What have you done to increase your CR speed? I'm

Question

What have you done to increase your CR speed? I'm consistently spending over 2 minutes on some of these and want to get them down to 1:30 or less, but many of these problems require a lot of reading (of the stimulus and the answers). Thoughts/suggestions?

Thanks in advance!

Thanks in advance!

aragonn · Accepted Answer

I recently asked this question to my magoosh instructor. And he answered it beautifully. Hope this will be helpful for others too.

As far as speed goes, this will increase with general proficiency. I'd also suggest that you read high-level material every day. The faster you can read, the faster you can solve these problems, as there's a lot to read and consider!

Further, your eyes and your brain can sometimes work at different speeds. For instance, when reading really tough material, I can "read" the words very quickly, but I have to slow way down in order to understand them. Conversely, with easier material, my brain processes the sentence before I'm even done reading it, and I'm already thinking of connections and counter-arguments before I've even finished the reading.

So not only do you have to work on reading words quicker, but you also have to work on your brain's ability to make sense of them. Just like any other muscle, your brain needs to be worked out. Of course, GMAT prep itself it a very good workout, but so can more interesting reading material, a stimulating conversation about some abstract topic, or even a difficult puzzle or board game.

The trick is to push yourself. Focus as hard as you can, and when you get tired and want to stop, focus even harder! You want to pay attention to whatever you are doing for longer than you want to. That's how your brain will get stronger and quicker.

mansoorfarooqui · Answer

hi,

its really difficult to get it to 1:30. I'm not saying that its impossible but its very tough.
It depends how well you comprehend the text and how quickly you can break down the argument, pre-think the answer.

These things will become quicker as you will do more and more questions. You will start noticing patterns. For example, some details are more important than others also you must know how to attack each kind of question. these kinda things will save you time.

Best Regards,
Mansoor

PS: Please consider kudos if you found this helpful

Tibby · Answer

Try to incorporate the following in your technique. It helps me a lot.

1) Read the question first to stay focused on what's important. 
2) While reading the passage, identify the conclusion, premises & gaps between the premises.

sshrivats · Answer

I think practice is the most important thing.. try to solve at least 20 -25 CRs everyday and try to understand the answers, even if get the answer right try to find why other answers are wrong..

It is most important that you read the passage correctly, if you have analyzed the passage as you read it, it wouldn't be difficult to spot the answer, you can do so with a single glance in most cases.

As you read the passage, try to identify and keep in mind the premise, evidence that supports the premise, conclusion or judgement and try to analyze the the gap between the premise and the conclusion..

Also another important thing, don't over analyze what the questions says, try to stay within the realm of what the passage says. Don't try to infer anything from the passage based on your real world experience. In most cases this tendency does slow down people. for example if the passage says " the egg rolled over the table and fell down" all you can infer from that is that "egg rolled over the table and fell down" and not "egg fell down and broke".

VerbalBot · Answer

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What have you done to increase your CR speed? I'm

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