GMAT Strategy

Hi NeilWatson,

Many Test Takers start off with pacing problems, and that issue can be dealt with, but not right now. You're still fairly early on in your studies; at this point in the process, your focus should be on learning content and tactics and then repeated practice. Pacing naturally improves over time, as you become more and more familiar with what the GMAT will ask you to do (and as you built up a "library" of how you should respond to each type of question). This ultimately means that you'll have pacing problems in the short term.

You also should NOT worry about spending over 2 minutes on a Quant question. Certain questions can be solved quickly (under a minute) while others are designed to take you 3 minutes to solve. Trying to hold yourself to a 2-minute limit per question is not the right way to go about dealing with the Quant section. If you're looking for something that you can do that saves time, plan on taking lots of notes while doing questions - you'd be amazed how quickly you'll answer a question when you just make it a habit to write everything down.

As to how to most efficiently use your scratch pad, my advice is to keep all of you "work" in one section of the pad - don't jump all over the pad. Once you're done with a question, then "box off" that section of the pad and start your next question in the next section of open space. Once that question's done, then box off that section, etc.

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

Hi NeilWatson,

It's still too early on in your studies to focus on speed. Instead, focus on learning tactics and practicing enough to get comfortable using those tactics again and again. There's no point in focusing on speed if you can't get the question correct. Ignore the clock for now - you have 3 months to improve on your speed. Trying to "wedge" that into what you're doing right now would be counter-productive.

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

First, I want to say that I wholeheartedly agree with Rich when he says "It's still too early on in your studies to focus on speed. Instead, focus on learning tactics and practicing enough to get comfortable using those tactics again and again." Students often get too fixated on times very early in their studies. Remember: content first, speed second. That said, I think it's a good idea to use a stopwatch to help get an idea of what 2 minutes feels like. This tip and others can be found in my BTG articles on "making friends with time on the GMAT"
https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2011/06/ ... mat-part-i
https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2011/07/ ... at-part-ii

Regarding overall time management on test day, I agree with Elizabeth in that you should focus more on the timing of GROUPS of questions, rather than on individual question. Along those lines, I suggest that you use a 5-question Milestone Chart to keep you on track. This is covered in our free GMAT time management video at https://www.gmatprepnow.com/module/gener ... es?id=1244

Cheers,
Brent

I'll take the 'pile on' position here -- if you aren't going to be able to answer questions correctly, does it really matter whether you do that quickly or slowly? Focus on learning on to get questions correct -- when you do that, your time will naturally improve.. and then you can focus even more on timing improvement.

Save this article for down the line a bit -- https://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... nt-part-1/

Good luck!

_Brian