Mikemcgarry,
Great to have you join this discussion. I know off-hand that this is going to be a fun and enlightening debate!
First of all, thank you for sharing the information that most test takers, including me, have not been exposed to before. According to the GMAC research, randomly guessing for the last few questions in the Verbal section does not do you any benefit - so test takers, please read this article:
https://magoosh.com/gmat/2012/guessing-s ... -the-gmat/Now, on the relative importance of earlier questions, perhaps it is a myth and perhaps it is not. I do agree it is a misconception that there is no recovering from a bad start, but whether early questions tend to be weighted differently than later questions is still a matter of a debate; it is possible that the differential weighting has been caused either deliberately or inadvertently by GMAC psychometricians' algorithm. Has GMAC ever announced that all questions are equally important? Even if they make their best effort, things may not go their way. As you said, this science is complicated.
I find it interesting that we lie on opposite ends of the spectrum. While I claim that timing isn't necessary, you opine that timing should be introduced into the practice regime as early as possible.
When someone learns a new skill, even if he intends to apply the skill under a limited time condition, he should always learn without time pressure first in order to allow the brain to gradually create new neural connections. You have seen my analogy in skiing. I could make a similar analogy in chess, college exams, or any other learning environment in which a learner expects to eventually face a situation where he has to apply under time pressure skills he has recently acquired. For the GMAT specifically, one has to learn how to dissect an argument, how to interpret a math question, how to grasp a reading comprehension passage, etc. In order to adequately perform these tasks, the learner often has to refrain from the urge to gloss over details, and instead focus on observing how the little pieces are tied together to form an argument or a numerical problem.
It is when the learner has acquired the analytical skills and become familiar with the thought process behind the solving of GMAT questions that he can gradually increase his speed while not sacrificing accuracy. Increasing speed through familiarity is a natural process in the brain. Ask anyone that is extremely fast with something whether he learned the skill first and became faster or learned the skill fast from the beginning. Ask a pianist, a blitz chess master, or a swimmer how he became fast at their craft or their sport. Each GMAT practice question, especially in your early stage of studying, is a learning experience. If you make a habit of rushing through the question, especially when you are not yet familiar with applying the new concepts, you will not fully understand the argument or problem, and will miss critical details, a classic error that will prevent you from figuring out the appropriate answer. Answering questions correctly is a good habit. Answering questions incorrectly is not, timed or un-timed.
Ccooley,
In the ideal world, you wouldn't need a triage plan. But avoiding running out of time by sacrificing accuracy is bad practice, which is basically the whole point I'm trying to make here. You could end up in a situation where you have 15 minutes left to answer the last 7 questions, and you wouldn't know, until you get your actual score, whether you screwed up badly by rushing through earlier questions. During practice, if you score well despite running out of time, I'll take that as a clearer sign you're ready for the test than if you score badly despite always being able to attempt all questions.
close
14 Jun 2016, 09:54
