While you might spend months preparing for and obsessing over the GMAT, how much time will you actually spend taking it? This guide will discuss total GMAT length, as well as how much time you can expect to spend in the testing center.

We’ll also take a look at how many minutes you have per question, a key piece of intel since you’ll be responsible for getting to all of the questions in each section. Read on to learn everything you need to know about GMAT time, plus some tips on how to prep for this long exam.

First, how long is the GMAT overall?

How Long Is the GMAT? Total Time

The total testing time of the GMAT is three hours and seven minutes, including two 30-minute sections, a 62-minute section, and a 65-minute section. Each section is strictly timed, so you can’t get any additional time unless you set up accommodations due to a documented disability.

During the GMAT, you have the option of taking two breaks for up to eight minutes. You can take each break after about an hour of testing. The first comes after the Analytical Writing Assessment (AWA) and Integrated Reasoning, and the second comes after the Quantitative section.

If you take advantage of both eight-minute breaks, then your total testing time will be 3 hours and 23 minutes. This chart shows the full GMAT length broken down into its four sections. You’ll have a choice about the order of the sections, but the test length and the spacing of the breaks are always the same.

Your actual time in the GMAT testing room will be a bit longer, since you’ll take some time reading through additional screens that give instructions or ask you whether or not you want to keep your scores. Just like with each section of the test, each of these additional screens has a time limit.

How Long Does the GMAT Take With Additional Screens?

As you take the GMAT, you’ll read through a few additional screens. First, you’ll have the option of choosing five schools to receive your GMAT scores. These score reports are free, but any additional ones that you add after the test cost $25 each. You should take advantage of these free score reports, since you have the option of canceling your scores at the end of the test if you’re not satisfied with them.

After you select score recipients, you’ll be prompted to agree to a non-disclosure agreement. Following your electronic signature, you’ll have two minutes to pick the section order you want.

You’ll be given brief instructions before each of the four GMAT sections. The Analytical Writing tutorial is the most extensive: it tells you how to write your essay in the response box and offers some tips for navigating the next screen. You have a 10-minute time limit, after which the AWA section will automatically start. You can also click ahead at any point to start your essay. You’ll also see brief instruction screens before the Integrated Reasoning, Quantitative, and Verbal sections that have just one-minute time limits.

However, you should familiarize yourself with these instructions before you take the GMAT, so you don’t have to spend time worrying about them on test day. You can find these screens in the two practice tests on the free GMATPrep Software.

After you finish the GMAT, you’ll get your unofficial score report, which tells you how you did on the Integrated Reasoning, Quantitative, and Verbal sections, along with your total scores (AWA has no effect on your total scores).

At this point, you can decide whether to keep or cancel your scores. You have just two minutes to decide. If you don’t select an option, your GMAT scores will be automatically canceled!

To prevent this from happening, you should go into the test with a clear idea of which scores you would keep and which ones you would cancel. Luckily, you can change your mind and cancel or reinstate your scores later, but you’ll have to pay a fee of $25 to $50 to do so.

Given all of these extra screens for instructions and agreements, how long does the GMAT take? You’ll likely be sitting at the computer in the testing room for close to four hours.

The GMAT is a long and demanding test, and you’re responsible for managing your time through each of the four sections. Read on to learn how many questions you have in each section and how to manage your pacing.

How Long Is the GMAT by Section?

When you take the GMAT, you’ll get just one question at a time. You can’t skip or go back to any questions, and you’re responsible for getting to all of the questions in a section before time is up.

To help you do this, you’ll see a timer with a tracker that tells you what question you’re on and how many you have left. If you don’t answer all of the questions in each section, your score will take a serious hit.

This chart shows you how many questions you have in each section to give you a sense of how much time you have per question. Keep in mind that it might not be the best strategy to divide your time equally among every different type of question, but this estimate gives you a good starting point for thinking about time management.

On average, you’ll have about two minutes per question. In the Integrated Reasoning section, you get a little more time per question, and in verbal you get a little less.

Obviously, the GMAT is a fast-paced test, and you need to manage your time and keep up your focus over several hours in order to do well on it. What can you do to sharpen your time management skills and prepare for the GMAT length? Read on for nine essential tips for time management before and during the GMAT.

