GMAT Strategy

You're welcome! And, just FYI, I only gave a few examples above, but there are all kinds of ways to make educated guesses - figuring those out should be part of your study plan.

Also wanted to add that it's easiest to find more ways to make educated guesses by studying problems that you already know how to do. If you don't understand a question, it's really hard to learn HOW to make an educated guess using that problem. Learn on the ones you can do and apply your knowledge to the ones you can't do!

Always give yourself a shot on any question. About halfway into whatever time limit you want to have for that question, you should feel like you are on track and know exactly what you're doing - it's just a matter of finishing off that question. If you don't feel this way, you're in trouble, and you need to spend the remaining time figuring out how to make an educated guess before you move on.

For everything but SC, the halfway mark is 1 min. For SC, the halfway mark would be 45 sec but that's kind of annoying since we can't have a watch. For SC, instead, I just know that I should be able to eliminate at least one answer choice within 30 seconds. If I can't, that's a problem and I need to start thinking about educated guessing.

The above means you have to figure out how long a minute is without looking at a watch or clock - you just have to know. And then you have to be very disciplined about moving to educated guessing mode when you are NOT on track at the 1-min mark.

For long RC passages, you should be spending no more than 3 minutes on the first read-through and for short passages you should be spending no more than 2 minutes. Remember that the first read-through is NOT to get all of the detail - you should only be getting the high level message of the entire passage and the topic sentences / purpose of each paragraph. You should also note any "switchbacks" or changes in direction / meaning.

"Always give yourself a shot on any question."
Why is it necessary to answer every question? In intend to leave out questions on purpose.

"Give yourself a shot" does not mean "spend as much time as you need" or even "spend full time." It means just try it - but be willing to pull the plug on any question if it's not working - quickly.

You can't know whether you should do something or whether you should skip it until you get into it a little bit. So you should be willing to spend 30-60 sec on every problem - but if it's not happening, admit it, make an educated guess, and move on.

And, as much as possible, avoid the RANDOM guess position. Make EDUCATED guesses - improve your odds. See my post upthread for ideas.

FYI: only people scoring 770+ have an 80%+ hit rate. Most people will get roughly half the questions right, half wrong, regardless of final score. You might sneak up to 60-70% if you score in the 700s.