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Pacing Question

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Pacing Question

by NeilWatson » Tue Mar 11, 2014 4:12 pm
Hey Everyone,

So I have a concern that I would like some insight on. I have been studying for about a month now and plan to dedicated myself to 4 months of full study before I take the test. I have been focusing more on quant because I feel that is my weakest area. The good news: I have noticed that I am beginning to understand concepts and answer questions that I would not have been able to before. The bad news: I feel like I am taking too long to analyze the problem and figure out what is actually being asked. As a result, even though I might get the question right, I am sometimes way over the 2 minute mark. So my question is how long should I be looking to finish analyzing/understanding the problem and begin actually working on it within that 2 minute deadline?

Also does anyone have any tips about how to set up their scratch pad for quant problems? My scratch pad tends to be very messy and i sometimes lose sight of the problem just trying to figure it all out.

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by [email protected] » Tue Mar 11, 2014 9:55 pm
Hi NeilWatson,

Many Test Takers start off with pacing problems, and that issue can be dealt with, but not right now. You're still fairly early on in your studies; at this point in the process, your focus should be on learning content and tactics and then repeated practice. Pacing naturally improves over time, as you become more and more familiar with what the GMAT will ask you to do (and as you built up a "library" of how you should respond to each type of question). This ultimately means that you'll have pacing problems in the short term.

You also should NOT worry about spending over 2 minutes on a Quant question. Certain questions can be solved quickly (under a minute) while others are designed to take you 3 minutes to solve. Trying to hold yourself to a 2-minute limit per question is not the right way to go about dealing with the Quant section. If you're looking for something that you can do that saves time, plan on taking lots of notes while doing questions - you'd be amazed how quickly you'll answer a question when you just make it a habit to write everything down.

As to how to most efficiently use your scratch pad, my advice is to keep all of you "work" in one section of the pad - don't jump all over the pad. Once you're done with a question, then "box off" that section of the pad and start your next question in the next section of open space. Once that question's done, then box off that section, etc.

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich
Last edited by [email protected] on Fri Mar 14, 2014 12:05 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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by NeilWatson » Wed Mar 12, 2014 8:41 am
Thanks Rich,

I have read many blogs that say you should always time yourself to get used to the time limit required by GMAT quant questions. So are you saying that for now, do not bother to focus on timing myself for each question as that will come naturally? Or should I continue to be aware of how much time I am spending on questions, but not let it be my main focus.
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by whataB » Wed Mar 12, 2014 9:28 am
I'm gonna jump in on this too.

Rich is right, that as you continue to master the basics AND you develop the habit of writing everything down, you'll surprise yourself with your increase in accuracy and speed. Further, when budgeting time for questions, you want to consider time "blocks" for every 5 - 10 questions or so, as there are some problems that are set up to take longer to solve.

For those types of problems, there's not much you can do. You'll simply have to work a little longer.

That said, let me give you a top-level tip. The GMAT is about speed and accuracy, right? You are currently working to develop accuracy but you probably aren't doing much about speed. Add in some speed drills into your study time (easy problems, VERY VERY fast) and you'll see results pretty quickly.

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by [email protected] » Wed Mar 12, 2014 12:41 pm
Hi NeilWatson,

It's still too early on in your studies to focus on speed. Instead, focus on learning tactics and practicing enough to get comfortable using those tactics again and again. There's no point in focusing on speed if you can't get the question correct. Ignore the clock for now - you have 3 months to improve on your speed. Trying to "wedge" that into what you're doing right now would be counter-productive.

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Rich
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by NeilWatson » Wed Mar 12, 2014 7:44 pm
Ok perfect. That clears things up a lot. Thank you both!
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by Elizabeth@EconomistGMAT » Fri Mar 14, 2014 7:48 am
To chime in, you will have about two minutes to answer each question on the Quant section, and slightly less than two minutes per question on the Verbal.

A tactic you can employ to develop your time management skills is to group five Quant questions together and spend no more more than ten minutes on them. For Verbal, give yourself nine minutes to answer five questions. You can use this strategy on both practice questions and simulation exams.

If during a ten minute stretch, you find yourself falling behind schedule, make a strategic guess or two to catch up. Make strategic guesses on questions about which you aren't confident or that would take you much longer than two minutes to answer. By making strategic guesses, you can recover precious time that you can spend on questions on which you have a better chance of answering correctly.

To sum up the basics of time management on the GMAT: keep track of your time, and if you start to fall behind, make an educated guess or two to ensure that you will not run out of time and leave questions unanswered.
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by Brent@GMATPrepNow » Sat Mar 15, 2014 5:53 am
First, I want to say that I wholeheartedly agree with Rich when he says "It's still too early on in your studies to focus on speed. Instead, focus on learning tactics and practicing enough to get comfortable using those tactics again and again." Students often get too fixated on times very early in their studies. Remember: content first, speed second. That said, I think it's a good idea to use a stopwatch to help get an idea of what 2 minutes feels like. This tip and others can be found in my BTG articles on "making friends with time on the GMAT"
https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2011/06/ ... mat-part-i
https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2011/07/ ... at-part-ii

Regarding overall time management on test day, I agree with Elizabeth in that you should focus more on the timing of GROUPS of questions, rather than on individual question. Along those lines, I suggest that you use a 5-question Milestone Chart to keep you on track. This is covered in our free GMAT time management video at https://www.gmatprepnow.com/module/gener ... es?id=1244

Cheers,
Brent
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by brianlange77 » Sat Mar 15, 2014 6:30 pm
I'll take the 'pile on' position here -- if you aren't going to be able to answer questions correctly, does it really matter whether you do that quickly or slowly? :-) Focus on learning on to get questions correct -- when you do that, your time will naturally improve.. and then you can focus even more on timing improvement.

Save this article for down the line a bit -- https://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... nt-part-1/

Good luck!

_Brian
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