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mcelroytutoring
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Tutor
Joined: 10 Jul 2015
Last visit: 23 Apr 2025
Posts: 1,202
Given Kudos: 282
Status:Expert GMAT, GRE, and LSAT Tutor / Coach
Affiliations: Harvard University, A.B. with honors in Government, 2002
Location: United States (CO)
Age: 45
GMAT 1: 770 Q47 V48
GMAT 2: 730 Q44 V47
GMAT 3: 750 Q50 V42
GMAT 4: 730 Q48 V42 (Online)
GRE 1: Q168 V169
GRE 2: Q170 V170
Expert reply
Updated on: 18 Jun 2022, 07:16
Originally posted by mcelroytutoring on 03 Oct 2017, 08:30.
Last edited by mcelroytutoring on 18 Jun 2022, 07:16, edited 10 times in total.
Last edited by mcelroytutoring on 18 Jun 2022, 07:16, edited 10 times in total.
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NOW UPDATED FOR THE NEW, SHORTER GMAT STARTING 4/16/18
I have created a simple pacing strategy that has worked wonders for my private GMAT students, and today I’d like to share it with you. I call it the “15/25 Rule."
On the GMAT, you have conflicting responsibilities. First and foremost, you have to perform well at the beginning of the test in order to earn the more difficult questions that allow for high scores. However, there is also a significant penalty for not finishing all the questions--and on the Verbal section in particular, the second half of the section is still quite important to your score. So how do you balance these two goals?
In my opinion, you should allocate up to 60% of your time to the (more important) first half of questions, and the remainder of your time—around 40%—to the (less important) latter half. In other words, you should have completed at least 15 questions when the clock shows 25 minutes remaining. (This method assumes that you don't have extended time on the GMAT, of course--which means that you have the normal 62 or 65-minute section length.)
What’s nice about this method is that it doesn’t take up too much valuable brain space while you are taking the test—no more memorizing a bunch of arbitrary cutoffs, no more doing unnecessary calculations in your head to make sure that your pace is correct. Simply make sure to have reached question #15 by the time the section timer indicates 25 minutes left, and from there, make sure to answer about 2 questions every 3 minutes.
Hope that helps!
-Brian
I have created a simple pacing strategy that has worked wonders for my private GMAT students, and today I’d like to share it with you. I call it the “15/25 Rule."
On the GMAT, you have conflicting responsibilities. First and foremost, you have to perform well at the beginning of the test in order to earn the more difficult questions that allow for high scores. However, there is also a significant penalty for not finishing all the questions--and on the Verbal section in particular, the second half of the section is still quite important to your score. So how do you balance these two goals?
In my opinion, you should allocate up to 60% of your time to the (more important) first half of questions, and the remainder of your time—around 40%—to the (less important) latter half. In other words, you should have completed at least 15 questions when the clock shows 25 minutes remaining. (This method assumes that you don't have extended time on the GMAT, of course--which means that you have the normal 62 or 65-minute section length.)
What’s nice about this method is that it doesn’t take up too much valuable brain space while you are taking the test—no more memorizing a bunch of arbitrary cutoffs, no more doing unnecessary calculations in your head to make sure that your pace is correct. Simply make sure to have reached question #15 by the time the section timer indicates 25 minutes left, and from there, make sure to answer about 2 questions every 3 minutes.
Hope that helps!
-Brian
16 Apr 2018, 12:04
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Hey Brian,
I'm totally with you on the first 10-15 questions being more important, but I'm questioning whether or not it's reasonable to be able to tackle the second half in less time than the first. Obviously, you want to do better on the first half so that you are given more difficult questions as the test goes on. But given that the second half should, in theory, be harder than the first half, I am worried that the time crunch would hurt performance.
How do you address that?
For reference, the system I am thinking about employing for quant is something along the lines of:
At 40 minutes remaining, I should be done with question 10
At 20 minutes remaining, I should be done with question 20
At 10 minutes remaining, I should be done with question 25
It still slows me down at the end, but the effect is not as pronounced (and I will probably guess 1-2 on those last 6 questions.
Our systems are probably closer in practice than I think, but in general, just curious what your feelings are on less time for harder questions.
Quote:
Simply make sure to have reached question #15 by the time the section timer indicates 25 minutes left, and from there, make sure to answer about 2 questions every 3 minutes.
I'm totally with you on the first 10-15 questions being more important, but I'm questioning whether or not it's reasonable to be able to tackle the second half in less time than the first. Obviously, you want to do better on the first half so that you are given more difficult questions as the test goes on. But given that the second half should, in theory, be harder than the first half, I am worried that the time crunch would hurt performance.
How do you address that?
For reference, the system I am thinking about employing for quant is something along the lines of:
At 40 minutes remaining, I should be done with question 10
At 20 minutes remaining, I should be done with question 20
At 10 minutes remaining, I should be done with question 25
It still slows me down at the end, but the effect is not as pronounced (and I will probably guess 1-2 on those last 6 questions.
