{"id":12644,"date":"2019-11-20T14:03:47","date_gmt":"2019-11-20T14:03:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/?p=12644"},"modified":"2019-11-20T14:04:59","modified_gmt":"2019-11-20T14:04:59","slug":"which-questions-should-i-skip-on-the-gre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/blog\/which-questions-should-i-skip-on-the-gre\/","title":{"rendered":"Which Questions Should I Skip on the GRE?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"skipping<\/span><\/p>\n

One of my guilty TV pleasures is a British quiz show called \u201cThe Chase.\u201d I like to watch it on the spin bike\u2014there\u2019s something about seeing people with British accents stammer, panic, and <\/span>forget the names of their own children<\/span><\/a> that makes a hard workout seem a little shorter. And as a trivia show, it feels vaguely more educational than, say, \u201cKeeping Up With the Kardashians\u201d.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Plus, believe it or not, it illustrates one of the most important things you\u2019ll learn while studying for the GRE: <\/span>knowing yourself is more important than knowing the math.\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

See, every round of The Chase starts with a \u201ccash builder\u201d: one minute of rapid-fire trivia questions. Each right answer adds \u00a31,000 to the amount on the table. Wrong answers and passes don\u2019t count at all: it\u2019s only about the number you get right. (Sort of like the GRE.)\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what the cash builder round normally looks like<\/span><\/a>. But <\/span>here\u2019s what it looks like when you don\u2019t know what you don\u2019t know<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Neither of these two contestants knew every answer. In fact, the first contestant passed on multiple questions. Yet, when he decided to pass, he did so quickly and fluently. When he did take a few extra seconds to think, it generally paid off with a right answer. In other words, <\/span>he could quickly and correctly predict whether he\u2019d get something right<\/b>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The second contestant, on the other hand, was <\/span>sure<\/span><\/i> that he knew the answer to the first question\u2014so sure that it took him twelve entire seconds to admit that he didn\u2019t know it after all. And his run was all downhill from there.<\/span><\/p>\n

What does that have to do with the GRE?<\/b><\/h3>\n

The GRE operates under basically the same set of rules. Only right answers count. Your time is limited. And your goal is to get as many points as you can, although the reward is a gold star on your grad school applications, not a thousand bucks for each right answer!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

(There\u2019s also one other difference that you\u2019ll see throughout this article: when I talk about \u201cskipping\u201d a question on the GRE, I don\u2019t mean literally skipping it! You should <\/span>never<\/b> leave a question blank on the GRE. Instead, I\u2019m using the term \u201cskip\u201d to refer to making a quick, mostly random guess and then moving calmly to the next problem. This makes skipping different from educated guessing or estimation.)\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

So, the behaviors that lead to better cash builder rounds will probably, for most of us, also lead to better GRE performances. In other words, all else being equal,<\/span> somebody who can accurately predict whether they\u2019ll get an answer wrong\u2014and who isn\u2019t shy about bailing out\u2014will get a better overall score<\/b>. The person who can do that will get to seriously attempt more of the questions, and will be more likely to have enough time to get the easy ones right.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

When I showed you those two clips of game show contestants, I also chose not to show you a clip like <\/span>this one<\/span><\/a>. It\u2019s an amazing performance, but it\u2019s the exception that proves the rule. <\/span>When you\u2019re sure you\u2019ll quickly know the answer to every single question, there\u2019s no point in skipping problems.<\/span><\/i> But the overwhelming majority of us don\u2019t have the time and wherewithal to get to that point, nor do we need to. Unless <\/span>you\u2019re aiming for a 170<\/span><\/a>, you can get away with missing a certain number of questions. You only need to avoid missing <\/span>more<\/span><\/i> than that number.<\/span><\/p>\n

How many questions can I miss anyway?<\/b><\/h3>\n

Nobody has a truly definitive answer to that question, since ETS, for good reason, doesn\u2019t release the official data. But, various folks have done research using the PowerPrep practice tests and official GRE score reports, and the results are heartening. You can score over 160 in <\/span>Quant<\/span><\/a>, and into the 165 range in <\/span>Verbal<\/span><\/a>, with 3-4 wrong answers on each section. If your goal score is closer to the high 150s, you can get away with five or more misses per section in Quant, and seven or more in Verbal. \\<\/span><\/p>\n

This is an oversimplification, since your GRE score is adjusted to account for which second section you saw. The GRE is section-adaptive, and a right answer on the hardest second section is worth more than a right answer on the easiest one. But, the overall point stands: there\u2019s a certain number of questions that you can safely miss and still hit your goal score, as long as you don\u2019t miss anything else. And that number, depending on your exact goal score, may be higher than you thought. I encourage you to read the research for yourself!<\/span><\/p>\n

Which questions should I skip on the GRE?<\/b><\/h3>\n

Think about the questions that you missed on your last <\/span>practice GRE<\/span><\/a>. They should fall into two broad categories. First, there are the questions that you just <\/span>can\u2019t realistically answer in the time you have<\/span><\/i>. Either you just don\u2019t know (or remember) the material, you can\u2019t figure out where to start, or your strategy seemed okay at first but isn\u2019t yielding any results, and you aren\u2019t sure why. Second, there are the questions that you <\/span>could have gotten right, but didn\u2019t<\/span><\/i>. These are the ones where you misread something (or misread your own handwriting!), made a calculation error, or assumed something you shouldn\u2019t have.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The big difference between these two types of problems is that having a little more time and mental energy will help you with the second type of mistake on test day, but won\u2019t help you (usually) with the first type. In fact, that\u2019s exactly how I want you to conceptualize the two types of missed problems:<\/span><\/p>\n