Top Tips for the GMAT test

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DON'T resort to random guesses. Instead, always try to eliminate at least one answer choice before you confirm your response.

If you must guess, always try to eliminate obvious wrong-answer choices first, then go with your hunch. Eliminating even one choice obviously improves your odds. If you're out of time on a section, there's no advantage to guessing randomly on the remaining questions. Why? You might luck out and guess correctly. But incorrect responses move you down the ladder of difficulty to easier questions, and your reward for responding correctly to an easy question is less than your reward for responding correctly to a more difficult one. So on balance, there's no net advantage or disadvantage to guessing randomly.

NOTE: The scoring system for the paper-based GMAT (available only at certain locations outside the U.S.) eliminates any advantage of random guessing by deducting one-quarter point for each incorrect response.

DO look out for sucker-bait answer choices.
The test-makers love to bait you with tempting wrong answer choices. (You'll see for yourself as you tackle the Mini-Tests here at this Web site.) So unless you're running out of time, heed the following advice:
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• • In Problem Solving questions wrong-answer choices typically reflect common computational errors. To avoid this trap:
    • use your pencil and scratch paper
    • check your calculations
    • know the general size of the numerical value that answers the question

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• • On the Verbal section questions typically include a best response and a second-best response. So unless you're quickly running out of time on the Verbal section, never hasten to select and confirm an answer until you've read all the choices!
    .

DO pace yourself so that you have enough time to consider every available question—but don't be a clock-watcher.

To give your full attention to all 37 Quantitative questions and all 41 Verbal questions, you'll probably have to work at a somewhat quicker pace than is comfortable for you. Check your pace after every 10 questions (three times during a section):

If you're on Total Time elapsed

question number: should be about

10 20 minutes
20 40 minutes
30 60 minutes
37 (Q) 75 minutes
41(V)
(time has expired)

Adjust your pace accordingly so that you have time to at least take a reasoned guess on every available question in the section. But try not to be a constant clock watcher (easier said than done, of course, when the time remaining is always right in front of you—in the upper-left corner of the computer screen).

TIP: The best way to avoid the time squeeze is to practice under timed conditions, so that you get a sense for how quickly you must proceed to get through a multiple-choice section within the allotted time.

DO take your time with the first few Quantitative and Verbal questions.

The CAT uses your responses to the first few questions to move you either up or down the ladder of difficulty. Of course, you want to move up the ladder, not down. So take great care with the initial questions—perhaps moving at a somewhat slower pace initially. Otherwise, you'll have to answer several questions just to reverse the trend by proving to the CAT that you're smarter than it thinks you are.


DON'T succumb to perfectionist tendencies.

On an exam as important as the GMAT, it's easy to be a stubborn perfectionist. The design of the CAT itself contributes to this mind set, because your reward for correct responses to difficult questions is greater than your reward for easier questions. But a stubborn attitude is self-defeating, for two reasons:
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• 1. It reduces the number of questions that you attempt, which lowers your score
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  2. You run the risk of over-analyzing questions, and going against your initial hunch (which more often than not is correct)

DO maintain an active mind set.

During the GMAT it's remarkably easy to fall into a passive mode—in which you let your eyes simply pass over the words while you hope that the correct response jumps out at you as you scan the answer choices. Fight this tendency by interacting with the test as you read it. Keep in mind that each question on the GMAT is designed to measure a specific ability or skill. So when you're presented with each new question, try to adopt an active, investigative approach to the question. Ask yourself:
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• • What skill is the question measuring?
  • What is the most direct thought process for determining the correct response?
  • How might a careless test taker be tripped up on this type of question?

DO use your pencil and scratch paper (both will be provided).

Doing so helps keep you in an active mode. On the Quantitative section, perform only the simplest calculations in your head; commit everything else to paper! Obviously, you'll use your scratch paper less during the Verbal section. Nevertheless, outlining Reading Comprehension passages and jotting down conclusions and premises for Critical Reasoning questions can help keep your thought process clear and straight.


DO move the keyboard away to the side for the multiple-choice
sections.

You won't use the keyboard at all for either the Quantitative or the Verbal section. So put your scratch paper right in front of you, and get the keyboard out of the way.


DON'T waste time reading directions while the clock is running; make sure you already know them inside and out.


At the start of each new section, as well as just before each specific type of question (e.g., Data Sufficiency or Reading Comprehension) appears for the first time, the CAT will display the directions for that section (or question type). The clock will be running! So dismiss the directions as quickly as you can by clicking on the DISMISS DIRECTIONS button—without taking any time to read them



Hope it helps you out..


take care..