The 7 Reasons You’re Struggling with Timing on GMAT Quant
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A lot of my GMAT students struggle to nail down their timing on the Quant section. If you’re in this situation, you can’t just tell yourself that you’ll work faster next time. Instead, with the help of this post, figure out where your timing problem is coming from. Then you’ll know exactly how to fix it.
- Getting blindsided
Most GMAT test-takers don’t have great timing the first time they ever try a Quant section. You’ll probably need to try a few times before you get a feel for the pace of the test and how quickly you have to answer questions. If you’ve only done one practice test and your timing was horrible, don’t panic. Before you give up, spend a week or two studying and then try again, this time making timing your top priority.
- Diving in without a plan
Good timing is easier when you plan before you start taking the test. Don’t have a timing plan? Use this one on your next practice test. It’s easy and only takes a few minutes to learn.
- Lack of timing awareness
Maybe you’ve found yourself looking up at the clock, thinking only a minute has passed, to find that it’s actually been five minutes and you haven’t finished the problem. To build your timing awareness, try doing timing awareness drills. While you study, set a timer on your phone, and turn it over so you can’t see the screen. When you think two minutes have passed, flip the phone back over and check your accuracy. Repeat this until you can consistently estimate 1 and 2 minutes.
- Slow math
On some problems, you might have done fine if you’d only done the arithmetic faster. You had the right approach, you just fumbled with the actual numbers. Even if you already know how to do the math, you can still benefit from speed drills. Try the end-of-chapter drills from Foundations of Math, and the arithmetic drills at arithmetic.zetamac.com. See how fast you can get while still maintaining good accuracy.
- Picking the wrong strategy
Maybe you started the problem the wrong way, and only realized it once you were two minutes in. If this does happen on test day, the right response is usually to guess and move on. But how do you avoid it in the first place? First, start thinking of Choosing Smart Numbers and Backsolving as first-line strategies, not last resorts. Start reading story problems more slowly, and look at the answer choices before you begin working on any problem. The answer choices often contain crucial hints to what approach to use. Also, start a “When I see this, do this” table for problem types that cause you trouble.
- Just a few more seconds…
You know that you’ve spent more than two minutes on a problem already, but you’re sure that if you just had another 10 or 15 seconds, you’d be able to get it right. Right? Wrong. You look up at the clock, and realize that your 10 or 15 seconds have turned into a minute or more. Start being very skeptical of the voice in your head that tells you that another few seconds will be worth it. Unless you only have one or two lines of math to do, it’s probably not going to happen. And that’s okay.
- Not getting out while you still can
Some timing problems are just pure stubbornness. I like to think of ‘too long’ problems as falling into three categories. Some of them are problems you could’ve done quickly if you’d only done the arithmetic faster. Others are problems that you could’ve done quickly if you’d noticed the correct strategy and known how to use it.
Finally, there are problems that are just too hard for you to do in two minutes (today). The only way to handle these problems is to dodge them. How? Develop a habit of always moving on at the 2:45 or 3:00 mark, regardless of how close you are to finishing a problem. Also, take notes whenever you review a problem like this. What was it about the problem that made it so hard? Could you have recognized it more quickly?
On test day, if you don’t understand a problem after 1 minute and two thorough readings, it’s probably not going to happen – ditch it and move on.
Not all timing problems are alike, but all timing problems can be fixed. Now is the time to change how you work: failing on a practice test or while doing timed sets alone is good, because you have a chance to learn from it. If you don’t ever completely screw up a practice test while testing a new approach, you’re probably not being creative enough. Target your timing problems just as diligently and creatively as you target content issues, and watch your Quant score improve. ?
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Chelsey Cooley
is a Manhattan Prep instructor based in Seattle, Washington. Chelsey always followed her heart when it came to her education. Luckily, her heart led her straight to the perfect background for GMAT and GRE teaching: she has undergraduate degrees in mathematics and history, a master’s degree in linguistics, a 790 on the GMAT, and a perfect 170/170 on the GRE. Check out Chelsey’s upcoming GMAT prep offerings here.