Timing Strategy

Question

Hi all!

I've taken 4 MGMAT tests so far and have consistently gotten 42-45 for quant (latest was 44). I've been reviewing for about 2 months now and although I definitely feel I have a better understanding of the material compared to 2 months ago and am regularly getting 75-85% of all practice problems I do, I am frustrated with the lack of progression on my mock tests. After having done 9 practices tests, including veritas, official, and manhattan, I can pinpoint the cause to me panicking from feeling like I have not enough time from the very beginning and thus being paranoid about that and not being able to focus, causing me to miss out on details from the questions or my calculation. I reviewed my last test, there were 6 questions that I got wrong due to my inability to focus 100%. One could argue they were careless mistakes, but regardless what you call it, I am strongly convinced it's the pressure of time causing me to not focus. Thus, my two questions are:

1. When I do practice problems, I use my phone and it count upwards to 2 miuntes for every single question. However, on the test, it's 75 minute counting down, making it really hard for me to assess whether I'm ahead or behind. What are some tactics that you use to get a better sense of where you stand in terms of pacing on the test?

2. If I'm aiming for a 730-750, or quant 48-50, how many difficult questions can I skip directly?

Thank you all so much for your help!

NYC471 · Answer

PS, not sure if this info is relevant but I did get a Q48 on the official guide two months ago before I started reviewing any of the material. Thanks!

bb · Answer

You need to set checkpoints in terms of how much time you should have left - at Question 10 - 55 mins, Question 20 - 35 mins, Question 30 - 15 mins or something like that.

Then you can turn the timer off on the test, and only turn it on during those questions.. you can keep it on, but it distracted me so I only looked at it 2 times before turning it back on permanently on Question #30

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi NYC471,

Your post discusses a number of different 'issues', but before I can provide any insight into any of them I'd like to know a bit more about how you've studied:

1) How long have you studied?
2) What resources have you used?
3) When are you planning to take the GMAT?
4) What time of day do you take your CATs?
5) Do you take the ENTIRE CAT each time (including the Essay and IR sections)?

You seem overly concerned about spending 2 minutes (or less) on each Quant question, when you should really be focused on doing efficient work at all times. Certain questions WILL take longer than 2 minutes to solve (they're designed that way), so you will likely have to adjust the fundamental ways that you 'see' (and respond to) the GMAT.

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

NYC471 · Answer

Thanks BB. I did some searching on the forum and will compare what you suggested in one of the other posts of 45 minutes left, 12 done, and 20 minutes left, 25 done).

Thanks Rich. Please see my responses below

1) How long have you studied?  Early May, so about 2 months.  
2) What resources have you used?  Self study Veritas books - didn't find it too helpful. Self study Manhattan books - very helpful. Also I signed up for your Empower course but since I'm based in China, the videos are incredibly hard to load. I've only completed about 20% of the entire course. I'd say my improvements have mostly come from self studying Manhattan books and your course has added in supplemental value (mostly the flexibility to approach quant with test it and the overall prep attitude) 
3) When are you planning to take the GMAT?  8/17 - so one month 
4) What time of day do you take your CATs?  I've schedule my official gmat for 1pm on a Monday, and I've basically modeled all my CAT exams as 90% accurate onditions.  
5) Do you take the ENTIRE CAT each time (including the Essay and IR sections)?  I have for the past 5 tests.

Here are my CAT results:

1/18 - Veritas, 43, 39, 670 
5/13 - Veritas, 42, 33, 620
5/16 - Official, 48, 36, 690
5/30 - Manhn, 42, 38, 660
6/7 - Manhnn, 45, 35, 660
6/15 - Manhn, 42, 35, 640
6/21 - Veritas, 44, 28, 590 
6/22 - Veritas, 43, 33, 620
7/4, Manhnn, 44, 36, 660
7/7, Veritas, 42, 33, 620
7/12, Official, 49, 38, 710

I would say I didn't really start effective preparation until after the 5/30 Manhattan GMAT. It was throughout the first 3 weeks of June that I found out my weakenss through the MGMAT test analysis feature. I honed in on the topic that I was bad at and am much more comfortable with them now. I would say there are maybe 2-3 small topic left in quant that I need to brush through. Otherwise from a content perspective, I'm pretty set.

The past two tests I have focused on letting myself having much more time for the first 10 quant questions but have found myself running out of time towards the end. Think I will adjust that a bit. I am also a bit alarmed that my official mock CAT has only improved 20 minutes in 2 months of time, but the first 700 is definitely encouraging.

I'm obviously trying to get higher into the 700's, and I think by the Official and MGMAT mocks, I have the potential to do so. What do you think I can do to build on this latest score? I have 2 more Manhattan CAT's left and will buy the Exam pack from GMAC, so that's 4 CAT's left with 5 weeks to go. I also have 2 Veritas left but considering the strange scoring history for me, I think I may just use them for extra practice and not read too much into the score.

Sorry I'm rambling on a bit, but at this point, I can't figure out a specific direction in my preparation strategy to help me improve. I feel like I've gone through all my major weak content areas. How do I make sure I get the most out of these remaining 4-6 CAT's to improve the additional 30-50 points? Do I try to do as much 600-700 level questions online and perfect those? Do I play around with my timing strategy?

Thank you all so much!
Eric

Harley1980 · Answer

Hello NYC471 I not sure that this is still actual question but here is my way of solution of this problem: simple-way-to-check-time-during-the-quant-part-203314.html

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