Timing issue

Question

I have attempted gmat once before 2months got a low score then i took egmat verbal, since i am lacking in verbal.......now basics i am lacking in .... but in mocks i am getting 640 in my past two mocks.....after that i tried solving from which i couldnt do only 4-5 ......may its the timing isssue n the exam.....howmuch i practice i couldnt see any improvement....i'm sooo depressed since i am into this since more than 9 months now......other than that i couldnt differentiate what im lacking.....what to introspect....really need a helping hand.............

AndrewN · Answer

Hello,  madgmat2019 . I understand about the ups and downs of a prep schedule. Everyone goes through them, regardless of where they may be in the score spectrum. Something about your approach is clearly lacking if you keep running out of time. It would be worth considering in which subareas of Verbal you might be experiencing the most difficulty against the clock. SC questions should not take you as long as CR or RC questions on average, for example. If you have worked on your approach there and your understanding of grammar rules--and I know that eGMAT gets top marks from many Indian clients--then you ought to be able to bank a little time to apply toward the other question types. You might also want to try something like the free resources from CrackVerbal or even the free guides from this site to fine-tune your thinking. It is a misconception to think that just because you log so many hours, your score will automatically go up into a desirable range. You have to focus on quality study over quantity. Take the time to break down why the incorrect answers are incorrect, rather than rushing to get your hands on the next set of practice questions. Most likely, you are making the same sorts of mistakes over and over, and you may even be focused too much on the clock itself, affecting your ability to zero in on the question at hand and what each response may be saying. I know the RC passages can be dense, but surely you have learned techniques to make them more manageable? There is no magic bullet to getting the result you want, no golden guidebook or online material that will get you there. You have to put in a lot of hard work and again, take the time to understand how the questions are put together to make any real progress in Verbal. You are doing the right thing, in any case, by reaching out. Keep bouncing ideas off the community. We love to help one another out.

Good luck.

- Andrew

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

Hi maggmat2019,

I’m sorry to hear how things have been going with your GMAT. Are you looking for some general advice on how to improve your verbal skills?

egmat · Answer

For CR: Timing problems, having to go back and read the argument are clear-cut symptoms of not visualizing the passage/argument. You need to work on building Visualization skills.

What is Visualization?

- For any argument/passage, you should be able to 
o Understand which sentence plays what role (premise which impacts conclusion, conclusion, statement that adds context without touching the logic) 
o Understand the structure of the argument/passage:
 What is the conclusion?
 What is the author’s logic or logic of the argument?
 What can be challenged (say, claim/opinion), what cannot be challenged (say, fact)?
o Be able to explain the argument/passage in your own words

- The last point is the acid test. Are you able to correctly express the argument/passage in your own words? i.e. would you be able to explain this argument in your own words to a friend, without having to refer to the argument?

This is the skill that will help you ace the hard, time-taking questions. Hard level questions in CR need strong visualization/deep understanding of the argument.

Work on building this skill.

What do you need to do?

The reason you are taking this amount of time to solve the question is likely because the process to solve them is not yet ingrained in your mind. So, you need to ensure that you practice more time-based questions.

Let me put in an analogy – remember the first time you got a computer and using the keyboard was a little difficult. You probably had to put conscious effort to type in whatever you had to type in. But the more you typed, the faster you got while maintaining the accuracy (correctly typed words).
The case is relatively similar here – just practice more questions and analyze the part where you spent the maximum time.

Steps

1. Take time-based tests for CR questions – if you take 5 questions, set the timer at 10 mins which is around 120 second per question. (Depending on the difficulty)
2. Then gradually reduce the time, for example in the next set of 5 questions, set the timer at 8.5 minutes. ( around 100 seconds per question)
3. If your accuracy falters, check where you made the mistake and why – make a detailed report of that (Error Log)
a. Remember that analysis is the best way to identify and solve a problem.
4. Keep repeating this process until you reach your desired efficiency.
5. Also, keep us in the loop so that we can assist you if that is required.

Once you solve a good amount of questions, a mock test won’t affect your performance as it will not feel like you are doing something different.

Hope this helps.

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Timing issue

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