General test related questions

[gmatwork]

a) Before you start any section, you do have to put your timing benchmarks for each section. Now as you work you way through the scratch paper, how do you keep track of the timing benchmarks......I suppose the timing benchmark table is drawn on the first sheet of the scratch book and let's say you are on the third sheet of the scratch book.....then how do you check your timing benchmarks...... flipping back and forth between current scratch sheet and the first scratch sheet will be a huge waste of time.

Also, there are three (double sided) sheets in the scratch book? Each page has some sort of instructions listed on the top (wasted space)? Is that so?

b) I don't really understand how to effectively use the progress grid for verbal and the concept behind using it for verbal section. Can you please provide some details about that?

c) I don't have a good 1-minute or two minute time sense. Although I am following your articles on how to develop that, it seems I am struggling with that. My internal clock is just not good enough to warn me a timely exit from a question that needs to be guessed quickly and as a result, I have lot of W+S questions in my MGMAT CAT's with average time on wrong qs between 1:45 -2:30 min ...I don't know to develop a good time sense and cut down the time on W+S questions.

[StaceyKoprince]

There are 5 sheets of laminated paper; the first page of the first sheet has instructions, but the others do not.

Yes, you may have to flip back and forth. Alternatively, when you flip to a new page, you can rewrite the grid (only whatever portions you still need).

You may want to consider doing this: lay your scrap-paper booklet out horizontally, rather than vertically, so you have two pages open at a time. (During the real test, just move the keyboard out of the way - you don't need the keyboard for the multiple choice portion.)

Write your timing grid in the top left corner of the first sheet; now you can look at it for the first two sheets. When you flip to the next two sheets, you can either rewrite (only what you still need) or flip back to the first sheet (which is not as hard because you're just flipping back one page), and so on.

Did you read this article?
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... anagement/

It sounds like you did, but just want to make sure. In general, we keep an eye on the time because we don't want to run into big timing problems at the end of the section. As a general rule, we can check our time about every quarter of the test and, if necessary, make adjustments (if we find we're ahead or behind on the time).

The complication with verbal is that we have 3 or 4 RC passages, which take time to read. So we memorize a timing grid that assumes each "quarter" of the test will contain 1 RC passage, but we also just have to make sure that it really does. Eg, when I get two question 10, I'd expect to have roughly 56 minutes left on verbal, BUT if I know that I did 2 RC passages rather than only 1, then I'd expect to be a little behind - maybe 53 or 54 minutes left instead. Or, if I didn't get any RC passages yet, then I'd expect to be a little ahead - maybe 58 or 59 minutes left.

I keep track of that by making a little dot with the pen on my hand. :) Every time I start a new passage, I make a little dot, so I can check at any time to see how many I've started.

How long have you been practicing the time sense? It often takes people 3 to 6 weeks to develop that.

Also, note: it's perfectly all right to have a "2-minute" type question wrong in the 1m45s to 2m30s timeframe. I just don't want you to have questions wrong in the 3m, 4m, 5m timeframe!

Even on questions on which you guess, you may spend the whole 2m, because you may spend time making an educated guess. That's fine - as long as you aren't losing a bunch of time.

Now, if you have 5+ wrong questions in the 2m30s timeframe, then yes, we need to fix that. The next time you're practicing the 1m timeframe, you need to tell yourself "Hmm, what I think is 1m or 2m is usually longer than that, so I need to start thinking about whether to guess when I think it's been 45 seconds - because that's probably closer to 1m."

[gmatwork]

Thanks a lot, Stacey!

[StaceyKoprince]

you're welcome!