Some questions take more than 2 minutes. Should I be worried?!

Question

According to most sources regarding test strategies, you should, on average, answer all questions in 2 minutes (maybe 1,5 for SCs). Usually when I study, I time and try to finish all the questions in 2 minutes. However, what I've noticed when I get to the hard questions in the Official Guide (OG) book (the Orange one), those at the end of the book, and some other hard questions, I cannot manage to get to the right answer in 2 minutes average. Let's say for the last 30 questions in OG, it takes maybe 2,5-3 minutes per each question. The reason is of course that the questions are harder and more time consuming. But should I be worried? Or is this in line with how it should be when you study at the harder level? I.e. 650-800 questions take 2,5-3 minutes (for CR, PS & DS). Also, I finish the easy questions (those at the beginning of the book) much faster, perhaps around 1,5 minutes in average.

Br,

Br,

AjiteshArun · Answer

Some of this will depend on your target score, but generally, while it is okay to take more time on difficult questions, just remember to keep checking the time regularly so that you don't end up compromising the last few questions. In other words, it is okay to let some questions "go" in order to maximize your score.

akela · Answer

Hi Hatethissh , The difficulty of the questions vary throughout the test. So, its perfectly fine if you spend more than 2 minutes on certain questions. I would recommend to follow the general timing strategy for the whole section: https://gmatclub.com/forum/timing-strat ... 06035.html Also have a look at this ESR . The "time management" section in quantitative shows that the average time per response was different - 1:03, 2:25, 1:38, and 3:00. Hope this helps!

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi Hatethissh,

The idea that you should spend no more than 2 minutes per question is based on the number of questions in the Quant and Verbal sections of the GMAT and the total amount of time that you have for each section (re: 31 questions in 62 minutes in the Quant and 36 questions in 65 minutes in the Verbal). It also happens to a rather generic idea and if you try to implement it on a per-question basis, then it could cause you more harm than good.

The only practical way to measure your overall pacing skills and properly measure your readiness for Test Day is to take a FULL-LENGTH CAT and do so in a realistic fashion (take the FULL CAT - with the Essay and IR sections, take it away from your home, at the same time of day as when you'll take the Official GMAT, etc.). Before I can offer you the specific advice that would apply to your situation, it would help if you could provide a bit more information on how you've been studying and your goals:

Studies:
1) How long have you studied?
2) What study materials have you used so far?
3) How have you scored on EACH of your CATs (including the Quant and Verbal Scaled Scores for EACH)?

Goals:
4) What is your goal score?
5) When are you planning to take the GMAT?

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

bb · Answer

Which one are you referring to? OG11?

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51EWCPF8VNL._SX382_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg

OR OG Quant 2016?
 https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/517t-qFXO7L._SX389_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg

Hatethissh · Answer

1. Started with GMAT in April. Very slow pace though. Since October I've started to study for 4 hours per day. Hopefully I can stay home from work and study full day sessions.
2. All Manhattan books, Official Guide + separate OG Quant Review/Verbal Review, test from internet, as well as different questions found on forums and youtube.
3. Haven't taken a real CAT test. Took Economist tutor mini test and scored 650-680 (a month ago) and several other small tests. Will start to take more tests next week.
4. My GPA is 4.0 so hopefully I only need around 640-660 to get in to the particular school I want.
5. Once in November and once in December. Also possible to take around January if necessary.

I have started to practice on harder questions now. Also, as mentioned above, I will take more tests from now on. Do you think everything is "under control"?

Br,

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi Hatethissh,

If you've truly been studying for several months, then you really MUST take FULL-LENGTH CATs at regular intervals. This is the only way to truly track your progress and define specific areas that you might need to work on. As such, you should plan to take one soon (perhaps this weekend). Once you have that first CAT result, you should post back here. Until we have that information, we have no way of knowing whether your studies are properly focused or not.

The process of taking (and reviewing) a CAT requires a significant amount of energy and effort - and takes time to 'recover' from. This is one of the reasons why you typically should not take more than 1 CAT per week - and your last CAT should be taken about 1 week before Test Day. You mentioned that you had an Official GMAT appointment scheduled in November. While it might be tempting to try to 'cram' and/or take lots of CATs up to that date - neither of those ideas typically leads to great results on Standardized Tests such as the GMAT. By extension - depending on how you Score on this first CAT - you might need to consider pushing back that Test Date.

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

Hi Hatethissh,

I’m glad you reached out, and I’m happy to help. There are a few things that come to mind here:

The first is that you are doing practice questions in order to do just that, practice. So, ideally you should take as much time as you need per question to get the correct answer, because the first goal of anyone preparing for the GMAT is learning to get correct answers. So, while seeking to answer every question in two minutes or less might be your longer-term goal, if you need more time at this point, you should take it. Getting correct answers in two minutes or less takes practice, and you won't get sufficient practice by rushing through questions to complete them in two minutes or less.

The next thing that comes to mind is that unless you plan to take the actual GMAT soon, a question that you take more than two minutes to answer is not so much something to worry about as it is a signal that practicing more with that particular type of question may be a good idea. If you don't have efficient ways to answer certain types of questions, then you could come up with or find ways to do so, and then practice with questions of those types until you are comfortable with answering them efficiently.

Finally, the key word here is “average.” Yes, it’s true that you need to spend an “average” of 2 minutes per quant question, and about 1:48 on each verbal question, but that means that certain questions may take you 30 seconds while others may take you 3 minutes. Certainly, you don’t have to spend exactly 2 minutes on every question, you know what I mean? So, even if you are planning to take the test relatively soon, I wouldn’t worry about the fact that some of the harder questions are taking you longer than 2 minutes to complete. I’ve written about this topic in further detail in my article about  timing strategies for a higher quant score .

Also, have you taken any practice tests? If so, how has your timing been on those?

Feel free to reach out with further questions.

Good luck!

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