How to Manage GMAT Time: 9 Key Tips

Not only does the GMAT ask tough questions, but it also challenges you to get to all of the questions in time. This kind of test is difficult for anyone, but it poses an extra challenge for people who have been out of school for a few years and haven’t taken a test in a while.

How can you polish your rusty test-taking skills? And what can you do as you take the test to work efficiently? Below are nine essential tips for time management on the GMAT. First, consider what you can to prepare for the test, followed by some advice for managing your time as you take the test itself.

Before the GMAT…

Consider these five tips for sharpening your time management skills as you get ready for the GMAT.

Time Tip #1: Take Timed Practice Tests

The best way to get a sense of the rhythm of the GMAT is to take timed practice tests. The free GMAT PrepSoftware has two practice exams that emulate the real test, and you can find additional ones with other GMAT prep materials.

When you take a practice test, find a quiet space, use a stopwatch if you don’t have a computer-based timer, and try your best to simulate actual testing conditions. Being an efficient test-taker is a skill that you can develop with practice.

A lot of people have trouble getting to all of the questions in the GMAT, but a few actually have the opposite problem. If you find yourself rushing through and making careless mistakes, try to slow down, pay attention to details, and use the full amount of time you have to answer all of the questions.

There’s no need to finish with ten minutes still left in a section, since you can’t go back and revisit any questions that you’ve already answered. The only exception is the AWA section, when you should save a few minutes at the end to read over your essay, edit for grammar and organization, and revise any sentences that are unclear.

The more you practice with an eye on the timer, the better you’ll get at balancing time on the GMAT. Plus, practice tests are useful for gauging your score improvement, measuring your progress, and readjusting your study plan in the months before the GMAT.

Time Tip #2: Find Test-Taking Strategies That Work For You

People who do well on the GMAT don’t just have a solid understanding of content. They’re also working strategically. Each section of the GMAT calls for its own skills and strategies to work efficiently and avoid careless errors.

In the verbal section, for instance, you could try the Veritas STOP method of reading the passages. Rather than focusing on every word, try to read with an eye for the passage’s structure, tone, organization, and purpose. By focusing on these main elements, you can read more quickly while still picking up the information you need to answer the questions.

In the quantitative section, you usually don’t have to solve “data sufficiency” problems. Solving a problem would be a waste of time if you can assess whether or not you have enough information without actually going through all of the steps.

Simple process of elimination can also be a useful strategy for many of the multiple choice questions, as well. If you can eliminate any answers as definitely wrong, then you might be able to focus in on the right one more quickly.

For instance, sentence correction questions in the verbal section ask you to fix a grammar error. If two answer choices serve the same function, then neither can be the right choice. Using process of elimination, especially when you’re unsure on a question, can help you zero in on the right answer, or at least help you make a more educated guess.

As you prepare to handle GMAT time, try out your own time-saving strategies and figure out which ones work best for you.

Time Tip #3: Practice Using the GMAT Calculator

You can only use a calculator on the Integrated Reasoning section of the GMAT, and you can’t bring your own. Instead, you’ll use the provided on-screen calculator to solve any problems. If you’re not used to using a computerized version of a calculator, then you could lose valuable time here.

To make sure you can use it efficiently, you should practice before the test with the GMAT PrepSoftware or an online calculator, like the Google calculator. Using a hand calculator as you answer Integrated Reasoning practice questions won’t help you get ready for the real testing experience.

Practice first so you can make sure you don’t waste any time trying to use the calculator in the Integrated Reasoning section.

Time Tip #4: Schedule Your Test at the Right Time of Day

Do you wake up ready and eager to take on the day? Or does your brain need a few hours (and a few coffees) to really get going? Fortunately, you have a lot of choice when you schedule your GMAT, and you can choose to take it either in the morning of the afternoon.

To make sure you can maintain focus and work efficiently over this three and a half hour test, you should register for the time of day when you’re most alert. Will you be able to think most clearly in the AM? Or do you focus better when you can sleep in and take your time getting to the test center?

Be intentional about when you take the GMAT to suit your schedule and choose the best time of day for you to focus and do well on this demanding test.

