GMAT Time Management Strategy

[Katharina]

Hi Stacey,

First of all, I am loving GMAT Interact! I thought I'd let you know, as it's really playing a key motivator to practice regularly, despite my rather crazy working hours. Good work you guys!

Aside for GMAT Interact lessons, I'm slowly working my way through the homework related to each section. Given that I am starting with quite a low level (it's been ages since I last took any sort of test - and have actually never done a CAT before!), I am particularly concerned with managing my time (and nerves!) on the test.

While I tend to know how to solve many questions, it usually takes me over the recommended question time limit (specially in Quant). I realise that almost 45 seconds have passed before I even begin to write anything down! For some reason, it's particularly bad with Data Sufficiency - I hardly ever finish before 2:15-2:30 min, which also makes me increasingly nervous as I realise I run over time. I'm aware that sometimes I just take the longer route to get to a result (which I always double check from the different solutions I find using both, the Navigator and the forum). But most of the time, it just takes me too long to "react" to a problem (know what it's asking for, what kind of question it is, get over my nerves and just go for it).

Do you have any recommendation on how to improve my timing and question recognition? And what do you suggest I could do to get over those first few seconds of blank staring at the question?

Many thanks for your help!!

[StaceyKoprince]

Thanks for the feedback on Interact! I forwarded it to our team - we really appreciate it.

You're doing the right stuff in general - you will pick up speed as you get better.

I want you to go read two things right now (before you finish reading my post!):

https://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/inde ... lly-tests/
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... -the-gmat/

Take a couple of minutes to think about what you just learned from those two posts and what you need to do differently going forward.

Then start a response and tell me what those things are.

Then keep reading. :)

There are a couple of different things those articles will help you to develop. One is the GMAT "mindset": this is a business test and I will always be given some things that are "bad opportunities (aka, too hard or will take too long). I don't want to go after bad opportunities any more than I would in the business world.

Another is the idea of the "2nd level" of studying for the GMAT - the level of knowing how to apply facts and rules to the weird way in which the GMAT asks questions. Your study is focused on coming up with takeaways that help you to learn the GMAT code: when I see ABC, I know to do / think XYZ.

You do, of course, first have to learn the rules and formulas and etc. But then there's this whole second level of learning how to apply those facts to the test questions and learning how to think your way through the test.

You mention nerves (and an initial "question paralysis) a couple of times, so I'd also like you to check out this article on how to manage stress during these types of situations:
https://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/inde ... mat-score/

I've suggested that method (meditation) to many students now and have heard back from multiple saying that it worked for them.