Time is NOT Rhyme here :(

[saumya2u]

Why I am here? Here is my answer -

<> From Day0 of my prep, I have heard to leave the question when it seems out of my head. Irony is, it takes almost 1.5 minutes in case of CR questions, to mark it esoteric and go for educated guess, which needs another 30 minutes as per education level.
Type of CR : All kinds (honestly, cannot differentiate yet), generally, long arguments, multiple point of views, whatever is out of my reach.

<>In case of SC question, I try to make-up this lag due to facing time-killing CR(s) , and while trying to mark my final choice among 4, I feel like "Watch Ur Time" type syndrome, buzzing in my head. Consequence is obvious - I lose concentration and miss some point, and choose wrong option.

<> Due to poor reading speed, I used to take notes while reading RC to engage myself on the content; however, end up loosing more precious seconds than required by most of the test-takers.

<> Last 15 minutes - "Choker Time" - it's like, last 15 minutes of the exam, I can hear the ticks of seconds than the logic of the questions, which affects my Math score due to some terrible silly mistake. They are really unpardonable, when analyzing the review sheet after exam.

Please help me.

Background:
Stacey Koprince October 17, 2012 at 9:18 am
As a general rule, if you don’t know what you’re doing by the half-way mark (around 1 minute), then you should switch to making an educated guess. Educated guessing takes time, so take another 30 to 60 seconds (for 2-minute questions) to decide how to guess, then pick something and move on.

Again, follow the links. :) Read the In It To Win It and Time Management articles that I linked above.

Saumya October 17, 2012 at 12:59 pm
Hi Stacey,
Thanks for this informative blog.
As you have suggested that, 1 minute would be the relaxation time to judge the content of the 2 mins question, and if it is still unsolved, need to make educated guess by next half minutes. However, in most of the time, I lose more than 90 seconds to read a CR question-stem and the options, and take another 60 secs, to mark one of my choice. The same thing happens in case of some tricky SC also. Can you please take the pain and help me to time my prep-style as the test-makers expect?

Stacey Koprince October 17, 2012 at 1:19 pm
I’d be happy to! It’s tough to have that kind of conversation here, though. Please go onto our forums and post your situation in the General Strategy folder of the Ask An Instructor section. Please be sure to give us as much detail as possible about what happens, when it happens, and why you think it happens. Certain kinds of CR questions? Certain circumstances, eg, long arguments or arguments that have two points of view? Etc.

[StaceyKoprince]

Have you taken a practice test yet? If so, use the below to analyze your most recent MGMAT CAT(s):
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... ice-tests/

Then come back here and tell us the results of your analysis and what you think you should do based on that analysis. (Note: do share an analysis with us, not just the raw data. Part of getting better is developing your ability to analyze your results - figure out what they mean and what you think you should do about them!)

That will help us to see whether there are any patterns for CR, for example, or what kinds of timing issues we're working with. Are you ALWAYS spending 90 seconds to understand a CR argument? Or only on certain ones?

Next, for CR, read this:
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... g-problem/

The more you know about how to recognize the different CR types and what to do with each type, the more you'll be able to save 10 seconds here, 15 seconds there.

Also, sometimes you need to recognize much faster that a question is way too hard, and just guess quickly. The time you save will offset the extra time you sometimes spend on other questions.

You mention having stress management issues as you get close to the end of a section; read this and see if anything in here can help you:
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... anagement/

I think part of the issue, though, is to fix the timing problems - that's adding to your stress.

For RC, I'm betting that you're reading too much and getting too far into the details - almost everyone does. Look at these:
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... p-passage/
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... -passages/

And you may find these useful as well:
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... c-passage/
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... rehension/

The same thing [too much time] happens in case of some tricky SC also.

If this is happening only sometimes on hard / tricky ones, those are the ones on which you have to guess faster. :) You can't try to solve every question to the best of your ability using full time - if you do, you'll run out of time. So part of what you need to learn is when and how to cut yourself off.

Start off with the various articles I linked above and then come back here with questions or for more resources once you're done with the above!