I took my GMAT today and scored 720 (Q48, V41). I thought I would share my time management strategy with those who are good at math in general but struggle to finish quant sections on time.
When I started to prepare for GMAT and took a few practice exams, I was very surprised that I ran out of time on question 26-27, though solved those almost without any errors.
So, I knew that I should improve my time management by :
1) Picking up the pace: no double checking and use shortcuts as opposed to algebra solutions and formulas
2) Spreading my guesses throughout the test
To address my first issue, I used Manhattan GMAT guides and Archer. I solved OG problems under time constraint and developed an "internal clock".
For my second issue, I spread the exam in blocks of 5 as opposed in the blocks of 10 since I really suffered from spending too much time on individual problems and thus, had to force myself to move on if I could not solve the problem in less than 2 minutes. Here is my timetable I used:
Time left Questions solved
65 5
55 10
45 15
35 20
25 25
15 30
If I was behind this by 3 questions, I would guess the DS question after reading it (educated guess). I would not recommend guessing on PS unless you are stcuk and do not know how to proceed. Using this method, I was actually able to finish the section on time and score in the range of 47-50 on the practice tests. In my actual GMAT, I started by writing down my time table before moving to solve the questions. This worked for me. Though I did not score 50 on quant, I am still happy with the overall result.
When I started to prepare for GMAT and took a few practice exams, I was very surprised that I ran out of time on question 26-27, though solved those almost without any errors.
So, I knew that I should improve my time management by :
1) Picking up the pace: no double checking and use shortcuts as opposed to algebra solutions and formulas
2) Spreading my guesses throughout the test
To address my first issue, I used Manhattan GMAT guides and Archer. I solved OG problems under time constraint and developed an "internal clock".
For my second issue, I spread the exam in blocks of 5 as opposed in the blocks of 10 since I really suffered from spending too much time on individual problems and thus, had to force myself to move on if I could not solve the problem in less than 2 minutes. Here is my timetable I used:
Time left Questions solved
65 5
55 10
45 15
35 20
25 25
15 30
If I was behind this by 3 questions, I would guess the DS question after reading it (educated guess). I would not recommend guessing on PS unless you are stcuk and do not know how to proceed. Using this method, I was actually able to finish the section on time and score in the range of 47-50 on the practice tests. In my actual GMAT, I started by writing down my time table before moving to solve the questions. This worked for me. Though I did not score 50 on quant, I am still happy with the overall result.
