Guessing and skipping strategy for the GMAT

Of course, learning to solve problems under time pressure is an important part of preparing for the GMAT. You should do everything you can do to maximize your ability to perform at the highest level on as many questions as possible.

As well as you prepare, as diligently as you practice, you may find yourself at the end of a section on a real GMAT running out of time. What should you do? Guess randomly or omit the question?

Guessing vs. Solution BehaviorFirst, let’s clarify “guessing.” By “guessing” or “random guessing,” we mean you have no clue which of the five answer choices is right. The right answer could equally be any of the five options. This would most often occur if you are doing rapid guessing in the last few seconds of a session — answering, say, the last 5 questions in the last 10-15 seconds.

If you study the question, and can eliminate some answers, but don’t know which of the remaining answers is right, this is called “solution behavior.” On average, solution behavior will benefit you. It is always, 100% of the time, much better than either random guessing or omitting. If you have any clue about a question, and can narrow the answers down to three or two choices, then guess from among those and move on. Never leave such a question blank.

Strategy on the Verbal SectionGMAC conducted a study in 2009 looking into the question about guessing or omitting in the final moments of the test. They looked at patterns in tens of thousands of GMATs and culled through the data. It turns out, on the verbal section, there is no substantial difference between guessing on the last few questions or omitting them. Your score will be, on average, the same regardless of which strategy you choose.

Here’s what the report says: “If an examinee found herself with only a minute remaining to answer the last four items of the verbal section, it would be to her benefit to spend time trying to answer at least one of the remaining questions with thought while feeling confident that leaving the remaining items blank would not affect the score much differently than random responding.” When running out of time on the verbal section, your focus should be: remain calm, and simply do your best working thoroughly with each question, one at a time, even if that means there are two or three questions you simply don’t see.

Strategy on the Quantitative SectionThe data from test takers is far more nuanced on the quantitative section. Here, advice varies depending on your abilities.

For those who do not have a strength in math or are anticipating a relatively low score, it turns out that, as in the verbal section, it is advantageous to omit questions. If you don’t know the answer to a question, simply leave it blank, don’t guess. If you have enough insight to eliminate even one answer choice, that’s no longer guessing but rather solution behavior, and you should guess from the remaining answers. But if you truly have no clue, and especially if you are running out time, plan to omit questions, and do your best with the ones which you can either solve or apply solution behavior.

For those test-takers at the other end of the spectrum, those talented in the quantitative section and shooting for one of the highest scores, advice is the polar opposite: omitting a question is not recommended. If you’re running out of time, you will be much better served by randomly guessing than leaving anything blank.

What about for those in between? If you’re really good at math, omitting answers hurts you a lot. If you’re average at math, omitting answers hurts you a little. Basically, you are better off answering every question, even if that means random guessing in a last mad dash at the end.

Bottom lineThis is the most sophisticated data-driven recommendations on GMAT guessing strategies. If at any point you can practice solution behavior — that is, you can intelligently eliminate some answer choices and after that get stuck — then you should always guess from the remaining choices and never leave such a question blank. And the more you practice against the clock, and practice a wide variety of GMAT questions, the less the dilemma of a last-minute crunch will be your problem at all.

This post was written by Mike McGarry, GMAT expert at Magoosh.