mitrahere wrote:
I would like to get more clarity on what exactly going wrong with my approach when I go for verbal practice tests. In general, when I go for an attempt to answer questions ( SC or CR or RC ) separately, I am able to finish that within time limit. But all of my strategies to attempt any verbal question in a timed test do not seem to work. If I attempt 10 to 12 questions within a time limit of 20-22 mins, I am unable to complete the test within that time, and somehow I am in a situation not to apply any techniques of SC / CR / RC. I have no clue what happens when I go for timed test.
Mentors , any suggestions - please !!
Dear
mitrahere,
I'm happy to respond.
That's a somewhat unusual problem you have there. It sounds as if you are not able to "wipe clean" your mind and reset yourself when you finish a question, as if it takes you a while to "gear up" to the next question. If you are at all worried about a question, wondering about it, second-guessing yourself, etc. then that will prevent you from approaching the
next question with your full faculties.
I will tell you an odd story, a story from classic Zen Buddhism. This is traditionally know as a
koan, that is a puzzling illogical story that frustrates the logical mind and opens the intuition.
A monk said to the great Zen Master Joshu, "I have just entered the monastery. Please teach me."
Joshu said, "Have you eaten your rise porridge?"
The monk said, "I have eaten."
Joshu said, "You had better wash your bowl."
At these words, the monk was enlightened. There are many layers to that story, but one way to think about it is this. Think of ordinary kitchen dishes. We take a clean plate or bowl, and we put a meal it in and eat our meal. When the meal is over, the proper thing to do is to wash the plate or bowl so that it is perfectly clean, ready to receive the next meal. Well, in a way, old Master Joshu is saying:
we tend to treat our dishes better than we treat our brains!! Bowl full of the meal, then emptied & clean, ready for the next meal. In exactly the same way, Zen Buddhism urges us to empty and clean out our minds --- in other words, we have an experience, any experience, and when that experience is over, Zen asks us to clean our brains, empty our mind of all traces of the experience, exactly as we clean a dish of all traces of the previous meal, so that our minds are fully ready to receive the next experience. This is a hard thing to do, and it takes a great deal of practice. A full meditation practice or mindfulness practice would be very helpful.
In a more limited context, I believe this is part of what will help you with your odd SC problem. When you finish a problem, you need to be 100% done with it, not wondering about it, not hesitant at all. You need to be completely done, mind wiped clean, and ready to receive the next questions with your full attention. Obviously, you need to be able to do this turn around very quickly, so that you move efficiently through the questions. One thing that will help you is doing deep breathing as you are doing the questions. If your breathing is deep, it will send lots of oxygen to your brain, making you bright & alert, and it will calm your body, reduce your stress, and allow your intuition to open more fully.
Experiment with that. And also, practice, practice, practice. It sounds as if you don't need any practice with single SC questions: all of your practice from this point forward should be with sets of questions.
Does all this make sense?
Mike