GMAT Strategy

Hi. Like many others that take the GMAT, I am struggling to finish the Quantitative section on time. I've thought of several strategies to save time on the Quantitative section:

1) For PS questions, if you cannot figure out the equations within one minute and a half after reading the question, take a guess and move on. Willing to give up on a PS question early (especially the hard PS questions) could mean you spend 1.5 minute on a PS question rather than 3+ minutes on it.

2) If you are down to the last 10 questions and are running out of time, it's better to guess on the DS questions rather than the PS questions. The reasoning is, for many PS questions, you cannot eliminate answers without doing all the math. However, with DS questions, you can at least eliminate some of the answers if you figure out points 1 or 2 are insufficient/sufficient.

3) The exception to 2) is when you read a PS question and the answers and can eliminate some of the answers off the bat. Assuming you cannot figure out the equations for this PS question quickly, this makes a good question to guess on as you have eliminated one or more answers to improve your chances.

Thoughts?

beatthegmat wrote:This is definitely one guessing methodology that could work. However, this could be tricky to put into practice because it requires the test taker to have a very good sense of how much time they are taking for each question. This requires either:

(1) the user constantly checking the timer for each question, which might become distracting. Or,
(2) the user coming into the GMAT with a mastery of GMAT pacing, which is internalized as he/she goes through the test and thus understands when time is up (without looking at the clock)

I personally think that getting comfortable with #2 is needed before your strategy can be executed. The only way to achieve a master of GMAT pacing is tons of timed practice!

Agree. Looking at the clock too often, especially in the middle of a question just adds stress and makes you more nervous. The best is to know instinctively that you've spent too much time trying to get the equations and to move on once your "internal" clock says your time is up.