Breaks during actual GMAT

[vsudheerk]

Hi,

Few questions regarding the actual GMAT
1. Are the optional breaks during actual GMAT 5 min or 10 min long?
2. Is the scratchpad provided with enough lead time to say write some ABCDE's for use with verbal section before starting the actual exam?

Thanks,
SV

[sonia.chawla]

-> The breaks are 10 minutes each.

You get the scratch pad in the beginning and then get the time to find and select your schools (not timed), take a five minute monuse practice etc etc. Ample time to write your ABCDE or whatever you want to.

Having said that most likely you will finish the scratch pad that you get before the test during your quant section (I did) and need a new one during one during the break between Q & Verbal. That one is given to you when you start writing the exam, so no major benefit overall.

[StaceyKoprince]

Sonia's right on all of the above - thanks, Sonia!

You cannot sit in the room on the breaks and you cannot take the scratch pad out of the room - so no writing on your scratch pad while on the breaks.

For verbal, I like to write ABCDE once, at the top of the page, and slightly spread apart (so that the gridlines printed on the page give me nice, natural columns). Then I just move to a new row for each problem and use my symbols there, under the letters (eg, "x" if I think it's wrong, "~" if I'm not sure, and a check mark if I think it's the right one).