Quant Timing Strategies

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mstone: Junior | Next Rank: 30 Posts; Posts: 21; Joined: Fri Jan 29, 2010 6:06 am

by mstone » Tue Feb 02, 2010 12:58 pm

Hey Folks -

Been working towards my scheduled GMAT date of March 1st. I've taken a Kaplan prep course and have just begun working through MGMAT materials and practice CAT 1. My scores have quite a range. My scores on the Kaplan CATs are as follows:

1 - 410
2- 400
3- 500
4- 600
5- 610
6 - 500
7 - 580

Today MGMAT CAT 1 - 510

SO, essentially I hit a peak and have been falling off ever since. Not what I was hoping for. My verbal has really carried me thus far. I have hit 95% but avg around 65-75%. Basically, my quant is pretty brutal. I understand how to do most of the problems if i'm not on the clock. However, when i'm taking the practice tests I am only making it through to about question 20 - 25. From 25-37 I unfortunately have had to guess completely blind with 2 minutes left on the clock. Are there any timing strategies to better pace myself? I think I will clearly be able to get a higher quant score if I'm atleast giving myself the chance to take a stab at each of the 37 problems. I'm hoping to get to atleast a 620 or so and feel this is my biggest issue.

Any help would be much appreciated.

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Source: Beat The GMAT — GMAT Strategy | Tue Feb 02, 2010 12:58 pm

Osirus@VeritasPrep: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 1578; Joined: Thu May 28, 2009 8:02 amFollowed by: 34 members; Thanked: 128 times; GMAT Score:760

by Osirus@VeritasPrep » Tue Feb 02, 2010 1:01 pm

People are going to come in here and tell you to really focus on spending no more than 2 minutes on any problem. Their advice may or may not be valid, I'll let you decide. In my opinion, I think what you need to do is regularly practice each problem type. This way when you see any problem type, you will instantly know how to attack it. Also, if you see something that you haven't seen before you will then know to guess and go. This is what worked for me anyway.

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Brian@VeritasPrep: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 1031; Joined: Thu Jul 03, 2008 1:23 pmFollowed by: 255 members; Location: Malibu, CA; Thanked: 716 times; GMAT Score:750

by Brian@VeritasPrep » Tue Feb 02, 2010 2:11 pm

Hi mstone,

Echoing what osirus said, it's easy to say "just take two minutes per question", but it may not be entirely useful (that's like saying "just answer the questions right"). A couple pieces of advice:

1) To improve your speed, I recommend the following drill: Take a set of 10 or 20 quant questions and give yourself 30 seconds apiece to get started, then move on to the next. When you've finished that set, go back and finish each question.

One major goal here is to first train yourself to begin questions quickly. When I've seen people spend an undue amount of time on a question, in most cases they waste a lot of time getting started - they'll read the question once or twice and allow themselves the opportunity to reflect on "wow, this is tough" without getting any actual work started. Those who do well typically start almost immediately with 1-2 things that they know to be true, and then use that to determine the rest. If you train yourself to have something to show for the first 30 seconds you spend on each question, you'll both save time and build confidence - just having a few items (facts, equations, variables, etc.) written down makes the problem seem much more beatable.

The other goal is to learn the types of mistakes you tend to make when you're starting quickly. You may find that you tend to make assumptions about numbers that you can't, or you tend to set up certain equation types incorrectly. If you identify a few places where you need to slow down for the sake of accuracy, that will help you budget the extra time that you do spend more efficiently.

2) When you do take the test, if you're still a little concerned about time, I'd recommend this - when your conscience begins to tell you "you're taking too long", look forward about 30 seconds and ask yourself whether you'll have the correct answer, or be close, in that time. If you're confident that you're on the right path, that 30 seconds longer is a good investment of your time...you're almost there, and it would be foolish to stop now. If you think you'll still be a ways away, it's a good idea to guess - you may still get it right, and even if not you'll have a full allotment of time to spend on the next question, which will likely be something you can do correctly.

Brian Galvin
GMAT Instructor
Chief Academic Officer
Veritas Prep

Looking for GMAT practice questions? Try out the Veritas Prep Question Bank. Learn More.

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mstone: Junior | Next Rank: 30 Posts; Posts: 21; Joined: Fri Jan 29, 2010 6:06 am

by mstone » Tue Feb 02, 2010 5:28 pm

thanks guys. this is great. let me know if anyone else has suggestions.

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Due: Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts; Posts: 51; Joined: Wed Jan 13, 2010 3:02 pm; Thanked: 1 times

by Due » Tue Feb 02, 2010 10:51 pm

Can you give me the lin to Kaplan tests. Are they the same ways as MGMAT/Princeton.

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bhumika.k.shah: Legendary Member; Posts: 941; Joined: Sun Dec 27, 2009 12:28 amFollowed by: 1 member; Thanked: 20 times

by bhumika.k.shah » Wed Feb 03, 2010 11:55 am

veritas-brian wrote:Hi mstone,

Echoing what osirus said, it's easy to say "just take two minutes per question", but it may not be entirely useful (that's like saying "just answer the questions right"). A couple pieces of advice:

1) To improve your speed, I recommend the following drill: Take a set of 10 or 20 quant questions and give yourself 30 seconds apiece to get started, then move on to the next. When you've finished that set, go back and finish each question.

One major goal here is to first train yourself to begin questions quickly. When I've seen people spend an undue amount of time on a question, in most cases they waste a lot of time getting started - they'll read the question once or twice and allow themselves the opportunity to reflect on "wow, this is tough" without getting any actual work started. Those who do well typically start almost immediately with 1-2 things that they know to be true, and then use that to determine the rest. If you train yourself to have something to show for the first 30 seconds you spend on each question, you'll both save time and build confidence - just having a few items (facts, equations, variables, etc.) written down makes the problem seem much more beatable.

i agree. happens very often with me too

i read the problem more than once inorder to figure out which topic it is from and then try racking my brains thinking is this a very difficult problem or quoi? End up spending around 3 mins and still getting a wrong answer

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bhumika.k.shah: Legendary Member; Posts: 941; Joined: Sun Dec 27, 2009 12:28 amFollowed by: 1 member; Thanked: 20 times

by bhumika.k.shah » Wed Feb 03, 2010 11:56 am

bhumika.k.shah wrote:
veritas-brian wrote:Hi mstone,

Echoing what osirus said, it's easy to say "just take two minutes per question", but it may not be entirely useful (that's like saying "just answer the questions right"). A couple pieces of advice:

1) To improve your speed, I recommend the following drill: Take a set of 10 or 20 quant questions and give yourself 30 seconds apiece to get started, then move on to the next. When you've finished that set, go back and finish each question.

One major goal here is to first train yourself to begin questions quickly. When I've seen people spend an undue amount of time on a question, in most cases they waste a lot of time getting started - they'll read the question once or twice and allow themselves the opportunity to reflect on "wow, this is tough" without getting any actual work started. Those who do well typically start almost immediately with 1-2 things that they know to be true, and then use that to determine the rest. If you train yourself to have something to show for the first 30 seconds you spend on each question, you'll both save time and build confidence - just having a few items (facts, equations, variables, etc.) written down makes the problem seem much more beatable.

i agree. happens quite often with me too
i read the problem more than once inorder to figure out which topic it is from and then try racking my brains thinking is this a very difficult problem or quoi? End up spending around 3 mins and still getting a wrong answer

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