Your Pacing Problem Is a SYMPTOM

Every week a working professional tells me some version of the same thing: "I know the material. I just run out of time." Then they ask for a pacing trick. A secret split. A way to read faster.

Here's my verdict: you don't have a pacing problem. You have a pacing SYMPTOM. The clock is the thermometer. It tells you something else is wrong. Smash the thermometer and you're still sick.

The good news is that the "something else" is almost always boring, visible and fixable. Let's find yours.

First, know the clock you're up against

The Executive Assessment (the EA, the test GMAC built for Executive MBA programs) is 90 minutes long. It's split into three 30-minute sections: Integrated Reasoning with 12 questions, Verbal Reasoning with 14 and Quantitative Reasoning with 14. Each section is scored 0 to 20. The total runs from 100 to 200, and all three sections count the same. You can check the layout on GMAC's assessment structure page.

Now do the division. 30 minutes for 14 Quant questions is a little over 2 minutes each. 30 minutes for 12 Integrated Reasoning questions (the section where you read charts, tables and short passages and pull out what matters) is 2 and a half minutes each. That's tight, but it's fair. It's enough time to read once, take notes and do the work. It is NOT enough time to do everything twice.

Stop and do this math

Say you don't take notes while you read a Quant question. Once you start working, you have to glance back at the prompt to find the numbers again. Call it 10 seconds of re-reading per question.

Stop reading. Before you go to the next paragraph, figure out what that costs you in one Quant section. Write it down. On paper.

14 questions times 10 seconds is 140 seconds. That's 2 minutes and 20 seconds. Your average time per Quant question is about 2 minutes and 8 seconds. So re-reading alone eats MORE than one whole question's worth of time. Spread it across all 40 questions on the test and you've burned 400 seconds, or 6 minutes and 40 seconds, reading things you already read.

And I'll bet 10 seconds is generous. Most people who "just run out of time" read the long Verbal passages and the Integrated Reasoning tables two or three times.

Here's the part that stings for this crowd. You've spent years at work skimming email, scanning slide decks and grabbing the gist. That's a great job skill. On this test it's a liability, because the question writers hide the whole problem in one small word you skimmed past.

Watch it happen

This one is Problem Solving, which is a regular math question with five answer choices. Take notes. Time yourself.

The real causes, and what to do INSTEAD

1. You read without writing. You read the whole prompt, then go back to fish out the numbers, then go back again to see what it asked. INSTEAD: break the prompt into pieces and write each fact down as you read it. Write what the question asks at the top. When you finish reading the first time, you should be ready to work, not ready to read again.
2. You do the work in your head. It feels faster. It isn't. Mental math is where the little mistakes live, and catching a little mistake means redoing the whole thing. INSTEAD: every step goes on your scratch paper. Every one. If you think you're "too smart" for that, that's pride talking, and pride is expensive on a 30-minute clock.
3. You take the long road. You learned algebra in school, so you set up equations for everything. Plenty of questions fall faster when you TEST THE ANSWERS or TEST VALUES (pick real numbers and see what happens). INSTEAD: before you write a single equation, look at the answer choices and ask, "Is plugging these in faster?"
4. You marry one question. You spend five minutes on one brutal Quant question because you refuse to lose it. Then you rush the last three easy ones and miss two of them. The EA adapts as you go, section by section, and one ugly question does not doom you. We covered why in Adaptive Doesn't Mean DOOMED. INSTEAD: when a question is clearly eating you alive, make your best guess and move on ON PURPOSE.
5. You watch the clock after every question. Every glance costs a few seconds and a little calm. INSTEAD: use one checkpoint. In Quant or Verbal, after question 7 you want roughly 15 minutes gone. Ahead or close? Keep going. Way behind? One of the four causes above is happening right now, so fix the cause, not the speed.

Here's the forced choice. What do you want MORE: to FEEL fast while you work, or to finish with the right answers? You can't have the first one and the score.

One more, because working in your head is sneaky

This one is Data Sufficiency. You get a question and two facts, called statements. You don't have to find the answer to the question. You just decide whether each statement, alone or together, gives you enough to answer it for sure.

Notice something about both examples. Neither one needed you to go faster. They needed you to write things down and pick the shorter road. THAT is what makes the clock stop winning.

Your move, today

Grab 7 Quant questions you haven't seen. Give yourself 15 minutes. Every time your eyes go back to re-read a prompt, make a tick mark in the margin. Be honest. When time's up, count the ticks.

Then redo the same 7 with full notes first, every step on paper, and answers tested where they can be. Compare the two sets. I'll bet the second one was calmer, more accurate and not one bit slower. Now you know what your "pacing problem" really was. Go fix THAT.