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Sidk1998
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Time Management in Data Insights 27 Aug 2026, 21:24
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Hi everyone,
I’m struggling with time management in the Data Insights (DI) section, specifically getting bogged down by MSR questions. My current pacing is backfiring, and I'm looking for advice on how to maximize my score.
The Problem:
  • The Time Drain: I spend way too much time on tricky DS questions trying to prove or disprove sufficiency.
  • Blank Questions: This leaves me rushing the end of the section, often resulting in left-blank questions (which I know carries a harsh penalty).
  • The Speed Penalty: When I try to force myself to speed up on DS to bank time, my accuracy completely tanks and I make careless errors.
My Questions for the Community:
  1. Overall Strategy: What is the optimal pacing and triage strategy to extract the maximum score out of the DI section?
  2. Strategic Skipping: Is it better to immediately guess and move on from DS questions that look too hard, or should I consider skipping the dense, time-intensive Multi-Source Reasoning (MSR) blocks entirely to save time for the rest of the questions?
Any advice, drills, or rules of thumb on how you handled DI pacing would be hugely appreciated!
Thanks in advance.
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Time Management in Data Insights 28 Aug 2026, 08:08
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practise questions from sources which are worthy of question.. official books , gc tests are good..
time questions when practising ... no specific strategy works for DI .. see what suits you best...
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Time Management in Data Insights 29 Aug 2026, 01:35
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Have you seen these videos?

Also, hr1212 had posted a few excellent articles on various DI question types as well as DI in general. Below is link to one of the posts and you can find the rest in his signature. Take a look and see if they are applicable to your situation.
How I Think About DI Pacing


Sidk1998
Hi everyone,
I’m struggling with time management in the Data Insights (DI) section, specifically getting bogged down by MSR questions. My current pacing is backfiring, and I'm looking for advice on how to maximize my score.
The Problem:
  • The Time Drain: I spend way too much time on tricky DS questions trying to prove or disprove sufficiency.
  • Blank Questions: This leaves me rushing the end of the section, often resulting in left-blank questions (which I know carries a harsh penalty).
  • The Speed Penalty: When I try to force myself to speed up on DS to bank time, my accuracy completely tanks and I make careless errors.
My Questions for the Community:
  1. Overall Strategy: What is the optimal pacing and triage strategy to extract the maximum score out of the DI section?
  2. Strategic Skipping: Is it better to immediately guess and move on from DS questions that look too hard, or should I consider skipping the dense, time-intensive Multi-Source Reasoning (MSR) blocks entirely to save time for the rest of the questions?
Any advice, drills, or rules of thumb on how you handled DI pacing would be hugely appreciated!
Thanks in advance.
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MarkGMATMentor
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Time Management in Data Insights 12 Sep 2026, 10:45
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Hi Sidk1998,

Let me try to answer your questions directly.

Time management on the DI section is critical. As you've noticed, rushing through individual questions results in missing more questions, making rushing a self-defeating strategy. To improve your timing, you need to improve in both a "micro" and "macro" sense.

Micro:
Instead of rushing through questions, you need to learn the most efficient ways to solve. You're right to call out DS questions in particular. These tend to be the hardest to master, but are also the most rewarding, and the most able to give you "time back" in the DI section.

When you review DS questions, even ones you got correct, make sure you're solving them the smart way. Try to use reasoning as opposed to heavy math. Are you getting bogged down in calculations? Are you missing shortcuts because you read the prompt too fast? Are you picking numbers / testing cases that are both easy to work with and extreme (more likely to give you a different answer)? If you can improve your DS process, you can solve many (not all) DS questions in under a minute by being efficient, not rushing.

On the other DI types, remember that the right answer often depends on one or two bits of data rather than all the information. You do need to read everything, but your main focus will be question-driven.

Macro:
As you noted, leaving questions unanswered at the end of the section will tank your score. Try to keep a steady pace throughout, not on every question, but every five questions or so. The benchmarks I give my students are:
  • Starting question 6: 35 minutes remaining
  • Starting question 11: 24 minutes remaining
  • Starting question 16: 14 minutes remaining
  • 5-minute warning: You should be starting question 20 (the last question)

If you follow this exactly, you'll have a little time left at the end to review any flagged questions. It also gives you a few minutes of buffer if you go slightly long on time.

If you're behind, you need to increase your rate of strategic guessing. Remember that the test penalizes wrong answers on easy questions more heavily. So, I wouldn't guess on a whole MSR block, since it may have a mix of easy, medium, and hard. Tricky DS questions are better to guess on, especially since you're more likely to guess right on a DS question (because there are fewer answer choices). Also consider guessing on other DI questions that look particularly long or involved.

I hope this is helpful. Let me know if you have any questions!

~Mark
Sidk1998
Hi everyone,
I’m struggling with time management in the Data Insights (DI) section, specifically getting bogged down by MSR questions. My current pacing is backfiring, and I'm looking for advice on how to maximize my score.
The Problem:
  • The Time Drain: I spend way too much time on tricky DS questions trying to prove or disprove sufficiency.
  • Blank Questions: This leaves me rushing the end of the section, often resulting in left-blank questions (which I know carries a harsh penalty).
  • The Speed Penalty: When I try to force myself to speed up on DS to bank time, my accuracy completely tanks and I make careless errors.
My Questions for the Community:
  1. Overall Strategy: What is the optimal pacing and triage strategy to extract the maximum score out of the DI section?
  2. Strategic Skipping: Is it better to immediately guess and move on from DS questions that look too hard, or should I consider skipping the dense, time-intensive Multi-Source Reasoning (MSR) blocks entirely to save time for the rest of the questions?
Any advice, drills, or rules of thumb on how you handled DI pacing would be hugely appreciated!
Thanks in advance.
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