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02 Aug 2015, 02:33
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Hi all,
I wanted to see if anyone has been struggling to finish the Verbal Section when doing CATs? It seems most timing issues are related to the Quant section.
I feel that I am in an unusual predicament because I feel very comfortable with the Verbal topics, and score with 90-95% accuracy when doing untimed OG questions as well as Manhattan CATs (which I am told are on the more difficult side). English is also my native tongue and I use formal business language regularly.
Of course, this test is all about timing, but in my past few CATs have been struggling to get past Question 30 or 34! This seems a bit extreme! I feel that it is partly fatigue-related (performing at the end of a 4-hour exam), and also because my per-question timings exceed the recommended range (as questions becoming higher-difficulty). It is hard to "let go" of questions as I do with some of the high-difficulty math questions, because I feel that verbal is my strength, however I am considering just "randomly guessing" on a few here and there to stay on track during the test, and avoid a string of blank/complete guesses at the end.
I am aware it is not a comprehension issue because almost all of the questions are correct before I run out of time, but I feel I must be over- reading/writing/thinking... I also tend to double-check answers or re-read with high-difficulty CR or SC questions.
Would really appreciate any tips on how to manage this! I'm going to try to avoid double-checking, and considering guessing here and there to save time.
Thanks a lot in advance for anyone with advice
I wanted to see if anyone has been struggling to finish the Verbal Section when doing CATs? It seems most timing issues are related to the Quant section.
I feel that I am in an unusual predicament because I feel very comfortable with the Verbal topics, and score with 90-95% accuracy when doing untimed OG questions as well as Manhattan CATs (which I am told are on the more difficult side). English is also my native tongue and I use formal business language regularly.
Of course, this test is all about timing, but in my past few CATs have been struggling to get past Question 30 or 34! This seems a bit extreme! I feel that it is partly fatigue-related (performing at the end of a 4-hour exam), and also because my per-question timings exceed the recommended range (as questions becoming higher-difficulty). It is hard to "let go" of questions as I do with some of the high-difficulty math questions, because I feel that verbal is my strength, however I am considering just "randomly guessing" on a few here and there to stay on track during the test, and avoid a string of blank/complete guesses at the end.
I am aware it is not a comprehension issue because almost all of the questions are correct before I run out of time, but I feel I must be over- reading/writing/thinking... I also tend to double-check answers or re-read with high-difficulty CR or SC questions.
Would really appreciate any tips on how to manage this! I'm going to try to avoid double-checking, and considering guessing here and there to save time.
Thanks a lot in advance for anyone with advice
02 Aug 2015, 11:07
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Hi HBShopeful16,
By your own admission, you seem to do really well when working on un-timed material, so you can probably handle the overall Verbal section material just fine. It's likely that your 'mechanics' are the problem, but we'll get to that later.
1) How have you been scoring on your CATs? What were your Quant and Verbal Scaled Scores on each?
2) Can you describe the 'steps' that you go through when dealing with a typical SC, RC or CR prompt?
3) How often do you find yourself re-reading the entire prompt (in SCs and CRs)?
GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich
By your own admission, you seem to do really well when working on un-timed material, so you can probably handle the overall Verbal section material just fine. It's likely that your 'mechanics' are the problem, but we'll get to that later.
1) How have you been scoring on your CATs? What were your Quant and Verbal Scaled Scores on each?
2) Can you describe the 'steps' that you go through when dealing with a typical SC, RC or CR prompt?
3) How often do you find yourself re-reading the entire prompt (in SCs and CRs)?
GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich
03 Aug 2015, 10:40
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Bookmarks
Hi Rich,
Thanks a lot for taking the time to respond! Would be grateful for your advice.
1) I have taken 4 CATS the last 4 days, 1 per day. There is a huge variation in scores because of the verbal section. I’m trying to avoid this!
GMATPrep1: 710 (Q47,V40) – Ran out of time at Verbal Question 34, the last 7 verbal were completely blank
GMATPrep2: 610 (Q48,V26) – I found myself running out of time at Q25! Guessed almost all of the ones after
GMATPrep3: 720 (Q49,V39) – Left the last 5 blank
GMATPrep4: 640 (Q47,V31) – Ran out of time around Question 30, and guessed the rest
As you can see, the Verbal is breaking/making my score. I would like to get a certain 700+ at minimum and test soon so would like to have this sorted out asap...
There is a chance my performance is fatigue-related as I went from learning all of the material the past few weeks to 4 CATs within the past few days, but such a variation has really surprised me.
2) The below are steps I try to take; but when I feel that I am behind, my mind freezes slightly so I do not always execute them as fluidly!
