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Failing to control certain factors. Help pls!

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Failing to control certain factors. Help pls!

by papgust » Sun Mar 07, 2010 9:10 am
What is the best way to keep your cool and focus on just answering the questions while doing the exam?

I'm able to calm myself down to some extent while taking the exam. But i tend to look at the timer quite often during the exam, even while solving a problem and not just while clicking 'next' button. Sometimes the timer gets over me and makes me to commit silly calculation errors.

Can someone give a solid advice? I really need to control these factors to get the best out of me in the exam.
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by David@VeritasPrep » Sun Mar 07, 2010 2:42 pm
There are lots of ways to keep cool on the exam...realizing that you have studied and are ready for it will help and especially understanding that no one question is all-important on its own. The GMAT is more like Major League Baseball or the NBA rather than College Football. If you lose one game in college football you cannot win the championship. On the GMAT, it is possible to miss about ¼ of the questions you face and still get over 700!

As for your specific problem with the timer...I advise my students to try turning off the timer (click on the timer button on the official GMATPrep test) during practice tests and trusting their pace. For many of them this allows them to relax and focus on the problem - not the timer. Of course you will want to check your progress every few questions - maybe every 5 questions - but you sound like you are a bit obsessed with the timer so it will be good to hide it while you work.

Do not worry too much if you fall behind by a couple of minutes. You can always guess at a hard problem solving and get back on track. One really good tactic is to give yourself one minute to devise a strategy for attacking a problem. You do not need to solve it in that time - but you should understand what it would take to solve it. If you have no idea how to attack the problem after one minute, it might be time to guess from the possible answers and move on. Better to devote your attention to solving questions to the best of your ability and guess at those that might end up taking you 5 minutes.

By staring at the clock you might be making the mistake that so many people make, namely focusing on the fear of missing any questions at all rather than saying, "if I get 30 questions right on the quant that would likely be around the 90th percentile."
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by papgust » Sun Mar 07, 2010 9:00 pm
Thanks David. This seems to be a good solid advice.

I will try to hide the timer from next test onwards and check the timer every 5-6 questions. I will update you on the result. Thank you once again!
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