Hi Experts,
Could you guys share any tips/pointers to increase speed in CR?
How do I approach?
First I take a look at the type of question then I understand the argument(average 1'30")
second I try to think possible answer and thus assimilate argument(15")
Last I go by each choice and see how it affects the argument and do POE(average 1')
So overall I take 2' 30" to 3' in solving a CR.
My accuracy is around 70% in hard Gprep Questions.
Right now only thing I can think of reading speed and I am trying to solve as many CR questions as possible to increase speed and to find out any other problem.
Any tips are appreciated.
Thanks,
Rajesh
GMAT Forum
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- rajeshdce
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- StaceyKoprince
- ManhattanGMAT Staff
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- Location: Montreal
Re: Any pointer/tips for CR speed
Is that the time taken for any CR? Or only harder CRs? Or only certain types of CRs?
Does it depend on the subject matter? Do more science-y / technical CRs or numbers / math-based CRs take longer? Or other subject matters?
The first stage is taking you the longest time, so that's one place to look for ways to work more efficiently. Identifying the question type should be about 10 seconds most of the time (unless you get an unusual question stem). Then reading + understanding the argument can be closer to 1m20s if the argument is especially long or convoluted, but it would ideally be closer to 50-60 seconds for the average argument (not too easy but not too hard). Here's where you want to try to figure out whether there are certain types or topics that consistently take you longer, even when the argument / overall problem is not one of the harder ones.
How often do you need to read the argument more than once? Do you jot things down? What do you jot down? How much? Do you write things out all the way or do you abbreviate?
When you're going through the answers, what's your process? Generally speaking, you want to:
- Run through each answer once, deciding either "No, this is definitely not right and I'm never going to look at it again" or "I don't want to cross this off yet." (Note: at this stage, do not spend time trying to decide what is actually right. Just decide what you can tell is definitely wrong immediately and cross it off.)
- Then go through any remaining answers a second time. Compare them to each other to see what else you can cross off.
- If, after that second pass, you have >3 answers still left, pick one and move on. This problem is taking too long. If, on the other hand, you have only 2 answers left, feel free to compare them against each other...but only ONE more time. No agonizing back and forth and back and forth.
If you find it difficult to choose between the final 2 or 3 answers, analyze questions in the following way (after you are done doing them):
1) why was the wrong answer so tempting? why did it look like it might be right? (be as explicit as possible; also, now you know this is not a good reason to pick an answer)
2) why was it actually wrong? what specific words indicate that it is wrong and how did I overlook those clues the first time?
3) why did the right answer seem wrong? what made it so tempting to cross off the right answer? why were those things actually okay; what was my error in thinking that they were wrong? (also, now you know that this is not a good reason to eliminate an answer)
4) why was it actually right?
That will help you to learn to spot the harder traps more efficiently and effectively.
You may also decide that you're going to pick a couple of CR types on which to bail immediately. For instance, lots of people dislike the boldface questions; if you do, too, then those are a great candidate for "immediate skip." Some people hate ones that involve numbers. Etc. Everyone should be bailing on 4 to 7 questions in the section, depending on scoring level, unless you can finish ahead of time and still score in the 99th percentile (very rare!).
So what are the types that you hate the most?
Finally, for the questions that you do want to answer, the exercise described in this article might help you to work a bit more efficiently / systematically.
http://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2015/12/ ... stion-type
Does it depend on the subject matter? Do more science-y / technical CRs or numbers / math-based CRs take longer? Or other subject matters?
The first stage is taking you the longest time, so that's one place to look for ways to work more efficiently. Identifying the question type should be about 10 seconds most of the time (unless you get an unusual question stem). Then reading + understanding the argument can be closer to 1m20s if the argument is especially long or convoluted, but it would ideally be closer to 50-60 seconds for the average argument (not too easy but not too hard). Here's where you want to try to figure out whether there are certain types or topics that consistently take you longer, even when the argument / overall problem is not one of the harder ones.
How often do you need to read the argument more than once? Do you jot things down? What do you jot down? How much? Do you write things out all the way or do you abbreviate?
When you're going through the answers, what's your process? Generally speaking, you want to:
- Run through each answer once, deciding either "No, this is definitely not right and I'm never going to look at it again" or "I don't want to cross this off yet." (Note: at this stage, do not spend time trying to decide what is actually right. Just decide what you can tell is definitely wrong immediately and cross it off.)
- Then go through any remaining answers a second time. Compare them to each other to see what else you can cross off.
- If, after that second pass, you have >3 answers still left, pick one and move on. This problem is taking too long. If, on the other hand, you have only 2 answers left, feel free to compare them against each other...but only ONE more time. No agonizing back and forth and back and forth.
If you find it difficult to choose between the final 2 or 3 answers, analyze questions in the following way (after you are done doing them):
1) why was the wrong answer so tempting? why did it look like it might be right? (be as explicit as possible; also, now you know this is not a good reason to pick an answer)
2) why was it actually wrong? what specific words indicate that it is wrong and how did I overlook those clues the first time?
3) why did the right answer seem wrong? what made it so tempting to cross off the right answer? why were those things actually okay; what was my error in thinking that they were wrong? (also, now you know that this is not a good reason to eliminate an answer)
4) why was it actually right?
That will help you to learn to spot the harder traps more efficiently and effectively.
You may also decide that you're going to pick a couple of CR types on which to bail immediately. For instance, lots of people dislike the boldface questions; if you do, too, then those are a great candidate for "immediate skip." Some people hate ones that involve numbers. Etc. Everyone should be bailing on 4 to 7 questions in the section, depending on scoring level, unless you can finish ahead of time and still score in the 99th percentile (very rare!).
So what are the types that you hate the most?Finally, for the questions that you do want to answer, the exercise described in this article might help you to work a bit more efficiently / systematically.
http://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2015/12/ ... stion-type
Stacey Koprince
Instructor
Director, Content & Curriculum
ManhattanPrep
Instructor
Director, Content & Curriculum
ManhattanPrep
2 posts Page 1 of 1