Time management

[XiaojingW458]

Hi Stacey,
I still have a big time problem on verbal part, although I have read most of your articles including the article about time management. However, when I solve a problem on verbal section, it normally takes at least 1min30s. Also, reading the RC passages takes at least 4min for short passage and 5 min for long passage. I tried very hard to be faster on solving the questions and reading the passages, but the only result by doing so is confusing myself by the contents. BTW, I am not a native speaker, so understanding the contents is not as easy as natives. could you give me some advice on how to solve the test faster? It will help me a lot. Thank you very much.


Jasmine
Best regards

[StaceyKoprince]

Time management on the reading sections can be very tough for non-native speakers.

The best solution is one that takes a long time: getting more comfortable with reading in English. (Bonus: it will help you in b-school, too!) If you aren't already, start reading in English every day. Some of it should be more business / academic-focused, but you can also read fiction (as long as it's well-written fiction).

I like these sources for academic & business stuff:
http://magazine.uchicago.edu/
http://harvardmagazine.com/
http://sciam.com/

For fiction, if you already like to read in your native language, try pickig up English-language versions of some of your favorite books. If not, try some classic literary authors from the last 100 years: Doris Lessing, Ernest Hemingway, Maya Angelou, etc. Ask native ESL speakers you know what their favorite books / authors are. (My favorite book is The Eighth Day by Thornton Wilder.)

Next, one of the tough things for even native English speakers to learn is that you actually do NOT want to fully understand all of the details of the passage in front of you. It takes too long even for most native speakers. It's harder to figure out what you do and don't need when you're a non-native speaker, but there are still things you can do. Get into the habit of asking yourself whether something is "big picture" or "detail." If it's big picture, take the time to understand it.

If it's "detail," though, change your focus. You don't want to understand what the detail is. You just want to understand why it's there. "These two sentences serve as an example of the big picture idea they gave me in the sentence before that."

IF you then get a question about that detail, THEN you can go back to try to learn what it's saying. (Or you might decide that it's too hard and guess and move on.) But you won't get a question about all of that detail that you're going to set aside, so you'll save time in the end.

Depending on your goal score, you may also decide that you're going to choose one RC passage to blow off. Pick the topic / type that tends to be hardest for you. Look through the questions to see whether there's a main idea / primary purpose. If so, then you can try to get JUST the main idea, aggressively skimming over the details. But guess immediately on all of the rest of them.

What do you think about all of that?

[XiaojingW458]

Hi Stacey,
Thank you very much for your detailed helps. I realized that reading the english fictions or magazines will help me a lot on reading section, but my gmat is coming in 25 days. So I am not sure whether this method will be very helpful in this case. Moreover, I also have time problems on SC and CR questions although less sever than RC. I am still confused about how to be faster on SC and CR queations, even though I have tried to read faster and use the solving process that is suggested in your website. Maybe you could also give me some suggestions about time management on SC and CR questions. Thank you very much.

[StaceyKoprince]

You can try the techniques described in the articles linked below, but two things first:
(1) Part of your goal is to decide what NOT to do. You should be letting go of some questions very quickly - and that will give you more time to spend on the questions that you do decide to answer.
(2) Even if you are scheduled in 25 days, you should still follow the path I discussed last time (related to reading more). It will help you some, and if you don't get the score you want and have to take the test again in the future, you will be that much closer to being able to read more efficiently and effectively. (In addition, better reading skills will help you in business school.)

SC:
http://tinyurl.com/scprocess
https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog ... ce-part-1/

RC:
https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog ... rehension/

CR. The most commonly tested are Find the Assumption, Strengthen, and Weaken, so blow off some of the other, less common question types (don't study and just guess quickly and move on).
http://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog/ ... reasoning/

You may have already read some (or all) of these and tried these techniques, in which case, I'll go back to points (1) and (2) above. You'll need to get better at identifying when you should NOT be working on a problem, so that you can guess quickly and move on. And do start reading regularly even if you do only have 25 days. Every little bit can help.

[XiaojingW458]

Hi Stacey,
Thank you. I have just read the articles you posted for me, and I have to say that those articles are very helpful, especially those about RC. I think I will skip the Inference questions in the RC part since they are my weakness. Also, I will try to solve CR questions carefully and correctly coz they are my very strong part. Thank you for your advice.


Best regards,
Jasmine

[StaceyKoprince]

You are very welcome! Let me know how it goes!

