Deciding how much effort to put into the question

[vivekghegde]

Hello,

I had a question on how to decide on how much effort to put into a question in the middle of the exam.
Here is the scenario,
I am in the 22-26th question of Quant on the GMAT. I know I am doing ok, as the questions i see are of hard/ medium level. I have around 25-27 mins left with around 15 questions remaining.

At this juncture, i see a difficult question which is verbose. I know i can do this problem so i go ahead. After 3 mins, i am still unable to find the answer but think i am close to finding it. Will you recommend that i skip this question or still go ahead and complete it?
I see 2 choices - i am close to the answer and think this is a 700-800 level question. Is it worth getting this correct or guess and move on so that i can complete all the questions on time.

On my Manhattan CAT, i chose to complete the question - got it right, but had to rush through the last few questions. While analyzing the results, i found that i got a few 600-700 questions wrong towards the end.
Also, i had to literally, select an answer on the last 3 questions to complete the section.

But i am not sure, what would be a better idea in such a situation. Your inputs will definitely help. Thanks in advance!

-Vivek

[vivekghegde]

Can any of the Manhattan staff please respond?
Stacey, can you please provide your inputs?

[StaceyKoprince]

FYI - it takes anywhere from 3 days to a week to get a response - and your 2nd reply to your own post actually caused you to wait longer for a response. We answer questions in order, oldest first, and the date is based on the date of the last post in that thread. When you replied to your own post, you moved the date to 17 Nov instead of 15 Nov, and therefore you had to wait until I answered all of the other posts before your 2nd post. So, don't do that again (unless you want to wait longer! :)

Okay, great questions in your post.

If you have 25-27 min left with 15 questions remaining on quant, then you are 3 to 5 minutes behind on time. If you are more than 2 minutes behind on time, then you have to do something to catch up.

At this juncture, i see a difficult question which is verbose. I know i can do this problem so i go ahead. After 3 mins, i am still unable to find the answer but think i am close to finding it. Will you recommend that i skip this question or still go ahead and complete it?

I recommend that you do none of the above. You cannot afford to spend 3m on any question, ever, and that's especially true when you're 3 to 5 minutes behind already. Instead, I recommend that, as soon as you recognize that the question is "difficult" and "verbose," you spend no more additional time on the question. You guess immediately (and randomly) and move on. NOTE: this is only true if you are ALREADY BEHIND on time.

If you are NOT behind on time, then you still should NEVER spend 3m on the question, especially a difficult / verbose one. You should spend no more than 2m and, if you aren't on track to solve the question by the 1m mark, then you should figure out how to make an educated guess during the 2nd minute, then move on.

I see 2 choices - i am close to the answer and think this is a 700-800 level question. Is it worth getting this correct or guess and move on so that i can complete all the questions on time.

First, it's very unlikely that you are accurately going to be able to guess the difficulty level in the middle of the test. That's not what you should be thinking about. Instead, you should ask yourself:
- how much time do I have left?
- do I absolutely know how to solve this - 100% confident?
- do I have an idea about how to guess between these two?

If I have no time left, I guess immediately and move on.
If I have time left, and I know how to solve 100%, and I can do it in the time that I have left, then I solve.
If I have time left, don't know how to solve, but have an idea about how to narrow down between those two, and I can do that in the time that I have left, then I do that.
If I have time left, but do not know how to solve or make a better educated guess, I guess immediately and move on.

On my Manhattan CAT, i chose to complete the question - got it right, but had to rush through the last few questions. While analyzing the results, i found that i got a few 600-700 questions wrong towards the end.

Getting several questions wrong in order to get 1 right is not good. Getting lower-level questions wrong in order to get a harder question right is not good. Basically, a harder question is NEVER worth the sacrifice of an easier question. So, now you know - it wasn't worth it to get that one question right. Next time, cut yourself off. It's actually better to get it wrong faster - so that it doesn't cause you to lose those points at the end!

[vivekghegde]

Thanks a lot for your detailed answer, Stacey :).
I get the point that losing out on the moderate difficulty questions can definitely hurt my scores.
But my dilemma arose because I knew that I could solve the question and that it is harder. So I set about doing it and lost track of the time. I need to manage this urge to solve all the questions that are thrown at me.
As you say, managing the time is the key to doing well on the exam. Thanks for providing the clarity.

And yes, I will definitely wait for the reply next time. :)

[vivekghegde]

Hello Manhattan Staff,

I gave the GMAT on 22nd and scored a 710! I believe this score can stand me in good stead for all schools that i want to apply. This was my third attempt and this time I used the MGMAT CATs for practice. I would say that your CATs have been really helpful as these are pretty close to the actual GMAT tests. And the detailed explanations helped me gaining good insights into where I was making mistakes. The Quant and verbal questions are quality questions which require similar level of thinking compared to actual GMAT. Here is a thumbs up to you guys. :). Onto my applications now.

Regards,
Vivek

[StaceyKoprince]

As you say, managing the time is the key to doing well on the exam.

Definitely! Think of it this way: the test is for people who want to go to business school - people who want to work in the field of business. Managing your time well and setting appropriate priorities are CRITICAL skills for a good businessperson, right? I have a million things I could do on any given day at work (okay, maybe "a million" is a slight exaggeration...) and I have to decide which ones are going to get done today and which ones aren't - and let those go until tomorrow (or, sometimes, never!).

So, on this test, one of your tasks is to make sure you set the right priorities for managing your time. If doing the task in front of you (the really hard problem) is going to prevent you from doing other, more important tasks (the questions that you actually know how to do in the appropriate timeframe), then you have to make the call to let that really hard problem go.