Time Tip #5: Prepare for Test Day

Finally, you’ll also benefit from preparing for the test fully the night before. Get a good night’s sleep so you can focus the next day. Take the night to relax rather than doing any last-minute cramming. At that point, you’ve done all you can to prepare.

Try to eat a healthy breakfast with protein, and avoid sugar and caffeine that cause your energy levels and focus to fluctuate. You should also plan your arrival carefully, so that you’re not rushing in late and feeling frazzled.

Nutrition and stress have a big impact on our ability to concentrate. By preparing for the logistics of test day, you’ll set the conditions to feel confident, clear-headed, and ready to focus in on a challenging, long exam.

During the GMAT…

What can you do as you take the GMAT to work efficiently and avoid wasting time? Consider the following four tips.

Time Tip #6: Aim to Answer All of the Questions

As you know, you’re responsible for answering all of the questions in each section. You’ll just see one question at a time, and you can’t skip or go back to any questions.

As you take the test, you’ll see what question you’re on. For instance, on the first question in the math section, you’ll see that you’re working on 1/37. You have an average of two minutes per question on the GMAT. However, it might not always make sense to divide your time equally.

In the verbal section, you might spend proportionally more time reading a passage than you do answering the relevant questions. These reading comprehension questions, furthermore, might take you longer than sentence corrections, especially if you’re fast when it comes to identifying and fixing errors of grammar.

As you take practice tests, you should take notes on how much time you tend to spend on each type of question. The more you practice and self-reflect on the test, the clearer sense you’ll have of how to divide your time.

If you find yourself wasting too much time on a question when you’re taking the GMAT, just take your best guess and move on. It’s better to guess on a question than to run out of time and not get to all of the questions in a section.

Time Tip #7: Don’t Worry About How You’re Doing

The Quantitative and Verbal sections are adaptive, meaning that subsequent questions are chosen based on your performance. One common mistake test-takers make is trying to gauge how they’re doing in these sections. They assume that a question that feels easier means that they got the previous one wrong.

Don’t do this! First, it’s a waste of time trying to figure out the difficulty level of questions. Difficulty level can be subjective. A question may feel easier to you because you have a strong grasp of a particular concept, not because it’s actually an easier question according to the test-makers.

If you start to worry about doing poorly, then you can get in your head and end up worsening your performance. Besides, even if a question is easier, that doesn’t necessarily mean you got other questions wrong. There are experimental questions scattered throughout the test that are meant to test out material for future tests and won’t count toward your scores.

You should also ignore the rumor that the first ten questions in the quantitative and verbal sections are the most important (and if you’ve never heard it, then never mind!). All of the questions are equally important. Don’t spend more time on the first ten than any others.

As you’re taking the GMAT, try not to think about how well you’re doing at all. If you have to guess on a question that stumps you, don’t let it get in your head. Save all your mental energy for answering the question in front of you and forget about the ones that have already gone by. You’ll find out your scores soon enough.

Time Tip #8: Make the Most of the Timer

As you take the GMAT, you’ll see a timer counting down how much time you have left in each section. The timer turns to a blinking display when you have five minutes left.

Use the timer to help you keep track and make sure you’re not wasting too much time on a question. If, on the other hand, you have ten minutes and just two questions left in a section, you know you can take your time answering both.

If the timer is too distracting, you can hide it. Most people find the timer useful so they can keep the same test-taking rhythm they developed on GMAT practice tests.

Time Tip #9: Take Advantage of Your Breaks

While you might be tempted to power through each section one after another, you shouldn’t underestimate the usefulness of taking a break. The breaks are a great opportunity to clear your head, regroup, and shift focus to a new section.

Get up, move around, and give your eyes a break from staring at the computer screen. You can also drink water or eat food during breaks to help keep you going. The breaks help you reenergize after about every hour of testing.

If you don’t take a break, furthermore, you could end up getting distracted by people coming and going from the testing room. In these strictly timed sections, eight minutes of distracted test-taking could be a major drawback.

Show up to the testing center prepared with water and healthy snacks and make the most of your eight-minute breaks. Having the chance to move around and feel refreshed will help you keep up your stamina over this long test.

