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In general, it’s been my experience that when people take the test with the mentality that they must correctly answer every quant question, they tend to score significantly lower than their skills suggest they will.
You already know that the GMAT is an adaptive test. In general, as you answer questions correctly, you’ll be presented with more challenging questions that are, in general, worth more points. Because the questions, on average, grow more difficult with each correct response, at some point the questions may become too difficult for you to correctly answer in the time allotted. In other words, you’ll reach your ability ceiling. If you waste your limited time and energy trying to solve questions that you have a very low chance of answering correctly—those that are above your current ability level — you’ll put yourself at a big disadvantage.
Why? First, you’ll spend your valuable time attempting to solve a question that statistically you have a low probability of getting correct. Second, and perhaps even more worrisome, because of the time you invest (or, perhaps, over-invest) in such a question, you may not have time to answer the questions that you do have the ability to correctly answer. Think about it: if you invest 3:30 each on a number of questions that are well above your ability level (and that you probably answer incorrectly anyway), what will happen at the end of the quant section?
Likely you’ll be left with 2:00 or some other insufficient amount of time to solve, for example, six questions. Even if those questions are well within your ability level, and they may very well be, how well can you answer them with 2:00 on the clock? You may end up getting all six of those questions incorrect. You know that such a string of wrong answers will be detrimental to your score.
Thus, if you strive for perfection, you could end up NOT getting the questions above your ability level correct and NOT getting the questions within your ability correct, a lose-lose proposition. On a test as competitive as the GMAT, you can’t afford to adopt such a bankrupt strategy.
Instead, you must be comfortable letting go of questions that you cannot solve. To that end, a big part of testing well is knowing your strengths and weaknesses. In fact, it is valuable to have a clear understanding of those strengths and weaknesses right down to the level of specific problems.
Imagine that you’ve solved a large number of realistic practice GMAT quant questions and carefully logged and tracked the questions with which you struggle. Then, let’s say that a week before your GMAT you spend time carefully reviewing these types of questions. Maybe you discover that you’re very weak on remainder questions presented in the form of data sufficiency questions, or perhaps you discover that you consistently incorrectly answer work problems involving quadratic equations. Whatever you discover can be used as a tool. Here’s how:
When you are presented with such questions (or very similar questions), give them a reasonable attempt (say 30 to 45 seconds), but if you’re lost or really confused by the question, make an educated guess and move on, realizing that you have a low chance of correctly answering that question no matter how much time you spend on it. By skipping such questions, you not only preserve energy and brainpower, but you also gain valuable time to solve questions that you can actually answer correctly. You might say that this is a pessimistic strategy, that you lack confidence or are acting like a quitter. But that’s not true! It’s being realistic about your current strengths and weaknesses, and employing intelligent, efficient test-taking strategies that will help get you the score you want.
For example, let’s say that question 10 is clearly a very challenging probability question, similar to ones that you’ve struggled with in the past. You give the question a “fair attempt.” In other words, you spend about 30 seconds giving the problem your best possible effort. After 30 seconds, if the problem is unfolding just as the past problems like this have–not well–you eliminate some answers that can’t be correct and then make an educated guess.
The good news is that now you (1) have not wasted your time on a problem you would probably get wrong and (2) have banked 1:30 of extra time going into question 11. This extra time can be used to fight battles you will likely win. Furthermore, if you were already behind on time, you can use the extra 1:30 to catch up again.
Now, if you’re having to guess on too many of the questions, it’s very likely that you are just not prepared enough to take the GMAT, and you may need to do some more work.
Warmest regards,
Scott Woodbury-Stewart
Founder & CEO, Target Test Prep
Strive For Excellence, Not Perfection, on GMAT Quant
In reality, you do not need to correctly answer all 21 questions to get a high score, and you can correctly answer far fewer and still do well.In general, it’s been my experience that when people take the test with the mentality that they must correctly answer every quant question, they tend to score significantly lower than their skills suggest they will.
You already know that the GMAT is an adaptive test. In general, as you answer questions correctly, you’ll be presented with more challenging questions that are, in general, worth more points. Because the questions, on average, grow more difficult with each correct response, at some point the questions may become too difficult for you to correctly answer in the time allotted. In other words, you’ll reach your ability ceiling. If you waste your limited time and energy trying to solve questions that you have a very low chance of answering correctly—those that are above your current ability level — you’ll put yourself at a big disadvantage.
Why? First, you’ll spend your valuable time attempting to solve a question that statistically you have a low probability of getting correct. Second, and perhaps even more worrisome, because of the time you invest (or, perhaps, over-invest) in such a question, you may not have time to answer the questions that you do have the ability to correctly answer. Think about it: if you invest 3:30 each on a number of questions that are well above your ability level (and that you probably answer incorrectly anyway), what will happen at the end of the quant section?
Likely you’ll be left with 2:00 or some other insufficient amount of time to solve, for example, six questions. Even if those questions are well within your ability level, and they may very well be, how well can you answer them with 2:00 on the clock? You may end up getting all six of those questions incorrect. You know that such a string of wrong answers will be detrimental to your score.
Thus, if you strive for perfection, you could end up NOT getting the questions above your ability level correct and NOT getting the questions within your ability correct, a lose-lose proposition. On a test as competitive as the GMAT, you can’t afford to adopt such a bankrupt strategy.
Instead, you must be comfortable letting go of questions that you cannot solve. To that end, a big part of testing well is knowing your strengths and weaknesses. In fact, it is valuable to have a clear understanding of those strengths and weaknesses right down to the level of specific problems.
Imagine that you’ve solved a large number of realistic practice GMAT quant questions and carefully logged and tracked the questions with which you struggle. Then, let’s say that a week before your GMAT you spend time carefully reviewing these types of questions. Maybe you discover that you’re very weak on remainder questions presented in the form of data sufficiency questions, or perhaps you discover that you consistently incorrectly answer work problems involving quadratic equations. Whatever you discover can be used as a tool. Here’s how:
When you are presented with such questions (or very similar questions), give them a reasonable attempt (say 30 to 45 seconds), but if you’re lost or really confused by the question, make an educated guess and move on, realizing that you have a low chance of correctly answering that question no matter how much time you spend on it. By skipping such questions, you not only preserve energy and brainpower, but you also gain valuable time to solve questions that you can actually answer correctly. You might say that this is a pessimistic strategy, that you lack confidence or are acting like a quitter. But that’s not true! It’s being realistic about your current strengths and weaknesses, and employing intelligent, efficient test-taking strategies that will help get you the score you want.
For example, let’s say that question 10 is clearly a very challenging probability question, similar to ones that you’ve struggled with in the past. You give the question a “fair attempt.” In other words, you spend about 30 seconds giving the problem your best possible effort. After 30 seconds, if the problem is unfolding just as the past problems like this have–not well–you eliminate some answers that can’t be correct and then make an educated guess.
The good news is that now you (1) have not wasted your time on a problem you would probably get wrong and (2) have banked 1:30 of extra time going into question 11. This extra time can be used to fight battles you will likely win. Furthermore, if you were already behind on time, you can use the extra 1:30 to catch up again.
Now, if you’re having to guess on too many of the questions, it’s very likely that you are just not prepared enough to take the GMAT, and you may need to do some more work.
Warmest regards,
Scott Woodbury-Stewart
Founder & CEO, Target Test Prep
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