Seeking advice to improve timing issue

Question

Hi folks,

I generally struggle with timing, both in Quant and Verbal section. The problem is that whenever I know the clock is ticking I start to rush and don't think clearly, thus, making lots of careless mistakes and taking ages to find the correct solution process. Trying the very same problems untimed, it often takes me no time at all to find the correct answer.

In general, I'm not afraid of tests, but I guess the 2 min per question are just way more concrete than a 180 min university exam and therefore creating more tension. Any advice how to overcome that problem?

OptimusPrepJanielle · Answer

Hi menken,

Timing problem arise because of the following two reasons:

1. You are not thorough with the concepts and thus take more time in solving the problem
2. You have gone through the concepts, but have not practiced much.

The best way to cope up with this is to practice a lot.
Whenever you study, make sure that you put on a timer (if you are doing problems from the books) and then solve the problems.
Most of the test prep companies give you a timer while you solve the problems.

GMATPill · Answer

The key here is not to necessarily answer every question in less than 2 minutes -- but to also identify the easy ones that can be answered in < 1 minute -- heck, even less than 30 seconds! We actually specialize in identifying these easy SC questions and can generate the confidence to know for sure that you are answering these easy ones correctly before moving on. This allows you to have more time on the more difficult SC questions --- so you can budget more than 2 minutes on those -- simply because you did your job on the easier ones. Also, you may be interested in this article we wrote on GMAT psychology: https://www.gmatpill.com/about/studying- ... trategies/

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi menken,

Pacing problems do not actually exist on their own - they're the results of OTHER problems. As such, we need to better define how you've been studying and how you 'see' GMAT questions.

1) How long have you been studying?
2) What resources have you been using?
3) How have you been scoring on your CATs (including the Quant and Verbal Scaled Scores)?
4) What is your goal score?
5) When are you planning to take the GMAT?

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

menken · Answer

Hi Rich,

to answer your questions:

1) 150h on Quant, just started on Verbal
2) I use the MGMAT strategy set and OG Review, Quant Review, and Verbal Review
3) Did one GMATPrep test before I started studying, scored a 680 (Q44, V38)
4) Goal is 750 (I know I'm aiming high, but I'm studying a lot and GMAT score will indirectly affect my whole prof. career, so this better be good)
5) December or January at the latest, studying 20h/week that makes additional 300-350h

Can't tell too much about Verbal yet, but if an analysis of the Quant part is helpful: Error rate of PS/DS pretty much the same. After doing (under time constraint) every simple problem once and every wrong and/or medium-hard problem twice I have an overall error rate of 13%, of which 24% is due to carelessness (applied right concept but made a stupid mistake), 27% due to timing (correct result, but took me 2-4 min), 49% content (didn't solve at all or took >4 min). As I said, doing the same content problems untimed, I often solve correctly in <2 min.

Thankful for your advice!

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi menken,

Scoring 680 on an initial diagnostic CAT shows that you're a strong logical thinker, so I'd say that you have a pretty good chance at hitting your score goals. You're taken a 'book-heavy' study approach though; many Test Takers who study in that way tend to get 'stuck' at a particular scoring level. If you've taken just the one CAT, then we have no way to know if that's actually happened to you though. If you've been 'self-teaching' from the various books that you listed, then you might have developed some 'bad habits' that are factoring into the pacing problem that you've experienced.

Thankfully, you have plenty of time to continue studying and 'fix' all of these issues before your planned Test Date (and you might not even need all of that time). As a way to measure your progress so far, I highly recommend that you take a FULL-LENGTH CAT (including the Essay and IR sections) sometime soon. Those scores will help to define your current skills and we can see how your methods for dealing with the Test are impacting your pacing. Once you have those results, you should post back here.

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

menken · Answer

Hi Rich,

As you recommended, I did another CAT, today, and scored a 690 (Q48, V36). I'm not too concerned about the 2-points-drop in Verbal, since I've just invested about 20h in Verbal yet (so it might be just bad luck). However, I'm not satisfied with the progress in Quant, considering the amount of work I put in this.

Any idea how I can use my time more effectively?

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi menken,

The Q48 is an improvement over the Q44, so it's not clear what you were expecting (a Q50? Q51?). Have you had a chance to review this CAT (and are you having the same issues with silly/little mistakes that you were having before?)?

You mentioned in an earlier post that you had studied for 150 hours; over how many days did you study during that time (e.g. was it 150 hours in a month? Two months? Etc.)?

As you score at higher and higher levels on the GMAT, the Test will become more 'sensitive' to little mistakes, so you really must put a degree of detail and precision into your work. If you make too many little mistakes, a 750+ simply becomes impossible to achieve. Thankfully, you still have plenty of study time remaining.

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

menken · Answer

Hi Rich,

I studied for two months.

I still made some stupid mistakes, but I felt like it got a little better.

And yes, I hoped for the Q50 quantile. I thought Quant would offer more improvement potential since I started at a much lower percentile than in Verbal. Also Quant is something which you can master since the concepts are limited, on the other side, to master Verbal, you must speak English nearly perfectly, and that's nothing I can improve in a couple of weeks (as a non-native speaker). Of course there is also improvement potential through a more structured solving procedure, but I'm struggling with like every fifth question simply because of the vocabulary. That is especially frustrating if it happens within an RC paragraph.

https://gmatclub.com/static/posted_from.png     Posted from    GMAT ToolKit

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi menken,

You shouldn't get too distracted by percentiles (as they vary depending on which CAT you use and they vary over time, based on how everyone else performs on the GMAT). If you ignore the 2 point drop in Verbal Scaled Score on this last CAT, in 'absolute' terms, you'll have to make the same approximate improvement to your Verbal Scaled Score (V38 to V40+) as your Quant Scaled Score (Q48 to Q50+). Thus, you'll likely want to vary your studies between Quant and Verbal to keep both sets of skills sharp. Interestingly enough, you'll find that many of the critical thinking skills that you use in one section of the Test can be applied to another.

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

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