Data Insights Strategy - Mark MSR for Review and come back to it l8r

Question

Hi Experts,

One of the things I have struggled with the most is MSR in Data Insights. I end up spending too much time on it. One potential solution that I have come up with is:

1) When MSR questions appear in Data Insights, answer randomly and mark the MSR questions for review
2) At the end, when I am done completing the other questions, spend 6 minutes to solve MSR questions.

I would love to get your thoughts on the following:

1) I understand that the GMAT is adaptive, does it have a strong impact on my score? Especially if i still can't answer all of them correctly at the end. 
2) Are 6 minutes enough for 3 solving MSR questions?
3) Do you see any other flaws in my approach?
4) Are there alternate solutions that you can recommend?

Archit3110 · Answer

This approach is correct...
Try incorporating same in mock and see how its going for you

Posted from my mobile device

bb · Answer

I think the approach of saving the MSR's makes sense. I have recommended it in my Timing Strategies post (I believe). https://gmatclub.com/forum/timing-strat ... 06035.html I do not see many flaws except potentially running into some hard questions down the road and not being able to leave them for later but that's how the GMAT was just until a year ago, so having these 3 questions is a convenient solution. I do not think the adaptive algorithm will have issues UNLESS you decide to guess a whole bunch of questions at the end. In terms of time and 6 mins. This is pretty personal but it should be sufficient but you want to make sure you give yourself 6 and not 2.5 mins, so if your last few questions you don't know how to answer, then you will have to guess and move on so you give yourself time. The fail of course will be if you solve the MSR in 2.5 mins, so it may be worth checking the MSR to see if it is indeed going to take a while or will be a brief one - not sure if you can eval that in 5-10 secs?

Hoehenheim · Answer

Agree with bb, evaluate for 30sec if it is worth skipping. Otherwise you risk not correctly answering 3 whole Easy questions. This can bring down the level of the rest of the Qs. If you encounter MSR within the first five Qs, and skip 3, you risk getting an easier set of remaining questions and going wrong in any one of those can lead to a huge penalty. One guy I spoke to who used the same strategy, ended up with DI82 with 4 total incorrect. So test it out on the mocks!

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

Hi ThalaforGMAT,

Six minutes for three MSR qusetions could still be tight, so if that is all the time you have on the clock, just strategically guess on the nastiest of the three MSR questions you have left. That way, you have the time to answer the other two correctly.

AjiteshArun · Answer

Hi ThalaforGMAT,

I currently recommend this tactic  only as a last resort . However, if you are going to do it, your way is the right way. Trying to evaluate an MSR set (information + first question) in 30 seconds sounds really hard, and you'll most likely end up spending 30s  and  'skipping' the questions.

Data Insights Strategy - Mark MSR for Review and come back to it l8r

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