As far as great life mysteries go—Bigfoot, aliens, the Bermuda Triangle—perhaps the biggest of them all is whether the first 7 questions (or 6, or 5) in each section of the GMAT Focus represent exploitable opportunities to secure a high score.
OK, maybe one of these mysteries doesn’t quite belong with the others. But if you’re preparing for the GMAT Focus, you’ve likely stumbled across this hot topic on forums or in a prep class. So, what exactly is the myth of the first 7 questions?
This article answers that question and explores how buying into this age-old myth could affect your GMAT score.
Here are the topics we’ll cover:
- What Is the Myth of the First 7 GMAT Questions?
- Should You Invest Extra Time in the First Several Questions of Each Section?
- Why Do Test-Takers Believe the GMAT First 7 Questions Myth?
- Key Takeaways
- What’s Next?
To start, let’s discuss exactly what this prevalent GMAT myth is.
What Is the Myth of the First 7 GMAT Questions?
The myth of the first 7 GMAT questions is, essentially, that the first 7 (or 6, or 5) questions in each section of the GMAT Focus count more than the rest of the questions in a section. Thus, by performing well on the first X number of questions in each section, a test-taker can “lock in” a high GMAT Focus score.
The theory goes that by overinvesting time in the first 7 questions of each section, you significantly increase your chances of correctly answering those questions. And since, supposedly, the first 7 questions are more important than the others, if you get all of those questions correct, by question 8, the GMAT scoring algorithm will have assigned you a score high enough to carry you for the rest of the section.
Using that “hack,” you can (supposedly) lock in a GMAT score higher than the one you might’ve earned were you pacing yourself evenly throughout each section.
That story sounds plausible, right? So, should you spend more time on the first 7 questions of each section than on the other questions?
Should You Invest Extra Time in the First Several Questions of Each Section?
The simple answer to the question of whether to frontload your time per question in each GMAT section is that you shouldn’t.
If you could spend 3-4 minutes on each question, the strategy of overinvesting time in early questions might work. However, our time is not unlimited on the GMAT. For that reason, the first 7 questions strategy quickly falls apart.
TTP PRO TIP:
Overinvesting time in the first 5, 6, or 7 questions in each GMAT Focus section is NOT a sound strategy for earning a high score.
Generally, there are 3 scenarios that play out when test-takers overinvest time in the first 7 questions of a section. Let’s examine each of these scenarios.
Scenario 1: You Continue to Spend Extra Time on Questions
In the first scenario, you spend extra time on the first 7 questions and naturally get into a rhythm. As a consequence, you continue to spend more time than you typically would on questions in the section. You probably perform at that same artificially inflated skill level for at least a few more questions after the first 7. But before long, you face a significant problem: time is running out in the section.
Here’s the thing: if you don’t pace yourself from the beginning of a section, you likely will be unable to finish the section without either hastily guessing on several questions or leaving questions unanswered at the end of the section. Either situation is very likely to send your score tumbling. In particular, the latter situation could be a score-killer. Why? The penalty for leaving questions unanswered on the GMAT Focus is very steep.
In fact, early test-taker reports indicate that answering all questions in a section may be far more important for your GMAT Focus score than correctly answering the first questions is. So, if you overinvest time in earlier questions rather than simply spend an appropriate amount of time on each question, you risk doing more damage to your score than a perfect performance on the first 7 questions can compensate for.
Moreover, spending extra time on the first 7 questions does not guarantee a perfect performance on those questions.
So, a risk based on a gamble—not exactly a solid GMAT strategy.
TTP PRO TIP:
Overinvesting time in earlier questions puts you at risk of having to guess on questions or leave questions unanswered at the end of the section.
Now, you may be thinking, what if I’m careful not to spend extra time on questions after the first 7? Let’s discuss that scenario.
Scenario 2: You Work at a “Normal” Pace on Subsequent Questions
In this scenario, at question 8, you begin working at your typical per-question pace. As a result, your score eventually converges on a value that is in line with your true skill level. In other words, now that you’re working without the advantage of taking extra time to solve questions, your accuracy declines. Thus, your score declines as you progress toward the end of the section.
But maybe that’s OK, right? After all, you’ve “locked in” a high enough score at the beginning of the section to survive somewhat lower accuracy for the rest of the section. Not so fast.
