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adhithya
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gmat educated guesing+timing strategy 03 Jul 2011, 10:10
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hi,my question is related to educated guessing on the Gmat.
1)how does one make an educated guess on PS sums.We can atleast eliminate some choices in ds,rc,cr,sc but what about PS.
2)A very typical question,do the first few questions in each section count more than others,So should I spend more time on the initial questions.
3)similarly,do you guys make educated guesses in particular question bands asin 15-30 etc.
4)Does RC have higher weightage over CR and SC(I read a post by talk2vij where he insists so)

Sorry for posting so many questions at once,it is just that iam planning to take a few tests this week and wanna have a clear head before taking them
Thank a lot

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gmat educated guesing+timing strategy 07 Jul 2011, 08:11
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adhithya
hi,my question is related to educated guessing on the Gmat.
1)how does one make an educated guess on PS sums.We can atleast eliminate some choices in ds,rc,cr,sc but what about PS.
2)A very typical question,do the first few questions in each section count more than others,So should I spend more time on the initial questions.
3)similarly,do you guys make educated guesses in particular question bands asin 15-30 etc.
4)Does RC have higher weightage over CR and SC(I read a post by talk2vij where he insists so)

Sorry for posting so many questions at once,it is just that iam planning to take a few tests this week and wanna have a clear head before taking them
Thank a lot
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The CAT format is much harder from a psychological standpoint than a paper-based test on the same content. The reason is that by its very nature the computer-adaptive format is designed to push you to your failure point - and for us perfectionists that’s a VERY uncomfortable place to be.
The computer adaptive format means you get a harder question when you get the current question correct. What ends up happening to perfectionists is we get each question correct and in turn the GMAT throws us even harder questions. We perfectionists then spend more and more time on these harder questions double checking our math or re-reading portions of each answer choice over and over with the determination to get each question correct. Meanwhile, we sacrifice time and get heavily penalized for not finishing the exam.

If you are pressed for time and have 4 questions left but really have time only for 2, my suggestion is instead of answering questions 34 and 35 and then guessing 36 and 37 for Quant is to answer 34, guess 35, answer 36, and guess 37. This allows you to stay at a relatively same level (or higher if you guess one right) than potentially dropping below the level you were at question 33 by getting multiple questions wrong in a row.

Since the GMAT penalizes you heavily for getting many consecutive answers incorrect you should make sure you do not end up in a position where you need to guess the last 10 questions because you spent too much time on each question in the beginning. In general, you are better off guessing 10 random questions than guessing 10 consecutive questions–so make sure you time yourself properly.

You should be aiming, on average, to answer each question in less than two minutes. With practice you should be able to sense when you are at around the 3 minute mark that you are spending too much time on this question. Around this time you should make a strategic guess and move on. With easy-type questions you should definitely not reach the 3 minute mark.

And yes, there is a greater emphasis on RC yet not too many good resources. We recommend taking a look at these RC Videos to see if they help you and fit your learning style.

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Hi there,
This topic has been closed and archived due to inactivity or violation of community quality standards. No more replies are possible here.
Where to now? Join ongoing discussions on thousands of quality questions in our Verbal Questions Forum
Still interested in this question? Check out the "Best Topics" block above for a better discussion on this exact question, as well as several more related questions.
Thank you for understanding, and happy exploring!
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