In It to Win It
This is a little story of a crucial epiphany one of my students (and I) just had.
Recently, at the end of class, one of my students began asking questions about timing and guessing on test questions. He’s really struggling with the idea that he has to let some questions go and that he’s not going to be able to answer every last question correctly. I told him he’s not alone; most students have significant difficulty accepting this idea—and those who can’t accept it almost never reach their goal scores.
As we discussed the boring details of how the test works, he acknowledged that he knew he had to do what I said (because I’m the expert ?), but he was having a tough time because, normally, he’s in it to win it.
(For those who aren’t familiar with that expression, it means that, if you’re playing a game, you’re always going for it and trying your best to win.)
When he said that, a light bulb went off in my head, and I asked him:
But are you playing the right game?
You see, he’s been playing the game he was taught to play in school—where getting things right is much more important than the length of time spent. That works in school because we’re generally given plenty of time to complete all of the questions to the absolute best of our ability, to check all of our work, and so on. We still don’t necessarily get absolutely everything right, but the best students do expect to answer the vast majority of the questions correctly. And, most importantly, there’s no trade-off in terms of time spent.
But we’re not playing that game anymore. This is a new game with different rules; we have much more stringent time constraints in this game. Spend extra time on this question and you’ll have even less time on some future question.
So, here’s my advice: think of this as a tennis match. You don’t expect to win every point when you’re playing tennis; that’d be silly. Rather, the goal is to win more points than your opponent—but you don’t stress too much when the opponent does win a point. In fact, in a recent match, Serena Williams beat an opponent by a score of 6-1, 6-1. (If you’re not familiar with tennis scores, that score indicates that Serena basically blew her opponent away. Not even close.) But guess what? Out of 90 points in the match, the opponent won 31 of them. You can lose a decent number of points and still win the match—and the same is true for the GRE.
My student got really excited (as did the few other students who’d stuck around after class—it pays attention to listen even if you don’t have any questions yourself!). He had what we call an “Aha!” moment: he realized that this was not about making himself give up or be less competitive by accepting that he was going to have to give up on some questions. He realized that, instead, he needed to learn how to excel at this new game, and that all these things we’ve been telling him are simply the new rules of the game.
In other words, sticking to your timing, learning to make educated guesses, cutting yourself off on too-hard questions and guessing instead—all of these habits ARE the habits of someone who is In It To Win It! You’re not giving up when you do those things. You’re playing the game like an expert.
Time is so very limited that we need to think of it this way: whatever time I choose to spend on this question right in front of me right now, that time has to come from other questions in the section. So is this really where I want to spend my precious, limited time? Often, the answer will be yes, but sometimes it will be no—and I have to make sure that I’m not too stubborn. I admit to myself that I need to skip this question and try another. That way, I ensure that I do answer everything I know how to answer; then, if I have the time, I can go back again to the hardest ones. (And if I run out of time, at least I’ll know that I answered the questions I did know how to answer.)
In addition, I need to make sure that I’m not so stressed out about the idea of getting back to the hardest ones at the end that I rush on the questions I do know how to do, thereby increasing my chances of making a careless mistake. It’s okay to get some questions wrong—in fact, that’s expected, just as Serena expects to lose some points during her matches. I just want to make sure that I don’t miss any questions that I really do know how to answer.
Remember: you don’t need to answer everything correctly. Rather, you need to make sure that you earn all the points you’re capable of earning, while not tiring yourself out or injuring yourself on those points where your opponent hits a winner. (In other words: don’t spend too much time on too-hard questions, because that wasted time will hurt you in the end.)
Key Takeaways for Being In It to Win It
(1) Don’t play the game you were taught to play in school. The GRE is a different game. Learn how to play it.
(2) Your goal is NOT to get all of the questions right—that was the School game, not the GRE game. Your goal is to answer correctly whatever you can during the very strict timeframe and to let go and guess whenever necessary.
(3) Unless you are capable of earning a perfect score, you are going to be given some questions that are too hard for you. You will most likely get them wrong, of course, because they are too hard. The only real choice you have is whether you take too long to get them wrong and thereby hurt yourself on other questions elsewhere in the section. Practice telling your opponent, the computer, Nice shot! and moving on, mentally and literally. ?
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Stacey Koprince is a Manhattan Prep instructor based in Montreal, Canada and Los Angeles, California. Stacey has been teaching the GMAT, GRE, and LSAT for more than 15 years and is one of the most well-known instructors in the industry. Stacey loves to teach and is absolutely fascinated by standardized tests. Check out Stacey’s upcoming GRE courses here.