GMAT Strategy

Question

Hi All,

I took a course in which instructor mentioned that we should spend more time on solving starting questions and then answer last 3 questions by guessing if no time left.

But when I was going through Manhattan test series there was a quote stating that "where you end is what you get".

Can anyone please advise what is the best strategy to follow.

Thank You.

sudeshpatodiya · Answer

Hi Veenu21

For best timing strategies on GMAT, please go through this: https://gmatclub.com/forum/timing-strat ... 06035.html
For What if scenarios (Initial 10 questions, last 10 questions, what is important etc.), Please see this: https://gmatclub.com/forum/gmat-prep-so ... 46146.html

logro · Answer

Hey definitely not a great advice to guess 3 questions in a row

Spend a bit more time (not more than 5 extra mins) on the first 10 questions as it sets tone for the rest of the questions. Having said that always try to cover those mins in Quartile 2 and Quartile 3 and don;t ever guess 3 questions in a row. Instead if you are in a situation wherein you have 3 mins left and 3 questions to answer. Quickly guess the first questions, solve the 2nd one some how and then if need be guess the last one. This would be more helpful than just guessing Q1 and Q2 and then solve Q3

IanStewart · Answer

None of that is good advice. It's hard to tell what "Where you end is what you get" even means -- on a high school algebra test, "where you end is what you get" is true too, in the sense that at the end of your test, all of your answers are what determine your score. That's true on any test you'd ever take, though, so if that's what the quote meant, there'd be little reason to say it. If instead the quote means "the difficulty level of your last question is equal to your score", then that's just nonsense. Statistically speaking, the difficulty level of your last question is more likely to be close to your level than it is to be far from your level, but the test does not adapt perfectly predictably. Some test takers who get great scores will see a 400-level question at the end of the test. That has nothing to do with their score (and it does not lower their score to 400).

And there's absolutely no reason to spend "more time" on questions early in the test, unless spending more time will be useful. If you're a high-level test taker, then you're more likely to see easy questions earlier in the test. Getting easy questions wrong is a minor disaster on an adaptive test, so if you need to spend a bit of extra time early on to avoid careless mistakes, that is time well spent. But that's also true later in the test if you happen to see an easy question. Investing extra time, however, in a very hard question -- one you have no idea how to solve -- is almost never a good idea, unless you know you have a lot of time to spare. Getting very hard questions wrong (questions above your level) barely hurts you at all; in fact it's what you're expected to do. What can hurt you though, is using up so much time on those questions that you need to give up on questions (guess randomly at them) later in the test.

So the upshot is: it's question difficulty that matters. Where a question appears in the test is irrelevant. If you know how to answer a question, spend enough time (within reason) to be sure you're getting the right answer, and that you're not making a careless mistake. If you don't know how to answer a question, even if it's very early in the test, you should be quickly evaluating fallback strategies (estimation, picking numbers, etc), and moving on, so you can be sure to have time to answer questions you know how to solve later in the test.

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

Hi Veenu21,

I have the perfect article for you!

Should You Spend Extra Time on the First 10 GMAT Questions?

If after reading this you still have questions, feel free to reach out to me directly.

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