What you Need to Do on Analytical Section?

There are certain steps that have to be taken in order to answer a question. For example, you have to read the question. Most of the time you have to write out a diagram or two. This involves going through the rules one by one. These steps are vital – without them you cannot get the right answer. Each of these steps takes a certain minimum amount of time; you cannot do them properly in less time than this. Yet most people feel like the only way to be good at the test is to rush through these most important steps.

Rush Through the Most Important Stuff

What happens when you rush through the most important stuff? You end up making mistakes, getting confused, and/or getting tired. You don't want that. What happens if you slow down? You get the questions right, and everything feels much easier. In the long run, you'll be faster overall because you'll be less tired and wont have to double-check your answers. Why don't people slow down? Because they feel like they can't afford it – if they don't go faster, they won't finish the test. This is a very common and very dangerous mistake to make. Let's analyze it: the goal is to do well. If you don't rush (you assume), you won't do well because you won't finish in time. But, if you do rush, you won't do well, because you can't be accurate if you are going too fast. Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

Except you don't have to rush. The people who wrote the Analytical Reasoning wrote the test to be possible; if a high score were un-gettable (by regular people, not just by professional test prep teachers), the test would be a waste. The people who wrote the test know their business; they know how long it takes to do the steps necessary for a question, and they know what these steps are. Each set is written to be doable in the given time, doing all the required steps. If you do what you need to do on a question and you do it in the amount of time it takes (not rushing through), you will have enough time to get most of the questions right. I promise. Of course, this assumes that you aren't wasting a lot of your time wondering what to do, or worrying about the test… Wouldn't you rather give those things up, and be able to do the analytical reasoning more comfortably?