how to crack the longer passage RC, CR, and SC.

[xinghaipeng1984]

I took my first official test one month ago and my score is
AWA 5.5, Maths 51, Verval 25. (640)

I experienced the serous problem that too much time was spent over RC part as 2 long passages & 2 short passages were given.
Before that I tried the GMATPrep twice and scored at 710 & 720.
And I still remember half of the questions were rushed to finish as more than 40' was spent on the first 20 questions.

Once the remaining time was short I started to rush and the overall result became a disaster.I have tested separately with Reading part and I could score well as long as I have enough time.

Could you please suggest what could I do to solve this problem?
Generally I need to spend around 2 mins on short passages and nearly 3 mins on long passages. Do I take too much time reading the questions?

Please help me overcome this problem as I feel I may have the similar results if I don't solve this problem. I have registered the GMAT test on 17th of December. How do you suggest to prepare for the following 20 days? (Part Time)

thanks a lot.
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PS: I realized that whenever my speed will be much slower if I face a longer SC question and most of the time don't know where to start. It will be fine if the Split-resplit method could be applied as I can compare the choices, however if most of the choices don't have a similar pattern, I will definitely waste a lot of time reading all the choices.

Same bad outcome happens for RC & CR, it looks like I couldn't handle longer questions well in the GMAT.

[StaceyKoprince]

Fantastic quant score!

On verbal, the biggest warning sign that jumped out at me was your description of the timing. Unless you are at a VERY high level (as you are on the quant), you will always struggle with timing on this test - that's just how the test is designed.

This test is not just testing you on whether you know the material and can answer the questions. It's also testing you on whether you can set priorities and manage your time appropriately (as any good businessperson should know how to do!). Think about your average workday - sometimes there are things you have to leave till tomorrow or next week, right? Sometimes there are things you have to give to somebody else or say you can't do.

Well, on the GMAT, sometimes you're given questions that you just have to let go. Most people have to "let go" on 4-7 questions in each section. (Again, unless you're VERY high - and, even then, you might have to let go of a few questions.)

Your task is to spot those 4-7 questions before you've used up the time and use the time you have left (or maybe less, but no more than you're supposed to use!) to make an educated guess. Then move on.

Generally I need to spend around 2 mins on short passages and nearly 3 mins on long passages.

That's appropriate actually - that timing is just fine for the initial read-through. Now, you need to make sure that you accomplish certain things on that read-through:
1) know the main idea / purpose of the whole passage
2) know the purpose of each paragraph
3) know the kind of detail contained in each paragraph (but do NOT actually know / fully understand that detail)

Ideally, you want to take (very short, abbreviated) notes on the above things. Then, when you get to the questions, you should aim to spend:
- about 1m per question on "main idea" questions (you should already know the main idea if you've done your job above!)
- about 1.5 to 2m per question on the "specific detail" questions (depending upon length, complexity, etc)

SC questions should average about 1m15s and CR questions should average about 2m.

How does your timing on the other questions compare to what I typed above?

I also want to make sure you know something else: it is FAR more important to finish the test, and to make sure you have a chance to address every question, than it is to get every question (or even most of the questions) right. You are going to continue to get a lot of questions wrong in the verbal section (unless you can get to the 99th percentile, as you did on quant - in which case, you'll still get questions wrong, but not a ton). You need to make sure that you give yourself the time to have a fair shot at every queston - and then you need to make the decision to let a question go when it's just too hard (before you've used up the time or gone over!).

GMATPrep does not tell you how long you spent on each question. Have you taken any of our practice tests? Our score reports tell you how long you spent on every question - you need that data if you're going to fix this problem. You can sign up to take one test for free.

In terms of SCs where you don't see obvious splits, in those cases, it's often the case that big chunks of the sentence move around or change (rather than just one or two word chunks). That often means you have issues with modifiers, parallelism, or comparisons. Find some of these to study in OG and practice noticing how the big chunks move around (instead of looking for a more obvious split such as "has/have"); what parts can you match, what rules do they tend to test, how can you reconcile big chunks of answer choices (across the different choices) instead of having to read each answer choice horizontally?

You don't mention other strengths and weaknesses, nor do you mention a goal score, so it's tough for me to provide you with additional advice. If you'd like to provide more detail, please do so. At the least, I completely agree with you that you need to fix this timing problem or it's going to be tough for you to improve your score.

I do also want to mention that, for most people who have serious timing problems, it typically takes longer than 2.5 weeks to fix the problem. Most people need about 4 to 6 weeks to fix major timing problems. If you have the capability to postpone your test, you may need to think about doing so. (You don't need to postpone right now, but if it's possible for you to do so, then just be open to the idea if it looks like you may need more time.)