How do I manage time in the Data Insights section?

Question

This is about the data insights section, the section where I always have very varied and random performance. It always depends on the questions in that particular practice test. For context, I am doing well enough in quants and verbal, latest official practice test: Quants 86 (2 wrong) Verbal 86 (2 wrong) Data insights 81 ( 7 wrong, 1 correct guess)

I dread the questions that very clearly would not work with just eyeballing or even estimating. Say, you would need to compare ratios, and the numbers just happen to be close enough that you need the calculator, and sit there punching the numbers praying that you don't accidentally enter something wrong. And then you see two more questions in that Table Analysis. Or the MSR questions that take >1.5 minutes just to extract all the info from the question stem.

How is it possible to do these questions under 2 minutes? Can I please get some type of strategy?

bb   Bunuel   GMATNinja

bb · Answer

Hi. Would you have an example of a question where you are looking for a strategy? Perhaps some of the ones you have solved recently?

sanya511 · Answer

https://gmatclub.com/forum/the-ramos-family-of-4-is-estimating-the-cost-of-a-planned-trip-that-in-426041.html  - too long to calculate
 https://gmatclub.com/forum/maly-simon-and-yemmy-have-just-arrived-at-the-ocean-cliff-park-434972.html  - too much information to digest 
 https://gmatclub.com/forum/the-table-provides-data-about-12-different-persian-rugs-currently-ava-432443.html  - requires calculator

bb · Answer

Yes, the last one does require a calculator but it is a quick job of 140 * 144 * 280. Yes, that's 11 clicks but should not take all that much to punch in. The certainty of that answer is reassuring. The last question is doable in 2 mins with a calculator. Some operations do require it.

hr1212 - what is your recommendation for the first 2 MSR's? I am guessing you solved these?

https://gmatclub.com/forum/the-ramos-fa ... 26041.html - too long to calculate
https://gmatclub.com/forum/maly-simon-a ... 34972.html - too much information to digest

Bunuel · Answer

For the first question, the Ramos family one, there are three questions, and each might require a little bit of calculations, but they are very simple ones, nothing too complicated. So, it's not really hard to do:
 
  Question 1  
  Question 2  
  Question 3

As for the second question, which is about the trails, this question is more complicated, mainly because it has a lot of information and a lot of unnecessary stuff. However, once you read the question carefully and understand what it's about, it's not that hard to answer the questions themselves.
 
  Question 1  
  Question 2  
  Question 3

As for the third question, the Persian rugs one, it's probably the simplest one of the three, and also requires calculations only for the first statement, which is also a simple calculation, just multiplying several numbers, and having a calculator at hand makes this a simple one. The other two statements don’t require any calculations at all.
 
  Solution

In the DI section, the key is to understand  what to calculate, when to calculate, and how to calculate . Often, you don’t need to calculate everything exactly, you can estimate, round, or approximate certain values to make the process quicker and easier.

Many students mistakenly think they must use the calculator for everything. However, in most cases, you don’t need to calculate every detail. Full calculations are rarely necessary, and when they are, they are usually simple. The goal is to know when approximation or estimation will give you a sufficient answer.

hr1212 · Answer

Bunuel already shared some great insights on this one, I will just add few thoughts from my end as I would like to walk you through these questions from my perspective on what to focus and how to perform efficient calculations =>

1. Ramos family

Never ignore parenthesis, as sometimes questions are made tough by forcing you to miss certain information
Focus on the table headers (is it one-way or round trip?)
Be fast with fractions like for the first question when you are comparing 4 fractions either make all denominators or numerators same for quick calculation
- 10/30 | 12/27 | 9/32 | 13/35 (Ask yourself if you actually do need to calculate these values?)
- What if I do - 1/3 | 1/(<3) | 1/(>3) | 1/(<3)
Only calculate what's needed, like for the second question you only need to calculate the difference b/w checking in child safety seats in airline A3 (when it's included in the baggage) vs renting it from C4. If you know the exact datapoints, it should take you less than a min
Third question in this set is the one which might require you to perform some calculations that might exceed a min, but that's the beauty of this structure which needs to be identified that one out of all three would be a bit more intensive so try to save time from other two. Smart way to perform calculation here is to mentally calculate baggage cost as it's straightforward and estimate flight cost. If you are uncomfortable estimating flight prices, use calculator sparingly. And if you know which tab you are looking at and which numbers need to be punched in, it should still be easily done in 2 mins.
So my break down for this would look something around - 4 mins (reading) + 1 min (first) + 1 min (second) + 2 mins (third) = 8 mins

2. Ocean Cliff Park

I wouldn't go into as many details on this one as you got the general idea, but this is hands down one of the hardest MSRs in the official list. And funny enough it looks scary because of graph and table data combined under a tab and it seems to be throwing million data points on your face.
First tab is easy but it just gives us lot of conditions which opens up possibilities to multiple possible permutations and combinations around which trek to choose and the duration and difficulty of those treks, so seems like a complex problem to solve but just try to remember on who likes what at high level, you don't need to solve unless it's not asked.
One key learning for me from this one and other similar complex looking MSRs over time was that, if your tab data looks dense, there's a high chance your questions would be straightforward such that you can still hit your average around 8 mins.
So let's say if you spend good time understanding given data and the conditions like for Simon, his major worry is time, he doesn't care about scenery or difficulty, so any question revolving around what Simon must do, you just need to focus on trail and time in the given table ignoring rest of the data to quickly figure out the right answer.

Hence, I will second the advice that was shared earlier, be smart around how much data is relevant to be retained in the first read, like note down table headers/units in charts, such that when you start hitting questions, you can quickly map the data in your mental map or notes to that tab and quickly drill down to required answers using smart calculation.

bb

Yes, the last one does require a calculator but it is a quick job of 140 * 144 * 280. Yes, that's 11 clicks but should not take all that much to punch in. The certainty of that answer is reassuring. The last question is doable in 2 mins with a calculator. Some operations do require it.

hr1212 - what is your recommendation for the first 2 MSR's? I am guessing you solved these?

https://gmatclub.com/forum/the-ramos-fa ... 26041.html - too long to calculate
https://gmatclub.com/forum/maly-simon-a ... 34972.html - too much information to digest

How do I manage time in the Data Insights section?

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