Pacing?

This topic has expert replies
Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts
Posts: 47
Joined: Mon Oct 02, 2006 4:19 am
Thanked: 3 times

Pacing?

by fltingley » Tue Aug 11, 2009 8:07 am
Does anyone have a link to a resource with some pacing tips for quant? I checked the resources page and didn't see anything.

Thanks in advance!

GMAT Instructor
Posts: 1223
Joined: Thu May 01, 2008 3:29 pm
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Thanked: 185 times
Followed by:15 members

by VP_Jim » Tue Aug 11, 2009 1:47 pm
I don't have a link, but here's my take on pacing:

You need to take a lot of practice tests to find your pace. There is no substitute for this. Someone who always has 10 minutes left requires very different advice than does someone who can't finish the last few problems. That said, generally speaking, you should aim to finish with as close to zero time left on the clock as possible; any time left on the clock is time you could've spent checking work or thinking about problems more carefully. Unless you're getting 51s in quant, there is no reason to finish early.

If you find that you're always running out of time, STOP guessing on the last few problems and START picking which problems you guess on. That is, rather than simply guessing on the remainder once you run out of time, strategically pick tough questions that come up during the test to use your guesses and save time. Chances are, you would've gotten those tough problems wrong anyway, so guessing is actually a pretty good strategy. My general rule is if you look at a problem for 30 seconds and have no idea where to begin, it's a good candidate for guessing. You'll then save tons of time which you can apply to problems you DO know how to do. Of course, you don't want to do this too much, but guessing on (say) five problems during the quant section would save you 10-15 minutes that you can use on the other 32 problems.

You need to fine tune this advice to fit your specific situation, but it's good advice for most anyone.
Jim S. | GMAT Instructor | Veritas Prep