Everything You Need To Know About Time Management, Part 1

by Stacey Koprince Sep 10, 2019

I haven’t picked too ambitious a title there, have I? Let’s see how we do! In this first part, we’re going to talk about how the timing works and what implications that has for studying and taking the test. In the second part, we’ll discuss practical strategies for time management training.

Time management is obviously an essential GRE skill, and one of the (many!) skills we need for this test is the ability to maintain an appropriate time position. Time position refers to the relationship between the number of questions that have been answered and the time we’ve taken to answer them.

For example, let’s say that we’re answering questions on which we’re supposed to average about 2 minutes per question. If I have finished 5 questions and 14 minutes have elapsed so far, am I ahead, behind, or on time?

I would be behind on time because, after 5 questions, only about 10 minutes should have elapsed—so I am 14 – 10 = 4 minutes behind and need to make up that time somehow.

Most people will find themselves behind at some point on the test, particularly if they don’t have strategies in place to prevent this from happening. If we run out of time before completing the section, we’re going to incur a huge penalty because either we’ll have to guess randomly on a bunch of questions just to finish on time, or we’ll leave questions blank (which doesn’t incur a penalty—but we lose the opportunity to get those questions right and earn points!).

Some people, anxious about the test or the timing, find themselves going too quickly. If you’re answering many or most questions way too quickly, then you’re also likely making a lot of careless mistakes, and that will kill your score, too.

Ideally, we’d like to stay within a minute or so of the expected time as we take the test. Sometimes, though, we’re going to get off track. So how do we remain on track as much as possible, and how do we get back on track if we find that we’re ahead or behind? That’s what we’re going to discuss in this series.

GRE Time Management Tip 1) Understand how the scoring works

If you don’t understand how the scoring works, you’re probably going to mess up the timing.

Note: if you’ve ever studied for another computer-based standardized test, such as the GMAT, be aware that you’re going to handle the timing somewhat differently on the GRE. The GRE is what is called section-adaptive, not question-adaptive like the GMAT. More on this below.

On the GRE, the first quant section and the first verbal section you receive will contain a range of questions, some easier, some harder. Answer the ones you can and—this is important!—let go of the ones that are too hard. Unless you are actually prepared to get an almost-perfect score, some of the questions will be too hard.

The section will then be graded based upon percentage correct (note: the test does not impose a penalty for wrong answers, so put down an answer for everything!). After that, you’ll receive a second quant and a second verbal section, and these will be chosen based upon how well you did in the first section. There are three possible buckets for the second sections: easier, medium, and harder.

Right now, everyone’s thinking: how do I ensure that I get the harder section? Well, you study hard. = ) But note that there’s really nothing you can do to ensure any particular outcome. That’s true for any test: you do your best and that’s that. The next thing everyone says is: how do I know which section I get for the second set of questions? You don’t. There’s no way to tell. All you can do is do your best with what you’re given—again, just as with any other test.

It’s also possible to receive a 5^th section, either quant or verbal. This is an experimental section in which the test writers are testing out future questions. If you receive three quant sections total, then you’ll know that one of those three was an experimental section, but you won’t know which was which. Likewise if you receive 3 verbal sections, one won’t count, but you won’t know which one.

GRE Time Management Tip 2) Know your per-question time constraints and track your work

When practicing GRE-format* problems, ALWAYS keep track of the time for each question, whether you are doing one problem at a time or a set of problems at once.

*GRE-format means questions that are in the same format as one of the official GRE question types. If you are doing other types of problems—say, pure math drills—you do not necessarily need to time yourself.

We have 35 minutes to answer the 20 questions in each quant section and 30 minutes to answer the 20 questions in each verbal section. It gets more complicated, unfortunately: we need to train ourselves to hit certain average timeframes depending on the type of question.

I’m going to give you all of the various averages, but in sections 4 and 5 we’re going to talk about some strategies to make this a lot less complicated during the test itself.

So what does that mean in practice? If we want to finish the section on time, then we have to hit the average expected timing. At the same time, averages are only averages—you’re going to have some faster questions and some slower ones.

I want to keep two things in mind when trying to hit my averages. First, I want to make sure that I’m generally spending enough time on questions that I don’t make a bunch of careless mistakes simply due to speed—that means spending at least approximately 45 seconds on any one problem. On the flip side, if I’m spending more than about 30 seconds above the expected average, the chances are very good that the question is just too hard for me (and, if that’s the case, I’ve already spent too much time!).

Note, of course, that the ideal conditions detailed above will get thrown out the window if we have already messed up the timing. If you’re running out of time, you may only be able to spend 10 seconds on each remaining problem, just long enough to put in an answer.

Keep a time log that reflects the time spent on your practice problems. Your log might look like this (though you can organize it however you want):

*For RC passages with more than one question, time yourself separately on the read-through of the passage and then allocate that time evenly to the questions. In the example above, there were 3 questions, so the reading time was split among those three questions.

On the Quantitative Comparison question, the test taker had a negative 15 second position; on the Sentence Equivalence question, the test taker had a positive 10 second position, and so on. Group the question types together in the log (so, instead of mixing types as the above chart does, keep one log for QC questions, a separate log for SE questions, and so on). Highlight questions on which you fell outside of the Min / Max time range (< 45 seconds overall or > 30 seconds above the average time for that question type).

For the above data, the test taker was fine for the QC and SE questions but spent a bit too much time on that RC passage and question.

GRE Time Management Tip 3) Reflect on your results

The log will make you aware of your pacing on a single-problem level, and will force you to consider the time as you work through a practice problem. Aggregate the data to determine those question types that are generally costing you time; we’ll call these negative questions.

Next, note whether you tend to get these negative questions right or wrong (across the various sub-categories—for example, Rate problems or Inference RCs). For those that you’re answering correctly, ask yourself: how can I become more efficient when answering questions of this type? For those that you’re answering incorrectly, ask yourself: how can I get this wrong faster? I’m getting it wrong anyway—so if I can get it wrong faster, then at least I won’t be hurting myself on other questions in the same section!

How do you get things wrong faster? Well, I’m exaggerating a little bit here, but what I really mean is: do NOT spend extra time on these wrong and slow question sub-types no matter what. You may be able to learn how to make a decent educated guess—and you should certainly try! Longer term, you may then decide to study that particular area or topic more closely in order to try to get better. Right now, though, cut yourself off.

Also make note of the positive questions, the ones that are saving you time. First, make sure that you are not making many (or any!) careless mistakes with these; working quickly is never a positive thing if you sacrifice a question that you were capable of answering correctly. You may actually need to slow down on some of these in order to minimize your careless mistakes.

If you do find areas that are both highly accurate and very efficient, excellent; these are your strengths and you should be very aware of those while taking the test. For instance, if you discover that you’re behind and need to sacrifice some questions in order to catch up, you should still take your normal amount of time to answer any strength questions; don’t sacrifice the ones you can answer correctly! Instead, make a random guess on the next weakness question that you see in order to get yourself back on track.

Okay, that’s all for today; next, we’ll discuss practical strategies to keep your timing on track: developing your 1 minute sense, using benchmarks to track your time throughout a test section, and what to do if you find yourself too far ahead or behind during the test.

[ NEXT: GRE Time Management Series, Part 2 ]