Time mangement

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Time mangement

by kshitij_ipu » Sun Aug 31, 2008 4:08 am
Hi all,

I am writing GMAT on 10th September 2008, i.e., about 10 days from now.

I have been preparing for GMAT for about 3 months, and presently, I am devising a time management strategy for the real GMAT exam by taking few mock exams. Please find below the list of mock exams that I have written till now:

2- 800 Score top (I found the exams as hard. Further, scoring was sort of weird)

1- GMAT Prep (730, Q:49, V:39)

Please find below my time management strategy for the exams:

QUANT
I invested about 45 - 50 minutes on solving the first 20 questions in this section. This was based on the assumption that accuracy is very important for the first 20 questions and one can compromise (only to an extent) on the accuracy in the later half of the quant section. Consequently, I was able to achieve reasonable scores in this section.

Please provide your inputs on the assumption. More specifically, is it true that minimizing errors in the first 20 questions is key to the success in the quant section ?

VERBAL
I tried to apply the same strategy (as described in the quant section) to the Verbal section. But, the strategy resulted in only around 33-35 attempts in 75 minutes with the remaining attempts as guesses. However, I noticed that my scores with 33-35 attempts were in the range between 37 and 41.

Accordingly, please provide your inputs on whether the strategy ( with a little fine tuning to attempt around 35-37 questions) is fine when it comes to actual GMAT ?

Moreover, in case you have any additional suggestions, please feel free to post.

Thanks and Regards,
Kshitij
Source: — GMAT Strategy |

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Hi Stacy,

Looking forward to your reply on the above.

Thanks and REgards,

Kshitij

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by ok24by7 » Sun Aug 31, 2008 9:52 am
Hi Kshitij,

I take that you are talking about GMAT prep but not 800 score to check the scoring algorithm.

I was also trying to figure this out. Can you tell me something.
In Quant, after 20Q's in 50mins, how many ques were you able to solve in the last 25 mins and how many were guesses.
You might have to void the score that you got from the guess work being correct, if you agree with me.

Verbal this stratergy to solve 30Q's in 75mins might be useful for ppl running out of time.

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Time mangement

by kshitij_ipu » Mon Sep 01, 2008 7:55 am
Hi ok24by7,

Thanks for you response.

Yes, I was referring to the score I got on the GMAT prep mock test. Scoretop 800 has a weird scoring algorithm.

Further, please find below the response to your query:

In Quant, after 20Q's in 50mins, how many ques were you able to solve in the last 25 mins and how many were guesses.

Re:
I was able to attempt a total of 35 questions, i.e. 15 in the last 25 minutes, the rest 2 responses were guesses. Further, I got 18 out of my first 20 responses correct. However, 11 of the last 17 responses were correct (the questions really got tough). Furthermore, both of my 2 guesses were wrong. This resulted in a total score of 49 in the quant section.

To summarize the quant section:
Total attempts (including guesses) : 37
Guesses: 2, both incorrect
Correct: 29
Total score: 49

With respect to the verbal section, I attempted only 35 out of 41 questions, with the rest 6 as guesses (only 2 correct :(). Moreover, I got 17 correct in my first 20 responses, but only 13 correct in the last 21. The total score in the verbal section was 39.

To summarize the verbal section:
Total attempts (including guesses) : 41
Guesses: 6, 2 correct :(
Correct: 30
Total score: 39

This gives me a strong feeling that accuracy is very important in the first 20- 25 questions for attaining good scores in both the sections. However, I have also realized that in order to get a score of 760 above, it is necessary to maintain the accuracy throughout and complete the exam in stipulated time.

OK24by7: Please let me know your thoughts on the above.

Others: Please feel free to drop in your views. Let us try to figure out a way (if such a way exists) to outsmart the GMAT prep software.

Thanks and Regards,
Kshitij

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by ok24by7 » Mon Sep 01, 2008 4:03 pm
Hi Kshitij,

I saw your response. I see that your performance is pretty good in the last few questions also in the verbal section. So this might be the bigger reason to get you the high score rather than the algorithm theory reason.

I guess you are good in Quant either ways.


Good luck.
OK.

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by pepeprepa » Tue Sep 02, 2008 1:24 am
Here is another linik concerning time management:
https://www.beatthegmat.com/time-managem ... 15218.html

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by kshitij_ipu » Tue Sep 02, 2008 7:32 am
Hi again,

I took my 2nd GMAT Prep mock test today. The exam taught me a very important lesson.

Following are the details of the score:

Total: 670 (substantial decrease from 730 on the first GMAT Prep exam, will explain later a reason for that)

Quantitative

Total Score: 49
Attempts: 37
Incorrect:12

The number of incorrect responses increased from 7 obtained in the first GMAT Prep exam to 12. But, the sectional score remained unchanged.

Please note that there was no incorrect response in the first 20 questions.

Can anyone please explain the reason for the above?

Verbal

Total Score: 31
Attempts: 37 [I had to attend to my sister immediately, which consumed around 10 min]
Incorrect: 13

Number of incorrect responses increased from 11 in the first GMAT Prep exam to 13. However, as I was unable to mark any response for 4 questions, the verbal score decreased substantially from 39 on the first GMAT Prep exam to 31.

Lesson: Never ever leave any question unanswered on GMAT !

Please let me know your views on the above.

Thanks and Regards,
Kshitij

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by ok24by7 » Thu Sep 04, 2008 9:45 am
I Guess the Quant score supports your algorithm theory.

0 incorrect in first 20qs and 12 incorrect in the last 17 or only 5 correct in last 17, still gave you 49!!

Quant section has been supporting your algo theory so far right from your first post.

It will be interesting to see if the Verbal section reacts in a similar way. Do you think Verbal section follows the algo?