Time management (Quant)

[japnasethi]

As part of the MGMAT course, I've done the time strategy lab/tutorial and of course listened to my instructor about the time cut-off (he says for quant, if you havent finished in 2 minutes, guess and go to next question). Problem with me is that I generally know how to do the problem or I figure it out within first 30sec, but I never finish within 2 minutes. My time averages out to be 2:30ish. Which leaves me with ~4 unanswered questions at the end of 75 minutes. I'm wondering what I can do to jump this hump and have enough time to work through the last questions diligently (since the percentile you have in the last question is the percentile that is reported in your score).

[StaceyKoprince]

Assume that you will never be able to answer all 37 questions in the given timeframe. (Very few people can. Since the test is adaptive, everyone hits their limit!)

Choose the 5 hardest questions as you work through the section and, on those, guess and move on within 30 seconds. That will give you an extra 7.5 minutes to spread among other problems. (And, of course, you do sometimes answer some questions more quickly, right? They're not all literally 2.5 minutes, or you would run out of time with something like 9 questions left.

I also want you to check something for me. It's okay for some problems to run as long as 2.5m, but once we get above about 2.75 to 3m, our performance tends to drop anyway. So go look at those problems on which you really are spending 3+ minutes. How are you doing? Most people are getting most of those questions wrong - which should be a strong incentive to get them wrong faster next time and spend that time somewhere else. :)

Have you read these two articles?
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... -to-do-it/
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... nt-part-1/

[japnasethi]

Hey Stacey - thanks for replying. Apologies for not replying earlier. I had looked for it but not seen it until now.

Yes, I don't take 2 min on ALL questions, but as the questions get harder towards the second half of the quant section, I take more time. I just took a practice CAT now and got 44 (61%tile) on the Quant section. I was desperately running out of time towards the end so I skipped 5 questions (#31-35) and just did the last two so I had a chance to increase my score. In retrospect, I should probably not skip the LAST questions (maybe some in the middle or randomly dispersed through the test) so that I have to chance to increase my score by answering questions correctly. What do you think about that strategy?

As far as performance vs time spend on questions, I think I might be an exception. I remember learning about the ">2min you probably wont get it right" concept in the time management lab. Problem is that I DO get things right when I spend slightly more time. This is because I read and re-read things and test a lot of cases (I've always had this problem on standardized testing because my slight dyslexia causes me to write down the wrong #s when i am working on paper so I always have to triple check). I am trying my best to identify problems that I should skip (so that I can get it wrong faster) and move on.

[StaceyKoprince]

Exactly - don't let the time deficit build up so that you have to guess on a bunch in a row. Choose the hardest questions deliberately, as you see them throughout the entire section.

I remember learning about the ">2min you probably wont get it right" concept in the time management lab.

You don't remember it quite well enough, because that's not what it says. :)

You need to *average* 2 min on quant; it's not an upper limit. When you go above about 2m45s to 3m, then you hit the point of diminishing returns - but not at 2m10s, 2m20s, 2m30s.

You want most of your quant Qs to be in the 1m to 2.5m range. You can have a few in the 2.5 to 3m range (2-3 max, really). You may have a few faster than 1m, but they should mostly be guesses, because if you really can solve in less than 1m, you should check your work to make sure the problem isn't really harder than you thought it was.

Do you have a diagnosis history established for your dyslexia? If so, you can apply for extra time on your test. Something to think about.

[SnehaB196]

I follow the 3 GMAT Time Management Strategies

a)Be specific with your study plan
b)Stay focused on your designated study sessions
c)Revisit & Adjust Periodically your study schedule and remain consistent.

[StaceyKoprince]

thanks!