Now that you have a sense of what you can do before and after the test to improve your time management, let’s go over the key takeaways you should remember about the structure and length of the GMAT.

How Long Is the GMAT Test? Key Points

When your long-awaited GMAT test day finally arrives, you’ll spend over three hours in front of a computer taking the test. The Analytical Writing and Integrated Reasoning sections are half an hour long, and the Quantitative and Verbal sections are both just over an hour long.

To give yourself a break, you have the option of leaving the test room (but probably not the test center) for a maximum of eight minutes after about each hour of testing.

The GMAT puts a lot of responsibility on test-takers. Because it’s a computer-based, and in some sections, computer-adaptive test, you’re responsible for getting to all of the questions before you reach the time limit. You can’t skip or return to questions, but instead have to keep pushing forward until you answer all of them.

While an average of two minutes per question may sound like a tall order, you can hone your skills by taking timed practice tests as you prepare. By practicing and reflecting on your experience, you can become a more and more efficient test-taker.

If you’ve made it until the end of this guide, then you’ve already taken an important step in your GMAT prep. Understanding how timing works on the test is key. By understanding how the sections are timed and developing a test-taking rhythm, you’ll set up the best possible conditions for yourself as you take the GMAT and get ready for business school.

What’s Next?

What’s on each section of the GMAT? This GMAT format guide breaks down the skills and content of each section, plus you’ll find examples of every question type on the GMAT.

How should you study for the GMAT? Check out this comprehensive guide for a full GMAT syllabus, along with important tips for designing your personalized GMAT study plan.

What’s the total cost of the GMAT? Find out about registration cost and additional fees, along with advice on how to keep your total GMAT costs down.

The post 9 Tips for Making It Through the Full GMAT Length appeared first on Online GMAT Prep Blog by PrepScholar.

If you’re preparing for the GMAT, you’ve probably spent countless hours reviewing math concepts and mastering grammar skills. You’ve likely also spent time studying for the newer integrated reasoning section, too. But have you thought about the analytical writing assessment part of the GMAT?

If your answer is no, don’t worry! You’re not alone. Many test-takers go into test day without spending a lot of time preparing for the essay section of the GMAT, especially since it’s unclear how much (or even if) the GMAT essay even matters for getting into business school.

In this article, I’ll shed some light on the oft-forgotten GMAT AWA section. First, I’ll give you an overview of what’s actually on the AWA section. Next, I’ll discuss whether or not that score really matters for your admission to business school. Finally, I’ll tell share the top GMAT essay tips that are guaranteed to boost your GMAT essay score.

GMAT Analytical Writing Assessment Overview

The GMAT Analytical Writing Assessment is designed to measure your ability to think critically about a topic and then communicate your ideas about that topic. During the AWA section, you’ll be asked to analyze and critique an argument and judged on your ability to do so clearly, thoroughly, and thoughtfully.

The GMAT AWA section consists of one writing task: a 30-minute essay. You’ll complete the AWA portion of the GMAT first, before every other test section.

For your GMAT essay, you’ll be asked to think critically about an argument that’s presented to you. You’re not supposed to give your opinion on the subject itself.

GMAT AWA scores range from 0 to 6, in half-point intervals. Every GMAT AWA response receives two independent scores. According to MBA.com, one of your scores may be performed by an essay-scoring engine. At least one of your GMAT AWA scores will be determined by a GMAT essay reader.

Your AWA score doesn’t affect your GMAT total score and is generally considered the least important of your GMAT scores.

The 6 Best GMAT Essay Tips

If you’re looking to achieve a GMAT essay score that’ll help you get into business school, these six GMAT Analytical Writing tips will help you achieve success.

#1: Follow the Directions

One of the most important GMAT essay tips is to understand the directions of the AWA section.

The AWA section specifically asks you to critique an argument on its strengths and weaknesses. AWA graders aren’t looking for a well-written, thoughtful opinion piece about the topic discussed in the prompt. They’re looking for you to analyze whether or not the argument itself was sound, and to back up that analysis with evidence from the text, and they’ll judge you on how well you accomplished that specific task. If you don’t follow the directions, you won’t achieve a high score.