Our systems are probably closer in practice than I think, but in general, just curious what your feelings are on less time for harder questions.
mcelroytutoring
Expert
Tutor
Joined: 10 Jul 2015
Last visit: 23 Apr 2025
Posts: 1,202
Given Kudos: 282
Status:Expert GMAT, GRE, and LSAT Tutor / Coach
Affiliations: Harvard University, A.B. with honors in Government, 2002
Location: United States (CO)
Age: 45
GMAT 1: 770 Q47 V48
GMAT 2: 730 Q44 V47
GMAT 3: 750 Q50 V42
GMAT 4: 730 Q48 V42 (Online)
GRE 1: Q168 V169
GRE 2: Q170 V170
Expert reply
Updated on: 15 Jul 2020, 21:12
Originally posted by mcelroytutoring on 16 Apr 2018, 13:15.
Last edited by mcelroytutoring on 15 Jul 2020, 21:12, edited 1 time in total.
Last edited by mcelroytutoring on 15 Jul 2020, 21:12, edited 1 time in total.
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Hi jsheppa,
I understand your concern, but without performing well on the critical first half of questions, you have basically zero chance of achieving an elite GMAT score. So although the questions do get generally harder when you answer them correctly, it still makes sense to spend about 60% of your time on the first 50% of questions, given their outsize importance to the scoring algorithm.
It is true that in general, the questions keep getting harder the more you get right. However, also keep in mind that if you get a bunch of questions right in a row, then you will not necessarily keep getting a harder question every time. The GMAT makes adjustments to the overall difficulty levels of questions, but also makes sure to assign you questions from all areas of test content, which might mean serving you an easier question than the question you just answered correctly. There is also a roughly 13% chance that you will see an experimental question with a difficulty level that is set in advance and might not reflect the overall difficulty level of the questions you are earning (in other words, it might be very easy).
For example, even if I get all of the first 10 questions right, and I were to rank their difficulty levels from 1 to 5, then it might look something like this: 2,3,4,5,5,2,4,3,5,1.
Sometimes it really is worth an extra minute or two to get a super-hard question right, especially at the beginning of the section, where the scoring algorithm makes its initial estimate of your ability level.
Yes, this will also have the side effect of serving you very hard questions for the remainder of the test--but in order to get a great score on the GMAT, that's what you need--a bunch of hard questions answered correctly.
As the test proceeds, you will have to speed up slightly while confronting even harder questions. This is where you have to start "trusting your gut" more and being more aggressive with your answer selections in order to finish on time. Having a sound GMAT game plan, and an in-depth understanding of Data Sufficiency, Sentence Correction and Critical Reasoning strategies can help you save precious time for the Problem Solving and Reading Comprehension question types, which tend to take longer.
Leveraging the GMAT Scoring Algorithm to Your Advantage
From Q42 to Q44 to Q46 to Q50: my GMAT Quant Journey (with ESRs)
-Brian
I understand your concern, but without performing well on the critical first half of questions, you have basically zero chance of achieving an elite GMAT score. So although the questions do get generally harder when you answer them correctly, it still makes sense to spend about 60% of your time on the first 50% of questions, given their outsize importance to the scoring algorithm.
It is true that in general, the questions keep getting harder the more you get right. However, also keep in mind that if you get a bunch of questions right in a row, then you will not necessarily keep getting a harder question every time. The GMAT makes adjustments to the overall difficulty levels of questions, but also makes sure to assign you questions from all areas of test content, which might mean serving you an easier question than the question you just answered correctly. There is also a roughly 13% chance that you will see an experimental question with a difficulty level that is set in advance and might not reflect the overall difficulty level of the questions you are earning (in other words, it might be very easy).
For example, even if I get all of the first 10 questions right, and I were to rank their difficulty levels from 1 to 5, then it might look something like this: 2,3,4,5,5,2,4,3,5,1.
Sometimes it really is worth an extra minute or two to get a super-hard question right, especially at the beginning of the section, where the scoring algorithm makes its initial estimate of your ability level.
Yes, this will also have the side effect of serving you very hard questions for the remainder of the test--but in order to get a great score on the GMAT, that's what you need--a bunch of hard questions answered correctly.
As the test proceeds, you will have to speed up slightly while confronting even harder questions. This is where you have to start "trusting your gut" more and being more aggressive with your answer selections in order to finish on time. Having a sound GMAT game plan, and an in-depth understanding of Data Sufficiency, Sentence Correction and Critical Reasoning strategies can help you save precious time for the Problem Solving and Reading Comprehension question types, which tend to take longer.
Leveraging the GMAT Scoring Algorithm to Your Advantage
From Q42 to Q44 to Q46 to Q50: my GMAT Quant Journey (with ESRs)
-Brian
