Strategy for Initial Questions on the GMAT

Should you spend more time on the first Ten Questions on the GMAT?

Probably the the biggest myth about the GMAT, one that is even supported by most coaches and coaching institutes, is that if you get some of the first few questions wrong you cannot get a high score.

Absolute rubbish!

Yesterday one of my students told me that in one of the practice tests he scored a 26 in verbal, getting 6 of the first 10 questions wrong which he claimed was the reason for this low score. I asked him whether he had checked how many of the remaining 31 questions he got correct, and he hadn't, so we checked it and guess what, he had got 19 of the remaining 31 questions incorrect.

So basically out of the total 41 questions he only got 16 correct, which is why he got a 26 and not because he got 6 of the first 10 wrong.

It's actually common sense – however you perform on the first 10 questions, that performance will pretty much be reflected in the rest of the test as well. So if you are getting 50% of the first 10 questions incorrect you are a mid-level student who will most likely also get 50% of the remaining 31 questions incorrect and if you are getting 80% of the first 10 correct you are a good student who will again most likely continue to get 80% of the remaining questions incorrect.

So not rocket science, just plain and simple common sense, but consider this scenario:

Say you are a good student who has been scoring well on the practice tests but when you sit for the actual test, owing to nerves/stress whatever, you get 50% of the first 10 questions wrong but then you settle down, get your act together and perform at your normal level and get 75-80% of the remaining 31 questions correct. In this case there is no way you will get a low score in this section. And similarly even if you get 90% of the first 10 questions right and then go on to get 50-60% of the remaining questions incorrect there is no way you are going to get a high score.

So please do not make the mistake of spending too much time on the first 10 questions because you will most probably still get a few of these wrong and what's even worse, you will run out of time towards the end and end up getting those last few questions wrong as well.

Trust me I have seen enough scores to say this, or better still try these experiments with the GMATPrep and see what happens. You will be surprised!!

As a final point, consider these lines from the official GMAT Blog that is maintained by the GMAC itself - "Don’t be fooled by the rumors you may hear about CATs. On the GMAT, all the questions are important, not just the first few."

To Sum it up:

1. Initial questions are not as important as they are made out to be; even if you get the first few questions wrong you can still get a good score on that section.

2. Do not make the mistake of spending extra time on the first 10 questions and then running out of time towards the end.