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Improving time management on Quant

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Improving time management on Quant

by radhika88 » Sat Jul 04, 2015 5:25 am
Hi all,

I took my 1st MGMAT CAT today and scored a 670 (Q37, V44). When I started reviewing the test, I found that a lot of the mistakes that I made were silly mistakes due to improper time management. There was a period around 17th question where I was around the 98 percentile and then got 3-4 super hard problems. I spent a lot of time on those and ended up getting 2/4 wrong anyway. This set me back immensely and I ended up hurrying on all subsequent questions. Is there anyway I can get the timing right on the quant while not compromising on accuracy? I am not so worried about verbal as I finished the section with about 7 minutes remaining.
The goal is be around Q47 and above. I have the basics right mostly but I feel it is more a question of strategy now. Any quick suggestions will be hugely helpful as I have my test date in roughly a fortnight.
Thanks
Radhika
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by Brent@GMATPrepNow » Sat Jul 04, 2015 8:22 am
radhika88 wrote:Is there anyway I can get the timing right on the quant while not compromising on accuracy? I am not so worried about verbal as I finished the section with about 7 minutes remaining.
The goal is be around Q47 and above. I have the basics right mostly but I feel it is more a question of strategy now. Any quick suggestions will be hugely helpful as I have my test date in roughly a fortnight.
Thanks
Radhika
Hi Radhika,

I suggest that you use the following Milestone Charts to keep you on track:
Image
We (at GMAT Prep Now) feel that these times are easily remembered so you can quickly jot them on your noteboard on test day.

This (and more) is covered in our free GMAT time management video at https://www.gmatprepnow.com/module/gener ... es?id=1244

Also, early in one's studies, 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

Cheers,
Brent
Brent Hanneson - Creator of GMATPrepNow.com
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by [email protected] » Sat Jul 04, 2015 9:38 am
HI radhika88,

I'd like to confirm a few things about how you took that CAT:

1) Did you take the ENTIRE CAT (including the Essay and IR sections)?
2) Did you take it at the same time of day as your Official GMAT?
3) Did you do ANYTHING that would be considered non-test-like or unrealistic while taking this CAT (e.g. skipping sections, pausing the CAT, taking it at home, listening to music, etc.)?

Since your Official Test Date is about 2 weeks away, you would have to make some big improvements (in a short period of time) to turn a Q37 to a Q47. Do you have the flexibility to push your Test Date back?

As far as your overall timing is concerned, how much total time did you spend on those 4 questions?

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by DavidG@VeritasPrep » Sun Jul 05, 2015 9:45 am
My advice: take an official practice test from mba.com. First, it's sometimes the case that timing difficulties are unique to one brand of test. Second, almost everyone has timing issues on their first practice test - it takes a few practice runs before you've really internalized the pacing. (And spending a bit of time with the charts Brett offered is a good first step.)
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by radhika88 » Tue Jul 07, 2015 11:50 am
Thanks a lot Brent. The pacing milestone is a lifesaver. I can already see a huge improvement even in mini-tests.

@David: I took the full GMAT Prep test today complete with AWA and IR. The time management was perfect thanks to the pacing advice and I got a 680 (Q47 V37). While I could see a significant quant improvement from MGMAT CAT which was at Q37, I am now worried about a serious drop in verbal from V44 on MGMAT. I am not sure if it was exhaustion (attempted only Quant and Verbal sections on MGMAT but took the full test on GMAT prep) or the difficulty level of verbal is actually really high on the GMAT. Any thoughts on this? Also, need some pointers on building stamina. I am more confident about verbal than quant so don't want to lose out on my strength only due to exhaustion.

Thanks in advance
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by DavidG@VeritasPrep » Tue Jul 07, 2015 6:24 pm
@David: I took the full GMAT Prep test today complete with AWA and IR. The time management was perfect thanks to the pacing advice and I got a 680 (Q47 V37). While I could see a significant quant improvement from MGMAT CAT which was at Q37, I am now worried about a serious drop in verbal from V44 on MGMAT. I am not sure if it was exhaustion (attempted only Quant and Verbal sections on MGMAT but took the full test on GMAT prep) or the difficulty level of verbal is actually really high on the GMAT. Any thoughts on this? Also, need some pointers on building stamina. I am more confident about verbal than quant so don't want to lose out on my strength only due to exhaustion.
As a general rule, it's better to rely on the mba.com tests when assessing where you stand, so while anomalies are certainly possible, it's likely that the previous test underestimated your quant a bit and overestimated the verbal a bit. (But do know that verbal fluctuations are quite common.) I don't know if I'd say that the GMATPrep verbal questions are more difficult, but the dip you experienced isn't uncommon. I suspect some test-prep algorithms are slightly more forgiving of incorrect answers on verbal than the GMATPrep algorithm is.

To address the concentration issues, I'd suggest mindfulness meditation:https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archi ... on/275564/

Last, you'll want to make sure you go over that GMATPrep exam, look for areas where you can improve, and post any questions you have here.
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