bb wrote:
However, talking to a number of test takers, many end up reviewing questions they felt were too hard and they skipped. The challenge here is being able to quickly identify which questions are too hard and I think that’s only possible in quant or data insights without wasting quite a bit of time on reading the question trying to figure it out and then realizing it’s Something you want to come back later. That is in efficient and not a good use of your time (again, unless you can minimize the efficiency.
We're all still figuring out how best to use the review feature, but broadly speaking, I think
bb is spot-on here.
On verbal, there's not a whole lot you can do with the review feature. It's nearly impossible to identify "hard" questions (whatever that might mean for you personally) until you've pretty much done the entire question.
Sure: it doesn't hurt to flag verbal questions that made you uncomfortable -- that way, if you have time to review at the end, you'll know where to direct your attention. But there's absolutely no point in hurrying through verbal so that you have spare time to review at the end. That's going to make things worse.
On quant and DI/IR, I've always been a huge proponent of skipping questions that give you trouble. If you don't see a clear path to the solution, guess and move on. The new review feature makes it easier -- psychologically at least -- to do that. You know that you'll have another crack at those questions if you have extra time. That's a nice thing, and GMAC added the review feature specifically to help test-takers pick their battles without getting anxious.
The trickier question: should you actively try to reserve time at the end for reviewing quant and DI questions? Honestly, I don't think so. Imagine, for example, that you specifically reserve 5 minutes at the end of the quant section. For most test-takers, those 5 minutes are probably better spent in other ways, such as being a little bit more careful on your initial attempts at questions. If you spend those 5 minutes reviewing questions at the end, you MIGHT get an extra question or two right -- but we keep meeting test-takers who seem to spend that time overthinking, and they often change right answers to wrong ones.
We'll see what happens over the next year or two, as we watch more of our students grapple with the GMAT Focus. Maybe we'll start to see more value in saving time at the end. But so far, I don't see much reason to believe that saving time at the end will actually help -- and for test-takers who tend to second-guess themselves, it might even hurt a bit.
I'm curious to hear other views on this, though!