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Can I skip these 2 questions?

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by jake1414 » Fri Nov 15, 2013 7:20 pm
In the math section, I strongly dislike mixture problems (I believe they only occur once on test day) and in the verbal section, I strongly dislike the 2 part boldface questions (again, I believe they only occur once). If time is an issue, would it be wise for me to skip these questions right away to save time? Test day is Wednesday so instead of trying to get better at it, I would just keep on going through everything else.

Thanks!!!
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Source: — GMAT Strategy |

by [email protected] » Sat Nov 16, 2013 12:07 am
Hi jake1414,

For the sake of performing well on each of the overall sections, you would likely find it beneficial to dump a few questions that are "problematic", so that you can spend more time on the other questions (and on finishing the section on time).

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich
Contact Rich at [email protected]
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by jake1414 » Sat Nov 16, 2013 7:16 am
Thank you!
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by jake1414 » Sat Nov 16, 2013 7:17 am
Thank you!
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by David@VeritasPrep » Sun Nov 17, 2013 9:38 am
If you know that a question type is one that you are not likely to get right within 3 minutes then this is a good candidate for guessing on the Quant section. If you can get about 25 questions correct on the Quant section you should be able to get a score that is from the 60 to 80th percentile. So you can afford to miss quite a few questions. It is actually worse in terms of overall strategy to take 4 minutes and get a question right than it would be to have guessed at the question.

You are thinking strategically and that is a good thing! You plan is good for Problem Solving. But understand that strategy dictates that you should not merely randomly guess at any DATA SUFFICIENCY question. It is much easier to see that you have enough information to solve a question (Data Suff) as compared to actually having to solve it (Prob Solving). Think about it, what information do you actually need in order to solve a mixture problem? Just the average of each of the components, such as liquids x and y, the overall average of the new mixture, and the total amount of mixture. If you have those things you can solve. Plan on giving yourself at least a minute to quickly look at the question if it is data suff.


On the verbal side, it is also much easier and more effective to narrow down answer choices when compared to problem solving. So when you see a bold-faced question you might take just a minute or so to see if one of the portions in bold is quite obviously a prediction or the conclusion or evidence or something. You may be able to rapidly narrow down the choices. You might even find that you are down to just one choice!

The problem with saying "I am going to skip this type of question always and randomly guess" is that it may wind up being a very simple version of the question. At least on bold faced questions and data suff mixture problems give yourself a minute to see what you can do.

That is my advice.
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by jake1414 » Sun Nov 17, 2013 11:44 am
Thank you! I definitely agree with you on these points.
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