Need advice on time management in Verbal

[me.parashar]

Hi,
Pardon me for writing such a huge message, I just wanted to give as much information as possible so please bear with me.

I've been preparing for GMAT for some time now and find everything manageable except the time management. When I started I got a score of 580 (first GMATprep). Prepared for a couple months and got 690. Yesterday I took the second GMATprep test and got 720 (Q49, V38). However I haven't attempted any AWAs in any of the tests that I've taken.

Questions in RC in general seemed much tougher than the RCs in OG12. While doing the questions I took whole lot of time in RC section (marked questions without any confidence). When analyzed later, I found that most of my RC answers were correct although it didn't feel like that while I was answering the questions. SC section took me down. So far I have spent most of the time preparing for my SC only but I feel that I've not improved in proportion to my preparation. I've finished Manhattan SC twice, currently reading it third time, but questions in the book seem very easy which I answer correctly most of the time. Even while solving OG problems, I'm able to answer correctly 70(before)-90(now)% of the time. But i'm not able to figure out how to improve on those 10-20% questions. When question is presented along with related chapter (pronoun question after chapter on pronouns) i'm able to solve it, but when an independent question is asked, i screw up. And what bothers me is that i take huge time in reading and answering the questions, which brings us to my second issue.

My other issue in latest test was that I could not attempt last 4-5 questions and what was worse, being short of time, I could not even guess at random so left last 3-4 questions without attempting. My reading is slow in general and I have found that in SC I read and reread question and responses, matching them with each other and "trying" too hard to be sure about the answer. Very few times it happens when I'm able to find one wrong rule and remove the incorrect choices. most of the time I end up reading answer and rereading the choices and hence spending a lot of time on question. I feel confident while doing CR, sometimes I do make mistakes, but most of the time when I mark a choice, I feel confident. Not like this in SC (or RC)

So all in all, i'd like to ask, how I can improve on the 10% problems which I still miss in SC and how can I improve on my time because I've not seen it improved in any of my tests, I've improved my concepts which explains gradual increase in my scores but in all 3 of them, i was short of time, and in all 3 of them, I had to guess last 4-5 questions at random. This was also true in Quant section, I had to guess 2-4 questions at random in Quant too. And no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't improve on it.

So any help would be appreciated from you experts. Thank you in advance.

[StaceyKoprince]

Long messages are just fine - the more info you can give us, the better. :)

It's important to do the essays when you take practice tests. The essays are done first, which takes time and effort, and also lengthens the test by an hour. If you're not used to that, then there's a good chance that your multiple choice performance will drop on the real test.

What you report for RC is interesting. Did you feel like you often narrowed it down to 2 or 3 choices but then you weren't sure and you spent a lot of time going back and forth? (And then you got a lot of those right - nice!) That means that your thought process is working, but your lack of confidence in your thought process is costing you time - and, ultimately, other questions later in the test. Go back and see where you think you really spent more of your time. During the initial read-through of the passage at the beginning? While you were re-checking the passage for each question? While you were debating among answer choices? Where are you not confident? (And tell yourself to be confident in future, because the data doesn't lie!)

questions in the book seem very easy which I answer correctly most of the time.

That is partially because you were doing the same Qs for the second time, partially because your focus was on finding the right answer as opposed to thoroughly analyzing what's going on, and partially because they are supposed to be somewhat easier than what you'll see in the Official Guide. Have you also been testing yourself on Official Guide problems?

Doing a problem won't teach you a ton; analyzing a problem will. See this article:
http://www.manhattangmat.com/articles/a ... roblem.cfm

And this one, for an SC-specific example:
http://www.manhattangmat.com/articles/GMATprep-SC.cfm

Those are the kinds of questions you want to ask yourself while studying or reviewing practice problems - that's how you actually learn to get better.

Also ask yourself:
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?

how I can improve on the 10% problems which I still miss in SC

Are you sure you need to? Take a practice test under 100% official conditions (including essays!). What's your goal score? You may already be at the level that you need. You'll NEVER get 100% right on this test - nobody does. That's not how the test works.

I'll recommend that you read the Scoring section of our free e-book The GMAT Uncovered Guide. (If you have any kind of an account with us, even a free account, then you have this book in your Extras section.) If you understand how the scoring works, you'll have a better mindset when taking the test and that will also help with timing.

