While taking a CAT, or on Test Day itself, almost all Test Takers experience the terrible feeling that comes with the realization that there are WAY too many questions left to answer and not enough time to answer them. Learning proper pacing is an \u2018issue\u2019 that most Test Takers have to deal with \u2013 the first step in fixing that \u2018problem\u2019 is to realize that YOU are the cause of your pacing problem.<\/p>\n
Hunting For Pacing Errors<\/strong> Finding More Time From An Unexpected Source<\/strong> Quant<\/strong> 1) Did the \u201cwork\u201d required to answer those questions really take 3+ minutes or did you have to keep re-reading the prompt (and did you spend some time staring at the prompt and\/or your pad)? Verbal<\/strong> Start with the average amount of time that you spend solving SCs and CRs (some CATs include this information; if it\u2019s not available, then you\u2019ll have to calculate it). A typical SC should take no more than 60-75 seconds to solve. On really wordy SCs, you could go up to 90 seconds, but you should not be going past that. A typical CR should take no more than 2 minutes to solve. On wordy CRs, you might go up to 2.5 minutes, but you should not be going past that.<\/p>\n 1) Is the SC average greater than 75 seconds? If so, then how much greater? If this sounds like you, then \u201cYour way\u201d of dealing with SCs and CRs could easily be costing you 10-20 minutes of excess time\u2026time that could be spent picking up RC points.<\/p>\n In total, these are some of YOUR Quant and Verbal pacing errors\u2026and they eat up your time on the Test.<\/p>\n To fix your pacing problem AND improve your score, YOU have to take responsibility for these errors, fix them and make sure that they never happen again. Thankfully, there are plenty of ways to do so and you can be trained to fix these pacing mistakes.<\/p>\n GMAT assassins aren\u2019t born, they\u2019re made, While taking a CAT, or on Test Day itself, almost all Test Takers experience the terrible feeling that comes with the realization that there are WAY too many questions left…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":156,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28549","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28549","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/156"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28549"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28549\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28652,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28549\/revisions\/28652"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28549"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28549"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nHere are a few things to investigate that you can use as a reference on any of the CATs that you\u2019ve already taken:<\/p>\n
\nWhen reviewing a CAT performance, most Test Takers focus on the questions that they answered incorrectly or just \u2018stared at\u2019 for too long. However, there is a potential pacing advantage to be gained from the questions that you answered CORRECTLY. How long did you take to answer each of those questions? Could you have approached the question in a different way? Would it have been faster to take more notes (hint: the answer is almost always YES)?<\/p>\n
\nOpen up your most recent CAT and find the Quant question that you answered correctly AND that took you the LONGEST amount of time to answer. How long did that one question take? I\u2019ll bet that it took MORE than 3 minutes\u2026. Now, how many OTHER Quant questions took you at least 3 minutes each?<\/p>\n
\n2) Did you make any little mistakes on those questions that you then had to go back and fix?
\n3) Could you have approached the question using a different tactic? Is it possible that \u201cyour way\u201d of solving the problem is actually the \u201clong way\u201d to solve it?<\/p>\n
\nFor the Verbal section, pacing problems can really compound if you\u2019re not reading RC and CR prompts correctly, not taking notes and not using grammar rules to help you deal with SCs. While RC is an easy \u2018target\u2019, you might be surprised how much of your clock is getting eaten up by how you handle SCs and CRs.<\/p>\n
\n2) Are you using grammar rules to actively eliminate answer choices? How often are you rereading answer choices and choosing an answer that \u201csounds like how I would say this?\u201d The second option is what\u2019s eating up your clock.
\n3) Is the CR average greater than 2 minutes? If so, then how much greater? Do you understand the differences in the various CR types and how to logically approach each? Do you know the common wrong answer types for CR and how to spot them? How often do you end up \u201cnarrowing it down to 2 choices and then going back-and-forth before \u2018guessing\u2019?\u201d That last option is what\u2019s eating up your clock.<\/p>\n
\nRich<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"