SC: Read the question, understand the meaning, try to catch the errors within the original sentence.
Then I look at the answer options, and try to see which of them eliminate the errors. At times I try to do the “vertical scan” (which I find to be more efficient), but then I notice at other times I read each sentence horizontally, which takes a lot more time. There are also a number of Q where the vertical scan doesn’t apply.
CR: Read the question first, and identify it. (Sometimes I even draw a diagram with arrows and circle whether I am trying to find the assumption, or conclusion, etc.)
Then I read the main paragraph, and predict what the answer will be. (Though I have found prediction to be helpful so I can limit over-analysing the responses, sometimes I have found myself spending too much time on this “prediction” stage – which feels like a loss when I am not always able to find the predicted response in the answer choices.
When I am stuck in between 2, I sometimes hover and re-test the 2 (I did this quite a bit for the 2 tests where I scored poorly in verbal).
RC: I read the full passage first and try to get a good understanding of it, then answer the questions. For “specific detail” questions, I often go back and check.
During sometimes I wrote notes to “solidify” the main points (perhaps too many), but I stopped doing this when I realized it was taking me extra time I could not afford. I feel that I will stick to not taking notes unless a passage is particularly complex.
3) For re-reading the prompt:
In SC: I read the first time, and then if I have narrowed it down to a final option, I re-read at least once with the option. If I’m stuck between 2, I’ll read the prompt for each option.
In CR: When I’m sure about the answer and have predicted it, the first read is usually enough. But if it is a particularly complex question, I may read it 2-3x, and re-read the two choices I am not sure of.
As I write this, I feel that I can already sense some of the mistakes I am making, I just need to make sure I can correct them during the actual practice and real exam….!
If you have come across this before and have any tangible advice, I would really appreciate it! Thanks again, Rich.
Thanks a lot for taking the time to respond! Would be grateful for your advice.
1) I have taken 4 CATS the last 4 days, 1 per day. There is a huge variation in scores because of the verbal section. I’m trying to avoid this!
GMATPrep1: 710 (Q47,V40) – Ran out of time at Verbal Question 34, the last 7 verbal were completely blank
GMATPrep2: 610 (Q48,V26) – I found myself running out of time at Q25! Guessed almost all of the ones after
GMATPrep3: 720 (Q49,V39) – Left the last 5 blank
GMATPrep4: 640 (Q47,V31) – Ran out of time around Question 30, and guessed the rest
As you can see, the Verbal is breaking/making my score. I would like to get a certain 700+ at minimum and test soon so would like to have this sorted out asap...
There is a chance my performance is fatigue-related as I went from learning all of the material the past few weeks to 4 CATs within the past few days, but such a variation has really surprised me.
2) The below are steps I try to take; but when I feel that I am behind, my mind freezes slightly so I do not always execute them as fluidly!
SC: Read the question, understand the meaning, try to catch the errors within the original sentence.
Then I look at the answer options, and try to see which of them eliminate the errors. At times I try to do the “vertical scan” (which I find to be more efficient), but then I notice at other times I read each sentence horizontally, which takes a lot more time. There are also a number of Q where the vertical scan doesn’t apply.
CR: Read the question first, and identify it. (Sometimes I even draw a diagram with arrows and circle whether I am trying to find the assumption, or conclusion, etc.)
Then I read the main paragraph, and predict what the answer will be. (Though I have found prediction to be helpful so I can limit over-analysing the responses, sometimes I have found myself spending too much time on this “prediction” stage – which feels like a loss when I am not always able to find the predicted response in the answer choices.
When I am stuck in between 2, I sometimes hover and re-test the 2 (I did this quite a bit for the 2 tests where I scored poorly in verbal).
RC: I read the full passage first and try to get a good understanding of it, then answer the questions. For “specific detail” questions, I often go back and check.
During sometimes I wrote notes to “solidify” the main points (perhaps too many), but I stopped doing this when I realized it was taking me extra time I could not afford. I feel that I will stick to not taking notes unless a passage is particularly complex.
3) For re-reading the prompt:
In SC: I read the first time, and then if I have narrowed it down to a final option, I re-read at least once with the option. If I’m stuck between 2, I’ll read the prompt for each option.
In CR: When I’m sure about the answer and have predicted it, the first read is usually enough. But if it is a particularly complex question, I may read it 2-3x, and re-read the two choices I am not sure of.
As I write this, I feel that I can already sense some of the mistakes I am making, I just need to make sure I can correct them during the actual practice and real exam….!
If you have come across this before and have any tangible advice, I would really appreciate it! Thanks again, Rich.
EMPOWERgmatRichC
