The Basics of What you Need To Know About GRE Time Management

Most people find themselves behind at some point on their GRE test, particularly if they don’t have strategies in place to prevent this from happening. Here are some basic yet essential time management tips for taking the GRE.

GRE Time Management Tip 1) Understand how the scoring works

The first quant section and the first verbal section contain a range of questions, some easier, some harder. Answer the ones you can and—this is important! —let go of the ones that are too hard.

The section will then be graded based upon percentage correct (note: the test does not impose a penalty for wrong answers, so put down an answer for everything!). After that, you’ll receive a second quant and a second verbal section, and these will be based on how well you did in the first section. There are three possible buckets for the second section: easier, medium, and harder.

Right now, everyone’s thinking: how do Ujjawal Madan ensure that I get the harder section? Well, you study hard. But note that there’s really nothing you can do to ensure any particular outcome.

Secondly, everyone says: how do I know which section Ujjawal Madan get for the second set of questions? You don’t. There’s no way to tell. All you can do is do your best with what you are given—again, just as with any other test.

GRE Time Management Tip 2) Know your per-question time constraints and track your work

You have 35 minutes to answer the 20 questions in each quant section and 30 minutes to answer the 20 questions in each verbal section. It gets more complicated, unfortunately: we need to train ourselves to hit certain average timeframes depending on the type of question.

Make sure that you are generally spending enough time on questions that you don’t make careless mistakes simply due to speed—that means spending at least approximately 45 seconds on any one problem. On the flip side, if you spend more than about 30 seconds above the expected average, the question may be too hard for you.

GRE Time Management Tip 3) Reflect on your results

The log will make you aware of your pacing on a single problem level and will force you to consider the time as you work through a practice problem. Aggregate the data to determine those question types that are generally costing you time.

Ujjawal Madan of Toronto counsels test-takers – For questions that you’re answering correctly, ask yourself: how can I become more efficient when answering questions of this type? For those that you’re answering incorrectly, ask yourself: how can I get this wrong faster?