Achieving Consistency in Execution while Solving Verbal Questions

Question

I need help maintaining consistency in my process for solving GMAT Verbal questions.

While attempting the questions untimed, my current problem-solving strategies are effective for achieving the desired accuracy across all difficulty levels. However, under time constraints, I tend to skip 1-2 steps, leading to (1) poor comprehension of passages or options in the first read or (2) not using deep reasoning in the first read.

Are there proven methods to help me stay mindful of each step in the process while solving verbal questions under time pressure? If it's just about deliberate practice, what are the best ways to go about doing that?

Should I create a checklist of the process steps, for each question type, and mark "Yes" or "No" after completing a set of questions to indicate that I followed each step? This seems to be a slow approach, but I am all for it if there are no better ways of improving consistency.

MartyMurray · Answer

Hi.

When you practice untimed, what are your easy, medium, and hard accuracies?

Guest96 · Answer

I get more than 95% in easy, 90% in medium, and 60% in hard. 
For CR, the maximum time taken per question is 5m.
For SC, my maximum time taken is 2.5m.
For RC, the average time taken per question never goes beyond 3m.

Obviously, none of this is ideal when performing under strict time constraints.

The main reasons for such high timings are:
(1) poor comprehension of passages or options in the first read
(2) not using deep reasoning in the first read

GmatKnightTutor · Answer

If you haven't already, doing timed practice sets could be useful. For time management, consider using question/time markers. When reviewing questions, thoroughly going through the answer choices may also be helpful. Might also be worth including working with a study buddy who is really strong on Verbal (perhaps there are areas on Quant you can help with in exchange). There's a study buddy thread on gmatclub you could check out/sign up to.

5 Verbal tips

5 Verbal tips

Guest96 · Answer

GmatKnightTutor 
Thank you for your inputs. I will try them out.

Also, for doing timed sets, what are your thoughts on the approach below:
 
Is there a better way to build consistency?

MartyMurray · Answer

One thing you can do is shoot for higher accuracy in hard questions.

60% accuracy means you're typically getting just two or three questions correct in a row. So, you're not seeing clearly what's going on in the questions and you're not under control.

That information is pretty useful since it indicates how strong your analysis is, and while you're getting the vast majority of easy and medium questions correct, if your analysis were stronger/tighter, you would be faster and more consistent.

So, by shooting for higher accuracy in hard questions, you'd improve your analysis and thus your speed and consistency.

So, you need to work on both of those to improve your speed and accuracy.

Also, you have to work on being thorough when you're under time pressure. One way you can do that is to, rather than just do questions timed, seek to incrementally reduce the time you use to thoroughly analyze a question. For instance, you could seek to drive your SC time per question from 2:30 to 2:15, and then 2:00 by finding ways to be more efficient or just plain faster while remaining thorough.

Also, you can do timed practice and seek to be super intense and thorough while being fast.

Finally, using the streaks method to practice could help. You have to be super careful to achieve streaks of, say, 15 or 20 medium questions correct in a row, and the skills you would develop in the process of achieving such streaks would support consistency at test pace.

Guest96 · Answer

MartyMurray 
While doing untimed practice, One thing I've noticed is that when I take a few seconds to mentally think about all the steps I need to execute before answering a question, my timing improves (without much drop or increase in accuracy I presume). 
But in test-taking constraints, I probably won't have the time to recollect the steps I need to execute to answer a particular question. Do you have any suggestions for fixing this issue? More than 50% of the time, I would get medium-hard and hard questions correct even without applying all the steps. Sometimes I would apply the process but not in the right order. I have a poor habit of skimming.

MartyMurray · Answer

That sounds like a problem you could solve with a lot of deliberate practice in which you seek to ALWAYS handle each question optimally.

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

Hi SlowTortoise,

I have a few great articles you can check out:

How to Score High on GMAT Verbal

GMAT Verbal Timing Strategy

Guest96 · Answer

ScottTargetTestPrep

I went through them earlier, and they were helpful. 
Now, I am trying to build consistency in execution so that I don't miss out on any steps while answering a question. 
For example, sometimes I wouldn't pause after an SC question to summarize the sentence's intended meaning but would still get the question right (maybe I understood the meaning subconsciously while reading). When this step is done subconsciously, I get a good amount of questions (be it medium or hard) right but not all/most questions. But I know that if I consciously do this step for each question, my accuracy will be even higher.
Let me know if you have any effective ways to build that consistency quickly.

Currently, I have created a GSheet, in which, after each question, I just note down whether I executed all the steps.

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