From time to time during a private GRE tutoring session, I notice a new student rushing through the practice problems I present to her. Invariably, because she is rushing, she gets a disproportionate number of these problems incorrect, despite the moderate difficulty level of the problems. I ask the student to self-assess what’s happening. I tend to hear the following answer:

“I’m having a really big problem with time; I just can’t seem to get through all of the problems on the test in time, so I’m trying to increase my speed so that I can finish the test in the time available.”

Ah, speeding up in order to complete the test in time—the kiss of death for so many students. Arguably, the time limit for each math section, 20 questions in 35 minutes, is one major source of the GRE’s difficulty.

It’s quite common for students to be anxious about how to get faster at GRE math, and time constraints and pacing certainly must be considered while preparing for the test. However, the way that students prepare for these time constraints can make or break their GRE scores.

Ah, speeding up in order to complete the test in time—the kiss of death for so many students.

Think about how this student is attempting to handle time. Her strategy is to barrel through questions as quickly as possible despite the stark reality that her accuracy is suffering badly.

Her perception of how to be faster in GRE problem-solving is that if she just continues to push harder, she’ll somehow miraculously begin to muscle her way to more correct answers while also finishing the sections on time. As a result of this spurious strategy, not only is the student not earning a higher score, but also she is now missing the types of questions that she would have otherwise answered correctly had she taken more time and been more careful.

Thus, her score is actually dropping below the level at which she should be scoring. Additionally and arguably even more destructive to her score, she’s training her brain to work sloppily, hastily, and carelessly. The test is designed to trip up people who are reacting without analyzing.

This “run and gun” strategy directed at beating the clock is especially characteristic of students who are new to GRE study. Here’s the bottom line: not only do you need to finish each section within the time limits, but also you need to record correct answers to a significant number of the questions.

It does you no good to finish the test on time only to mess up on 70 percent of the problems. If your goal is primarily to finish the test—just sign up for the test and click through each question randomly—surely you’ll finish in the allotted time. Of course, you can forget about earning a good GRE score on test day.

The Navy SEALs’ motto goes, “Slow is smooth, and smooth is fast.” In other words, “slow” leads to error free, which is actually faster in the long run; “fast” up front leads to mistakes.

Carpenters have a saying, “Looking it over twice saves doing it twice.” Careless workmanship, rushing through a situation or problem, is a sure way to produce shoddy work that will need to be done over. Instead, move carefully but deliberately and with strategy and disciplined purpose (slow is smooth) to maximize your chances of success.

If this strategy is good enough for elite warriors and master builders, perhaps this is also how to get faster at GRE math.

Slow is smooth, and smooth is fast.

So, then, how do students studying for the GRE increase speed, while also improving accuracy? In the early days of studying, students need to focus on finding the correct answer to each question by mastering the material, not on answering questions in one minute forty-five seconds (or any other preset time constraint).

In fact, when students first begin preparing for the GRE, I recommend that they pay no attention to timing. Paying attention to the time during the early days of studying only causes unnecessary anxiety and slows progress.

The best way to gain speed is to know the material very well! So keeping your focus on content knowledge is really your first priority. The better you know the material, the fewer mistakes you’ll make; the fewer mistakes, the faster you’ll work your way through each problem. There is no way around this reality. All the tricks, tips, and strategies in the world won’t help you much if you haven’t gained a solid understanding of the material.

For example, what is 10 x 10? I’ll give you 2/100 of a second to answer.

I bet most of you were saying the answer in your heads before you even finished reading the question. Why? Well, you probably know multiplication pretty well. After all, you’ve likely been doing it for a long time.

How about this. What is ¼ + ¼? I’ll give you 8/100 of a second to answer.

I bet that took you a little longer than 10 x 10 did, because although ¼ + ¼ is not a difficult question, most people are less adept at adding fractions than they are at multiplying two numbers. Thus, they’re a little slower at it.

Let’s try another. What is the units digit of 7^49? I’ll give you one minute.

Ok, so that was a bigger jump up in terms of the content knowledge necessary to answer the question quickly. It isn’t really difficult, but I’ll bet most of you took significantly longer to answer it than to answer the other two.

Many of you may not have known how to answer it at all. The interesting thing is that with a little training, I could teach almost all of you to answer that question, and difficult questions like it, in less than 20 seconds. The quick solution centers on recognizing patterns in units digits.