HrusheekeshJoshi wrote:
Will the following approach work?
- Make sure I get first few easy-medium questions right. Doing so will take me to medium-high difficulty level questions (the type of questions where my struggle begins and I begin to lose steam).
As I start seeing medium-high difficulty questions, follow this
- See if I can solve the question. If yes then go ahead and solve it.
- If I see a hard question, a question I won't be able to solve within 2-2.5 minutes, I mark the answer in 15-20 seconds and move on.
The big idea is being selective on medium-high or high difficulty questions.
I like the last bit, but there are a few small problems with the initial points. Firstly, test takers are usually not very good at identifying the difficulty level of a question. What looks easy to you could be considered a tough question by the exam. Secondly, all of this is going to take time and mental energy away from what you actually should be doing: solving questions.
Don't underestimate this second point. You will already be trying to minimize the impact that exam pressure and time management have on your ability to solve questions correctly. Don't add analyzing question difficulty to all the things that you need to manage. Instead, just guess whenever you find yourself behind on time. You can find one possible time management strategy
here.
To summarize:
1. The "first few" questions are
not so critical that you must get all of them correct at any cost.
2. Don't worry about whether a question is easy/medium/hard (see point 3)
3. Unless you are behind on time
and need to guess. Then you should guess your way through questions that look tough.