Best GMAT Time Management Strategies to Ace the Exam

The GMAT Time Management aims to answer maximum questions correctly in the test within the provided time. GMAT time management is important as the syllabus is huge. The exam is divided into sections of Math, Verbal, Integrated Reasoning, and Essay. You can take the exam offline as well as online. A fee of USD 275 (INR 22,897.05) is required if you are taking the offline test and USD 300 (INR 24,978.60) for the online test. However, candidates need to know their strengths and weaknesses before appearing for the exam. GMAT time per question must not be more than 3 minutes. To learn about proper GMAT time management, you can also follow certain books such as Beyond the MBA Hype, Official Guide for GMAT Review, Manhattan GMAT Strategy Guide, etc. It is only with proper preparation and a study plan that you will be able to achieve a good GMAT score.

GMAT Time Management Strategies

The best GMAT time management strategy is to strengthen your test practice and track your progress in simulated real time. You can get an idea about this when you solve GMAT practice papers. Let's break down several GMAT time management techniques, and correct some common misconceptions along the way.

• Pay attention to how you practice pacing and mark your progress

To enhance your GMAT time management including practice exercises, it is essential. It helps to keep a track of how long it takes you to answer each question. When you review the answers, note which types of questions you spend a lot of time on and which you answer more easily. This way you can work on the time taking problems to solve it faster.

• Know your weaknesses and strengths

During the test, there would be questions that make you falter and are sometimes not worth a lot of time and energy. Use your best judgment on questions that give you trouble, it is best to skip it. This way you save yourself time and use it on problems that take longer. On average, you will miss around 40% of the questions on the GMAT, so you need to understand while deciding which questions to solve and which ones to guess. Also, you need to practice GMAT test-taking tips to score high in exams.

• Do not spend more than 3 minutes on a single question

This should be taken quite literally, and you’re already pushing it if you’ve spent three minutes on one question. Taking the GMAT requires flexibility, and this is where you need to adjust to the test as it tries to adjust to you. Know when it’s time to cut the cord, so you can free yourself to answer more questions. Do not leave any questions unanswered, as each unanswered question costs you more than questions you answer incorrectly. Know the specific time constraints of all test sections, as charted out in the next point.

• Follow the benchmarks

It’s very important to know effective GMAT time management strategies, as often students run out of time. The solution to this problem is a timing benchmark. This guides the student as they would memorize how many to answer within a certain period of time provided to each section.

Verbal Timing Benchmarks

In the section of GMAT verbal, time management would include giving yourself nine minutes to solve 5 questions. Follow this tip during practice tests as well, this will enhance your speed.

Quantitative Timing Benchmarks

For solving GMAT quantitative reasoning, your practice would be to solve five quant questions together, but not taking more than ten minutes. Make sure not to give more than three minutes to any individual question.

Make balance: Don’t go too fast or too slow

Best GMAT Time management techniques would include always keeping track of the time spent on each question, even if it’s a set of problems. It's very important to keep a balance in covering the entire GMAT syllabus. You need to solve the entire problem test paper to qualify in the exam. Below there is a table to give you an idea about the time management that is required for the exam.

So be flexible to face questions without any particular order. As it is a computer adaptive test, the questions come in a random order, so you need to be prepared for it. Learning GMAT effective time management strategies will lead to better scores and improved overall academic performance.