GMAT Math

if you're a high-scoring student, you may be getting a selection of problems that are occasionally longer and/or more labor-intensive than the 700-800 level problems on the real gmat. while our problems aren't so long as to be ridiculous, there are a number of our 700-800 level problems that are longer and more time-consuming than those on the real exam (although not by that much).

another factor arises from the fact that our exams don't contain experimental questions. recall that the experimental questions on the real gmat are chosen completely at random; therefore, if you're a high-scoring student, most of the experimentals you're going to get will be easier (and thus presumably faster) than your "normal" problems. by contrast, our exams don't contain any experimental questions, so, if you're scoring at the 700-800 level, you'll be getting almost all "hard" problems.

rest assured, though, that despite the slight discrepancy in question length, the scores you get on our exams are still well correlated to scores on the official exam.

if you're only getting to 25 questions in 75 minutes, you need to revamp your time management big-time. in fact, that's one positive effect of taking a test on which the questions are a bit on the long side: your time management skills are tested and tempered, so that time management won't be a problem on the real thing.

good luck!

child wrote:Thank you Ron, Thanks a lot..................

Regarding time mngmnt, Could you please suggest any tips.....like how to solve this long hard probs faster....

Regards,
SB

heh heh, if i could answer that question in a few lines, i would be one of the richest people in the world.

a couple of good words regarding time management, though:
* you should spend at most 0:30-1:00 trying to think of a primary strategy to solve the problem.
* if you can't find a primary strategy in that long, you should use the rest of the time for secondary strategies, including the following:
- can you plug in the answer choices and work the problem backwards?
- can you plug in your own numbers and work your way through the problem with your numbers substituted for the unknowns in the problem?
- can you estimate any quantities?
- any other quick process of elimination?
* it's essential that you allow sufficient time for secondary strategies. WHAT YOU SHOULD NOT DO is spend a full two minutes banging your head against a proverbial wall, trying to figure out the 'primary' method of solution, and then turn to secondary methods!
* if you can't come up with any secondary strategies in that amount of time, then you should spend the rest of the time trying to guess intelligently.