[me.parashar]

Hi Stacey,
Thanks for your detailed analysis and taking time to write it. I didn't receive any notifications from the forum hence the delay, was just browsing the forum and discovered a reply in my thread and thanked God when I saw your name on it.

Did you feel like you often narrowed it down to 2 or 3 choices but then you weren't sure and you spent a lot of time going back and forth?

I had to read and re-read essay question, 1 in particular, and the way I picked the correct choice was to compare again and again choices with each other and then re-reading the passage. Then I'd say, this can't be one, this can't be one..and so on.. and i'd pick the final one. I was relying more on my sixth sense rather than solid analogies. Although I got all correct but one, I spent a lot of time on them. Is there any better way?
The one I got incorrect, I had no idea what was being asked and where to find the answer, I spent 2-3 minutes alone on that one and short of time, I made an "UN"-educated guess as I had no idea what to pick.
If you remember the Gmatprep II test's Black death question, "the passage suggests that rat could not have spread... "
this was the question.

Doing a problem won't teach you a ton;.........................................

I have started analyzing the problems now, I think it's great way and I should have started doing this sooner.

Are you sure you need to? ........................................................

Yes, I'm targeting above 740 and provided I'd score 49/50 in Quant I need to improve considerably in my Verbal, especially in time. I think I can increase my score if I get full time to solve unattempted (3-5) questions.

I've taken the date 10th Oct 2011 for the real test, so I have 1 month. I'm planning for more intense preparation for 15 days to further increase my score and remaining 15 days for solidifying what i've got.

Do you have suggestions which would help me get the score I want? May be what a 750 scorer would and wouldn't do (in addition to what i'm already doing)? Do's and Dont's for me if i'm targeting that score. Any behavioral/temperamental/other traits I should adopt? For example, you've mentioned in one other thread that everyone on avg. guesses 5-7 questions in each section. do above 740 scorers too? things like this? the mistakes which are fine for avg. scorer but not for a 740+ scorer.

I'll recommend that you read the Scoring section of our free e-book.........................................................

I tried to get the book on forum and found it in free resources section, tried to download, it said that you can't as you already have it. I tried searching the extras section in student center but couldn't find the section.


Thanks for your time.

[StaceyKoprince]

Hmm, I'm not sure whether students can sign up for notifications when you get a reply on your posts. Other students, help us out - have any of you been able to do this?

So let me ask you another question - you got a lot of the RC questions right using your method but you spent too much time. How many times did you look at each individual ansewr choice? Generally, we want to do this on verbal:

First pass through answers: look at each answer ONCE and decide whether it's definitely wrong or whether you're going to leave it in. Cross off all of the "definitely wrong" ones on your scrap paper.

Second pass through answers: look ONLY at what's left and compare. Once you're down to 2 answers, look at each answer ONCE more, then pick.

A lot of times, what happens is this: you look at B and you think, yeah, maybe that's it! But I'm not sure. And it could be D. B does look a *little* better, but I'm not really sure. Let me look at D again. And you do this for 30+ seconds and then you end up picking B anyway. So you might as well pick it faster. :)

Or: you look at B and think, yeah, that might be it, but it could also be D. I don't really think one is better than the other. How am I going to decide? I don't know! Back and forth. Back and forth. I still don't know, so I just have to randomly pick one. Again, I could have done that sooner.

Basically, once you're down to 2 answers, you either have a hunch or you don't. Look once more, but then either go with your hunch (if you have one) or just pick one if you don't.

If you're studying (that is, if it's not the real test), then afterwards, ask yourself: what made the wrong answer so tempting to pick? and what made the right answer so tempting to eliminate? what were the traps here or the things that distracted me? (now you know for future that those kinds of things are just traps!)

May be what a 750 scorer would and wouldn't do

A 750 scorer is definitely doing the kind of analysis we've talked about and that I also just mentioned above about verbal. Also take a look at this article:
http://www.manhattangmat.com/articles/7 ... erence.cfm

Generally speaking, some scoring above the 90th percentile in an individual section is probably only guessing on maybe 2 to 4 questions, rather than 4 to 7. (Note that this is in individual sections - not your overall combined percentile - since each section is scored separately first.)

Re: the GMAT Uncovered, I just looked in my student center - looks like they moved it since I last looked at it. Now, it's in my Class Resources section (link is on the right-hand side). Check there. If you still can't find it, call or email the office!

[me.parashar]

Thanks Stacey. I was eagerly waiting for the reply.

