Struggling with DI Accuracy Due to Time Management Need Advice

Question

I've been preparing for the GMAT for quite some time now, and I've noticed a recurring pattern in my mocks, especially in Data Insights.

I tend to spend too much time on a few questions because I want to get them right. As a result, I run out of time toward the end and end up randomly marking the last few questions. When I review my attempts, I often see that most of my initial questions are correct, while the randomly guessed ones are almost always wrong.

This seems to be hurting both my score and accuracy. Has anyone faced a similar issue? 
How did you train yourself to move on from difficult questions instead of getting stuck?

Thank you!

SarfrazAP · Answer

Time management is a problem for most people on the DI section, so you are definitely not alone in this. And guessing will almost never give you the correct answer on DI because of the nature of the questions - most questions contain 3 sub parts or require two answers (TPA) and you would have to be really lucky to guess both or all 3 correctly. In fact, the only DI question type where intelligent guessing can work to some extent is DS.

So how do you go faster? First, analyse your tests/error logs to see if there are specific question types on which you are taking too much time. MSR often gets the blame (mostly unfairly), but I have found the real culprits to be DS and TPA. Then you need to revisit your strategy for those question types.

One common trick employed by the test makers is to provide a lot of superfluous information in the question prompt. I keep telling students that a key skill you want to develop on DI is the ability to separate signal from noise. Easier said than done, but definitely possible if you go in to questions knowing that you don't necessarily need to make use of all the information that is given to you.

It wouldn't be a bad idea to watch some videos by experts you trust or better still, spend an hour or two with a good private tutor running over your mistakes and your approach to DI questions. What you don't want to be doing is an endless stream of questions because you'll simply keep repeating the same mistakes. Feel free to reach out if you have any questions.

AdarshSambare · Answer

I totally agree with SarfrazAP, analyse your test/error log nicely

dotsoftme · Answer

you only need to focus on the questions which you are comfortable doing in about 3 minutes. Like DS, TPA, MSR and GI 4 types of questions are there so think and go with thhe question which you are comfortable with

LoyalRing · Answer

Thank you so much!

Struggling with DI Accuracy Due to Time Management Need Advice

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