#2: Develop a Clear Structure

Another one of the important GMAT writing tips is to take the time to set up your essay in a clear way.

You don’t need to write the most interesting or lengthy essay in the world to score well on the AWA section, but you do need to give your essay an easy-to-follow structure. Usually, that consists of an introduction, three to four well-developed body paragraphs, and a conclusion.

Your introduction should restate the main argument of the prompt, then highlight the flaws in the argument that you’ll discuss in the body of the essay.

Each of the body paragraphs should focus on a specific flaw in the argument. First, you should highlight the flaw itself. Next, you’ll need to explain why that particular flaw is a flaw. Finally, you should highlight how the argument could’ve been made more clearly or more successfully.

In the conclusion, you’ll want to restate each of the reasons why the argument was flawed and summarize how those flaws affected the validity of the argument.

Following this clear, simple structure for your GMAT essay will help you achieve your goal score.

#3: Know the Common AWA Flaws

Your task for the GMAT AWA is to critique an argument given to you in a prompt. That means that you can assume the argument given is a weak one, since your job is basically to analyze its weaknesses.

GMAT AWA prompts typically have arguments that are weak in predictable ways. Be on the lookout for these common “flaws” that you’ll encounter in AWA prompts:

Causality: GMAT AWA prompts often contain errors in causality, which means that they attribute the wrong effect to the wrong cause. If you see an argument that uses causality, make sure you check to make sure that causality is correctly attributed and that there’s a provable causal relationship.

Vagueness: GMAT AWA prompts often contain vague terms or statistics that are used incorrectly to draw conclusions. For instance, a prompt might suggest that, out of a sample of 500 consumers, more are buying name-brand paper towels than generic paper towels. The use of the word “more,” in this case, isn’t specific enough because it doesn’t tell you exactly how many more people are buying name-brand paper towels. You can’t draw a definitive conclusion off of vague data.

Overconfidence: GMAT AWA prompts often contain overconfident language. You should be looking for the language in arguments to be thoughtful and well-balanced. Keep an eye out for words like “undoubtedly,” “definitely,” and “of course,” which indicate overconfidence.

#4: Practice

One of the best GMAT essay tips is to practice, practice, practice before you actually complete the GMAT AWA section on test day. You can find real, retired GMAT AWA prompts on the GMAT website for free. You can also purchase the GMAT Write tool to receive scores on practice AWA prompts if you’re really concerned about your score.

Practicing will help you in a number of ways. First, practicing will help you master your timing. You’ll only have 30 minutes to craft a logical and well-reasoned essay on test day. The more you practice, the faster you’ll get at outlining and completing your essay.

As I mentioned in the previous GMAT writing tips, you’ll need to fully answer the correct prompt to achieve a good score on your GMAT essay. Practicing will help you get used to the structure of GMAT AWA prompts and help you get used to the types of questions you’ll see on test day.

Finally, practicing will help you get used the structure you need to employ to succeed on your GMAT essay. The more you practice, the more naturally you’ll be able to craft a complete introduction, body, and conclusion for each of your GMAT essays.

#5: Take Time to Outline

While outlining may seem like one of the more basic GMAT essay tips, taking five minutes at the beginning of the AWA section to sketch out a basic outline of your essay will really help you as you start to write.

Everyone outlines differently, but in general, I’d suggest having one to two bullet points for each paragraph that highlight the main ideas the paragraph will cover. Outlining will help you make sure you’ve covered all the main points you need to fully answer the question.

#6: Don’t Sweat the AWA Too Much

The final of my GMAT analytical writing tips is to not worry about the AWA section too much. As I mentioned in a previous section, the AWA section isn’t that important in the overall scheme of your GMAT score. It’d be a mistake to spend a lot of time and energy stressing over and preparing for the AWA section before you take the GMAT.

Spend between three to six hours preparing for the AWA, depending on how comfortable you are writing to the AWA’s structure. More often than not, that’s all the time test-takers need to achieve a solid AWA score.

Your GMAT AWA score won’t make or break your chance of admission to the business school of your dreams. An AWA score between 4-6 will sufficiently demonstrate your writing abilities to most admissions committees, and there’s not a huge advantage to scoring a perfect 6 on the AWA section.