Re: Notification, I see "Notify me when a reply is posted" in my options and it's already checked, but it doesn't work.

About the RC, you're absolutely right, although, in the hope of getting the question right, sometimes (when i'm left with 2 choices), i even read the parts of passage again and again and then choices, and then pick my choice. Sometimes I get it right and sometimes I don't.

I started to take MG CATs -- 2 so far (under official conditions) and have been scoring badly. In first one I scored Q49,V34 (680). I kept track of time, was ahead of time mostly (by 4-7 min.) and whenever I was behind, I guessed on questions which were rather lengthy or about which I was not fully sure. To my surprise, I finished before time for the first time but 680 was not what I was expecting. And the saddest part was that I had a lot of wrong (12Q, a whopping 19V). Later, while analyzing, I was able to solve several of verbal questions. I realized that if I give enough time to questions I can improve my score.

Keeping that in mind, I took the second CAT after 1 week and guess what, scored 680 again :( (47Q,36V)
This time, I was not ahead but was ON time. I did 16 wrong in Quant, I've never performed this badly ever in quant. Sometimes I got wrong in a row just because of silly mistakes and sometimes because of doing wrong and then guessing wrong and then doing wrong again. In verbal the situation was not good either. I did 6 wrong in 600-700 range and 10 in the 700-800. In quant I got 1 wrong in 600-700 and all other in 700-800.

Would you have time to take a look at my result sheets, please leave them if you don't and pleasssse help me based on this response only.

The difference would not be due to my attempting the essays in these tests would it? I have a very good sitting and I can sit and study 5-7 hours straight, without any break. and I didn't feel any tension or stress in those 4 hours during test. I felt usual.

One more thing, I am doing so many wrongs and still I scored 34/36 in verbal. This was not the case in any of my GMATPrep tests. I did very few questions wrong in those (9-11) That worries me, if I continued the pattern of CATs what if I end up doing the same number of questions wrong, my score will plummet badly.

I've pretty much studied all the material I had and am finally doing Kaplan 800. I'm done with verbal which was decent but quant I find exceedingly easy, childish questions are there (except 1-2 good ones). I'm not sure what to improve now.
In my first CAT, out of 19, I got 6/6/7 wrong in each type, so no idea what's happening, I guess, this guess stuff is not working for me.

I've taken 10th Oct as test date. Should I postpone the date. Please help me Stacey, being perplexed at this point of time is giving me jitters.



P.S. I've got that free e book.

CAT sheets:---
second one:
http://www.manhattangmat.com/OnlineExam ... 4&stlid=15
http://www.manhattangmat.com/OnlineExam ... 1&stlid=16

first one:
http://www.manhattangmat.com/OnlineExam ... 8&stlid=15
http://www.manhattangmat.com/OnlineExam ... 8&stlid=16

[StaceyKoprince]

Hmm - contact tech support on the notifications thing. Send an email to techsupport@manhattangmat.com

I realized that if I give enough time to questions I can improve my score.

Yes, but what is "enough" time? We have to balance our time, because taking too much time on one Q will cause us to get another wrong... so it's tricky. It is true that going too quickly is just as problematic as going too slowly, so you want to make sure that you're not going too fast (which often happens when we spend too much time on others).

I took the second CAT after 1 week and guess what, scored 680 again :( (47Q,36V)

That's not so surprising. :) Most people don't actually see significant score changes in only one week - and timing problems, in particular, typically take 3 to 6 weeks to fix (depending upon how serious they are).

Note: I can't, unfortunately, look at your test results directly. We only do that for tutoring or those kinds of situations, not on the free forums. You can do exactly what I do, though, by reading the below article and following my instructions (and you can come and give that analysis here, if you'd like):

http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... ice-tests/

The difference would not be due to my attempting the essays in these tests would it?

It could be, yes. A lot of people find that skipping the essays results in an (artificially) increased multiple choice score. I'd say that's more common than the alternative (that it doesn't change your score at all when you skip the essays).

Computer Adaptive Tests are not scored based upon the percentage correct - that's why you're seeing differences in the number wrong but not necessarily major differences in scores. That's just how these kinds of tests work. Go read the scoring section in our free e-book.

Oh, and your last question is the most important one! If you aren't happy with your current practice test scores, then you should not take the test soon - you should expect to score on the real test in the same range as your practice tests. (And if you have been taking practice tests under non-official conditions, then your practice test scores might be inflated.)