Time per question

This topic has expert replies
Junior | Next Rank: 30 Posts
Posts: 15
Joined: Thu Oct 22, 2015 11:59 pm

Time per question

by quitaskinme » Fri Oct 30, 2015 8:57 pm
Hey guys!

Can someone give me the breakdown on how much time we have on each type of question? I'm getting different answers and some of them are off by about 30-45 seconds which is a lot.

Quant
1. Problem Solving
2. Data Sufficiency

Verbal
1. CR(I don't remember, does time differ based on the type of CR question?)
2. RC
3. SC
Source: — GMAT Strategy |

GMAT/MBA Expert

User avatar
Elite Legendary Member
Posts: 10392
Joined: Sun Jun 23, 2013 6:38 pm
Location: Palo Alto, CA
Thanked: 2867 times
Followed by:511 members
GMAT Score:800

by [email protected] » Sat Oct 31, 2015 12:27 pm
Hi quitaskinme,

While we can certainly discuss a reasonable AVERAGE amount of time that you should spend on certain types of questions, you cannot think of this in terms of an 'on each question' basis. Certain questions are designed to take more (or less) time to solve than the overall averages. For example, you will almost certainly come across some PS questions on Test Day that will require 3 minutes to solve (and that's if you KNOW what you're doing). It would be unrealistic to expect to answer those questions in 2 minutes apiece.

Thus, your overall goal on any individual question is two-fold:
1) Get it correct, if possible (but in a reasonable amount of time).
2) Answer it in the most efficient way possible (even if that means that you have to guess on it).

For the Quant section, many Test Takers try to stick to "2 minutes per question, but that's silly and impractical. Remember, one of your goals is efficiency - so if you think a question is taking too long, then it probably is AND you need to 'let go' of it. You shouldn't spend more than 3 minutes on any individual prompt (and even then, you can only go up to 3 minutes a certain number of times).

The Verbal section is a bit more predictable in this way though. A typical CR prompt should take about 2 minutes to solve (with harder ones taking longer. A typical SC should take 60-75 seconds (with tougher ones taking longer). RC pacing depends greatly on the length/complexity of the prompt and the length/number of questions. Sometimes an RC prompt might only require 1-2 minutes to properly read through, but you should expect to spend 2-4 minutes reading the prompt (on average) and about 1.5 minutes per question (on average).

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich
Contact Rich at [email protected]
Image