Then, I can move through the questions pretty quickly to make back the time.

You will get about 4 questions per reading comprehension passage. Naturally, you will need to spend a lot more time on the first question then on the subsequent ones. It is always a good idea to read the question before reading the passage so you know what to look for. Unfortunately you will only be able to read that first question because it is a computer based system.

The passages are usually quite complex and difficult to read, so I don't put a lot of pressure on myself to fully understand what every sentence is trying to say. I will just get the jisk of it, then read the relevant parts in more depth to answer each subsequent question.

I'm in the opposite camp - I don't like to see the first question before I read the passage. I feel like if I were to read the first question, I would be fixated on finding its answer while reading, rather than focusing on the overall point and structure of the passage.

You should try out both ways to see which you like best.

I agree with Jim here.

Ladistar, you are on the right track. I followed this strategy the second time I took the GMAT and it absolutely worked for.

The first around, I followed the stupid advice of some GMAT preparation books asking me to skim over the passage quickly and then come back to it when I'm attacking the questions. This just doesn't help because if you do not understand the passage first time around, you cannot answer the questions. Also, you just end up wasting 2 precious minutes of your time. The 'skimming' strategy can only work for the 'specific detail' question, which is just 1 out of 4 that you have to answer. The other questions can be effectively answered only when you have clearly understood the passage.

So I would recommend that you spend 3-4 minutes to read and clearly understand the passage. Without the time pressure to skim the passage you would be able to grasp the structure, tone etc much better.

And yes, as Jim said, there is no penalty for spending extra time on reading the passage.

All the best!