Tips on timing and eliminating careless mistakes

Hi hookem324,

I do all of the things bb mentioned, plus some others:

For PS, skim the answers first, as they will often give you some clues. For example, if you see sqrt(2) or sqrt(3) in the answers to a geometry problem, that's a clue that triangle formulas (such as Pythag Thm) may come into play. Many PS problems have paired answers, such as 32% and 68% that add to 100%. Such pairs are traps for people who get the math right but answer the wrong question (e.g. calculating the % of boys in a class when the question asks the % of girls). You can take a max/min approach when you see pairs, doing the sanity check bb suggested in his #3.

GmatNY86 describes the biggest issue that keeps people in the high 600's from reaching the mid-700's, in my opinion. We know that we could answer all the questions if we only spent a little longer. I'd recommend looking a bit deeper into why you were "feeling rushed" at certain points. Two ways to look at your timing:

(1) Run the Assessment Reports on your MGMAT exams, and look at the average times every which way: by question type, by type and difficulty, by content area, and by right/wrong for all of these categories. Make special note of any times that are either way too high or way too low. Decide objectively whether you are spending your time and effort on the right activities.

(2) Since average times can sometimes hide issues, look at the individual tests. Skim down the list of problems, noting whether the amount of time you spend varies as a function of what problem you are on. For example, if you spend 3 minutes each on a bunch of problems at the beginning, and have a string of :30 questions at the end, you'll know you need to manage your pace better throughout.

As for me, you've got 740 on your MGMAT 4 just because you had a rest between math & verbal part. Your stamina will be improved by the quantity of completed full tests (AWA).

Honestly, across all the people I've talked to about the GMAT (both here and personally), time management seems to be the #1 thing that breaks people on the test.

A person will refuse to guess on a problem and spend too much time.
Or
A person will spend too much time per problem overall and run into a crunch at the end.

There is a reason the GMAT puts tight time constraints on the teat: It forces a HUGE split the scores. If people had more time, we would see scores skew up more. This is one of the many ways the normal distribution is maintained (w/mean score of 530 and 50 percentile ~550).

That's why the approach to the problem is key. One needs to be able to read a problem and have an approach to either solving it or how to break it down in 15-20 seconds.

Thanks everyone for the tips. I've got a couple of weeks to make some adjustments. One simple thing I will be doing that i didnt see mentioned is taking the optional breaks. I didnt even consider it, but I'm sure it will help me regroup and refocus for next section.

Thanks again.

I'd say optional breaks are THE most important things you shouldn't ignore. your efficiency drops dramatically after a couple of hours. So if u dont wanna screw up on Verbal Section, u'd better take those breaks.

Is there a thread on how to manage time for the verbal section in general?

The first time I did GMAT prep I finished quant with 2 mins but had 7 verbal questions with about 2 mins to go. Obviously my GMAT prep score sucked. Since then every CAT I've taken I've completely overcompensated and finished verbal early... which isn't necessarily good either.

Not sure if there's a thread on this, but because there is a difference in the time you would spend on an SC vs an RC are there guidelines on how to manage this?

Yangsta8,

Please see the following thread:
timing-strategies-on-the-gmat-80176.html

Does anyone have other tips on how to eliminate careless mistakes?

I'm surprised no one mentioned this. There's a wiki page by GMAT Club that has an entire page dedicated to common careless mistakes for each type of GMAT problem.

use the search tool: "GMAT_stupid_mistakes" or "stupid mistakes"
(I can't post links yet, sorry)

By the way, I was lucky to find the page while searching for "stupid mistakes" b/c I didn't when I initially searched "careless" or "silly".