I always run out of time on Quant. What to do?

Question

This is my second time taking the test. Ive taken at least a dozen practice tests and have went through the entire Manhattan course and did all the problems about 5 months ago. I've covered most of the material and still run out of time on the quant. I am usually have about 7 questions left when time is done.

1st time i took the GMAT i knew i would be short of time and I rushed through it and finished with time to spare and it killed my score(36 score on quant). I actually do better if i take my time and guess the last 10 questions then rush through it ive realized.

I have about 9 days until test time and am somewhat panicking as I have not improved my speed much, but I have improved my ability to get questions right since last time.

Any suggestions? I'm going to memorize some basic exponents and perfect squares..that might be a start

gmatkoopa · Answer

spencer: It is very possible to get a high score in Quant without attempting every question (I've seen 9 incorrect for a 50). Thus, if you can identify specific question types that are causing you to slow down (most CATs can keep track of this for you), quickly identifying them and skipping them can help you keep yourself on track better. Of course, more practice and skill improvement is preferred, but I would start to think about tactical ways to raise your score.

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akhileshgupta05 · Answer

You need to hunt what takes so much of time and then decide. Remember every single GMAT question can be solved under 2 minutes.

So following could be few ideas to increase speed:

If your calculation speed is less,increasing it in such a short span will be difficult. It takes a lot of practise.
Know your tables 1-12 or up till 15 preferably.  
Learning squares and roots will help

Are you spending too much time reading the questions and then solving it ?
Try what I do - instead of just reading the question, read and write simultaneously. For example if a question stem says :
Jack has 2 more pens than Tom, immediately after reading this your paper should have 
Tom = T pens
Jack = T+2 pens.
Doing this saves as much as 15-30 secs/per question which multiplied by 37, rest you do the math!

Use the benchmarks. For example an answer to a question could be say 20% of 63. You can quickly do this: 10% of 63 = 6.3 so 20% is 2 X 6.3 = 12.6 (6 secs).

Know how numbers work and estimate
For example you should know by now, that increasing the denominator of a fraction decreases the final answer, etc.

Don't solve DS questions, be confident and know that you can solve.

Most importantly be in control of your situation, don't wait till the 30th question to know that you are behind time. Its better to know it at the 15th question!

Instead of sovling perfectly till 30th and then guessing last 7 - Solve 8-9 perfectly, guess one or two, then again solve 7-8, guess one or two. Provided you know you are behind time.

Continuous mistakes hurt your score a lot. And if for some reason you feel that you have 2-3 mins and too many questions left, start guessing blindly but answer all 37 questions. Instead of getting 1-2 correct and not seeing as many as 5, its better to get 7 incorrect.

All this has been working for me. Hope it helps you too.

Cheers!

spenceryuan · Answer

Thanks alot guys. That helped alot. I got one week till test day and will try to employ this strategy. until then i think memorizing squares and roots will go farther than doing more problems at this point.

akhileshgupta05 · Answer

Guess your test got over.

What was your score?

vinayrsm · Answer

Thanks Akhilesh for sharing tips on increasing speed in Quant section!

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I always run out of time on Quant. What to do?

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