There are many discussion on sites how to handle time pressure in exam, should you invest in first 5 question or not etc. Though, Small topic that I haven’t seen discussed is how to effectively manage your time during breaks. To me, it is a crucial topic and warrant detail discussion. These are my thoughts.

1) Understand exactly what to expect!
If you notice in your GMAT registration receipt, it says that total length of test is 255 min! What everyone knows is…

Test has three sections and two breaks
60 min : AWA
First break between AWA and Quant session
75 min : Quant
Second between Quant and Verbal session
75 min : Verbal

At present these breaks are 10 min each.

So all together are 230 Min, so what about extra 25 min!

=> Before essay section you have 5 min to go through instructions such as GMAC policy, tutorial etc.
=> Another 5 min are given to fill out personal information after test.
=> There is 1 min after each break (2 min total) to read section directions.
=> Other 13 min are perhaps miscellaneous.

2) Understand Breaks and plan on how to use these breaks.

What to expect:
Once you hit last question of any section, a screen asking weather you want to take break will appear! Do not click anything, please raise your hand so proctor can come and lock the station.

I notice that 10 min down counter starts when proctor locks the station rather than when you finish last question (I would love if someone can second on these observation). So, before clicking anything raise your hand and let proctor come and tell to click “yes I want to take breakâ€

To me the most important thing to do in the first 10-15 mins before your exam begins, i.e from the time the proctor leaves you with the instructions to the time you begin AWA is the following:

1) NOte down all tough QUANT formulaes in the sheet. this might take 5 mins or so.. but i noted down nPr and nCr in my last exam.. somehow I confuse them
2) I also note down the AWA essay template.. just the template.. straight out of my head.. so that when I begin the test I copy the first few lines from teh AWA
3) I did not note down enough formulaes last time...but next time I am going to make sure I note down all the geometry and sequence equations.
4) And finally I am sure I will note down the DS type numbers that I am going to test.. such as -1,-2,0.5,1.0,2,3.. etc.. all in one line.. so that when I reach a problem, I make sure I take the subset from it.. if I know its Real or > 0 integers etc.

I began AWA. in the 10 minute break, I had my coffee, and a fruit

After I sat down, I specifically said to the proctor not to type her password in, until I was settled in.. And after tat you have one more minuete..

Between QUANT and Verbal break, I noted down the type of sc errrors I keep on forgetting in the sheet there.. in the one min.. I just wrote down a few of them..

where is the rule written? I did not know about it..

I picked up that idea from princeton reviews tips on what to do in time breaks.

This was in the first 10 mins before the test started
tht is the instrcutions time.you had unlimited time during instructions to read the instructions..
so i wrote it during that time..

on my break between AWA and Quant, I asked the proctor not to write her password until i was settled.

I did not write any forumlaes in this break..

because of lack of time.. (1 min in the instructions)

settled == means i sat down, got opened my pen, got my notepad in front of my keyboard, and my shirts were rolled up ready for math section.

i wrote allformulaes in the first 15 min instruction time limit

then between my math and verbal, in that 1 min time frame of reading instructions.. i wrote down the SC errors that i generally forget..

I am talking about laminated paper, sorry for confusion!

Good post. It will people like me who are planning to take GMAT.

Thanks guys for sharing your experience.
_________________

Trying hard to achieve something unachievable now....

Hi, I had tea with lemon and a sandwich with me. It helped a lot!

If i have 9 mins left on the clock with just one ques left, can i mark a choice and leave for the break? Will it be counted? In that case i could get X + 9 mins of break. Is that ok?

Folks,

Is there any limit on the laminated sheets provided during the test or we can ask for any number as and when we needed