Pls attach a Stop Watch to BTG site

[sumanr84]

Hi All,

We need a Stop Watch on BTG site to make it more interactive. I find it difficult to maintain my time while solving a Q on site and looking at my laptop time. If we could get a timer here then we can evaluate ourselves with 2 min constraint.

Someone pls take it up with the BTG.

Thanks,
Suman

[money9111]

oh wow I like that suggestion! right now I just use the timer on my iphone

[shashank.ism]

Hi All,

We need a Stop Watch on BTG site to make it more interactive. I find it difficult to maintain my time while solving a Q on site and looking at my laptop time. If we could get a timer here then we can evaluate ourselves with 2 min constraint.

Someone pls take it up with the BTG.

Thanks,
Suman

Suman you have given a very good idea. A stop watch is extremely necessary so that whenever u open a topic with a problem you have a time constraint going on your screen an eventually on your mind.

The watch can be easily put on the website by creating a .gif image which starts as the page is uploaded. I can make one and give it to the beatthegmat moderators. They just have to place it on their website. in any of the blank space.

[DavidP]

Hi All,

Thanks for your suggestion about the stopwatch!

As you may have noticed, we just released a stopwatch for our math and verbal forums today. I'd like to give a special thanks to vittalgmat, who is one of our moderators. Vittal advocated the need for a stopwatch for the last couple weeks and even gave us some prototype javascript code that we looked at.

Eric, Vittal and I have been talking about making one enhancement, which is described below. And we'd love to get your feedback on this enhancement.

We'd like to make the stopwatch counter (e.g., 00:00), which is currently black, colored instead. This counter would start out being green but then change to red if the elapsed time went over the recommended time for solving a problem. Each forum (e.g., Problem Solving, Data Sufficiency) might have a different recommended time for solving a problem.

So here are a couple questions:

1. Would a stopwatch that changed colors from green to red based on elapsed time be useful for you?

2. What do you think the recommended times for changing colors should be for each of the following forums?

• GMAT Math

• Problem Solving

• Data Sufficiency

• GMAT Verbal & Essays

• Sentence Correction

• Critical Reasoning

• Reading Comprehension

3. Is there anything else that we should do to improve the stopwatch?

Thanks for your help!

[hrishi19884]

THANK YOU ALL FOR STOP WATCH

nice initiative Suman!!

[fibbonnaci]

very unique and innovative tool.

users can now time every question and keep a track of their pace in different sections. They dont have to rely on external timers anymore.

Thanks David for the innovation

[VikingWarrior]

1. Would a stopwatch that changed colors from green to red based on elapsed time be useful for you?

Absolutely YES!

2. What do you think the recommended times for changing colors should be for each of the following forums?

I think this should "ideally" be question based rather than forum based, but as a blanket rule maybe there could be three colour changes i.e.:

a. Green: 0-45sec
b. Yellow: 45-75sec
c. Red: >75sec

[shashank.ism]

Hi All,

Thanks for your suggestion about the stopwatch!

As you may have noticed, we just released a stopwatch for our math and verbal forums today. I'd like to give a special thanks to vittalgmat, who is one of our moderators. Vittal advocated the need for a stopwatch for the last couple weeks and even gave us some prototype javascript code that we looked at.

Eric, Vittal and I have been talking about making one enhancement, which is described below. And we'd love to get your feedback on this enhancement.

We'd like to make the stopwatch counter (e.g., 00:00), which is currently black, colored instead. This counter would start out being green but then change to red if the elapsed time went over the recommended time for solving a problem. Each forum (e.g., Problem Solving, Data Sufficiency) might have a different recommended time for solving a problem.

So here are a couple questions:

1. Would a stopwatch that changed colors from green to red based on elapsed time be useful for you?

2. What do you think the recommended times for changing colors should be for each of the following forums?

• GMAT Math

• Problem Solving

• Data Sufficiency

• GMAT Verbal & Essays

• Sentence Correction

• Critical Reasoning

• Reading Comprehension

3. Is there anything else that we should do to improve the stopwatch?

Thanks for your help!

Firstly I would appreciate you for your efforts to put a stop watch. It was really needed to keep a track on solving problems. Earlier I told to put just a .gif image which will start on its own as a simple tool. But when I saw this stop watch I was overwhelmed with joy. The way stop watch has been attached is really interesting and it is user friendly and depends on user. If they want they can play, if they don't they will not click.
Well for " Would a stopwatch that changed colors from green to red based on elapsed time be useful for you?" . Yes it would be useful to users for sure if it is handy. Like we can set the time by a slider when to go green and when red.
I am attaching the slider figure as I think it would help you to understand the thing in a better way.


It would not only prove handy to user but they can fix their own time.Though u can put a default time as which you feel is suitable.

Well For"2. What do you think the recommended times for changing colors should be for each of the following forums?"
I think 2 minutes timeline would be good for problem solving and data sufficiency.

[Shawshank]

The Stopwatch is an excellent idea......
great going guys..

[vscid]

How about a 'countdown' (like the actual gmat) instead of a 'stopwatch' , however, this one being user-adjustable based on the skill level of the user. So for example, a begineer can set the countdown for 3 mintues, an intermediate skill level user can set it for 2 and an advanced user can set it for 1.5 and so on. Once 'time's out', screen will refresh to show 'time out' and then user can go 'back' to the original question to futher ponder (or check the OA). This way, the user will always be under simulated conditions, even while practicing and wont be able to cheat himself !

[sumanr84]

Wow !! Today when I just visited the site..what am I seeing..a Timer..thats what we all wanted..great !!

I am really thankful to moderators for taking it up and doing it proactively.

Changing color would be a good idea but in actual gmat there is no color component, so I think that wud add extra distraction while solving the Q.

I wud recommend to keep it simple; I liked the current format instead ( black and white ) with digital interface ( 00:00 ).

[DavidP]

Thanks for the nice posts. And thanks again for the great suggestions. I'm really excited that we were able to help everyone with the new stopwatch feature.

The countdown feature that @vscid mentions sounds interesting. How do others feel about it?

David

[schumi_gmat]

Hi All,

Thanks for your suggestion about the stopwatch!

As you may have noticed, we just released a stopwatch for our math and verbal forums today. I'd like to give a special thanks to vittalgmat, who is one of our moderators. Vittal advocated the need for a stopwatch for the last couple weeks and even gave us some prototype javascript code that we looked at.

Eric, Vittal and I have been talking about making one enhancement, which is described below. And we'd love to get your feedback on this enhancement.

We'd like to make the stopwatch counter (e.g., 00:00), which is currently black, colored instead. This counter would start out being green but then change to red if the elapsed time went over the recommended time for solving a problem. Each forum (e.g., Problem Solving, Data Sufficiency) might have a different recommended time for solving a problem.

So here are a couple questions:

1. Would a stopwatch that changed colors from green to red based on elapsed time be useful for you?

2. What do you think the recommended times for changing colors should be for each of the following forums?

• GMAT Math

• Problem Solving

• Data Sufficiency

• GMAT Verbal & Essays

• Sentence Correction

• Critical Reasoning

• Reading Comprehension

3. Is there anything else that we should do to improve the stopwatch?

Thanks for your help!

Thanks for the sto[ watch. This is very useful. Color changing suggestion is also good.
One suggestion- Is it it possible to to store the browsing history of the user to his profile as the link and add the columns for the timer against those questions. This will help to keep track of the work that every user is doing on the forum itself.

[DavidP]

hi @schumi_gmat, thanks for the suggestion. i think that keeping track of each person's browsing history and the times associated with each question may be hard. but we'll think about it.

[money9111]

This was a phenomenal addition!