GMAT Strategy

It sounds like you're familiar with creating a Milestone Chart and gauging your timing every 5 questions. However, judging from these charts, you're not implementing the strategy.

That said, your timing on Jan 27 was much better than your timing on Dec 16 (especially for Verbal). You just need to keep working on it.

On your Jan 27 test, it looks like your quant section was on track until about question #15 at which point you let things slip away. Don't forget that, if, after 5 questions, you're more than 2 minutes behind, you need look for a key guessing opportunity in the next 5 questions AND you need to make that guess in order to get back on track.

If anyone is interested, we have a free time management video at https://www.gmatprepnow.com/module/gener ... es?id=1244
In it, we discuss how to use a Milestone Chart to keep on pace.

Cheers,
Brent

Hey Challenger,

Indeed, the truth here is that you know what to do, and now you have to do it. I know you want much more brilliant advice than that, but there isn't much to say. I always tell my students there are two things that are REALLY hard for an instructor to fix: 1) stupid mistakes and 2) an inability to let go of questions.

Here are the best things I can tell you, though the odds are good you already know them:

1) You must stay on pace. When you find yourself falling behind (which you will), you must do an educated guess on the VERY NEXT question that looks difficult/time-consuming. If you are still behind, you again do an educated guess on the VERY NEXT question that looks difficult/time-consuming.

2) If you don't know EXACTLY how you're going to get to an answer by the 60 second mark, you MUST move into educated guessing mode. Period.

3) Consider practicing guessing. Find a set of questions you haven't done (or a set that it's been a really long time since you've done), and practice solving them in 1 minute. This might get you into the habit of guessing.

4) When you first set down on test day/practice-test day, before the test actually starts, write down your timing benchmarks in the upper right-hand corner of every single page. That might help remind you to stay on point.

5) I recommend checking pacing every 10 questions, rather than 5, because there is an ebb and flow in terms of going a little over and a little under. Q10:55, Q20:35, Q30:15. For verbal, it's hard to recommend any kind of HARD timing because of the confusing SC/CR/RC differences. But Magoosh's timings seem a solid framework.

Hope that helps!

-t

Challenger:

Good questions and many good answers above -- I'll just weigh in with two additional thoughts.

1. Take a look at the following links -- will help give you some tips on how to best be thinking about making educated guesses, etc. And don't feel bad about educated guesses -- guessing and time optimization is a MUCH MUCH MUCH better approach than running out of time and spending way too much time on one individual question.

https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2010/07/ ... s-on-quant
https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2010/08/ ... -on-verbal


2. I love thinking about problems as if they had a 'traffic light' associated with them.
-I read the problem and do a quick gut check: Green ('I have a good idea of what I need to do')', Yellow ('Umm... I think I know what I am doing'), Red ('Ugh.')

-I go for a minute and do a mental status check... Green -- "Keep going and get it done.", Yellow -- "Hmm.. I might need to think of an exit strategy if this doesn't get moving in the right direction soon.", Red "Time to make an educated guess."

-Approaching the two minute mark... Green -- "Get this done soon.", Yellow "If it's not green by now, it's not going to be... guessing time.", Red "Why are you still working on this -- educated guess."

Hope this helps.

-Brian

I don't mean to openly challenge 'challenger63' here, but I will just extend an ounce of caution about looking for gimmicky time-savers. I can think of countless places where I would encourage the overwhelming majority of students to invest time, before I'd suggest spending time on how to time more quickly on the AWA.

Just recommend that folks choose wisely here.

Thanks.

-Brian