Timing strategy for IR?

Question

Well, after reading through a couple of threads, i feel most of the folks are comfortable with the IR section. Today i gave my MGMAT cat-2 with IR and was humbled by the IR score (2.5) as well as by the questions itself.(3 questions correct in 30 minutes

, wasted 24 minutes for nothing

) My weakness in data interpretation came forth when i got 5 out of 8 incorrect; i feel i also messed up my timing which resulted in 4 questions being unanswered.The questions which might have been easier but never had the time to face them. I will try to improve on my Data interpretation skills in time, however, i feel that it might not be possible for me to attempt all the 12 questions with spot on accuracy in 30 minutes. I want to know that since this section is non adaptive is there any effective strategy in selective attempting "some particular questions" while leaving "some other questions" for guessing, so that the chances of losing time without suffering on accuracy is minimal? I feel multisource reasoning consumes a lot more time and the corresponding rewards are less? at least for me.

KapTeacherEli · Answer

Unlike the Quant and Verbal sections of the GMAT, which are adaptive and reward strategic guessing, we don't recommend skipping or guessing on IR questions unless you're completely stuck. Because 4 of the 12 questions (as of the latest info we have from the testmaker) are experimental, guessing introduces a huge amount of variance into your score--if a disproportionate number of guesses are scored questions, you can do very well on the remaining set and still have a sub-par score (The reverse is true as well, but do you really want to gamble?)

If pacing is an issue, one things that's very important is to take careful notes for your Multi-Source Reasoning problems. Just like with Reading Comprehension, your question solving speed will drastically increase if you know exactly where to find all the information you need and don't have to go back rereading until you find it!

Hope this helps!

LalaB · Answer

Hi conty911,

you can read posts of guys who has already taken the gmat. they all say that IR in real gmat is much easier than that in Mgmat, Kaplan etc. so, dont loose ur heart, work hard on OG13 IR and everything will be ok

conty911 · Answer

Thanks Eli, for the insight, I was not aware of the experimental questions in IR section.Yes, in that case as you said that skipping questions questions will not be a good idea. I'll try more of the IR practice problems to make myself more comfortable in pacing and answering this section.

Lala, thanks for the motivating me, I'll definitely work on the OG-13 IR questions.

macjas · Answer

See this  discussion  about IR..

Timing strategy for IR?

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