Verbal time management

Thanks for the advice. It is not that I did not practice. But it takes time to get there if I want to make more attempt. But I will give a try to practice OG in timed manner.

Posted from my mobile device

Thanks for the advice. It is not that I did not practice. But it takes time to get there if I want to make more attempts correct. But I will give a try to practice OG in timed manner.

Posted from my mobile device

Can I give you a few alternative way to look at it?

Technique #1:

Let us say that you solve about 9 questions in 15 minutes then in about 60minutes you will solve about 36 questions (on the actual GMAT you have a 5-minute buffer).

So I would start by trying to see how many questions I am able to solve in 15 minutes.

Initially, you might start with just 5 questions but with time you will improve.


Technique #2:

Try to go back and look at the "rogue" questions - these are questions (irrespective of whether you got them right or wrong) sucked up a lot of time.

Think of a dense CR stimulus.

Think of a tough RC inference question.

Think of a completely underlined SC question.

Could you have guessed *some* of them so you could have the time to complete the test?


Technique #3:

Can you start keeping an upper boundary point for questions? Let us say 3 minutes for CR or 2 minutes for SC.

A lot of times I have seen students spending more time just to be 100% sure of the answer. Be 80-90% sure and guess and move on.


Technique #4:

The biggest time sink in most cases in RC. How long do you take to read the passage?

If you are spending 8-10 minutes per RC passage (3-4 minutes to read and 5-6 minutes to answer) then there is no way to manage time on the GMAT.

The CrackVerbal GMAT online course gives us the technique for RC that will reduce your overall time. Please check it out if you have not done so already.

Hope this helps,

I have a similar query. Generally, am left with 6-8 questions in VA when there is a minute left.

I know practicing more will help on the time bit and I will do that but my question is more around - what is the ideal time for an SC question, or a CR question or an RC question (on the test or even when am doing questions at home)?

In quant, Qs:Time is 1:2 and thus, it is easy to figure out if am on the track but in the Verbal section, as question types are different and 36:65 doesn't give a whole number, am unable to know (during the exam) if I have time or not.

arun@crackverbal

There is a problem with having an "ideal time" for anything.

The actual time needed changes based on a lot of factors:

1) Your mental composure:

A lot of times when we just come off a tough CR question or RC passage we might need some time to "settle down" before tackling the question. This will eat into your time - though the culprit might be the preceding question.

2) Your comfort with the topic:

You may be very comfortable with a topic - say, time, speed, distance - and even a tough question you may be able to attempt with confidence. Such questions may take less time. But a question of an equivalent difficulty in another topic - say, permutation and combination - may take more time because you try to compensate your weakness by spending more time.

3) The difficulty level of the question:

Irrespective of your comfort level there are questions that will take more time. For example, let us say you read a fairly dense passage and are now staring at this question on the screen "Which of the following predictive statements would the author most likely agree with EXCEPT:?". Now there is nothing you can do in such questions but to spend time and motor your way through it.

4) The nature of the difficulty:

Sometimes the reason you might take more time is because the question has set a trap for you. Actually - that is NOT the problem. In that case, you would just pick the wrong answer and move on. The problem is when you end up discovering that you picked the wrong answer option. The only way to salvage this situation is to backtrack and see where you went wrong. On the other hand, sometimes we are just "stuck" in the last option and spend a lot of time trying to pick the right one.

I will be posting a video on the "pacing chart" needed for Verbal. That would give you a sense of how to proceed. Till then please don't pick this "ideal" time strategy

Hope this.helps,

Arun