GMAT Focus Question Review & Edit: how to spend your three answer changes

Question Review & Edit gives you a second look at your own work on the GMAT Focus. You can bookmark questions as you go, return to them at the end of the section, and change up to three answers. Three changes will not rescue a weak section, but they can recover the points you lose to slips. This guide covers what GMAC allows, a simple way to bookmark, and a plan for the last minutes of each section.

What GMAC allows

• You can bookmark as many questions as you want while you work through a section.
• At the end of the section, you can review as many questions as you like.
• You can change up to three answers per section. The limit applies to each section separately, so the whole exam allows up to nine changes.
• Review uses the time left in that section’s 45 minutes. GMAC adds no extra minutes for it.

Two other GMAC rules shape how you use the tool. Every section is computer-adaptive, so the program chooses each question from your earlier responses. And GMAC warns that your score decreases significantly with each question you leave unanswered. Together they set the order of business: answer every question first, and review second.

Bookmark with a reason

A bookmark only helps if you know why you set it. At the end of a section you will not remember what bothered you about question 6. So each time you bookmark, write the question number and one letter in your scratch work:

• C for check. You finished the question but rushed one step, such as a calculation or a reading of a chart. You can verify it in under 30 seconds.
• T for two left. You eliminated down to two choices and picked one without full confidence.
• G for guess. You hit your time limit, picked an answer, and moved on.

You may hesitate to bookmark, because a bookmark can feel like an admission. It costs you nothing. Bookmark every question that fits one of the three codes, and decide at the end which ones deserve your time.

Review in this order

1. C questions first. They take the least time, and they produce the errors you can prove. Redo the one step you rushed. If the result changes, change the answer.
2. T questions second. Reread the question itself before the choices, because a missed word such as "not" or "at least" often explains the doubt. Then test the choice you rejected against that wording.
3. G questions last, and only with time to spare. A question you could not solve in three minutes rarely gives way in 40 seconds.

When to change an answer

Change an answer when you can name the error: a number you copied wrong, a condition you skipped, a row you misread in a table. Keep your first answer when all you have is a feeling that the other choice looks better. With only three changes, a named error is the standard that protects them.

Count your changes as you make them. If you have used two changes and several bookmarks remain, keep the third for an error you can prove.

How much time to save

Review happens inside the section’s 45 minutes, so you buy review time with a slightly faster pace. Three minutes covers two or three quick checks. To finish with three minutes left, hold these averages:

• Quantitative Reasoning, 21 questions: 2 minutes per question, against an even pace of about 2 minutes 9 seconds.
• Verbal Reasoning, 23 questions: about 1 minute 50 seconds per question, against about 1 minute 57 seconds.
• Data Insights, 20 questions: about 2 minutes 6 seconds per question, against 2 minutes 15 seconds.

Do not rush to create more than that. A careless error on a question you understood costs the same as the slip you hoped to catch in review. If you reach the last question with less than a minute left, answer it, check one C question, and stop.

Example: three and a half minutes, four bookmarks

Example: you answer the last Quant question with 3 minutes 30 seconds left. Your scratch work lists four bookmarks: questions 4 and 13 marked C, question 9 marked T, and question 17 marked G. You open question 4, redo the division, and get the same result, which takes 35 seconds. You open question 13 and find that you added two values the question asked you to subtract. You change the answer, your first change, and about 2 minutes remain.

You open question 9 and reread it. The question asks for the smallest possible value, and your pick gave the largest. You change that answer too, your second change, with about 50 seconds left. You leave question 17 alone, because 50 seconds will not solve a question that three minutes could not.

Mistakes to avoid

• Do not leave questions unanswered to protect review time. GMAC lowers your score for each blank, and review cannot start until you reach the end.
• Do not bookmark without a code. Ten unlabeled bookmarks and two minutes leave you guessing where to start.
• Do not spend a change on a feeling. Name the error first.
• Do not start with the question that bothered you most. Start with the checks you can finish.
• Do not treat review as a second attempt at the section. It is a search for slips.

How to practice it

• Use the three codes on every timed set, even sets of ten questions, so the habit is automatic by test day.
• After each set, record how many changes you made and how many of them turned a wrong answer into a right one. If your changes hurt as often as they help, raise your standard for changing.
• Practice the faster averages above for a full section, so finishing with three minutes left feels normal.
• On full-length practice tests, run the review exactly as you plan to on test day: C, then T, then G.

GMAX’s simulated full-length tests follow the same rule: you bookmark questions as you work and can change up to three answers at the end of each section when time remains. The free plan gives you five practice questions and one rated match a day, so you can start using the three codes on timed sets today.