Problem with timing on Verbal

Hi Mike,

I have been giving MGMAT and GMATPrep tests and I am currently scoring in the range of 700-720. (Q50/49, V38/36)

My problem is still the same:

CR: about 2 mins average
SC: about 1min 50 secs average

This is putting me in some trouble on RC or at the end as I do some silly mistakes due to lack of time.

Also, to put forward, I am decently okay on SC too but I guess I am getting stuck on difficult questions.

I don't know; I am a little clueless about what should I do. At this point, I feel my conceptual clarity is decently good.

CR is undoubtedly my strongest area, and I am fine on both SC and RC.

My GMAT OG Diagnostic says: (timed exam)

CR: Excellent
SC: Above Average (15)
RC: Average

Now, I am contemplating if I should stop taking notes for short passages in RC. Will it save about 2 mins overall??

Also, I heard that RC has a slightly more weightage in the GMAT exam. Is that true?
(I was partly convinced after looking at the diagnostic score range in OG13.)

Dear gmatter0913,
I'm happy to help if I can.

First of all, a very concrete question --- to my knowledge, the RC has no more weight in the Verbal score than do the SC or the CR. My sense is that each question "weighs" the same amount --- the questions have varying weight depending only on individual question difficulty and the magic of the CAT. The only sense in which RC could "weigh" more would be ---- suppose a CR argument completely befuddled you: then you would not be able to answer one question; but suppose a RC passage completely befuddled you --- then you'd be in trouble on 3-4 questions. I could see that might be a concern for some students, but it sounds as if you are are already operating at a very high level of mastery.

In fact, the situation you describe is a bit puzzling --- a very high level of mastery, but you are still going to slow. Here's what I'll recommend --- I wouldn't recommend this to everyone, but I will recommend it to you. Now that you have achieved this high level of understand, experiment with putting the pedal to the metal. Get some kind of timer, and set a strict 90 second limit for yourself, for each Verbal question. In fact, to push the envelope, maybe make that 75 seconds. Force yourself to find an answer in that time period. The question is: if you absolutely force yourself to move faster, how does it impact your accuracy?

It may be that, despite what you think, you can maintain just about the same level of accuracy at a quicker tempo. Even if your accuracy drops slightly, you will be able to get to the final questions with sufficient time, and that would more than make up for a slight drop in accuracy at the beginning.

If may be that, when you speed up slightly, everything falls apart. Then, that's an opportunity for exploration --- what's happening, and why do things fall apart?

That's the experiment I recommend. Does this make sense?
Mike

I think you're right in saying that I have to push myself more on SC timing.

I also realized that there are broadly two types of questions on SC.

Class 1: Q's which have easily identifiable splits (because/due to or like/such as or S-V agreement or typically shorter sentences)
Class 2: Q's related to run-ons/clauses/fragments/modifers/long sentences (meaning based Qs) that require you to go through the options closely

I think I don't face timing problem on Class 1 problems, but I tend to face timing problems on Class 2 problems.

I think that is because I wear two caps while solving the Class 2 problems. When I am reading the question, I read it first to get the intended meaning (first Cap) and then I tend to read the first option again to look at the grammatical correctness (second Cap). It is like I get the intended meaning first and then I say to myself that let me look at the grammatical correctness of the options. The problem is I am not evaluating the first option while reading the question itself.