Stacey Help - Verbal Section Pacing Strategy

[cyber_office]

Stacey,

I took my first GMAT Prep 1 CAT today under actual test conditions (including use of the MGMAT booklet and marker), and at a start time just shy of 30 minutes from when my actual test is scheduled. I have studied for the GMAT during weekends by solving problem sets in the past 4 weeks. I do not study during the week apart from checking MGMAT forums.

GMAT prep 1 - 700 (Q47, V38)

My verbal score is significantly lower than that I would have expected it to be. Upon review, I noticed that I answered the first 3-4 questions wrong so I might have shot myself in the foot. Also, out of the total 9 incorrect asnwers, I had narrowed 7 of them to 2 options. What concerns me is the fact that I blew through verbal in 45 minutes, with 30 minutes to spare. My verbal breakdown is as follows:

Total of 9 incorrect out of 41
SC - 6
CR - 3
RC - 0

The RC passages were extremely easy relative to OG since they were not very long. Also, when focused, I read at the rate of 400 words per minutes with 90-95% retention (as measured a year ago by WordSmart's progressive reader software) so RC is not a big issue. I have read some of your posts regarding test-taking on this forum, but find that my situation is slightly different. I usually fly through verbal questions and can still nail at least 70% accurately. For example, last weekend, I attempted the MGMAT SC online set (at the public library) and solved 70% of the problems accurately even though I was very hungover and there were little kids screaming and crying around me. I completed the set of 25 questions in 22-24 minutes.

Can you recommend an approach that might help me stop thinking of the verbal section as though it were some sort of race?

Thanks in advance.

P.S. I graduated from college 10 years ago.

[rkim81]

Hi, I'm not Stacy, and I may sound like Dr. Phil here, but just stop moving so fast!
If you can get only 9 incorrect within 45 minutes, then spend extra time on those tricky SC questions. Review your CR diagrams so that there's no doubt in your answers!

Seems to me you could very well get near perfect on verbal if you just control yourself to slow down. Confidence doesn't seem to be an issue, and you've shown that you can work well under pressure (albeit self induced) so it doesn't seem like a problem if you spent some extra time on each verbal question. Just my two cents.

[cyber_office]

Thanks rkim, I appreciate the input!

Stacey,

Upon further reflection, I am not particularly happy with a 47 on Math, either! A 47 correlates to an 81 percentile! On my SATs I scored between 96-98 percentile on Math (I can't remember the exact percentile because I am a senior citizen ;-) now and did take my SATs 14 years ago). Regardless, I found GMAT Math difficult during my practice test. I struggled with question types that I had seen before on the forums and in OG. Also, I received way too many DS questions!!

Upon test completion, I had the "slap my forehead" feeling because I realized how I could have solved a problem that I felt I got wrong (I'm sure we all experience this). I did not review the GMAT prep Math section because if I take GMAT Prep 1 again I want it to mimic an original test-taking experience (that way even if I get incorrect repeats I won't know how to solve them just because I have seen them before).

Thanks again. Look forward to hearing from you.

[StaceyKoprince]

First, nice job! I know you want to do better, but 700's already a great mark!

rkim's right - you've got to slow down! V38 is the 83rd percentile. Given what you described, you could be 90+ percentile easily, if not up in the stratosphere on verbal.

First, you should be able to put your finger on the thing that tells you something is right or wrong. Literally, pick your finger up and put it on the screen. Until you can do this, do not eliminate or pick that choice. Make yourself articulate very explicitly, "B is wrong because <blah> and C is wrong because <blah> but D is right because <blah>."

Keep track of this thinking on your scrap paper. You need three symbols. One means "definitely wrong," one means "maybe..." and one means "right!" As you think through each answer, make the corresponding symbol on your scratch paper. You should be able to articulate to yourself WHY an answer gets a particular symbol well enough that somebody else would be able to understand your explanation.

Next, whenever you get something wrong, ask yourself WHY again. ("WHY?" is the most common question to ask yourself while studying for the GMAT!) Was there something you didn't know, maybe some obscure grammar rule? Go learn it. Did you miss some key word / point in the problem? Why - were you reading too fast? Did you read it but forget about it later? Did you not note it down on your scrap paper? Did you get distracted by a wrong answer that looked "better" than the right one? Did something look "not right" with the right answer?

Answer these questions:

- why was the wrong answer so tempting? why did it look like it might be right? (be as explicit as possible - this is WHY you made the error)
- why was it actually wrong? what specific words indicate that it is wrong and how did I overlook those clues the first time?
- 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? (again, this is WHY you made the error)
- why was it actually right?

The above should be a good start to get you to think more carefully. You may still finish with time left - but not 30 minutes!

The general review process is similar for quant, though the specific analysis you're doing is a bit different. Things are going to come down to "I just didn't know that / I didn't remember that" or "I knew that but messed it up somehow!" For the former, you need to do more traditional studying: review the material, do practice problems, etc. For the latter, you need to figure out what caused the mistake and then go from there: what habits do you have to make or break to minimize the chances of making that particular mistake again in future?

You don't mention what you're using to study. If you don't already have books, then you'll need to get some books that teach you the actual material and how to approach different kinds of problems on quant and possibly SC (for any grammar issues). That's a lot more efficient than trying to figure everything out yourself via practice problems. On RC and CR, you may be fine already, given your performance on the practice test (though, obviously, keep an eye on that over time).

[cyber_office]

Thanks for the advice! You rule!!

[cyber_office]

As an afterthought (as a comment to your last statement), I do have the MGMAT SC guide. It's very helpful. Given that I have been out of college for 10 years, it is definitely a good guide to help me better understand the "GMAT" standards of English Grammar!

[StaceyKoprince]

good luck!