Executive Assessment Pacing and Timing Strategy
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The first two articles in my three-part series were meant to offer an overview of and general approach to studying for the Executive Assessment (EA). This article is a far more detailed guide to exactly how to approach the exam itself based upon what I have seen as the keys to student success.
It covers strategies for managing the clock within each stage and maximizing your EA score in each of the three sections.
Gedankenexperiment
Albert Einstein famously created many breakthroughs in our understanding of space, gravitation, light and time using “thought experiments” that he referred to by the German name “Gedankenexperiment”. I can’t offer much help for you with the mysteries of space and gravitation, but as for time, I think that a gedankenexperiment can help.
Imagine this: I have US$7 million to give you. In exchange, I require you to perform seven tasks; for each task successfully completed, you will receive US$1 million. The catch (aside from the fact that this entire experiment is imaginary, and I unfortunately don’t have any million dollars to offer anyone) is that you only have 15 minutes to complete all seven tasks.
Also imagine that you know approximately how long each task will take.
Task 1: 5 minutes
Task 2: 2 minutes
Task 3: 4 minutes
Task 4: 2 minutes
Task 5: 3 minutes
Task 6: 3 minutes
Task 7: 1 minute
Now, the experiment: In what order should you attempt to complete the tasks? If you approach them in numerical order, you will run out of time before completing the fifth task. You’d still walk away with US$4 million, but I think that we can do better.
What if, instead, you started with the easiest and fastest task, and then worked your way through the tasks from shortest to longest?
The seven tasks would still take the same total of 20 minutes to complete, but now you’d expect to hit the 15 minutes mark and run out of time after completing—count them—six tasks. That is a US$2 million gain, for anyone keeping track. And I’m not going to claim that getting two more correct responses on the EA will equate to a US$2 million increase in lifelong earnings, but I’m not going to say that it won’t either. Hard to say.
Einstein’s Theory of Executive Assessment Pacing
Einstein would argue that this thought experiment sheds light on how you should approach the EA. Stages ask you to answer six or seven questions in 15 minutes and give you the exact same credit for each question answered correctly. Some take longer than others, and you should save those for last, so that if you do run out of time, you’ll be leaving the least number of points on the table.
Everything that follows is built out of the theory above: Since you’re allowed to choose the order in which you tackle the questions within each stage on the EA, it is optimal to sort them by difficulty and complexity and to tackle the shortest, easiest questions first.
Praxis: Merging theory and practice for Executive Assessment pacing strategy
As is the case with many theories, the reality of EA pacing is messier. Two levels of complexity that are added on the actual exam:
- You don’t know ahead of time how long each question will take to answer
- Sometimes you will select the wrong answer even if you do allocate enough time for a problem
For #1, we need to use proxies to make our best guess as to which questions will take the longest and to save those for the end. There are generally three proxies that can help to make these decisions:
1. Type. My previous article broke down all of the question formats that appear on the EA; learn which are your strengths and weaknesses, and use this as a first impression of which questions are likely to be most difficult and time consuming for you. Start with your strengths and skip or end with your weaknesses.
2. Topic. Do some subjects make your head spin? (postmodern conceptual art theory? Probability fields regarding theoretical subatomic nanoparticles? Gravitational interactions among space rocks? Worker-advocacy group in 18th century British Mills?) In math problems, do you know that you’re in trouble any time that a math problem starts asking about four identical machines that build widgets, or some guy named Bob with seven grandchildren, or problems with eight different variables in them? Skip ‘em.
3. Feel. Some problems might not have any clear visible warning signs, and so you dive in and start working. This is why it is crucial to spend your first 30 seconds on big picture strategy rather than immediately getting lost in the details and scribbling furious notes and formulas. Learn what those first 30 seconds feel like when you understand a problem and have a plan to set it up and solve. And by extension, learn how it feels when you don’t, and get the heck out of there! If you’re feeling a bit lost at sea during those first 30 seconds and a problem doesn’t remind you of something that you know that you can confidently and efficiently solve, there are probably easier problems that you should be tackling first.
For #2, this illustrates the importance of the “skip don’t rush” approach that I advocate on all standardized exams (and explored at greater length here in my GMAT article). But in short form, a lot of people try to do this:
They compress all of the problems and wind up making a lot of mistakes driven by haste. The chart above shows that such a student was able to complete all seven questions but is unlikely to have done so successfully. So rather than sacrificing 1 or 2 difficult problems that they had a good chance of getting wrong anyway, they likely made careless mistakes driven by time pressure on 3 or 4 problems that they could have solved accurately with a little more time.
