Anatomy of a 9-Minute GMAT RC Question Disaster
UPDATED FOR THE NEW GMAT IN 2024
After reviewing my Enhanced Score Report from my GMAT exam in April 2019, I found out that I spent 8 minutes and 53 seconds on one GMAT Reading Comprehension question. And to make matters worse, I didn’t even get that RC question right.
There’s a lot of purple in that little timing chart. In the 2nd quarter of my GMAT verbal section, I spent an average of 2:39 on the questions, which is pretty slow.
It’s worse than that, though: I spent 8:53 on one question I answered incorrectly, and an average of 1:36 on the six questions I answered correctly.
(Fun fact: the text-based GMAT ESR will give you more precise timing information than the PDF version. When you activate your GMAT ESR code, just select the text-based version to see a breakdown of the time you spent on correct and incorrect questions for each quarter of a GMAT test section.)
Those 9 minutes weren’t much fun. In fact, they were extremely unpleasant. To help you prevent a GMAT disaster like this on your own exam, here’s exactly how mine unfolded. Fair warning: it’s not pretty.
The Anatomy of a GMAT Reading Comprehension Meltdown
0:00 - 1:30: First read-through of the RC passage. Pretty science-y, describing an experiment that will support one of two theories. Huh. The actual experiment is pretty confusing -- I hope they don’t ask a detail question about that.
1:30 - 1:45: First glance at the question. (Expletive deleted.) It is indeed about that detail. (More expletives deleted.)
1:45 - 3:00: Second read-through of the paragraph describing the experiment. Maybe I just missed something, and it’s really not confusing at all? Nope – I’m still confused.
3:00 - 3:15: Maybe I misread the question? Let me go back to that. Sadly, it’s still about that detail.
3:15 - 4:15: Okay, this is stupid. All of the information I need is right in front of me. I read through the relevant paragraph AGAIN. Still nothing.
4:15 - 5:30: Oh yeah, process of elimination! GMAT tutors like me talk about that all the time. Let me start by eliminating the clearly incorrect answer choices. (A) could be right, (B) could be right, (C) also could be right…. Okay, this is pointless. I need to understand the RC passage before I go through the answer choices.
5:30 - 6:30: Back to the RC passage. Maybe notes will help? I’ll just scribble some stuff down -- a diagram -- some arrows -- or just a few key points? Maybe drawing a picture of a pterodactyl will help? No?
6:30 - 7:30: I really don’t understand this question. How is this possible? Who wrote this stupid RC passage? Maybe it’s experimental?? Is this really happening?!
7:30 - 7:45: Okay, maybe I need to let this one go. Maybe I’m not going to get it right. But then again, I’ve wasted so much time, I HAVE to get this question right….
7:45 - 8:00: Yeah, I need to give up. (C), I guess.
8:00 - 8:30: No way, f@%k that. I am a GMAT tutor! And I do NOT get stumped by GMAT RC questions! Maybe one more read-through….
8:30 - 8:45: No, I really need to get out of here. This one’s over my head.
8:45-8:53: A few seconds of numb disbelief, and then I finally click onto the next question.
Misusing Time is Costly on the GMAT
If that was painful to read, trust me when I say it was also painful to experience firsthand. I felt flustered and knew that I wasn’t making good decisions, but I just could not let this particular GMAT RC problem go.
Unfortunately, the flustered feeling (not to mention the self-induced time pressure!) affected the rest of my test, and I ended up getting my lowest GMAT verbal score ever. I guess it’s common sense: you can’t spend 9 minutes on one GMAT question and expect your best result on the GMAT as a whole.
Once the dust settled and my bruised feelings healed, I realized I learned a few valuable lessons from this RC mishap. Here’s three that you might find useful.
How to Prevent a GMAT Timing Disaster
Be ready to let problems go. I was not ready to let an RC question go, even though that is exactly what I preach to my GMAT students every day. For me, it was an ego thing. How could I – owner of a 47V with no RC errors BEFORE becoming a GMAT tutor, GMAT Club Verbal Expert, slayer of LSAT RC sections (I hope the sarcasm is coming through) – be stumped by this question? I was not prepared to strategically guess on a GMAT RC problem, and I became absolutely paralyzed when I couldn’t answer the question.
Recognize the feeling of flailing. How do you decide when it’s time to let go of a problem? For GMAT verbal questions, here’s the kiss of death: if you start endlessly bouncing between the passage, the question stem, and answer choices without gaining any more information or insight, you’re flailing. I should have recognized this behavior at around the four-minute mark. That would have saved me nearly five minutes that I could have used on other GMAT verbal questions. My new GMAT motto: don’t flail, just bail.
Ignore the noise in your head. It’s pointless to worry about things you can’t control (how a particular question will impact your GMAT score, whether you’ll get into your dream MBA program, whether GMAT test-writers are actual demons or just figurative ones, etc.).
I retook the GMAT several months after this somewhat disastrous attempt, and by focusing less on getting a perfect GMAT score and more on making good, clear-headed decisions on each question, I finally got my perfect GMAT verbal score – and a 770 composite.
A “tutor-level” GMAT score (whatever that means) might not be your goal – but avoiding 9-minute GMAT disasters always should be.