rohanGmat wrote:
Hi All,
...
How should I improve my timing? Esp. On the Hard Questions. I have done some analysis on my practice questions and I generally take >3mins on the harder 700 level questions.
Hi RohanGMAT, Bunuel's links will give you some great advice, but the main takeaway is that it's impossible to get a good score by leaving 7-8 questions unanswered as you did. If a question is going to take you 5+ minutes to solve, you will be shooting yourself in the foot for the rest of the exam. It's much better to miss a question in 30 seconds and spend 5 minutes getting three other questions right then to spend 5 minutes on a question you very likely missed anyways. If a question takes you 3-4 minutes but you can get it right, that's understandable. However if a question is going to take you 5 minutes, even if you get it right you're not doing yourself any favors (especially if there's a ~20% chance that question is an experimental one that doesn't count towards your score)
I'd set a strict upper limit of 4 minutes. It was only a matter of 5 questions that took you over this limit anyways, but if you capped each of them at 3:30 or 4:00 you would have had about 5-7 minutes extra, which could have helped you answer 3-4 additional questions. Obviously, the more you practice, the more shortcuts you'll come across to solve some questions in 30 or 45 seconds. If you can save time on some questions, that gives you more time to spend on different (harder) questions.
Finally, keep in mind that missing a 700+ level question doesn't drop your score that much. If the question is really hard, most people aren't going to get it, so you're not punished very severely for missing it. You lose a lot more points missing "easy" questions, because if you miss 2+2 the exam thinks you're not very good and drops your score maybe 30 points. If you miss something really tough it drops maybe 10 points (maybe even zero points), so spending 5 minutes on a question that effectively changes nothing to your grade is a waste of time.
Just keep on practicing and your timing strategy will progressively get more effective and natural.
Hope this helps!
-Ron