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Welcome back! If you haven\u2019t already, start with Part 1<\/a> of this series, where we performed a global executive reasoning and timing review for your GMAT practice tests. Let\u2019s continue with a deeper dive of the per-question timing data from your problem list. (And grab pen and paper to take note\u2014this is going to be\u2026geeky.)<\/span><\/p>\n Even if your cumulative time was fine, you might still exhibit a very common problem on GMAT practice tests: up and down timing. This is when you spend way too much time on some problems and then speed up on others to catch back up. Your overall timing works out, but you still have a serious timing imbalance on <\/span>individual<\/span><\/i> problems.<\/span><\/p>\n The tables below show the rough timing categories to watch out for, by problem type, along with some commentary afterward about how to use the tables. (Don\u2019t start your analysis till you\u2019ve read this whole section.)<\/span><\/p>\n The definition of \u201cWarning Track\u201d is really just getting close to the Too Slow time. I pay attention to how often I come close<\/i> to Too Slow without actually going over.<\/p>\n It\u2019s fine to have some <\/span>Warning Track<\/span><\/i> questions\u2014just be careful not to have <\/span>so<\/span><\/i> many that you\u2019re causing yourself big headaches elsewhere. <\/span><\/p>\n Averages for Verbal questions vary by type, so for Verbal, I recommend analyzing one type at a time.<\/span><\/p>\n Now. How to use all of the above?<\/p>\n Too Fast<\/span><\/i> has a question mark after the Too (?) because there are two great reasons to have a really fast problem:<\/span><\/p>\n (1) You knew exactly what you were doing and you got it right\u2014fast.<\/span><\/p>\n (2) You knew you didn\u2019t know how to do it and you guessed\u2014fast.<\/span><\/p>\n If either of those is the case, great: I did the right thing! However, if I miss something I knew how to do because I made a careless mistake\u2014I have a timing problem. Or if I misread the problem because I was rushing through\u2026ditto.<\/span><\/p>\n From now on, when I say Too Fast, I\u2019m referring specifically to the not-good reasons. When you have a good reason to go fast, it\u2019s not <\/span>too<\/span><\/i> fast.<\/span><\/p>\n Too Slow<\/span><\/i> is too slow even if you got the problem right. When you take that much time, you just cause yourself problems elsewhere in the section.<\/span><\/p>\n Now, in your problem list, click on the <\/span>Time<\/span><\/i> column header. This will re-sort the questions from fastest to slowest (you can click it again to sort from slowest to fastest). Examine the problems by time, using the tables as a guide.<\/span><\/p>\n If you have more than a couple of questions in the <\/span>too fast<\/span><\/i> or <\/span>too slow<\/span><\/i> categories (for the latter, regardless of whether they\u2019re right or wrong), then you\u2019ve got a timing problem on GMAT practice tests. For example, if you had 4 questions over 3m each, then you almost certainly missed other questions elsewhere simply due to speed\u2014that extra time had to come from <\/span>somewhere<\/span><\/i>. And chances are it came from a <\/span>too fast<\/span><\/i> problem on which you made a mistake.<\/span><\/p>\n Alternatively, if there is even one that is very far over the <\/span>too slow<\/span><\/i> mark, you have a timing problem. If you have one Quant question on which you spent 4m30s, you might let yourself do this on more questions on the real test\u2014and there goes your score. (By the way, the only potentially acceptable reason is: I was at the end of the section and knew I had extra time, so I used it. And my next question would be: what about saving that mental energy for the next section of the test? <\/span>\u263a<\/span>)<\/span><\/p>\n For each section of the test, get a general sense of whether there is:<\/span><\/p>\n Note that I don\u2019t specify above whether the warning track and too slow questions were answered correctly or incorrectly. It isn\u2019t (necessarily) okay to spend too much time just because the question was answered correctly.<\/span><\/p>\n Next, what is that timing problem <\/span>costing<\/span><\/i> you on your GMAT practice tests? How many problems fit into the different categories? Approximately how much time total was spent on the \u201ctoo slow\u201d problems? How many \u201ctoo fast\u201d questions did that cost you or could it have cost you? Did it cost you any other problems? Examine all of the problems (even those done with normal time) to locate careless errors. How many of your careless errors occurred when you were rushing or just plain tired out because you\u2019d spent too much mental effort elsewhere?<\/span><\/p>\n Finally, are there any patterns in terms of the content area? For example, perhaps 80% of the “too slow” Quant problems were PS Story problems or two of the “too slow” SC problems were Modifier problems. Next time, we\u2019re going to talk about how to use the assessment reports to dive more into this data on your GMAT practice tests, but do try to get a high level sense of any patterns that jump out at you.<\/span><\/p>\n All of the above allows you to quantify just how bad any timing problems are. Now, I\u2019m going to make a pronouncement that will wow you: You have a timing problem, don\u2019t you?<\/span><\/p>\n Actually, we all have timing problems. The question is just what yours are and how significant they are. If you\u2019re having trouble letting go on hard questions (and, really, aren\u2019t we all?), learn <\/span>how to make better decisions<\/span><\/a> during the exam.<\/span><\/p>\n And one more thing: Take a look at part 1 of this article on <\/span>Time Management<\/span><\/a>. (It\u2019s a 3-parter. You don\u2019t have to look at all three parts now.)<\/span><\/p>\n Now we\u2019re done looking at the problem lists. What have you learned about yourself? How do you think that should inform your studies for the next several weeks? <\/span><\/p>\n Join us next time, when we\u2019ll analyze the detailed data given in the assessment reports.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Keep Reading:<\/strong> Part 3<\/a><\/p>\n Can\u2019t get enough of Stacey\u2019s GMAT mastery? Attend the first session of one of\u00a0her upcoming GMAT courses<\/a>\u00a0absolutely free, no strings attached. Seriously.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Welcome back! If you haven\u2019t already, start with Part 1 of this series, where we performed a global executive reasoning and timing review for your GMAT practice tests. Let\u2019s continue with a deeper dive of the per-question timing data from your problem list. (And grab pen and paper to take note\u2014this is going to be\u2026geeky.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[873,880,929,52871,930,2,879,52945],"tags":[52820,53582,53580],"yst_prominent_words":[53821,54375,53630,53704,55524,55522,53787,53840,55530,55523,55529,55527,53786,53792,55521,55526,55520,53867,55525,55528],"class_list":["post-16034","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-for-current-studiers","category-gmat-101","category-gmat-prep","category-gmat-strategies","category-gmat-study-guide","category-how-to-study","category-practice-tests-for-current-studiers","category-products-and-services","tag-gmat-timing","tag-per-question-timing","tag-problem-list"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16034","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16034"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16034\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17287,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16034\/revisions\/17287"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16034"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16034"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16034"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=16034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Analyze Your Timing<\/b><\/h4>\n
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<\/p>\n![\"Manhattan](\"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/18\/2018\/07\/sk-474-image-2.png\")
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How Was Your Timing on Your GMAT Practice Tests?<\/b><\/h4>\n
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<\/a>Stacey Koprince<\/a>\u00a0is a Manhattan Prep instructor based in Montreal, Canada and Los Angeles, California.<\/strong>\u00a0Stacey 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.\u00a0Check out Stacey\u2019s upcoming GMAT courses here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"