An AWA score of below 4, however, will raise red flags for admissions committees who may question your communication abilities. So, it’s important to study for the AWA section to make sure your score is sufficient.

What’s Next?

Feeling set on GMAT analytical writing tips, but looking for more advice on other sections of the GMAT? We’ve got tons of in-depth, high-quality guides to help you master the content you’ll see on GMAT test day. Check out our guide to the GMAT verbal section to learn how to master the three GMAT question types or read our guide to the GMAT quant section to understand exactly what math you need to know to achieve your goal GMAT score.

Looking to make an in-depth, comprehensive GMAT study plan? Our guide to GMAT study plans provides four sample study plans that you can adapt to your needs. Pick and choose between one-month, three-month, and six-month study plans that are each designed to boost your GMAT score.

Setting a realistic goal score is a hugely important part of your GMAT prep. By setting a realistic goal score, you give yourself a target to work towards and a benchmark by which to measure your progress as you prep for the GMAT. In our guide to GMAT score requirements, you’ll learn about how to set a goal that makes sense for your abilities and needs as a test-taker.

The post The 6 GMAT Essay Tips That Will Help You Ace the AWA appeared first on Online GMAT Prep Blog by PrepScholar.

Most test-takers preparing for the GMAT spend countless hours studying different content areas so that they’ll be ready to proficiently and confidently answer every question they encounter on test day. But even the most prepared test-takers sometimes find themselves having to guess on different GMAT questions.

If you’re worried about when (or how) to guess on GMAT test day, this is the guide for you. I’ll explain how implementing a strong guessing strategy can help you earn points and save time, walk you through the situations where you may need to guess on the GMAT, and give you the best tips for deciding whether to guess or skip a question altogether.

How Does Guessing Affect My GMAT Score?

In order to understand why it’s important to guess on the GMAT, you first have to know how the GMAT is scored. In this section, I’ll be focusing on how your GMAT total score (which is made up of your scaled quantitative and scaled verbal scores) is calculated.

Your GMAT total score is made up of your scaled verbal and scaled quantitative scores. There are three factors that determine your GMAT total score:

• The number of questions you answer correctly
• The number of questions you answer
• The difficulty level of the questions you answer

As you can see, the number of questions you answer affects your GMAT total score. That means that, as a general rule, it’s extremely important to get through every (or almost every question) to get a high score.

You don’t, on the other hand, need to answer every question correctly to get a high score because the GMAT weights questions according to their difficulty levels. You can still get a high score if you answer questions incorrectly — but only if you attempt to answer every question.

As a general rule of thumb, then, guessing on the GMAT is preferable to simply skipping a question, because you’ll get credit for at least attempting to answer the question. However, research shows that there’s a slight difference between guessing on the verbal section and guessing on the quantitative section, which I’ll explain more in a later section. For now, let’s talk about what I mean by guessing on the GMAT.

Guessing vs. Educated Guessing

There are two different types of guessing that you may use as a GMAT test-taker and while they may sound the same, they’re actually very different.

Guessing

Guessing on the GMAT happens when you look at a question, have absolutely no idea what the correct answer is, and can’t do anything to narrow down the five answer choices to get closer to the correct answer. Guessing in this sense is very rare for GMAT test-takers. Most GMAT test-takers are actually making educated guesses, because they understand enough about the question to eliminate at least one obviously incorrect answer.

If, in your practicing, you find that you’re making a lot of guesses, without having any ability to eliminate answers, you should reassess the way you’re preparing, as this could be a sign that you’re unprepared to actually take the GMAT.

Educated Guessing

Educated guessing on the GMAT happens when you’re able to eliminate at least one of the answers to a particular question before you make your guess. Most of the time, when you have to guess to answer a GMAT question, you’ll be making an educated guess, because, again, most of the time, you’ll understand enough about the question to eliminate one or more obviously wrong answers. Making an educated guess is greatly preferable to blindly guessing, because every time you eliminate an answer, you increase your odds of getting the answer correct.

