problem with time management in verbal

Question

It's taking me too long to solve verbal questions, especially reading comprehension...

I usually have about 12 questions left in the last 15 minutes...

Its really frustrating because i know the answer if i had more time

blitzkriegxX · Answer

I had a similar problem because of Reading Comprehension.
It is recommended to take short notes during reading comprehension. But after the exam duration has shortened, I beleive its very difficult to manage time for RC. The number of RC passages are still the same.
But other questions types have decreased. This means that the time you could save from other question types and allocate to RC has decreased. Making the overall time one could allot to each RC reduce.

Example- If there were 15 SC questions before then you could solve each one in 1.5 minutes instead of 2 minutes approximately and have that saved time of 7 minutes allocated as a bonus to 4 RC passages. Similarly for CR the same thing could be done.
Now with lesser CR and SC questions But same number of RC passages, it is hard to do this.

This gets worse if u are a slow reader like me.
What I did was to practice taking super short notes. And instead use the time (of taking one line notes of each paragraph) to read and understand. I only take one word notes. Such as however, but, example 1,consequently.

Also it is very important to know your weakness and address it. If you know that you cannot complete the paper despite your best efforts then accept it and plan to address it in some way. Don't depend on some exam day luck.

My verbal plan - (I read a little slow)
SC - 1:25 min/question
RC - 8.5 min/passage including questions
CR - 1:45 min/question
Skipping - 2 SC and 1 CR (if I'm falling behind)

Time checks for verbal -
After x questions - - Time
9 - - 47min
18 - - 32 min
27 - - 16 min
33 - - 5 min
36 - - 0 min

If anytime I fall behind, I will skip a question without second thoughts according to the plan.
Very important to leave behind your ego of not skipping questions because IT WILL effect ur score drastically. Keep practicing different strategies and when u find the best one, stick to it.
So now your first step should be to sit down and make a list of your weaknesses. Then use them to make your own strategies.

All the best for your prep!
Hope this helps!

Posted from my mobile device

LoveWildLife · Answer

That's a very detailed analysis of your strategies. i really appreciate you sharing this with me.

I m also a slow reader, especially for complex text. If i had more time to read, its not difficult for me to get the right answer...so my biggest problem with GMAT is indeed time pressure, coz it had the biggest damage to my score when i did the CATs. perhaps my only strategy now is to practice more so I can train myself to speed up on reading and note taking.

i havent timed myself when I did the practices yet...I should really do so, to see if i can still maintain my hit rate under time pressure. Coz when i didnt time myself, i got most answers right, giving me the illusion i was doing well.

blitzkriegxX · Answer

When you are learning, it is important to not time yourself. Do this untill u reach a desired level of accuracy.
While most of us do the above, we fall behind in one aspect of reviewing.

I belive reviewing has 2 aspects -  
1. Knowing why the answer is right and what makes the wrong answer a wrong one.
2. Reviewing your technique of looking at questions or AC

This second aspect plays a major role in both accuracy and time saving. Most of us tend to overlook this second aspect. Make a small note on what is mostly tested and if your technique of solving the questions is actually helping you find those mostly tested concepts correctly.

Ex- In SC. I have found that what suits me and helps me solve SC faster is by looking for   (it's in an order) -   
1.Get a basic understanding of what the author is trying to convey, 
2.subject verb agreement, 
3.pronoun number agreement, 
4.comparison/paralleslim and modifiers. 
And then I look for any other errors such as pronoun ambiguity.

This helps me solve SC faster. So maybe you have to dig deep and find a technique and review it often. I belive it will surely help you!

Posted from my mobile device

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

Hi gempony,

I’m glad you reached out, and I’m happy to help. So, if you are struggling with timing in Reading Comprehension questions, it’s likely that you are not fully understanding what you are reading in the passages, right? Thus, you likely have to slow down in order to (eventually) speed up. At this point, your best bet is to focus on getting the correct answers to questions, taking as much time as you need to see key details and understand the logic of what you are reading. You have to learn to comprehend what you read, keep it all straight, and use what you are reading to arrive at correct answers. If you don't understand something, go back and read it one sentence at a time, even one word at a time, not moving on until you understand what you have just read. There is no way around this work. Your goal should be to take all the time you need to understand exactly what is being said and arrive at the correct answer. If you can learn to get answers taking your time, you can learn to speed up. Answering questions is like any task: The more times you do it carefully and successfully, the faster you become at doing it carefully and successfully.

Another component of understanding what you are reading is being “present” when reading. Don’t worry about how things are going at work, or what you will eat for dinner, or even how long you are taking to read through the passage. Just focus on what is in front of you, word by word, line by line. Furthermore, try to make reading fun. For example, even if you are reading about a topic that bores you, pretend that you are the person making the argument. By doing so, you will make the passage more relatable to YOU, and ultimately you should be able to read with greater focus.

One final component of Reading Comprehension that may be tripping you up is that RC questions contain one or more trap answers that seem to answer the question but don't really. So, a key part of training to correctly answer RC questions is learning to notice the differences between trap answers and correct answers. You have to learn to see how trap answers seem to follow from what the passages say, but don't really, while correct answers fit what the passages say exactly.

Overall, your path to speeding up in verbal is to slow down in practice and develop your vision by carefully analyzing questions and all of their answer choices. For each question, carefully prove all of the wrong answers wrong and the correct answer correct. Also, for every question, identify any incorrect choices that could be particularly tempting to test-takers and identify why test-takers might incorrectly choose each of those choices. You can even go back and analyze questions that you have answered, correctly or incorrectly, in the past. The point is to train yourself to see the key details and logic that differentiate correct answers from incorrect ones. At first, doing all of this work could take you 10 to 15 minutes or more per question. Over time, you will become able to fully analyze a question much faster, though, and with enough practice, you will get to the point at which you can see what you need to see to correctly answer a verbal question in a minute or two.

If you have any further questions, feel free to reach out.

Good luck!

LoveWildLife · Answer

Thanks Scott! indeed you are right about taking it slow at the beginning. I think the same goes for SC and CR, and even quant. I do have the bad habit of mind-wandering so I need to train myself to be more engaged. When I m more focused, it is much easier for me to get the right answer.

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problem with time management in verbal

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