IR Strategy = Foolish?

[cgcivello]

I will be taking the GMAT in 4 weeks and am very worried about my IR performance. I've taken 4 practice tests with the IR and scored 0, 2.4, 0, and 0. I'm very embarrassed by this and am so confused, especially considering I analyze data as my current job. I really think it's a timing issue; as I review I easily see how the answer is determined but under the time crunch I'm suffering. I almost always get at least 1 question per prompt correct, but hardly all correct on a given prompt.

With this said, I'm thinking about doing the following... When I take the test, I'm going to take a lot of time on the first few 6-7 questions and ensure that I get them right (about 4 min/Q). With minutes left, I will guess on the remaining questions. My rationale is that a 3 or 4 on the IR section is less of a serious blow to my application - there's no way I can submit a score with a 0 on the IR.

I will try this strategy out on my next practice test and I will continue practicing via the IR question banks. In the meantime, are there any suggestions? Is this strategy on test day a foolish one?

[RonPurewal]

Well, that's not a totally foolish strategy, but it's certainly not optimal. What you should really do is figure out where all that time is going.

Are you wasting your time reading through every ... single ... thing in the prompts? Are you reading every word of every single tab/paragraph before you start solving the problems?
If so, then there's your problem right there. You shouldn't try to read through everything before solving the problems; you should just become generally familiar with what's in each part of the prompt. Then, if a part actually pertains to a particular problem, then go examine that part in more detail.

I would guess that's probably the issue. If it's not, then it's incumbent on you to figure out where all that time is going... and then to do something to fix the problem.

[sophia.lin12345]

For me what's making the IR difficult is that you have to get it all right to get full credit. It's a new thing for me. So far I'm slowly going through the questions and thinking about faster ways to identify the answer for each part and looking for questions that might take longer-those I'd hold off til later. Any specific tips for tackling MSRs?

[RonPurewal]

looking for questions that might take longer-those I'd hold off til later.

well, you shouldn't do that... because you can't do that on test day!
i believe that the IR section works like the rest of the test, i.e., you have to answer the questions in order, and you can't revisit them or leave them blank.
please correct me if this is wrong (it's been a few months since i've seen an IR section).

Any specific tips for tackling MSRs?

well, for starters, don't spend a ton of time reading the information.
remember that, for any given question, you are only going to use a small percentage of the given information. therefore, it's best to just skim the source texts and note WHAT KIND of information is in each source... but not WHAT the information actually is.
for instance, if a text contains descriptions of 4 different metallurgical processes used to extract pure metals from their ores, then you don't need to bother reading the details (until you see a question about them!). instead, you should just note to yourself, "ok, this section talks about how to get these 4 different metals from their ores"... and that's that. if you get a question about that kind of thing, then of course you can go back and look at the specifics.

[nyc917]

you have to answer the questions in order, and you can't revisit them or leave them blank. please correct me if this is wrong

That is correct, Ron. You can't revisit the questions that you left blank.

[tim]

Technically, you can't leave a question blank at all and still advance to the next question.