Mastering the GMAT by Using Untimed Practice

I recommend that people do most of their practice GMAT questions untimed, to give themselves time to learn. At the same time, it is the case that, when taking the GMAT, a test-taker has on average only two minutes, or a little less in the case of verbal, to answer each question.

So, how does one progress from doing untimed practice to answering questions in around two minutes each when taking the test? The answer is that you can go through a few stages to get to the end goal.

First Stage - Completely Ignoring the Clock

In the beginning, you don't consider the time at all when you are practicing. You can play with questions, consider all the angles, carefully analyze choices, and maybe even go back to review concepts as you answer a question. Sometimes you may spend a half hour or more on one question.

At this stage, your primary focus is learning and developing high accuracy.

Second Stage - Considering Time Per Question

Then, as you prepare more, you can start considering the amount of time you spend on each question. Notice that considering the time is different from cutting yourself off at two or three minutes per question. You are considering how long answering a question is taking you and how you could cut down the time. For instance, maybe answering a typical Combinations question takes you four minutes. Cutting yourself off at two minutes isn't really going to help you learn. OK, sure you chose an answer, but you didn't go through the motions that you need to go through to reliably answer such questions when you are taking the test, and you didn't really learn how to answer the question in two minutes. So, what can you do instead?

What you can do instead is work on driving the time down by finding ways to be more efficient in answering the questions. If you get down to three minutes per question, you have achieved a win, and you can keep working on that question type until you answer such questions in two minutes each.

At this stage, you are working on applying what you have learned and answering questions more quickly while maintaining accuracy.

Third Stage - All Out Timed Practice

Finally, as you get closer to your test day, maybe a month out, you can start doing timed practice. You may do sets of ten questions in 20 minutes for each set, or you may decide to do timed sets of 31 quant questions or 36 verbal questions to get accustomed to the time pressure of the test.

At the same time, one cool thing is that, if you have prepared effectively and worked your time per question down, the time constraints won't mean that much, because you'll naturally be answering questions in around the time allotted. So, the timed practice will be more of a way of putting some finishing touches on your skills than something significantly different from what you had been doing previously.

Meanwhile, you don't have to answer every question in two minutes or less. If some take you a little longer, no big deal. When you take the test, some questions you'll answer in less than the allotted time, and others you'll answer in more than the allotted time.

Summary

So, that's the process. Totally untimed -> considering the time and working it down while maintaining form and accuracy -> all out timed practice.