Reading Comp. passages in the last questions

[bruno_torres_gomez]

Hi Stacy,

I took a gmatprep practice test today, my timing benchmark said that i had 13 mins for the last 8 questions. Ideally it would be 15 mins, so i was 2 mins behind. The big problem was that the last 6 questions were for 2 reading comp. passages, one really long. It bumped me out, i read fast and i ended up failing all of them. My guess is that the timing benchmark should have allotted for 4 mins more ? what would you recommend ?

[StaceyKoprince]

You used extra time on earlier questions. :( Because you had only 2 passages to that (late) point on the test, you should have had more time than your benchmark. Any benchmarks for verbal assume that the passages are spread out evenly in the test - but you have to keep track of that and adjust accordingly if things don't play out according to that assumption.

I follow a benchmark based on 10-question sets, which splits the test into quarters. The basic assumption is that you will start one new passage within every 10-question quarter of the test (so, questions 1-10, 11-20, 21-30, 31-40). I keep track of each new passage by drawing a little dot on my hand with my pen (not on paper, because I won't be on the same page for the whole test).

Then, when I'm checking my benchmarks, I also check my dots. At my 1st check (10 questions in), I should have one dot and about 56 minutes left. If I have 0 dots, then I also better have more time left. If I have 2 dots, then I can have less time left.

At my 2nd check (20 questions), I should have 2 dots and about 37-38m left.

At my 3rd check (30 questions), I should have 3 dots and about 19 min left.

So, at some point, your "dot" check would have been off because you would have had only 2 dots when you normally would have had 3. That would have been your clue that you also needed extra time relative to the benchmark - and, if you didn't, you would want to take action right away.

Good to have this happen in practice so that you can avoid it on the real test!