Challenge Problems and Timing

[sambhattacharyya]

Hi there,

I was hoping to get some input on my performance on the challenge problems.

Background:
I'm aiming for a 50-51 on the GMAT quant section; I've scored 50 on the GMATPrep practice tests. I've been working on the Challenge problems for quite a while, and they have been amazing in getting me used to the difficult problems on the test.

For every 10 question set I do, I complete it within 30-35 minutes (2.8 - 3.5 minutes per questions), and I usually get
7-8 questions right per set.

After taking a CAT recently, I felt the difficulty level of the quant questions was on par with that of the challenge problems. After getting used to taking ~3+ minutes for the challenge problems, I felt a huge time pressure on the CATs.

Thus, I've been trying to reduce the time it takes to do the challenge problems: I've switched to a 2 minute 30 second timer for each challenge problem, but when I do so, I get only ~4 out of 10 challenge problems within that time limit. I felt like, with many problems, I could have solved them given another 30-40 seconds.

The question(s):

Should I be worried about timing on these challenge questions?
Although I hear the real GMAT quant has harder questions than GMAT Prep, I'm not sure if timing on Manhattan's Challenge problems is representative of timing on the test. Is it cost-effective to spend a lot of time on these questions, in order to try to get the time down closer to 2 minutes/question?

Are there people who do get the challenge problems within 2 minutes each (besides the writers)?
Some problems seem unreasonably difficult, but then again, when I was scoring a 38 on the quant, I wondered what kind of superhuman mental machine you had to be even get 1/2 the challenge questions right in an hour. Maybe I just haven't learned and practiced the techniques well enough to get each problem in 2 minutes.


Thanks,
Sam

[tim]

question 2: yes, but that is irrelevant, because you should focus on what will help you and not what other students can do..

question 1: in most cases, if you are able to do the harder questions, you will probably be able to do the easier questions in much less time. if you can't get your timing on the hardest problems down to less than 3 minutes, you may do just as well by reducing the time you take on the easier problems and using that extra time on the harder ones..

[sambhattacharyya]

Hey Tim,

Thanks for the insight, I will also practice sets of medium/easier questions to make sure I can solve those rapidly without sacrificing accuracy - so I can bank time for the harder questions.


-Sam

[tim]

sounds great! good luck..