Let’s look at how to apply these ideas to the individual sections on the EA.
Integrated Reasoning (IR) summary and pacing Strategy
This is the first section on the exam and involves 12 questions broken up into two stages (six questions each). I suggest that you approach them using the 3:2:1 method described below. Your goal is to get at least four correct answers in the first stage and then as many as time allows in the second stage.
Overview and three easiest IR questions
Begin this stage by scanning through the six questions. This should take less than 30 seconds to complete and give you a quick overview of the stage. Your goal is to identify what seem to be the three easiest questions for you. That last bit is important; it doesn’t matter whether they are technically considered “easy” or “difficult”; all that matters is that you choose problems that you’re confident in your ability to set up and solve accurately and efficiently. You want to make sure that you get credit for getting these three questions correct, and you can spend up to a maximum of nine minutes completing them if you need to.
Two harder IR questions
Rescan the three that remain. Determine which one appears to be most approachable and tackle that problem first. Then choose the easier of the two remaining questions and tackle that next. Your goal here is to rack up two more correct responses and spend up to six additional minutes doing so.
The hardest IR question
For most people, there should be one question that you can identify as most difficult, and that you will benefit greatly from guessing on immediately. You are not likely to get this question correct regardless of how much time you devote to it, and that time would be much more effectively spent ensuring that you get as many of the other questions correct as possible.
Some people assume that this rule doesn’t apply to them, and that they should attempt all six questions since they are able to finish the easiest five in 10-12 minutes. If your accuracy is nearly 100 percent on those easiest five, that may be true. But since most test takers miss a nonzero number of those five problems, and many report that when they redo the same questions without time pressure they get them correct, I come to a different conclusion. Instead of using that time to tackle the final/hardest problem, they would be better off slowing down and spending more time on the easiest five to ensure that they get more of them correct or circling back to double check work.
When to move on to the second IR stage
The default assumption for most people is that you should move from the first to the second stage at the 15-minute mark. This allows you equal time for both stages, and if both stages were equally difficult and equally important, this would make sense.
In reality, there are two different second stages: a more difficult option for test takers who get four or more correct in the first stage, and an easier option for those who get three or fewer correct. Your goal should be to get into the harder second stage, even if it takes you longer than 15 minutes to do so.
For this reason, you shouldn’t automatically go to the second stage at the 15-minute mark unless you’re confident that you’ve already chalked up four correct responses. If you aren’t there yet, it is worth spending up to a maximum of 20 minutes to ensure that you hit this goal. This does leave less time for the second stage, but still puts you in a better position overall.
Second IR stage: Same as the first
The 3:2:1 approach is also the key to the second IR stage, although you may only have time for the first step (3) if you need more than 15 minutes in the first section.
Integrated Reasoning scoring
Note that many programs like to see EA scores of at least 150, which represents an average score of 10 in each of the three sections. To get a 10 in IR, you should aim to get at least four correct in the first stage and three-four correct in the second.
Verbal Reasoning (VR) Summary and Pacing Strategy
This is the second section on the exam, and involves 14 questions broken up into two stages (seven questions each). I suggest that you approach them using the SC:RC:CR method. Your goal is to get at least five correct answers in the first stage and then as many as time allows in the second stage.
Sentence Correction (SC)
There are more sentence correction questions than any other verbal question format, these questions take the least amount of time on average, and they are the topic that most students are able to make the greatest improvement in through practice. For all of these reasons, I recommend that you tackle them first. But only spend a maximum of about two minutes on each of the two SC questions; if you’ve narrowed it down somewhat by that point and are unsure what to do next, make your best guess and move on.
Reading Comprehension (RC)
If your goal is to get at least five correct in this section, the four RC questions are going to certainly need to play a role in that. And if you acknowledge that you cannot skip the passage entirely, it makes sense that once you’ve invested the time in reading it, you may as well make sure to get as many correct answers out of that work as possible. Most students will want to spend the remainder of their time in the first stage reading and carefully answering these four RC questions.
Critical Reasoning (CR)
Most people should guess immediately on the one CR question in the first stage, to leave more time for both the RC passage and the subsequent second stage. Critical Reasoning takes most students longer per question than any other type, so even if you are relatively accurate with these questions, it may not be worth the time it takes. The exceptions to this are (1) people who are particularly good at CR in comparison to RC (and thus should compress the time that they spend on the lower accuracy RC questions to leave time for higher accuracy CR) and (2) people who cannot consistently hit the target of at least five correct responses without CR.
