Running out of time

[marshaharrington]

I am finding that when I take practice tests, I am running out of time. I end up guessing on at least the last 20 problems (in the quant section). Does anyone have any advice on how to move through the test faster?

[ivyctor2010]

Start small. Keep a tight limit of 1.5 mins per question. Start practising questions in a set of 10 and make sure you finish in 15 mins. Do this exercise 4-5 times a day you will slowly see your times improve. Side-by-side improve your mental math, calculation speed etc. More you practice the better you get.

[Jim@StratusPrep]

Part of the exam is moving on with questions. Mental math is probably the best thing you can practice.

You are going to get a bunch of questions wrong - probably 10 - 20 (regardless of your score I have seen practice exams from GMAC with 10 wrong that end up with a 50 on the quant). These questions are likely beyond your ability, i.e. you are supposed to get them wrong. If you waste time on these you will never finish. Get used to recognizing difficult problems and look at ways to come to an educated guess.

[Brent@GMATPrepNow]

The computer adaptive nature of the GMAT ensures that everyone faces tons of questions that are just beyond their capabilities. Some test-takers refuse to give up on questions and spend FAR too long on questions they'll never be able to answer. These perfectionists ultimately sabotage their scores. The good test-takers pick their battles.

Takeaway: Throughout your preparation, you must become adept at recognizing when it's best to invest time in a question and when to guess and move on. To do this, you must identify your strengths and weaknesses. So, as you're answering questions in the OG, be sure use an error log (aka Improvement Chart). You'll find that resource here: https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/gmat-error-log

If you're interested, we have a free video on the topic of time management: https://www.gmatprepnow.com/module/gener ... es?id=1244
It talks about the steps to take on test day to keep you on track.

Cheers,
Brent