glad you're asking this question, although the wording of the question seems to indicate that you underestimate the importance of timing on the exam. time management is at least as important as content - not only when it's performance time, but in ALL your exam preparation.
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for the QUANT section, you should shoot for an average of 2:00 per question. this doesn't mean that you should cut off all questions at two minutes each - that would be rather silly, since you'll usually have as many questions above the average as below it - but it does mean that you should be in guessing mode by 2:30-2:45, and that you should NEVER take more than three minutes to answer a quant question.
you should stick to the same restrictions when you're doing practice questions, too. don't keep hammering away at problems, trying to figure out alternate angles, when the time has run out; instead, analyze your approaches, find out why they didn't work out, and then study the problem with an eye to time-efficient openers that will allow you to complete similar problems more quickly the next time.
in order to complete quant questions within two minutes on average, you will have to get very god at flitting back and forth between one solution method and another. in particular, if your efforts at finding the "textbook method" to solve a problem are failing, you should IMMEDIATELY BAIL from the search, and consider alternate approaches (such as number plugging, estimation, and process of elimination). it is this sort of flexibility, along with knowledge of the actual content, that will allow you to step your gmat game up to the next level; students with imperfect knowledge of content but perfect tight time management regularly outscore students with flawless content knowledge but imperfect time management and/or a stubborn refusal to LET GO of problems that prove impregnable.
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on the VERBAL section, you should adjust your timing strategy to fit the different types of questions. here are some approximate suggestions:
SC: 0:45-1:30, based on the length of the original and the choices. you should only be in the 1:30 range if the sentence itself AND the answer choices are almost paragraph-length.
CR: 1:30-3:00. the low end is for passages that consist of a single statement followed by a conclusion; the high end is for long-winded passages on which you're asked to elucidate structure and/or long-winded answer choices that are supposed to mimic arguments, etc.
RC: 3 minutes to read short passages, 4 minutes to read long passages, 0:30-0:45 to answer questions about main idea and tone, 1:15-1:30 to answer questions about specific details in the passage.
if english is not your first language, then you should adjust the verbal section a bit so that you can have more time for sentence correction. this means that, ironically, you'll have slightly less time for the parts requiring you to read things - but second-language difficulties normally have a much bigger impact on SC than on the other two verbal sections.
Timing Strategy?
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Ron has been teaching various standardized tests for 20 years.
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Thanks for the reply Ron.
Is there a good (tested) Question vs Time matrix? That shows where you should be in terms of time after completing a block of questions in the exam?
Eg: after completing 1st 10 Q I should have atleast 65 min left, after 20 Q I should have atleast x minutes e.t.c.
I found I become too much preoccupied with time and can't concentrate on the question at hand if I check time after each question. Is there a good strategy to resolve this problem?
M
Is there a good (tested) Question vs Time matrix? That shows where you should be in terms of time after completing a block of questions in the exam?
Eg: after completing 1st 10 Q I should have atleast 65 min left, after 20 Q I should have atleast x minutes e.t.c.
I found I become too much preoccupied with time and can't concentrate on the question at hand if I check time after each question. Is there a good strategy to resolve this problem?
M
Hi,
Pls refer this thread....
https://www.beatthegmat.com/i-just-finis ... 15461.html
It is a good one.
Amit
Pls refer this thread....
https://www.beatthegmat.com/i-just-finis ... 15461.html
It is a good one.
Amit
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lunarpower
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it's easy to generate such a matrix yourself; the only necessary knowledge is the # of questions and the total time.smehmood wrote:Thanks for the reply Ron.
Is there a good (tested) Question vs Time matrix? That shows where you should be in terms of time after completing a block of questions in the exam?
Eg: after completing 1st 10 Q I should have atleast 65 min left, after 20 Q I should have atleast x minutes e.t.c.
I found I become too much preoccupied with time and can't concentrate on the question at hand if I check time after each question. Is there a good strategy to resolve this problem?
M
since the quant section features 37 problems in 75 minutes, for an average of almost exactly 2 minutes per problem, the following timing matrix works:
time left ... question #
60 min ... 7-8
45 min ... 15
30 min ... 22-23
15 min ... 30
0 min ... 37
you should be averaging a consistent 2 minutes per question for the entire quant section, so you should never be behind this matrix. it is of course ok to be a little ahead of it, but don't get carried away.
if you find yourself behind the question #s indicated in the matrix, you should IMMEDIATELY have a plan for which questions to "throw away" in order to re-establish congruence with your timing. in other words, you should have an awareness of your weak areas, so that you can throw away questions in those areas whenever you encounter them - rather than being forced to throw away the last few questions, some (or all) of which may happen to be in your strongest areas.
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for the verbal, there are 4 more questions, so you could use the following timing matrix:
time left ... question #
60 min ... 8-9
45 min ... 16-17
30 min ... 25
15 min ... 33-34
0 min ... 41
this matrix is more approximate than the quant matrix, because the timing guidelines for the different types of verbal questions are vastly different (critical reasoning problems take about twice as long as sentence correction problems on average). you should therefore keep a running tally of the #s you've seen of each type, so that you have a more exact idea where you stand relative to the matrix. for instance, if you've seen a disproportionally small number of sentence correction problems, then you have more time than the matrix would indicate.
if you'd rather construct a matrix with time checkpoints every ten, twenty, or twenty-five minutes, then go ahead. at mgmat, we like fifteen-minute intervals because (a) fifteen goes evenly into 75, (b) it's often enough to keep you on track, but not so often that you waste lots of valuable time looking at the clock over and over, and (c) we have pleasant memories of being fifteen years old.
ok, i made up #(c).
Ron has been teaching various standardized tests for 20 years.
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Quand on se sent bien dans un vêtement, tout peut arriver. Un bon vêtement, c'est un passeport pour le bonheur.
Yves Saint-Laurent
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Learn more about ron
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Pueden hacerle preguntas a Ron en castellano
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Voit esittää kysymyksiä Ron:lle myös suomeksi
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Quand on se sent bien dans un vêtement, tout peut arriver. Un bon vêtement, c'est un passeport pour le bonheur.
Yves Saint-Laurent
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Learn more about ron
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It's important to have a strategy or strategies to attack each type of math question and you want to time yourself while practicing. If it seems tempting to spend "three minutes" on a tough question, consider that most questions generally won't get easier unless you're actually making mistakes.
