Apologies in advance if this is answered elsewhere, but I haven't seen solid/certain answers to this.
I have been scoring in the 650-750 range on practice tests, in general leaving 3-10 questions blank at the end of the quant section due to running out of time. If I have say 5 questions left with 3 minutes left, is it always better to guess randomly on all 5 vs. answering 1 more and leaving 4 completely blank? I understand that there's a "severe penalty" for leaving questions blank, but has this been tested with GMATPrep or otherwise analyzed? I want to be sure that it's ALWAYS better to guess vs leave any question blank. I would hate to take the test and have 4 questions left towards the end that I end up guessing on, and then get penalized more than I would if I had left them blank.
Also, is it a better strategy to guess on earlier questions that are taking several minutes to answer, as opposed to doing the best I can on the first ~30 questions and then just guessing/leaving blank the remaining last 5-10 in the last few minutes?
From what I've read in various places, seems like the strategy should be to spend extra time (say average 3 minutes) on the first 5-6 questions, then for the rest of the test average 1'45" - 2', and if time is running short towards the end guess if needbe so that i complete all the questions. Please let me know if I should actually use some other test-taking strategy.
Thank you
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- eddyfh
- Students
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- StaceyKoprince
- ManhattanGMAT Staff
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- Location: Montreal
Re: Leaving questions unanswered
It is ALWAYS better to guess randomly than leave something blank. The penalty for guessing randomly and gettng wrong is always lower than the penalty for leaving a question blank. Never leave a question blank!
Also, it's a myth that the earlier questions are worth more than the later ones. Move steadily through the test, giving your best shot within the expected timeframe on any given question, but moving on if you can't complete the question in the expected timeframe.
The biggest penalty is for leaving questions blank. The second biggest penalty is for having strings of wrong answers in a row - and the penalty for having, say, 5 wrong answers in a row is greater than the benefit you gain for having the same number (5) correct answers in a row.
Finally, you will always be given questions that you cannot complete within the expected timeframe. In other words, you are always going to have to make some guesses. That's just the way the test works - you cannot study enough to avoid that. The only thing you can do is have some control over the problems on which you guess. Right now, you are being forced to guess on a string of questions at the end, which is bad both because it's a string and because, in any string, there are some questions in there that you can actually answer correctly.
Instead, you want to choose to guess on the hardest questions as you see them throughout the section. This allows you to make sure your guesses are on the ones that you can't actually do in the expected timeframe anyway (and possibly not at all), and it allows you to spread those guesses out so that they are not all clustered together in a string.
If you use the above and literally do nothing else to get better, your next quant practice test score will be higher. Your score is being pulled down by leaving 3-10 questions blank (or by guessing randomly on 3-10 questions in a row) - and if it's closer to the 10-question mark, your score is being pulled down in a MAJOR way!
Let me know if you have any questions on the above.
Also, it's a myth that the earlier questions are worth more than the later ones. Move steadily through the test, giving your best shot within the expected timeframe on any given question, but moving on if you can't complete the question in the expected timeframe.
The biggest penalty is for leaving questions blank. The second biggest penalty is for having strings of wrong answers in a row - and the penalty for having, say, 5 wrong answers in a row is greater than the benefit you gain for having the same number (5) correct answers in a row.
Finally, you will always be given questions that you cannot complete within the expected timeframe. In other words, you are always going to have to make some guesses. That's just the way the test works - you cannot study enough to avoid that. The only thing you can do is have some control over the problems on which you guess. Right now, you are being forced to guess on a string of questions at the end, which is bad both because it's a string and because, in any string, there are some questions in there that you can actually answer correctly.
Instead, you want to choose to guess on the hardest questions as you see them throughout the section. This allows you to make sure your guesses are on the ones that you can't actually do in the expected timeframe anyway (and possibly not at all), and it allows you to spread those guesses out so that they are not all clustered together in a string.
If you use the above and literally do nothing else to get better, your next quant practice test score will be higher. Your score is being pulled down by leaving 3-10 questions blank (or by guessing randomly on 3-10 questions in a row) - and if it's closer to the 10-question mark, your score is being pulled down in a MAJOR way!
Let me know if you have any questions on the above.
Stacey Koprince
Instructor
Director, Content & Curriculum
ManhattanPrep
Instructor
Director, Content & Curriculum
ManhattanPrep
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