|
Nina -
It is not true that the first questions are more important. This is one of the "myths" that GMAC goes to great pains to contradict in all of their publications.
The origin of this myth is in the fact that the test does not start adapting to your performance at the very beginning instead the first 10 question (approx.) are pre-selected and the test starts adapting to you with questions selected based on your performance at question 11. This has led people to try to "game" the test by doing everything possible to get the first ten questions right. The think this will make the initial estimate of your score so high that you have an advantage.
This is like going on a first date and wearing very high heels and going to a restaurant you cannot afford. You might fool your date that first time, but there is plenty of time for him or her to realize that you are not that tall and not that rich! On the other hand you do not want to show up on that first date looking terrible and smelling worse - if you do there will not be a second date.
The same is true on the GMAT. The first 10 questions cannot make your score, in the end all of the questions count...however you do want to get focused and try to do well on those first ten, if you get less than half of those right it will be a tough road to get a good score on the section. So the first ten questions may be worth a few seconds of extra time a little extra focus, but essentially should be treated the same as other questions.
In terms of timing strategy on the quant, you might like to know the following and don't worry 5 days is plenty of time to apply this technique (and you will find that it is not a good idea to just "miss the last ones" but rather to choose which questions you will attack and which you will not based on what you can get right):
First, you need to understand that everyone (or nearly everyone) is going to miss problems on each section of the test, particularly on the quant side.
Many people base their "strategies" on the fear of missing questions. This leads them to the following approach - when they encounter a strange and difficult problem they become focused and alert and put maximum time and attention into this problem. Then when they see a problem that they can get right they try to not only get it right but do so in the shortest possible time so that they can make up the time they just devoted to the really difficult problem.
Here is the flaw in that scenario...between experimental questions that don't count and the chance of randomly guessing the correct answer, a test taker has about a 1 in 3 chance that a blind guess will not count against her. So a random guess will either be right or not count about 33% of the time. But if she attacks this difficult problem, even if she is able to narrow the problem down to just 2 choices - and assuming that one of those two is the correct choice - her odds are still less than 50% of choosing the correct answer and having it count. In other words, by continuing to devote her time and attention to a problem that continued to stump her, this test taker used three minutes or more and barely improved her chances of getting that question right. (And do keep in mind the very real chance that even if she does get it right that it will be an experimental question and not count in her favor).
Now that she has used too much time on the question that she struggled with she needs to make up that time somewhere - so she will make it up on the next few questions by hurrying so that she can save 20 seconds a question. This is the worst possible thing that she could do - other than just ending the test immediately. GMAT questions are deliberately tricky and are designed to specifically funnel test takers to the wrong choice - even when they fully understand the problem! The test writers want you to try to hurry so that you fall through their trapdoors into incorrect answers - for example, by answering the length of one side rather than the perimeter of the equilateral triangle. Of course the questions are usually set up so that you have to solve for the incorrect choice first and then go through that to the correct choice. If you are trying to "save 20 seconds" then you walk into these traps.
Many people base their "strategies" on the fear of missing questions. This leads them to the following approach - when they encounter a strange and difficult problem they become focused and alert and put maximum time and attention into this problem. Then when they see a problem that they can get right they try to not only get it right but do so in the shortest possible time so that they can make up the time they just devoted to the really difficult problem.
The better way to approach the quant section is this:
When you see a question that you can get right - devote the attention and the time that it takes to get it right. There is a difference between struggling for 3 minutes to come up with a strategy for a question you find very difficult (this is usually a mistake) and spending three minutes doing what it takes to ensure that you get a particular question (that you know you can solve) correct. It is a matter of approach to the test and it can make a huge difference. Do not try to steal 20 seconds from questions that you can get right only to hand that time over to a question that you will likely miss anyway.
Here are two things to think about:
1) If you do not have a specific strategy for solving a quant problem in about 1 minute and 15 seconds then you will want to choose from the viable answer choices and move on. It is precisely this type of question - where you have no strategy for a long time - that can sap the time and energy right out of your quant section on the test.
2) Set a time standard for yourself - I like to say that after question 25 I should have 25 minutes left (for the last 12 questions). If I am 5 minutes behind, I will just skip (randomly guess) at the next two problem solving questions I see. This will bring me back to the right pace. This is a better strategy than the alternative of " I can catch back up." Be careful here, trying to catch up usually means saving 20 or 30 seconds per question and we already know this is a mistake. Better to sacrifice two or three questions for the good of the test.
Finally, focus on getting questions right rather than on fearing that you might get some wrong. You will get questions wrong. But if you get say, 25-30 right out of the 37 you will be over the 80th percentile this strategy will be one that gives you a consistent score.
David Newland
|
