Think Twice Before Sacrificing GMAT Verbal Questions to Catch Up on Time

Here’s the thing: you have no way of accurately assessing whether the GMAT considers a question easy, hard, or in between. So, blindly sacrificing questions in an effort to catch up on time is a very risky strategy. After all, randomly guessing on (and missing) an easy question — or multiple easy questions — can significantly hurt your score.

For example, let’s say you’re on question 13 with only 16 minutes left on the clock. The idea is that you’d sacrifice questions 14 and 15 to catch up on time. However, it isn’t prudent to throw away questions that you may be able to quickly answer. Furthermore, if you throw away a question that the test expects you to get right, your score will be penalized heavily.

Unfortunately, the idea that you should jettison random questions if you’re behind the clock is common in GMAT circles. A smarter strategy is to kick your executive decision-making prowess into high gear. Quickly and objectively evaluate whether you have a reasonable hope of efficiently answering the question in front of you. If you’re spending too much time on a question and feel no closer to the answer, make an educated guess and move on. If you recognize early that you have little hope of correctly answering and you’re short on time, take some time to eliminate answers and make your best guess, then keep moving.

The key is to remain calm and stick to a structured time management strategy. Don’t panic. You’ll likely have a mix of challenging and approachable questions throughout the section. That’s just the nature of the GMAT. So, rather than panic and sacrifice questions at random, rely on your judgment and test-day poise to navigate time crunches strategically.

Randomly jettisoning questions has the potential to hurt your Verbal score more than it helps. Don’t roll the dice!

Reach out to me with any questions about your GMAT prep. Happy studying!

Warmest regards,

Scott Woodbury-Stewart
Founder & CEO, Target Test Prep