Generally speaking, educated guessing improves your chances of getting the correct answer, while simply guessing doesn’t do anything to help you get the correct answer. But how do you know when it’s time to make a guess (educated or not) versus when you should either skip a question or devote more time to getting the answer right? I’ll explore the answer to this question in the next two sections.

Pacing on the GMAT

Deciding when to guess, skip, or spend more time on a question has a lot to do with pacing. The GMAT is a timed test, so you only have limited seconds to spend on each question to ensure that you’ve got enough time to answer every question in a section. Remember, answering as many questions as possible is an important part of boosting your GMAT score. You’ll want to pay attention to your pacing during the exam in order to help you decide when you should guess to answer a question.

Many test-takers run out of time before they finish all the questions on the verbal and quant sections of the GMAT. The quant section has 31 questions, which you must solve in 62 minutes. That gives you about 120 seconds for each question. The verbal section asks you to solve 36 questions in 65 minutes, meaning you have slightly less time (around 100 seconds) to solve each question.

During your GMAT practice, it’s important to familiarize yourself with what 120 and 100 seconds really feels like. You’ll want to set timers for yourself as you’re working through practice question sets so that you build awareness and can tell when it’s taking you an abnormally long amount of time to solve a question.

On test day, you can use your own awareness of time (built up by timing yourself solving practice questions) and the clock that appears on your browser window to help keep yourself on pace.

Often, you’ll find that you can answer questions in far less than 100 or 120 seconds, which is awesome! Answering some questions quickly saves you time for more difficult questions you’ll encounter.

However, if you find as you’re answering a particular question that it’s getting close to the 100 or 120 second mark, you’ll want to consider guessing or skipping the question.

I’ll talk more about the decision to guess or skip a question in the next section, but as a general rule of thumb, you should guess on a question if you’ve already spent 95% of your allotted time on the question, aren’t close to getting a definitive answer, and have been able to eliminate at least one incorrect answer. Remember, making an educated guess gives you decent odds of getting the correct answer.

Let’s look more at the decision to guess or skip a question in the next section.

Should I Guess or Skip a Question?

As I mentioned earlier, part of your GMAT score is based on how many questions you answer, so you’ll want to answer as many questions as possible while you’re taking the test. But what do you do if you’re running out of time on a section? Well, practically speaking, you’ve got two options: you can make a guess or you can skip the question altogether. Let’s look at how to decide which option to choose.

The first rule for deciding whether to guess or skip a question is to see if you can eliminate any obviously incorrect answers. If you can eliminate one, two, or three incorrect answers, you should 100% of the time make a guess from the remaining answers, even if you’re not sure which is correct. Making an educated guess is by far the best option in this scenario, because eliminating incorrect answers increases the likelihood that you’ll actually select the correct answer.

If you can’t eliminate any incorrect answers, your choices are to make a random guess or to skip the question entirely. Deciding whether to make a random guess or to skip a section depends a lot on the section you’re working on, how much time you have left on the test, and your strengths and weaknesses as a test-taker.

If you’re in the middle of the test, you should always guess randomly, rather than skipping a question entirely. In the middle of the test, you still have a number of questions to answer and should aim to answer as many questions as possible with the time you’ve got left. If you’re running up on the end of the test, consider these tips for helping to decide whether to guess or skip questions on the quant and verbal sections.

If you’re working on the verbal section, your best bet is to skip the questions you can’t answer (assuming that the number of questions you can’t answer is 4 or fewer). According to a study conducted by GMAC in 2009, there’s, on average, no substantial difference between making a random guess or simply skipping a few questions. Basically, that means that if you’re coming down to the wire on the last few verbal questions, it’s better to focus your efforts on one or two questions you can answer confidently, and leave the rest blank, because leaving a couple of questions blank won’t substantially impact your verbal section score.

The quant section, on the other hand, is a bit more complicated. According to GMAC’s data, deciding whether to skip or guess on a quant question has a lot to do with your abilities as a test taker. If you struggle with the quant section, skipping a few questions won’t substantially hurt your score and, as with the verbal section, it’s better to focus your efforts on the one or two questions you can answer, while leaving the remaining few blank.

