Help required in improving pacing in verbal

[jyoti.ramnath]

Hi Stacy,

I took my GMAT recently and scored a 650 with verbal taking the biggest hit (33). I seemed to be doing quiet well on MGMAT and GMATPrep tests, mostly scoring in 44-47. But I also tested myself on MGMAT and GMATPrep multiple times repeating the same tests almost 2-3 times. So I think my scores got really inflated.

Analysing what went wrong in actual GMAT, I figured timing was my biggest problem. I was pacing way too slow and spent a lot of time on each question. The moment realised I am way off time, I rushed and in that process got a lot of questions wrong. Looking deeper, SC is the weakest, next is RC and then CR.

I have gone through your article on time management and trying to apply the same now in my practice sessions. Analysing my mistakes deeper, I see I take more than 60 sec on SC. This is what I do while working on a SC question:

1. Read the question and understand what grammar rule is being tested. (This step takes time in case the sentence is a long one or sounds too complicated to make any sense out it )
2. Jump to the options and look for a 2-3 split. If there is clear split, eliminate wrong options. ( This step can take time when the split is evident but I don't know which split is correct. For eg, (rather than / instead of) - Though I know "rather than" is used to indicate one option as superior over another but sometimes superiority is not clearly evident. Q56 Verbal review. In that case, I start hunting for other issues to eliminate options and this ends up taking time )
3. Among the options left, re-look again to hunt for more mistakes. If I am able to boil down to one correct answer, well and good.
4. In case the last few options are too close to cross out any one, OR if they all are grammatically correct but differ in sentence structure or conciseness, I usually try to plug them back into main sentence and see which one makes sense and is not changing the meaning. ( Again this is the step where I take most of the time and can easily cross the 90 sec limit).

I am trying to note down all the rules where I take time and planning to go through them everyday so that I spot issues much quicker. What do you suggest I should be doing?

I have taken a date for retest (16th Aug) and want to know know how to improve my pacing in the next 4 weeks. Also I have exhausted most of the materials ( GMAT Prep - took multiple times and know most of the answers by heart, same goes for MGMAT ). Any inputs on what materials I can refer now? Or should I use the existing materials itself but approach the questions in a different manner?

Thanks

[StaceyKoprince]

Here's the most recent time management article, for anyone who's interested:
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... anagement/

Timing problems can often take 4 to 6 weeks to fix. You don't mention when you started work on the timing; I just wanted to let you know because your test is in about a month.

For SC process, read this article:

http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... n-problem/

In general, don't worry about whether the split is a 2/3 split or some other kind. Just look for the first difference you see and ask yourself: "Do I know how to deal with this?" If yes, deal with it and eliminate some answers. If no, ignore it and go look for the very next difference.

When you're studying, study from the point of view of "here's a difference, now what does that mean?" Go look at a bunch of problems you've already done. Don't read the original sentence; just compare the answers. Find all of the differences, ask yourself what each difference means, and how you know. You're basically teaching yourself to read the clues, just like you'd read a math problem realize that certain words tell you that certain things are going on. On SC, certain differences tell you that certain things are going on.

Study off of old stuff first - only once you get better at these weaknesses should you then test yourself using new problems. You mention using GMATPrep and MGMAT tests; what about OG (official guide) problems? If you've already used up the current books, get a couple of the older editions. You can also try GMAT Focus (http://www.gmatfocus.com) for mini-quant "tests."

Back to SC. The process described in the above article is good for many / most problems. Some are harder / more annoying and require more work. Check out the below articles as well (but learn the basic process in the above article first):

http://www.manhattangmat.com/articles/GMATprep-SC.cfm
http://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2011/07/ ... correction
http://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2011/03/ ... sc-problem
http://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2011/03/ ... -problem-2

That will give you some things to get started with - and use the forums to help push you even further!