Is it better to guess in the middle or end of the test?

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hberens: Newbie | Next Rank: 10 Posts; Posts: 5; Joined: Sat Oct 04, 2008 11:53 pm

by hberens » Sun Oct 19, 2008 2:34 pm

I have an overall question regarding GMAT timing strategy.

Let's say that I am roughly 6 mins behind in the middle of a section and I need to employ some strategic guessing to help make up time. Let's also assume that whatever questions I guess on, I get wrong.

Is it better to:
1) Guess in the middle of the test, potentially dropping to a lower difficulty level of questions and never climbing back

or

2) Keep powering through and staying at your difficulty level at the cost of simply guessing on the last 3 questions of the test cause you're out of time?

Any thoughts on which more negatively impacts your score?

Source: Beat The GMAT — GMAT Strategy | Sun Oct 19, 2008 2:34 pm

bekkilyn: Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts; Posts: 81; Joined: Mon Oct 06, 2008 9:06 am; Location: United States; Thanked: 5 times

by bekkilyn » Sun Oct 19, 2008 6:53 pm

Based on the various things I've read on the forums, the exam penalizes more for missing three or more questions in a row than for missing the same amount of questions scattered throughout the test. If you know you are going to have to strategically guess on a few, then you would want to scatter those guesses amidst (hopefully) correct problems rather than saving them for the end or putting them all in one spot in the middle.

I've also heard of people who guess on the last 5 questions and make 750, but it could be they guessed correctly on 3 of them.

JulesG: Newbie | Next Rank: 10 Posts; Posts: 9; Joined: Mon Sep 22, 2008 2:43 am

by JulesG » Mon Oct 20, 2008 1:22 am

I just took PP1 and I got a 710. I've taken it before (bout three weeks ago) so I counted about 12 questions I've seen before, and couple of them I still remembered the answer to. Anyway, I had major time problems, and I had to guess about 10 questions at the end of each section. I can probably improve a bit but I'm pretty sure I'll be having time problems on the test.

If anyone has any strategies for guessing I'd be very grateful.

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