CR Improving Time Tips

Question

Hi

I think I am pretty comfortable with any given CR topic, & my accuracy has improved over time. I am preparing for the Focus Edition, however, I am still unable to complete the verbal section in time. Can anyone provide any tips to improve my time to solve CRs, so that I also have atleast 5 minutes to spare to review the verbal section.

MartyMurray · Answer

Hi vanshhpoddar.

What are your current typical accuracy levels on easy, medium, and hard CR questions?

vanshhpoddar · Answer

Hi MartyMurray

My average accuracy is:

Easy - 95%
Medium - 85%
Hard - 65%

mysterymanrog · Answer

The best way to improve timing on RC and CR is to read at a deliberate pace. Not too fast, not too slow. If you read too slow, you will easily go over time. However, if you read too fast you will waste time re-reading. Therefore you need to find an intermediate pace in which you can comprehend the entire text. Note that for CR, it is important to read all the details - since a small word or phrase can be the key between two answers but for RC the big idea is more important (don't waste time reading all the details of the study provided, at least not on the first go). You should also practise reading outside of the GMAT questions - pick a publication like Financial Times, Economist, etc and read articles from it, at the same deliberate pace, so you can practice reading. Make sure you understand the article too - try to summarise it in a paragraph once finished and see if you have actually understood what the article is saying or not.

GmatKnightTutor · Answer

Aiming to have 5 minutes to review the section may not be optimal. Consider checking out Manhattan-Prep's 6th Edition for CR. A quick tip, in case you find CR assumption questions slippery, could be to learn/use the negation technique.

How to get better at Critical Reasoning. Use the negation technique on GMAT assumption questions.

bb · Answer

How much time do you usually spend per critical reasoning question?

Posted from my mobile device

MartyMurray · Answer

To a large extent, speed in CR comes from precision, and your accuracies are pretty good, but the 65% accuracy in hard questions indicates that you have room for improvement in the precision with which you handle the questions. Even 85% in medium could be pushed higher to 90%+.

So, one move you could make to improve your speed in CR is to figure out how to achieve higher accuracy in medium and hard questions. Once you've figured that out, you should be not only more accurate but also faster.

For some tips on how to be more precise in CR, see this post.

The Final Key Step in Getting a Critical Reasoning Question Correct

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

Hi vanshhpoddar,

I have a few great articles you can check out:

GMAT Critical Reasoning: 8 Essential Tips

How to Get Faster at GMAT Verbal

Feel free to reach out with any questions.

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