getmba wrote:
Congrats Bigoyal for a superb score! You really nailed it.
Could you throw some light on time scale and reading speed? How did you manage to stick to your time scale? I mean did you guess questions to stick to time scale or did you solve the problems (ones you could solve but were taking bit more time) even if you were lagging behind.
I agree with you about completing a test is more important. Once again congrats!
Regarding Time-scale:
During the exam, I used my time-scale to periodically check how much I was lagging behind. For example, when 40 mins left, I should have already attempted 16 quant questions (or 19 verbal). If you notice, I have kept lesser time for first few questions in quant, i.e. 8 questions in 1st 15 mins since initial questions in quant are easier. The next 10-15 questions in quant are generally very time consuming.
If I was lagging behind by just 1-2 questions by the time 40 mins is over, I tried to speed up the things, and yes certainly I guessed in 2-3 questions randomly in the last 20 mins. But this guess-work was also scattered (and mostly intelligent guesses), instead of panicking in the end and concentrating all the guesses in the last few questions.
One more tip, try to nail some of the most difficult questions which GMAT will start throwing after around 15 mins. This will shoot your score. But again towards the end you'll start getting easier questions.
Regarding reading speed:
Generally when we read any article, we tend to repeat words in our mouth (or brain) which slows down the process of reading. Whereas most of the fast readers just glance at the sentences. Our brain is really capable of doing that, provided we do some practice. Start reading small easy articles without repeating words in your brain. It will take some time to get accustomed to this...... it worked in my case to a certain extent.
Thanks for the valuable input. Good luck with your applications.