Mock and Final exam strategy

Question

I am re-building my stamina on giving mocks. In november I had to take a break from GMAT due to some office work and now for the past 3 weeks I am trying to get back to my previous rhythm. I exhausted my Mock 5 in Nov and scored a 675
Today on GMAT club I see my mocks are ranging b/w 625 vs 635. Its not about me losing the concepts. In-fact I think in last 3 months I have studied far more. The problem I am facing is what to do:

Should I skip questions when I feel I am unable to solve them. Or when harder questions come - I spend extra 2-3 mins on them becuase that is what going to define my score and maybe I skip later 5 questions straight and mark them as guess. I have been doing the later strategy - but I think I am losing control over the test clock with that.

What to do please help. Order I am using is Eng then Maths and then DI. 
Reason is I am slow in Verbal - I miss details imp for RC and CR and this has improved my verbal score
Maths in b/w since I can do that with a fatigues mind after ther 23 question stint.

Then I take my 10 mins down - to calm my nervous and use the momentum built in brain to strike DI. ALso, I am weak in DI - but penalty on DI is way lower than penalty on Maths. So I assume that even if I attempt half of it write my maths and Eng section should protect me.

Let me know if my approach has flaws. I aspire to give the GMAT in 1st week of Jan - probably 7th Jan - since I will again get staffed on a office project and this will stall my prep for 3 months now.

KarishmaB

egmat · Answer

Your strategy is backwards for how GMAT scoring actually works.

You're thinking "hard questions define my score" - but the adaptive algorithm works opposite to that. When you spend extra time on hard questions and then rush-guess the last 5, here's what's happening: the algorithm has likely adjusted those final questions to be easier/medium difficulty. And getting EASY questions wrong hurts your score  far more  than missing hard ones.

Think about it - the GMAT is measuring your "ability level." If you prove you can handle hard questions but then miss easy ones, the algorithm reads that as inconsistency and adjusts your ability score down sharply. A string of wrong answers on medium questions at the end is more damaging than missing a couple of hard ones earlier.

The winning approach: protect your accuracy on easy/medium questions at all costs. Set hard 2.5-min exits on time-sinks. If a hard question is eating your time, guess and move - your score ceiling is determined by NOT making mistakes on questions within your ability, not by cracking every hard one.

Read this for more info:  https://e-gmat.com/blogs/gmat-timing-strategies-why-gmat-time-management-is-important/

Try this adjusted strategy on an official mock and see how it feels. Come back and let us know your sectional breakdown - happy to help diagnose further from there.

Goldenfuture · Answer

Thanks a ton. I actually was watching a video by Piyush where he said getting the first 17 right is generally a good way to score in top quartiles even if you just mark the last few as guess.

Reasons for Quant time burn in recent mocks

Long Method First 
On several simple questions, the shorter approach didn’t strike me during the test. I immediately went with a longer, more mechanical method and executed it, trying to finish within ~2 minutes. In review, the shorter approach became obvious, but it didn’t click under test pressure.

Wrong Skip Assumption 
As I progressed, I assumed that since I was getting questions right, the test was adapting upward and that skipping—especially harder questions—would hurt my score. Because of this belief, I avoided skipping and ended up spending too much time.

Execution Slips    
 Due to accumulated time pressure, I made execution errors. Even when I knew the final step conceptually (e.g., reaching 90 but forgetting to multiply by 2), I failed to execute it.

]End-of-Section Time Crash   
 Because of the above, I ran out of time toward the end and had to rush or guess the last few questions.

Faulty Score Belief 
  
 I assumed that getting ~17–18 questions consistently right would lead to a higher score than deliberately sacrificing a few questions and managing time better, which now seems incorrect.

Goldenfuture · Answer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8pWMY14Yvps

KarishmaB · Answer

Read this first: https://anaprep.com/purpose-of-review-a ... n-on-gmat/

Fundamental to your score - Getting all easy and medium questions correct.
That said, to get in the 685-695 range, you will need to get a bunch of so called "hard" questions correct too - but mind you, not by putting the easy medium questions at stake.
Pacing is paramount. When you get a question you find Hard, invest no more than 3 mins on it. Take your best guess, mark for review and move on. Come back to such questions in round 2.
As for your section order, your strategy sounds good.

Goldenfuture · Answer

Thank you  KarishmaB  for the reply - this is superbly helpful. I can't give more than 5 kudos to you. So writing back my thankyou here. <3

Goldenfuture · Answer

Tagging  gmatwhiz  as well - since I have been trying to follow Piyush's strategy here.

Dream009 · Answer

Even I am confused and I am having the same problem. Also, my score is declining day by day with mocks - how are ppl able to get almost all questions right?

Goldenfuture · Answer

KarishmaB - Thank you for sharing the mark and review strategy - I did see an increase in my quant score due to this and surprisingly all the ones I marked and came back to I actually marked them correct. So this seems to work for me. My latest mock score is a 655 - which is a 20 point increase. So I am happy

I also analysed myself during the English and DI section. Its not that I don't know DI - its just too long and by the time I think of solving stuff the 2 min timer gets exhausted. I tried to skip and come back in DI but this was counter-productive - since I had a tendency of skipping almost all - which is why i spent more time on the DS questions and they were too time consuming - I almost had to guess last 4 and I got lucky in marking 2 right as guess. What to do for DI For English - there is a speed and accuracy challenge in CR - If I time myself apart from mocks also - every correct answer is around 2 mins 30 sec. Where 40 sec is reading the statement and then I spend 20 sec with each option. And if I am stuck b/w two using keywords to eliminate 1. I am trying to reduce this time - but when I do my accuracy goes for a toss and everything is wrong. When I do this - I lose time on the last RC. I assume for the last 5 questions - which is generally 1 RC and 2CR - I should have 8 mins. But I generally run out of time and have to guess last 2 or even if not just mark them out - rush through them. What to do here. My strategy for revision: I am going to give myself 5 more days and schedule the exam mostly for 7th or 10th Jan. The slots are open in India mostly. For revision - I brought mocks and exhausted them before november becuase - I wanted to give this really crazily at that time and then a personal and proffessional issue happened. Leaving job is not recommended to focus on GMAT so I deferred. I am planning to give 2-3 mocks more and revise topic wise from GMAT club putting filter of each topic and GMAT focus mock exam questions - to brush up concepts and not to missout on what was covered in mocks. Anything else you recommend? Let me know. Thanks a ton for your honest advise everyone. Lots of love and best wishes for the new years <3

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