My Timing Is Killing Me
Ive written a lot and youve read a lot about timing already, but I want to address something that Ive been hearing lately from students particularly those who have been studying for a while and are really struggling to make progress on practice tests.
My best timing was on my very first practice test
Ive spoken with a few students lately whove told me that they felt more comfortable with the timing before they started studying all of this stuff. How is that possible?
Actually, its fairly common. Heres what happens: on your first practice test (before or shortly after you started studying), you know what you dont know and so its much easier to let go of the too-hard questions. Once you start studying, youll see something and think, Oh, I studied that! I can get this one! But it turns out that one is still too hard only, this time, you wont let go when you should. Do that a few times and the whole situation snowballs: you realize youre behind on time, you start to panic and rush, that causes careless mistakes. Then you get stuck on another because you feel like youre getting a bunch wrong so you dont want to get this one wrong too now youre wasting even more time, and then the section ends with a bunch of guesses or even blank questions.
Im fine with OG / untimed / with shorter problem sets
Im sure its no surprise to you that youre better when the timer isnt ticking. We all are. Unfortunately, the real test is timed, so our untimed performance doesnt matter. Lots of people also discover that everythings fine when doing sets out of the Official Guide, especially shorter problem sets. This, again, is to be expected the OG isnt adaptive (so you arent getting harder questions when you do well), and its easier to keep track of your global time for 5 or 10 questions rather than 37 or 41.
So what do I do?
Task #1: Change your mindset
Believe it or not, this comes down to just one issue overall: your mindset.
This is NOT a school test. As long as you continue to try to tackle the test in the way you are now (trying to get every question right, or not letting go when you think you should be able to answer something), the timing is going to continue to kill your score.
Rather:
- You are NOT trying to answer everything correctly; this is true no matter how high a score you want
- You should expect to guess on some questions; this is true no matter how much you study or how good you get
- You should expect to see something that you really do, in fact, know how to do, but for whatever reason youre blanking or messing up; let it go!
Read the article In It To Win It right now. Im serious not when youre done reading this current article. Right now. Then come back here. Ill wait. :)
So what did you learn there? Put it in your own words before you keep reading.
Heres a little follow-on story for you. At the U.S. Open this year, Serena Williams won one of her matches by a score of 6-0, 6-0. For those of you who dont follow tennis, thats the equivalent of an 800 on the GMAT; she destroyed her opponent. A total of 89 points were played in the match. How many would you guess Serena won?
Serena won 60 of the 89 points, or just about 2/3 of the points played. So Im extending my analogy here you can absolutely win big even when you lose a lot of points, just as you can get a great GMAT score even when you miss a lot of questions.
Task #2: Fix your timing
Okay, have I convinced you yet on the mindset issue? If so, youre ready to move to task #2. Luckily, I already wrote a 2-part article all about Time Management. A few things to note, below.
Fixing your timing will take a minimum of 4 to 6 weeks; it can be done, but its hard and will take time and effort. If you dont have that long, you can still get better at timing but you wont completely fix this issue in just a couple of weeks.
Read the whole article and then start with the exercises in Section 4 (building a 1-minute time sense). Stick with these exercises a lot of my students will start, but then stop when they have started to build a good time sense and then they risk losing all of the progress they made.
Other students will build a good time sense but never really shift over into the true execution phase: using the time sense to cut yourself off when needed. This goes back to your mindset: if you dont truly believe that you can get a lot wrong but still get your goal score, then youre going to keep messing up your timing because youre going to refuse to let go when you should.
Lets go back to the Serena analogy again: youre at a dead run, full stretch, and the ball is still several feet beyond your racket. Do you keep going, even though the ball is already past you, and risk smashing into the fence or twisting your ankle? Now youre injured for the rest of the match and its a lot harder to win when youre injured. (Translation: youve already lost the point, even though its not officially over yet. You can keep going but the time youre wasting puts you at risk of injuring yourself for the rest of the test.)
Task #3: Stop being stubborn and return to tasks #1 and #2
Right now, some of you are thinking, But _______. But I want to master this test! But Im really competitive and I cant just give up on a problem! But Im a perfectionist and I want to conquer the exam! But guess and move on cant really be a strategy for winners!
Whatever your fill in the blank is, if it starts with the word but, then youre simply resisting the mindset change. If you really do want to conquer the GMAT, you have to learn how the game is played and its not played the way youve been trying to play. You wont change things by trying to force the school test rules onto the GMAT game; thats never going to work.
Okay, Ive imparted all of the timing wisdom Ive got for you here. Now go tackle this thing!