Issues transitioning from Quant to Verbal

[EdwinG468]

Hello,

First I want to thank the Mprep team - I started off my GMAT journey scoring in the mid 500s on my first set of CATs, but have worked my way up to a 720 in my most recent CAT, 2 weeks away from the taking the official online exam It is possible with the right support and mindset!

I have taken my last three CATS under official timing conditions (no break in between quant and verbal sections) but I'm finding it difficult to switch my mindset immediately from Quant to Verbal. I usually second-guess myself and take longer reading / digesting information on the first 4-5 verbal questions because I still feel like my brain is in 'quant mode'; however, I'm usually able to get into a rhythm after these questions and I tend to finish strong the rest of the way through. Seeing as this is more of a transition problem, I had two questions:

1) What exactly does the transition between Quant then Verbal look like on the real online GMAT? Do you get taken from the last Quant question (#31) straight into the verbal introduction page with the timer starting to tick down? Understanding what to expect will help me better prepare mentally for this switch.

2) Do you have any general recommendations to make this transition go more smoothly? On my most recent CAT, I missed the first two RC questions all because I was feeling anxious about starting off on the right foot. I've tried to do a couple of things to overcome the anxiety, namely:

- Starting to re-calibrate mentally towards Verbal on the last Quant question. I usually find myself with some time towards the end of the Quant section, so after working through the problem and selecting an answer choice, I will wait to hit 'Confirm' until the very last second, so I can spend more time trying breath and slow things down.
- I've gotten rid of setting up my whiteboard for Verbal. This may not work for everyone, but in the past I personally have felt more anxious when setting up my whiteboard because I feel like I'm losing precious time. My new strategy is to simply remember the 48R / 32R / 16R / 0R question benchmarks and only use the whiteboard to take brief notes for RC / CR questions (which worked much better for me on my most recent CAT).

Thanks so much in advance for the consideration and wish me luck as I gear up for the real deal!

[StaceyKoprince]

I'm glad things are going well! For anyone else reading this, we're talking about taking the GMAT Online, for which we don't get a break between the Q and V sections.

There's like a 30-second transition between the two sections—there is something, but it was really short. (I don't remember exactly what the timer said when I took it.)

Since you usually do have a little time left at the end of quant, yes, use all of that time to start the transition to verbal. I'd go as far as just bailing on the last Q question, if needed, to give yourself a couple of minutes, just in case you find yourself without your usual extra time.

And then think about how you want to spend that time. Closing your eyes and clearing your brain of everything? Starting to think about verbal—strategies you want to remember or thinking about a problem you did yesterday, something like that?

How is your timing on the verbal section? if you tend to have a couple of minutes left at the end of that section as well, I'd go ahead and use another minute or two at the beginning to work your way into the V section. Do the first problem twice, double-check the answers for the first 2 problems, something like that.

For anyone else reading this, if you find that you don't usually have extra time left at the end of Q or V (most people don't), I would go as far as deciding that you're going to bail on one extra question in both sections in order to give yourself a block of about 4 minutes to take a break in your seat. Use 2 min at the end of Q and 2 min at the beginning of V.

And, of course, if you have one section that you usually finish decently early, you can take all the time from that section. I usually use all or almost all of the time for Q but I often finish V 10+ minutes early, so I should have taken an in-seat break at the beginning of my V section when I took the real thing. I just didn't think about it and kept plowing ahead as soon as V started—and it cost me. My V score dropped because I was so mentally tired without the break. So learn from me / don't do that.

Good luck on your exam, Edwin—let us know how it goes!