Verbal timing improvement

Question

If I am facing timing issues in CR - ideally I should be better at quickly rejecting incorrect options.

Am I wasting questions if I am simply selecting options? Should I spend extra time in practice on every question and go through all of the options even if I have high confidence in selecting an option?

The problem is that a lot of the questions take me 2.5 minutes or so. Sometimes a question may even take 4-5 mins.

I am worried that on the exam day if # of such questions increase, I’ll be doomed.

Anyway I am not sure if I can save time on any other Verbal questions to help save time for such questions.

Please help

AjiteshArun · Answer

Hi mathbro,

Yes. Unless you're very strong at a particular section, after you finish solving your practice questions,  you should go back and do them all again . If you don't have enough time to do that, you should quickly check how you would remove the other options, and validate that against a trusted source like the official explanations.

GmatKnightTutor · Answer

If you're doing a practice set, consider doing it under timed conditions and, afterwards, going through the questions thoroughly. This could include questions you already got correct but were not too sure about and deep diving into why the correct answer choice was right and the incorrect ones were wrong. If you notice there are certain types of questions you find more challenging than others (e.g. assumption questions), you could focus/structure your prep accordingly. For assumption questions, for example, the negation technique could be helpful to check out.

CR tips

CR tips

Ayeka · Answer

You should consider going through Manhattan Prep CR book (edition 6). It could help you strengthen your basics.

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

Hi Mathbro,

Yes, you should scrutinize every answer choice during practice, as this habit is critical for building your ability to quickly and confidently identify correct and incorrect options.

While it may feel time-consuming, especially when a question takes 2.5 minutes or more, this effort is not wasted. It helps you recognize common traps, patterns, and reasoning flaws, improving efficiency. During practice, even if you feel highly confident in your selected answer, spending extra time analyzing why the other options are incorrect is beneficial. This process will help you develop a more systematic approach, allowing you to quickly reject incorrect choices on test day.

If questions currently take you 4-5 minutes in practice, that's okay, as the goal now is skill-building, not speed. Over time, as you refine your reasoning and confidence, the time you need to spend per question will naturally decrease.

For some more CR advice, here is a great article to check out:

GMAT Critical Reasoning: 8 Essential Tips

MartyMurray · Answer

Here are some tips for speeding up in Verbal.

Tip 1: Develop Stronger GMAT Verbal Skills

When someone asks me how to complete the Verbal section faster, my first question is often "What are your typical accuracies for easy, medium, and hard Verbal questions when you answer them untimed?" 
 
I ask that question to get a sense of the person's GMAT Verbal skill level, and often the answer involves accuracies that are decent but not particularly high, such as 80 percent of easy, 70 percent of medium, and 60 percent of hard questions correct. 
 
So, here's the thing. The main thing that makes you fast at GMAT Verbal is skill, and if you're missing, say, 30 percent of medium questions, you have a lot of room for improvement in skill. Accordingly, in such a case, the main thing you can do to speed up in GMAT Verbal is continue to develop your skills. 
 
And somewhat ironically, a key aspect of developing stronger Verbal skills and speeding up is practicing untimed until you achieve high accuracy. Yes, untimed Verbal practice is key to speeding up because the same skills that you develop in shooting for high accuracy untimed support speed. 
 
For more on developing your GMAT Verbal skills, see  this post . 
 
 Tip 2: Be More Precise  
 
Another key aspect of speeding up in GMAT Verbal is to be more precise in every aspect of how you answer a question. 
 You can see how this is going to help. 
 
In Critical reasoning, if you read a passage more precisely, you'll be in a better position to consider the relationships between the answer choices and the argument. If you identify the conclusion more precisely, you'll more quickly eliminate choices that relate to a somewhat different conclusion rather than the one stated. 
 
In Reading Comprehension, the more precisely you understand the meaning of statements in the passage, the faster you'll see whether they support an answer choice. If you read a question precisely, you'll avoid spending time circling through choices that don't answer the question asked. 
 Conversely, missing a word here and there or getting only a vague sense of the meaning of a statement can dramatically increase the amount of time you need to answer a question. 
 
So, in all types of Verbal questions, the more precise your work is, the faster you'll answer them. 
 
For more on being precise in Critical Reasoning, see  this post . 
 
 Tip 3: Look for Ways to Be More Efficient in How You Answer Questions

You can do this in untimed or timed practice. Observe how you answer questions and look for ways to do it more efficiently. 
 
For example, if you're rereading unnecessarily, train yourself to read statements just once unless you really need to read them again to understand them. If you read the question stem of a Critical Reasoning question before reading the passage, try reading it only afterward because, when you read it before reading the passage, you'll probably reread it after reading the passage as well. 
 
Other ways of becoming more efficient are learning what kinds of keywords are easiest to find in Reading Comprehension passages and eliminating easy-out answer choices to quickly give yourself less to think about when answering a question. 
 
So, by observing how you answer questions and finding efficiencies, you can shave seconds off the time you need to answer each question and complete the section faster. 
 
 Tip 4: Reduce Note-Taking

Many test-takers find that taking notes helps them remain focused and keep things straight when answering Verbal questions. At the same time, taking notes takes time. So, often, test-takers find that a great way to speed up in Verbal is to take fewer notes. 
 
 Tip 5: Don't Seek to Remember or Process All Details of Reading Comprehension Passages

Often RC passages include a lot of detail. For example, as passage about agriculture may compare techniques used in different regions, as in "In region A, they use technique Z. Region B they use technique Y. In region C, they combine what's done in region A and B, and in region D, traditional methods are still used." 
 Even what those basic sentences say is a little challenging to keep track of, and in reading a passage with many such sentences, you could easily get bogged down and take a lot of time to complete it. 
 
So, the move is to realize that you can always go back to the passage for such details if you need them to answer a question and not to bother trying to remember them or even fully process them if doing so takes much effort. 
 
Instead, you can just get the general idea of what they are, as in "OK, different regions have different techniques," and notice where in the passage they are discussed so that you can easily find them if you need them. 
 
 Tip 6: Don't Take Time to Predict Critical Reasoning Answers

I know many people suggest predicting CR correct answers, but predicting answers takes precious time without adding much value. 
 
For one thing, predicting an answer takes time just because it's another step to take. 
 
For another, once you've predicted an answer, having that answer in mind can cause you to take longer to answer the question by distracting you from the answer choices that you have to choose from. 
 
Sometimes, it's relatively easy to predict the correct answer to an easy question, but in the case of harder questions, the correct answer will often be different from anything you would have predicted. So, the time spent predicting an answer and then being distracted by your prediction is often an investment with little to no payoff. 
 
Yes, it can help to think about the argument and what the correct answer has to do, but predicting a specific answer takes time and doesn't really help. 
 
 Tip 7: Use the Five Finger Method of Keeping Track of Eliminated Choices

Many test-takers find that using the scratch pad to keep track of Verbal answer choices they've eliminated can be helpful. The issue with this approach can be that going back and forth between the test and the pad takes time. 
 
So, an alternative way of keeping track of eliminated choices that saves time is using the five fingers on one hand. Each finger can represent one of the five answer choices, and you can extend all your fingers at first and then fold a finger in each time you eliminate a choice, If you change your mind about a choice, you can reextend the finger for that choice. 
 
Not everyone feels comfortable with this approach, and it can take a little time to learn to fold in one finger at at time, but if it works for you, it can be a great way to save some time.

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