Life is full of contradictions. Often the things we want more than anything else only show up when we let go of the idea of having them. Sometimes the tastiest food is found in the most unlikely hole-in-the-wall restaurant that a friend sent you to. And sometimes a person a who starts out as your enemy can end up becoming your best friend.
Hauling A**
My experience of more than 20 years of teaching the GMAT has shown me that Time Management on the GMAT is similarly rife with contradictions. The common and even natural perception of Time Management on the GMAT is that you must HAUL A** (henceforth “HA” or “H-ing-A”). Afterall, time is short, and pacing is essential. The problem with this philosophy is that “H-ing-A” is usually a recipe for disaster, especially on the Quant section.
So what are the problems with H-ing-A? The biggest problem stems from the fact that the test-writers are banking on the fact that you’ll be H-ing-A, so they set you up! To a large degree, the human brain craves repetition. It seeks to catalog things into familiar boxes of things it’s seen before. When you first read a GMAT question, you can’t help but try to classify what you are reading, to put it in a familiar category with other things you’ve seen before. Don’t get me wrong, part of this is good and even essential for our GMAT studies. You need to be able to recognize patterns, identify topics being tested, and pick appropriate strategies.
Rushing = Falling for Traps
However, it is equally important that you read each question carefully from the get-go. Nothing says “GMAT question” more than a problem that is designed to look like one thing but is actually another or that has a subtle twist. When you first read a GMAT question, take your time, digest each word or mathematical phrase. Make sure that a cigar is just a cigar, and not something else…
Okay so this covers the “Slow Down” suggestion in the title, but what does that have to do with speeding up? What I’ve noticed over the years is that most students burn a ton of time on GMAT quant questions during the execution phase. A poorly laid out plan or an incorrect starting point, often leads to a massive time drain. There’s a good chance you’ll end up inefficiently looping back a few times to try to understand what you missed or what you are doing wrong.
The Delusion of Speed
The delusion is that if you can get to solving the problem quickly, you’ll be fast enough on the question. But it’s just that – a delusion! The initial read – the understand and plan phases – should actually be done in an attentive, thorough way. Once you have your ducks in line, the execution itself should be swift. In fact, if there’s any place in the solving of a question that should be well-greased and swift, it’s that. Executing protocols is something that can be practiced to the point of efficient and fast repeatability. It’s like practicing free-throw shots or piano scales. When the hammer drops to execute a solution in a GMAT question, you should be able to do that quickly. Just don’t rush the setting up of the hammer!
So how can you practice putting this philosophy into action? I suggest that you start with a one-question-at-a-time timing exercise. Set a 1-minute timer when you start a Quant question. When it goes off, stop working and evaluate your process on the question. Did you take your time to effectively and accurately capture all of the information in the question? Did you miss any details? Were you guilty of making any incorrect assumptions? Do you have a viable game-plan for how to solve the question? Did you start solving the question too early (i.e. the in-take and plan were done too hastily)?
Taking Action
Next try to practice “Slowing Down” with mixed sets. Set your smart phone’s stopwatch when you begin a timed set (do 8 questions in 16 min or any multiple of 4 x 2 min / question – see this article for more on timing mixed sets). When you finish the in-take and plan phase of solving a question, hit the LAP button on your stopwatch and continue working. Then after you finish the actual execution of the problem, hit the LAP button again and move on to the next question. When you finish the whole set, you should have twice as many times saved as you did questions, unless you forgot to lap one or more times.
When analyzing your mixed set, start by asking the same questions as in the one-at-a-time drill above. Then take it one step further. Compare your ability to successfully execute the question (i.e. get the right answer) to how well you feel you did on that first chunk of time up to the first lap (~1 minute). How many of the misses that you had could have been avoided by spending more time on the front-end? What kinds of things can you do next time to make sure that you actually use that time wisely?
Weird at First
When you practice this, it might feel a little strange in the beginning. Slow down to speed up? It’s going to feel like slow down to slow down! With time however, if you do it right, you’ll see how important the first 30-60 seconds of the question are. You’ll see that when you take your time in the beginning, for the initial understand and plan phase, afterwards you’ll be able to execute quickly and accurately. And the concept of slowing down to speed up will no longer seem like a strange one.