Disappointment

[salmaun]

a

[StaceyKoprince]

I'm sorry this test is giving you so much trouble. You're not alone!

Timing is definitely a major factor, and it's unlikely that you're going to break 700 if you continue to have the timing problems you describe. Basically, you MUST fix the timing problem - if you don't, you should generally expect a similar result next time.

Everyone struggles with timing on this test because no matter how good you get, the test can just give you an even harder problem. First, you need to deal with the psychological component: sometimes the test is going to give you something you can't do in the expected timeframe. You can choose to:
(a) recognize that you can't do it, make a good educated guess within the expected timeframe, and move on
or
(b) spend too much time on it, probably get it wrong anyway, and then get something else wrong at the end of the test because you run out of time

When I write it that way, the best path seems obvious, doesn't it? So you have to keep reminding yourself: the test is going to give me stuff I can't do in 2min (or whatever the expected timeframe is for that question). My only strategic advantage is to recognize when that happens and let it go.

I'd be willing to bet that part of the problem, though, is that you don't always know when you just blew 3.5 minutes on a hard quant question, right? What you need to do is learn about how long one minute is without looking at a watch or stopwatch. If you don't have one already, buy yourself a stopwatch with lap timing capability. When you go to do a set of problems, start the stopwatch but turn it over so you can't see the time. Every time you think one minute has gone by, push the lap button. When you're done, see how good you were - and whether you tend to over or underestimate. Get yourself to the point where you're within 15 seconds either way on a regular basis (that is, you can generally predict between 45 sec and 1min 15 sec).

Now, how do you use that when doing problems? If you're not on track by one minute, make an educated guess and move on. (The general idea is that if you're not on track by the halfway mark*, you're unlikely to figure out what's holding you back AND have time to do the whole problem in the 1 min you have left.) And don't forget to study HOW to make an educated guess - this is different depending upon the type of problem or the content being tested.

* For SC, 1min is well beyond the half-way mark (we're supposed to average about 1m20s here), but you can almost always eliminate at least some choices on SC in that timeframe. Once you've got that "I'm around the 1min mark and I'm struggling" feeling, go through any remaining choices ONCE more. Pick one. Move on.

I also just want to give you a little bit of data that will also hopefully help you to feel psychologically more comfortable letting go. You can get any one question wrong, even the easiest one they give you, and still get a 700+ score on the test. If you get 4+ questions wrong in a row towards the end, however, it's very hard to score 700+. The per-question penalty is actually more severe when you have several wrong in a row. One isolated wrong answer might only have a 1 or 1.5 percentile point penalty, while 5 in a row would have around a 2 to 2.5 percentile point penalty per question. You can see how that could kill your score at the end of the section, and why it would be so hard to score 700+ if you let that happen (especially if it happens in both sections!).

I like to think of the GMAT as a tennis match, not a "school" test. I know I'm not going to win every point in a tennis match, but I'm going to do everything I can to be in a position to win the very last point, because that's how I win the match. So when the other guy (the computer) hits a great shot (gives me a question that's too hard / long), I just think, "Nice shot!" and move on.

Here are links to some articles on combatting stress:
http://www.manhattangmat.com/stress-tips.cfm
http://www.manhattangmat.com/strategy-series-stress.cfm

These are in the MBA Resources section of our web site. There are lots of other articles there, including some on time management; you may want to browse yourself and see if any others are useful for you.

Again, just want to leave you with: you must fix the timing problem. It's likely that you did make a lot of progress since the last time, but your timing brought you down. Good luck - let us know how it goes.

[jgranchi]

Wow. That is really discouraging! I mean he is getting great scores on practice exams so he might be doing something write, just not on the real thing. I find that when I take a practice exam, I get more right the 2nd time around--that is, when I am reviewing the CAT's, I choose the option to hide the question answers and essentially work out the problem again. I thought it was odd that I would get it right the 2nd time around. I assume it is due to either stress or time management. Perhaps if I had more time I would have gotten it right the first time.

[StaceyKoprince]

Stress is certainly a major factor, as is mental fatigue. You've also done the problem once already, so you know generally what the problem is about (in terms of recognizing what it's testing) and you have some idea of what did and didn't work the first time around (even if you don't know whether you got it right, you still know when something didn't feel totally right the first time around - you were unsure or feeling your way instead of feeling totally confident about your work and answer on that problem). Those are major advantages when looking at the problem the second time.

It's often the case that the stress of the real test magnifies our weaknesses and bad habits. Things that only hurt us a little bit on a practice test cause us many more problems on the real test. That's something that the original poster here experienced, with the significant timing problem.