When to move on to the second VR stage
Just as with IR, the default assumption is that you would move to the second stage after 15 minutes, but for those of you that are not consistently able to hit your target, it can be worth spending up to 20 minutes.
Second stage VR strategy
Again, in many ways this reflects first stage strategy. Start with SC for all of the same reasons as above, and spend up to about two minutes on each of the four SC questions in this section (at which point, make your best guess if you haven’t yet eliminated four incorrect answers).
There is no RC in the second stage, so next tackle the CR questions, from easiest to hardest. Again, you should feel very comfortable leaving some of these as completely random guesses if that allows you the time to answer other questions confidently, but never leave any blank as there is no penalty for guessing and you may get some additional correct responses out of it.
Verbal Reasoning scoring
Note that it is difficult to hit a 10 in verbal, and the path to getting there can vary somewhat since the first VR section difficulty is determined by performance on IR. Still, you generally need to hit four to five correct answers in each stage.
Quantitative Reasoning (QR) summary and pacing strategy
This is the third and final section on the exam and involves 14 questions broken up into two stages (seven questions each). I suggest that you approach them using the 3:3:1 method. Your goal is to get at least five correct answers in the first stage and then as many as time allows in the second stage.
The three easiest QR questions
The first QR stage contains four Problem Solving (PS) and three Data Sufficiency (DS) questions. Take 30 seconds to scan the seven questions and carefully attempt the three easiest questions, with the target of completing all three in under seven minutes total.
The three moderately hard QR questions
Next attempt three harder questions in order of difficulty, from easiest to most difficult. Aim to complete all six of these questions in no more than 15 minutes total.
The hardest QR question
The vast majority of test-takers should plan to identify one question from the first stage as the most difficult, and immediately guess on it without spending any time attempting to solve.
When to move on to the second QR stage
Just as with IR and VR, the default assumption is that you would move to the second stage after 15 minutes, but for those of you that are not consistently able to hit your target (in this case five correct), it can be worth spending up to 20 minutes.
Second stage QR strategy: Same as the first
Again, follow the 3:3:1 approach. Complete the three easiest questions (target completion under seven minutes total, then the next three harder questions in order of difficulty, from easiest to most difficult. If you have time at the end you may attempt the seventh, hardest question, but also consider whether there were earlier questions that could benefit from more careful review. Remember, you’re extremely likely to miss at least one problem, and if you can identify it in advance and spend close to zero time on it, that frees up a lot of time to be more careful and consistent on the other questions. Again, do make sure that you register a guess rather than leaving them blank.
Quantitative Reasoning scoring
The variation in difficulty of the first quant stage and thus the paths towards a 10+ score vary more significantly based on IR performance. With the easier first quant stage, it may require five correct in each stage, while with the harder first quant stage, four correct in each should result in an 11. It’s worth noting that some programs like to see very high scores in the QR section, and these require near perfection.
⭐ Pro-Tip: Test takers who can consistently score a 12 on QR and are looking for a higher score may need to attempt the hardest question in each section, but they should still save it for last and only attempt it after they have carefully completed all of the other questions.
Executive Assessment pacing summary and suggestions
The key to successful completion of this exam is to work strategically. On a high level, that means accepting the importance of quickly assessing problem difficulty and making decisions based upon it. On a practical level, it involves an understanding of the details of how to implement this strategy within each stage of the test. And as a study strategy, it drives the importance of internalizing these decisions by completing practice problems in sets that accurately represent the content, structure and timing of individual exam stages. Group the official practice problems into sets of six IR, seven VR, and seven QR problems and complete each set within 15 minutes, using the timing strategies listed above. It takes considerable repetition to get adequately comfortable with making these decisions effectively, and only then will these approaches lead to higher scores, millions of dollars, health, love, happiness, and everything else that you find useful to include in the thought experiment that helps to motivate your studies!
If you find that you need help with any of these steps along the way or have any additional questions about the EA, don’t hesitate to look at our Small Group Courses and Private Tutoring options for the EA, or just send me an email! I want to see you succeed on this exam, and to share the knowledge that I’ve gained through years of helping other students to reach their goals and apply to MBA programs with confidence. It takes a combination of hard work and good strategy to succeed, and if you’re ready to bring the first I’ll do my best to help with the second.