If you’re a stellar quant star, however, skipping questions is a bad idea and can hurt your score substantially. If you’re looking for a top quant score and have run out of time, it’s better to try to make a random guess on every question you’ve got left than to leave them all blank.

Remember, regardless of section and ability, if you can eliminate even one incorrect answer, you should always make a guess. You should also spend a lot of time practicing your timing so that you’re not stuck with more than a handful of unanswered questions at the end of a section – or, better yet, so that you’re easily able to answer all of the questions in the time allotted.

4 Tips for Narrowing Down Answers

As I mentioned in the previous sections, making an educated guess is the best option if you’re running out of time or stumped on a question. If you can narrow down even one answer choice, you’ll improve your odds of getting the answer correct. The GMAT doesn’t care how you got the right answer – it just cares that you got the right answer, so narrow down answer choices whenever you can. If you’re struggling for ways to narrow down answer choices, check out these tips.

Verbal Section Tips

Use these strategies on verbal section questions to quickly and effectively eliminate incorrect answers.

#1: Eliminate Grammatical Mistakes

On sentence correction questions, you should automatically eliminate any answer choice that contains a grammatical mistake. In fact, even if you’re unsure what the grammatical mistake is in the question itself, scan the answer choices for improper grammar. Anything with an error is wrong and should be eliminated.

#2: Eliminate Unreasonable Answer Choices

For reading comprehension and critical reasoning questions, you’ll want to eliminate unreasonable answer choices. Examples of unreasonable answer choices include answers that speak in absolutes (e.g., answers that use the words “all,” “none,” “every,” etc.) or make claims that seem unreasonably positive or negative.

Quantitative Section Tips

Check out these tips for helping to narrow down incorrect answers on the quant section of the GMAT.

#3: Estimate

When approaching GMAT quant questions, take a peek at the answers first. If the answers are all specific numerical values, you can try estimating to find the right answer. Remember, the GMAT doesn’t require you to use a calculator, so you may be able to use estimation to your advantage. Keep an eye out for questions that use the word “approximately” in their text – that’s a good sign that you can estimate to find the correct answer.

#4: Plug In Numbers

Plugging in numbers is a useful strategy for solving quant questions. You want to avoid using -1, 0, or 1 as your plug in value, because they behave differently than other numbers. If the question asks you to use a specific type of number (e.g. a multiple of 3), make sure you’re using a multiple (e.g. use 6 instead of 54) that’ll be easy to do basic calculations with. Don’t forget about negative integers, positive and negative fractions, positive and negative decimals, etc., when plugging in numbers to solve a question. You can also plug the answer choices back into the question to try to narrow down the correct answer.

Review: When (and How) to Guess on the GMAT

Most GMAT test-takers will have to make guesses at least once or twice when they take the test. Make guessing on the GMAT work for you by following these rules.

As often as possible, make an educated guess where you’ve eliminated one or more incorrect answers. Doing so will increase your chances of getting the question correct.

If you’re running out of time on the verbal section, the difference between randomly guessing on the last few questions and skipping them entirely is negligible. Spend your time working through one or two of those questions to get the correct answer and leave the rest blank.

On the quant section, however, your decision to guess or skip a question depends on your quant abilities. If you’re an average or poor quant tester, skipping a few questions won’t hurt you. If you’re an outstanding quant tester, skipping questions will hurt your score, so it’s better to randomly guess than to leave questions blank.

What’s Next?

Looking for more strategies that can help you find the correct answer to tricky quant or verbal questions? We’ve got in-depth guides that give overviews of the GMAT quant and GMAT verbal sections and discuss the strategies you’ll need to achieve your goal score.

Wondering about your GMAT total score? Is it really the only GMAT score that matters? In our guide to your GMAT total score, we breakdown the factors that make up your GMAT total score and discuss its importance in helping you get into business school.

One of the best ways to ensure that you won’t have to do a lot of random guessing on the GMAT is to build up your content knowledge by using a thorough, well-crafted study plan. Our guide to GMAT study plans gives you four GMAT study plan options you can adapt to your needs as a test-taker.

The post When (and How) to Guess on the GMAT: 4 Key Tips appeared first on Online GMAT Prep Blog by PrepScholar.