Because you overinvested time in the first 7 questions, you will at some point be forced to underinvest time in remaining questions, even if you return to your “normal” pace at question 8. Since eventually you’ll have to speed up more than you typically would, there is a good chance that your accuracy will be lower on remaining questions than it would’ve been had you properly paced yourself throughout the section.
The real killer is that you’re likely to still run out of time on some number of final questions. Thus, you’ll be forced to either guess or leave those questions blank. So again, your accuracy will suffer and you’ll likely face the dreaded GMAT penalty for unanswered questions.
TTP PRO TIP:
If you overinvest time in early questions, at some point you’ll be forced to underinvest time in remaining questions, even if you return to your normal pace at first.
But what if you don’t ever quite go back to your typical per-question pace and instead spread out your underinvestment across the remaining questions? In other words, what if you speed up just slightly on all questions after the first 7? Let’s discuss.
Scenario 3: You Speed Up a Little on Subsequent Questions
In this scenario, after the first 7 questions, you work at a slightly faster speed than your natural pace on all remaining questions, to make up for your initial over-expenditure of time. In other words, you attempt to hit a sweet spot in which you’re working fast enough to complete the section but not so fast that your accuracy suffers.
This is a high-wire act that no test-taker should attempt during a pressure-filled exam such as the GMAT Focus. Sure, your drop in accuracy in this scenario may not be as great as in the other two scenarios. However, your accuracy will still be lower than it would be were you working at your natural pace.
And remember, you cannot predict the difficulty level of the remaining questions you’ll see. So, because you’re working more quickly, you could end up making careless errors on easy-level questions that you would normally answer correctly. And missing a bunch of easy-level questions in a section can seriously hurt your score.
TTP PRO TIP:
Working at an unnaturally fast pace to try to compensate for “lost time” makes careless, score-eroding errors more likely, even on easier questions.
Given the inevitable results of these scenarios, you may be wondering why the myth of the first GMAT questions in a section is still going strong.
Why Do Test-Takers Believe the GMAT First 7 Questions Myth?
The myth of the first X number of questions on the GMAT has persisted for many years. (Before the GMAT Focus hit the scene, when there were more questions per section on the GMAT, this tall tale was known as the GMAT first 10 questions myth.) There are a variety of reasons why.
First, since the GMAT Focus is difficult, test-takers understandably seek strategies to make earning a high score easier.
Second, the myth’s logic appears sound. If you understand computer-adaptive testing, you know that the more questions you answer correctly, the more difficult the questions become, and the higher your score potential. So, you might think of getting the first 7 questions correct as an “insurance policy.” That is, by intentionally driving up the difficulty level of questions, you can make a high score more likely.
Of course, the problem with that logic is that you won’t actually benefit from the higher score that correctly answering harder questions yields if you haven’t left yourself enough time to perform well on those harder questions.
The fact is, you can see a mix of easy, medium, and hard-level questions at the beginning, in the middle, and at the end of a section. So, you can’t assume that if you perform well at the beginning of a section, all of the later questions will be hard-level, and thus missing some won’t matter much. Easier questions can appear anywhere, even if you’re performing well, and missing those will lower your score.
In other words, trying to predict whether you’re overinvesting time in the “right” questions is a losing game on the GMAT Focus. Couple that fact with the risk of running out of time at the end of a section, and overinvesting time in early questions becomes a recipe for disaster.
Key Takeaways
Sadly, overinvesting time in answering the first 7 questions in each section of the GMAT Focus will not secure you a high GMAT score and is actually likely to sabotage your score. Think about it: if test-takers were able to guarantee themselves high scores simply by focusing on the first X number of questions in each section, then a score of 695+ would be achievable for a lot more than just 2% of Focus test-takers. Moreover, the GMAT wouldn’t be such an accurate predictor of how students will perform in business school.
The truth is, hacks and gimmicks are not a reliable means of earning a high GMAT Focus score. Doing the work is. Thus, it’s essential to have a GMAT pacing strategy in place that allows you to balance your time appropriately based on what different question types actually require, not based on some rigid idea of which questions will automatically matter most.
Remember also that the GMAT penalty for unanswered questions is very harsh. So, you don’t want to rely on a strategy that leaves you so vulnerable to running out of time at the end of a section.
If you’d like to learn more about how to pace yourself on test day, check out these Quant timing strategies and these Verbal timing strategies.
What’s Next?
Did you know that believing the myth that you’re “just not a math person” can damage your GMAT Quant score?
You may have also heard these 5 common GMAT myths and misconceptions about the Verbal section.
