“Three minutes left. Three questions to go.”
Your heart sinks as you check the timer during your GMAT practice. Again, despite all your preparation, you’re racing against time, knowing you’ll have to rush through those final questions – or worse, leave some unanswered.
Sounds familiar? You’re not alone. Time management is one of the most common challenges GMAT test-takers face. When this happens, most people try the obvious solutions: solving questions faster, learning more shortcuts, or practicing more questions. Some even randomly guess certain question types just to finish on time.
But here’s what’s interesting: even test-takers who know all the concepts, have solid accuracy, and use good strategies sometimes find themselves in this time crunch. Why?
The answer might surprise you. While time management issues can stem from various sources like concept gaps or inefficient solving processes, there’s another crucial factor that most test-takers overlook completely. Understanding and addressing this hidden factor could be the key to finally solving your timing struggles.
Today, we’ll explore what this factor is, why it matters, and most importantly, how to overcome it.
Time Management: Looking Beyond the Obvious:
When you find yourself consistently running out of time, it’s natural to focus on the obvious culprits. Maybe you’re spending too much time on certain topics. Perhaps there are gaps in your conceptual understanding that slow you down. Or maybe your process needs more efficiency.
These are all valid concerns. After working with over 1,500 GMAT aspirants, we’ve seen timing issues stem from various sources:
- Process inefficiencies – where test-takers use longer approaches when shortcuts exist
- Concept gaps – forcing students to spend extra time figuring out solutions
- Inefficient answer choice analysis – particularly in verbal, where eliminating choices takes longer than necessary
- Question-specific slowdowns – getting stuck on certain question types consistently
- Decision paralysis – spending too much time deciding whether to solve or skip
But there’s another factor that often goes unnoticed: rustiness.
The Hidden Culprit
Have you ever noticed that you seem to hit your stride only after solving a few questions? Do those initial problems somehow take longer, even though they’re not necessarily more difficult? This isn’t just a coincidence or poor time management – it’s a phenomenon called rustiness.
Understanding rustiness is crucial because it affects almost every test-taker, yet few recognize or address it. Before we dive into solutions, let’s understand exactly what rustiness is and why it matters for your GMAT performance.
What is Rustiness?
Think of your brain as a high-performance engine. Even the most powerful engines need time to reach optimal performance – they don’t perform at their peak the moment you start them. Your brain works similarly when tackling complex tasks like GMAT questions. Rustiness is that initial lag in your solving speed and accuracy when you begin a cognitive task after a break. It’s why your first few questions often take longer, even though they’re not necessarily more difficult than later ones. This puts pressure on the last few questions of the test due to insufficient time:
The science behind this is fascinating. Just as athletes need to warm up their muscles before a race, your brain needs time to:
- Transition from a relaxed state to a problem-solving mode
- Access and activate stored knowledge and patterns
- Build momentum in applying concepts and strategies
- Get into the rhythm of reading and processing questions efficiently
While most test-takers experience rustiness, few recognize it for what it is. Instead, they might attribute their slower initial pace to question difficulty or test-day nervousness.
How to Identify Rustiness?
How do you know if rustiness is affecting your performance? The pattern is quite clear: if your initial 3-4 questions consistently take longer to solve than your normal pace, but then your speed picks up and stabilizes for the rest of the section – that’s rustiness at work.
This pattern shows up in several ways during those early questions:
- You find yourself reading questions multiple times to grasp their meaning
- Your calculations seem more labored and prone to errors
- Complex formulas or strategies take longer to recall
- Your approach to questions tends to be more complicated than necessary
Think of it like a runner who takes the first few minutes of a race to find their stride. Once they hit their rhythm, their pace becomes consistent and efficient. Similarly, once you overcome that initial rustiness, your solving speed typically settles into a steadier, more efficient pace.
How to Overcome Rustiness?
Just as athletes warm up before a race, your brain needs a proper warm-up before tackling GMAT questions. The solution to rustiness is a structured warm-up routine that gets your mind ready for peak performance.
A proper warm-up has two essential components:
Question-Based Warm-up
This involves getting into your problem-solving rhythm through carefully selected practice questions. The key is to solve 2 answered questions from each sub-section of the test. For example, if you are attempting a verbal quiz, then warm up with 2 answered CR questions + 1 answered RC before the test. If it just a CR test, then just warm up with 2 answered CR questions.
Remember – since these are answered questions, your goal isn’t to test yourself. Instead:
- Solve them actively by following your usual process
- Focus on getting into your rhythm, not on getting answers right
- Use your standard solving approach – no shortcuts or guessing
Why answered questions? Because the goal isn’t to learn or test yourself – it’s to get your mind warmed up and ready for the actual test.
Environmental Preparation:
This ensures you’re in the right state to perform at your best:
- Setting up your workspace properly
- Being adequately alert and energized
- Minimizing distractions
- Getting into a test-taking mindset
Timing is crucial – do this warm-up 10-30 minutes before you start your test. This gives you enough time to get into your rhythm without tiring yourself out.
Best Practices and Common Warm-Up Mistakes
The Bottom Line
We’ve seen how those crucial first few minutes can impact your entire test performance. Rustiness isn’t just about being “out of practice” – it’s a natural phenomenon that affects even well-prepared test-takers. The key is having a strategy to overcome it.
Remember:
- Warm up with answered questions – 2 per subsection
- Set up your environment properly
- Get in the zone before starting
Think of your GMAT performance like a race – you wouldn’t start sprinting from a standstill. Give your brain the warm-up it needs, and you’ll be ready to perform at your peak from question one.
