Timer - Counting up or counting down? What's realistic?

[piyushdabomb]

Quite a few articles discuss the essentials of using a timer to keep track of the amount of time spent on a question. While I believe this is an excellent way to keep track of my time management, I don't know the best way to count though. Here is my dillema:

I have both a count up and count down timer.

The pro of a countup timer is that after finishing a set of questions, I can monitor my timing and results, eventually helping me see where I'm slow/fast in.

The con of a countup timer I think is that I will never get the 'feel' for what it means to finish a topic in 2 minutes or less. I will also never know that after 2 approximate minutes, how much was able to finish and how to speed my time up.

The pro of a countdown timer is that for each question, I can run through the questions and right when the beeper hits telling me that time is up, I'll know how far I've gone and how close I am to finishing the problem. This will really help me not only knowing how well I know the material, but will also indicate to me where I need to work on within the problem.

The con of a countdown timer is that for questions where the difficulty rises to 700 level questions, 2 minutes might not be a good way to measure speed.

So my question to you is:

How do I figure out if I should count up or count down? How should I handle this? I personally am inclining to using a countdown timer for practice problems, and use a countup timer ever 3rd day just to see if I'm sticking to my time. What are your thoughts guys? A fair approach?

[papgust]

Nice analysis, Piyush. But this isn't needed really. My point of view is very simple. I always use a countdown timer because the actual GMAT uses a countdown timer. You may need to do everything that is synchronous with the actual test-taking conditions.

[piyushdabomb]

....for the actual questions or for problem practice sets?

[papgust]

For both.

[money9111]

Countdown timer!