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Stacey Koprince June 21, 2011 Time management is obviously an essential GMAT skill, and one of the (many!) skills we need for this test is the ability to maintain an appropriate time position. Time position refers to the relationship between the test takers position on the test (the question number) and the time that has elapsed to get to that point in the section. For example, if Ive just finished quant question #5 and 15 minutes have elapsed so far, am I ahead, behind, or on time? Check out the table below to help answer that question:
Positive
Neutral
Negative
In my previous example, I would be behind on time because, on quant, were expected to average about 2 minutes per question. After 5 questions, only 10 minutes should have elapsed so I am 5 minutes behind, putting me in a negative time position. Most people will find themselves in the negative position more frequently than the positive position. If we run out of time before completing the section, were going to incur a huge penalty because either well answer a bunch of questions incorrectly in a row (random guessing just to finish on time) or well actually leave questions blank (and that incurs an even higher penalty than the first scenario). It can also be very problematic to be too far in the positive position, though. If youre answering many or most questions way too quickly, then youre also likely making a lot of careless mistakes, and that will kill your score by the end of the test. Ideally, wed like to remain neutral throughout the test, which means that we stay within two to three minutes of the expected time. Sometimes, though, were going to get off track. So how do we remain neutral as much as possible? And when we do get into a positive or negative position, how do we get back on track? Thats what were going to discuss in this series.
(2) Know your per-question time constraints and track your work
When practicing GMAT-format problems, ALWAYS keep track of the time for each question, whether you are doing one problem at a time or a set of problems at once. (Note: GMAT-format means questions that are in the same format as one of the official GMAT question types. If you are doing other type of problems say, math drills you do not necessarily need to time yourself.)
Question Type
Average Timing
Quant
2 minutes
Sentence Correction
1 minute 15 seconds
45 seconds; 2 minutes
Critical Reasoning
2 minutes
2 to 3 minutes
1 min
1.5 minutes
45 seconds; 2 minutes
So what does that all mean? If we want to finish the section on time, then we have to hit the average expected timing. At the same time, averages are only averages youre going to have some faster questions and some slower ones. The Min and Max numbers reflect a different consideration. First, I want to make sure that Im generally spending enough time on questions that I dont make a bunch of careless mistakes simply due to speed. On the flip side, if Im spending more than about 30 seconds above the expected average, the chances are very good that the question is just too hard for me (and, if thats the case, Ive already spent too much time!). Keep a time log that reflects the time spent on EVERY problem. (Note: if youre taking our course, use the OG Archer online program to time yourself and keep track of all of your data.) If you make your own log, it might look like a rough version of this:
Question Type
Source
Benchmark
Time Spent
Time Position
Data Sufficiency
OG12 #43
2 min
2 min 10 sec
-10
Sentence Correction
OG12 #62
1 min 15 sec
1 min
+15
OG12 Passage #3
3 min
3 min 43 sec
-43
On the Data Sufficiency question, the test taker had a negative 10 second position; on the Sentence Correction question, the test taker had a positive 15 second position, and so on. Group the question types together in the log (so, instead of mixing types as the above chart does, keep one log for Data Sufficiency questions, a separate log for Sentence Correction questions, and so on). Highlight questions on which you fell outside of the Min / Max time range. If you use ManhattanGMATs OG Archer, note that youll have all of the timing data saved for you automatically, but youll still have to keep track of which questions fall outside of the Min / Max time range. Click on the Review Your Answers link to view a list of the problems, and record the too fast and too slow problems in a log of your own.
stopwatch itself will keep running. You can push the lap button multiple times, and the timer will record all of the times at which you pushed the button while continuing to run. Set yourself up with a set of 5 or 10 quant or CR practice problems. (Its best to practice this with 2-minute questions to start.) Start your timer and cover it up so that you cant see what it says (but still give yourself access to the lap button). Dive into the first problem; when you think its been about a minute since you began, push that lap button. When youre done with the problem, push the lap button again. Start your second problem; when you think its been about a minute since you began, push that lap button. When youre done, push the button again. Keep repeating this process until youre done with your set. (Note: if youre done with the question before you think it has been a minute, check your work. If you were really that fast, you have the time to check, right? Make sure you didnt make a careless mistake simply due to speed. While checking your work, still push that button when you think it has been a minute since you started in the first place.) Now, go back and look at the data. For the 1-minute part, anything between 45 seconds and 1 minute 15 seconds is good. Anything outside of that range is too fast or too slow. Note your tendencies and, tomorrow, adjust accordingly when you do your next set of problems. Most people find it takes three to four weeks of regular practice with this in order to develop a time sense that is reasonably accurate most of the time. Note: you can also train yourself when youre doing anything that requires extended mental concentration, even if its not GMAT-related. Have to write up a report or memo for work or do some research? Set up your timer and push the button every minute until youve pushed it ten times. Then check your data. Once your time sense is relatively reliable, you can start to implement your am I on track? and if not, Im moving on, or Im moving to guessing strategy. This also requires you to know how to make good educated guesses, of course. Check out these two articles for help: Educated Guessing on Quant and Educated Guessing on Verbal.
Time Left
75 minutes
60 minutes
7-8
8-10
45 minutes
14-15
16-18
30 minutes
21-22
24-26
15 minutes
28-29
32-34
Method 2: Checking the question number at certain points to see whether youve used the right amount of time (all times assume + / 2 minutes; that is, youre okay if youre within 2 minutes on either side); Note: check after finishing the listed question:
10
55 minutes
56 minutes
20
35 minutes
37 minutes
30
15 minutes
19 minutes
Method 3 (quant only): Doing a little math to calculate your position. Heres how it works: Glance at the question number. Multiply that number by 2. Subtract the resulting number from 75. Now look at the clock. Are you within 2 minutes of that number? For example, Im on question 11. Multiplying by 2 gives me 22. 75 22 = 53. If the timer says 51 to 55 minutes left, Im okay; if the timer is outside of that range, Im going too quickly or too slowly. Note that the time block for method 1 is 15 minutes and the time block for method 2 is 20 minutes. As you progress in your studies, you can begin to set up 15-minute or 20-minute blocks of practice questions and do mini tests to start practicing the timing in a block. (Use the per-question timing averages to determine how many questions you should have in a 15-minute or 20-minute block.)
anywhere from a little under 1 minute to a little under 2 minutes. If thats enough to catch back up, great. If not, repeat this behavior until you are caught back up. Dont worry if you see two big weakness questions in a row. Maybe you got lucky and got that first one right. Maybe one is an experimental. Even if they both count, getting two wrong in a row wont kill your score you can recover because you still have more questions to come and youre not sure that you couldve gotten them right anyway, because they were weaknesses. What about going too quickly? We can tell in the same way except the data is the opposite of what it was above. For method 1, you are more than one question higher than the expected range for that timeframe so youre on a higher question number than expected. For methods 2 and 3, you are more than 2 minutes faster than the expected time so you have more time left on the clock than expected. In this case, you do need to slow down a bit, because you might be making careless mistakes simply due to speed. Make sure youre writing everything down. Check your work on the questions that you know you know how to do. (On the ones you absolutely dont know how to do, though, just go ahead and move on you dont need to spend more time on those.) Use your 1-minute sense! If youre ready to move on before its been about a minute (and you think you got it right), now would be a great time to check your work. Okay, the test is over, and you realize that you messed up the timing. Now what? Now you go all the way back to the beginning of this article and start practicing all of the things we discussed until youre better able to balance your timing throughout a test section (and note that this can take weeks and even months, depending upon how severe your timing problems are and whether they are also related to holes in your content knowledge and skills). That was a lot of stuff!