How many pages of scrap paper do you use for Verbal?

Question

How many pages of scrap paper do you use for the verbal section?

When I first started taking practice exams, I used about 5+ pages of scrap paper for verbal. As I continued studying, it was easier to retain information in my head and now I end up only using 2.

For CR, MGMAT strategies recommend you to write down a "T" diagram and jot down (+) for premises/strengths and (-) for weaknesses/flaws. Eventually that ate too much of my time, and didn't help me remember exactly what I was reading. I was too concerned with thinking about wasting time writing things down and thinking about abbreviations. The whole process was a bit cumbersome.

Now I would just draw out an answer grid ABCDE and jot down notes whenever I approached an RC paragraph. Other than that I didn't capture anything else. My verbal score has slowly been improving and my timing on verbal is getting better on each practice test.

I'm just curious about other people's experiences.

VeritasPrepBrandon · Answer

I definitely agree with your strategy. While critical reasoning arguments can typically be written out in the form of premises/conclusion (and this can actually help), it is generally not an efficient use of your time to do this. I recommend only taking notes when creating a brief roadmap (5-7 words/paragraph) on a reading comprehension passage. To write out notes for every CR question is too cumbersome, and it takes away from your focus. Pacing is the biggest issue that test takers have on the GMAT, and thus you need to plan accordingly. The only reason that I recommend writing notes for paragraphs in RC passages is that this will actually end up SAVING YOU TIME, not burning it, because it helps you figure out where in the passage to look in order to answer detail questions (rather than having to reread the whole passage for every question).

Pacing, pacing, pacing 8-)

I hope this helps!!!

I hope this helps!!!

MartyTargetTestPrep · Answer

I use 0.

At this point, after playing the GMAT game for ages, I can keep track of the answers I've eliminated in my mind. However, in the past, to keep track of the answer choices, I used the five fingers on my hand. As I eliminated each choice, I folded in a finger. If I changed my mind and decided that a choice might work after all, I would straighten the finger related to that choice back out. When I was down to one finger, I had the correct answer. That system worked well for me, partly because I didn't have to look away from the question to keep track of the choices I had eliminated.

Try it. You'll like it.

How many pages of scrap paper do you use for Verbal?

How many pages of scrap paper used for Verbal?

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