Educated Guess

[AndreiB]

Ok,

So I have tried all sort of timing strategies, none of them seems to work. I tried a combination of 2 minutes/ quant question and a 10 minute/5 quant questions. None seems to work. I have already failed a GMAT test simply because my timing strategy was absolutely awful and lagged with 10-12 minutes behind the schedule.

When in the process of solving a question is it ok to make an educated guess? I feel absolutely awful having to guess a question and this is what really pulled me behind in my test. From the moment I have to guess I feel that I have no control over the test anymore.

[Brent@GMATPrepNow]

This kind of reminds me of people who claim that a certain weight-loss plan doesn't work, even thought they neither reduced their calorie intake nor exercised while on the plan.

The truth of the matter is that most time management strategies work, as long as you follow them.

In our free time management video (https://www.gmatprepnow.com/module/gener ... es?id=1244), we advise students to use a Milestone Chart to stay on track. In order for this strategy to work, you MUST be willing to make educated guesses when you're running behind. Otherwise, the strategy will not work.

Keep in mind that the GMAT is computer adaptive, so if you answer a question correctly, you'll he given a harder question, and if you answer that one correctly, you'll he given an even harder question . . . and so on, until you are confronted by questions that are beyond your abilities.

At this point, there's an even bigger question at play: How do you handle situations in which you can't effectively complete the task at hand?

The perfectionist's response is to keep working on the problem until he/she can overcome it. Paradoxically, the perfectionist response is a guaranteed way to bomb the GMAT. This test is not about answering every question correctly; it's about MAXIMIZING your score.

In order to maximize your score, you need to manage your time. In order to manage your time, you cannot waste time on questions that you cannot answer. In order to avoid wasting time on questions you cannot answer, you must be willing and able to guess and move on.

If you are not willing to guess and move on, I can guarantee that you will never beat the GMAT.

Cheers,
Brent

[David@VeritasPrep]

Brent is quite right. You know that you do end up guessing on questions right? I mean if you are behind by 10 - 12 minutes you are likely guessing on something like 5+ questions at the end.

The problem is that if you are guessing on the questions that happen to come at the end you may very well be guessing on YOUR FAVORITE QUESTIONS...ones that you could get CORRECT IN WELL UNDER TWO MINUTES!

You are a Nadal. That is what Brent is describing in terms of stubbornness that undermines your overall score. Unfortunately, it is the Federers that score really well on the GMAT (Djokovic is not allowed in any of my analogies thank you very much). So please start by reading this article, "WHy Federer would Beat Nadal on the GMAT" https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2011/01/ ... n-the-gmat

Now once you understand that you need to change you will wonder what you can do. Here is an article that walks you through the process and gives you some exercises to help you know when to enter your best response to a question and move to the next one. "Diagnose your way to success on the GMAT" https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2012/04/ ... at-success

Finally, you mention educated guessing. I just want to make a couple of things clear. 1) Eliminating possibilities in order to make an "educated guess" on problem solving is really only worth 30 seconds or so. Even if you were able to eliminate two answers you would still be guessing from 3 and it is not really worth that much of your time to make what is still a guess, be more "educated."
2) You should always be able to eliminate 2 - 3 choices on a Data Sufficiency question. Try to never guess out of all five choices on D.S. you should be able to evaluate at least one of the two statements and being clearly sufficient or clearly not sufficient. So always make an "educated" guess on Data Sufficiency. An example of what I call Data Sufficiency Jujitsu is available at this article https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2013/01/ ... d-subjects