[XiaojingW458]

Hi Stacey, I have taken my Gmat test a few days ago, but unfortunately I just got 580. This was my second try, and the first time I got 560. Both times Math were 48, and verbal were about 23. One problem was still time problem I think, because I was in a rush for last 10 questions in verbal part( time for math is fine).Actually the time in the mocktests I did before the real test was also in a rush for last 4-5 questions, but not so bad like in the real test. I am really confused about my verbal learning, because before the first real test I had had a 700 in the mocktest( about 4 questions in reading part I did once, but not more than that). However, in the real test I got a 560, which was a huge drop. Then I had a 3 months rest and started to give a shoot again. I spent most of my time and attentions on verbal part, and I have seen a big advance in my verbal learning, but somehow almost no advance shown in the real test this time. I will show the correctness rate of verbal in OG below. I hope to find the real reasons that drag my score in such a low level. By the way, I was not very nervous on the test day and did not have a strong fatigue.

Sorry, somehow the screen shot of my correctness rate of my verbal I did in Navigator cannot be attached here. I will just list the general rate:
All verbal:65%
SC:68% Ave time:1'48''
RC:52% Ave time:2'04''
CR:74% Ave time:2'34''

I think according to this rate, my level should not be just 580. However, a bad time management could make my level go down to 580, even though the knowledge mastered by me is much better than the first time real test.
Please tell me what reasons you think that keep my score so low. I would like to try the real test again once I found out my problems. Thank you very much.


Jasmine
Best regards.

[StaceyKoprince]

I'm sorry that this has been such a struggle for you.

The percentage correct doesn't reflect reality if the time is too long and if the questions are not given adaptively. The times you listed for the OG data are too long, and those questions aren't given adaptively, so you unfortunately can't use that information to try to figure out what you "should" be scoring.

The biggest clue is this:

I was in a rush for last 10 questions in verbal part

I'm going to repeat something I said in an earlier post:

(1) Part of your goal is to decide what NOT to do. You should be letting go of some questions very quickly - and that will give you more time to spend on the questions that you do decide to answer.

You can learn how to do every last thing that the test might throw at you, but if you take too long to do those things and have to rush on the last 10, your score will drop. That's just how the test works.

Your 700 score on a practice test could have been quite a big inflated, depending upon how you handled the 4 questions you'd seen before. First, did you answer them correctly regardless of whether you really thought you'd get them right if they were new? If so, that directly inflated your score. Second, did you answer them more quickly than you would have if they had been now? If so, that indirectly inflated your score, because it gave you more time on other questions - time that you normally wouldn't have had. That combination can really artificially inflate the overall score.

I have seen a big advance in my verbal learning, but somehow almost no advance shown in the real test this time.

I'm really happy that you can feel a big difference in your verbal skills - good work.

Next, you need to advance your test-taking skills, and one of those skills is the ability to identify questions that are too hard or will take too long and let them go quickly. Think of it this way: of the 41 verbal questions, you are only going to answer approximately 25 correctly. You are going to get about 16 wrong. Your only choice in the matter is how much time and mental energy you expend on those 16. Spend too much, and you're going to start missing some of the 25 that you do know how to get. Miss enough, and your score will drop quite a bit.

Take a look at this:
http://tinyurl.com/executivereasoning

and this:
https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog ... -the-gmat/

Then reply to tell me why I told you to read those articles. Also tell me what you think you need to do to develop those skills and better manage your time on the test. You may also want to look through these:

http://tinyurl.com/GMATTimeManagement
https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog ... -to-do-it/

[XiaojingW458]

Hi Stacey,
I have read the attached articles actually before my tests. I am thinking the following problems:
1. I understand that I should let some questions go and that GMAT is not an academic test, but I am confused that even though my skills for solving verbal and quant questions advanced a lot, why the test score has not grow much?( Let's say that the timing skills has stayed the same for both tests I did). would timing managment skills drag the score so low as the first test even the academic level grows a lot? Well, in the test day I bailed some questions but not everyone which I should have skipped I feel.

2. In the last post you mentioned that " of the 41 verbal questions, you are only going to answer approximately 25 correctly. You are going to get about 16 wrong". I don't know how you get these numbers and what the score scale will be by doing 25 correctly?

3.I think timing problem is NOT a problem that only has something to do with time,instead, it is connected with the academic knowledge you have mastered on verbal and quant section. Because it is easier to fnd out the problems and then solve them, I think advancing the academic skills on verbal and quant is the main factor to save and manage the time, . But I agree that giving up some questions is also necessary. Do you agree with my point?

Thank you very much for your advice. Marry christmas.
Jasmine

[StaceyKoprince]

would timing managment skills drag the score so low as the first test even the academic level grows a lot?

Yes. If you mismanage the time enough, your score will not increase at all (and might even drop). The GMAT is not testing you on how much you "know." It's testing you on how well you are taking the test. And if you are not taking it in the right way, then your score will not increase.

In the last post you mentioned that " of the 41 verbal questions, you are only going to answer approximately 25 correctly. You are going to get about 16 wrong". I don't know how you get these numbers and what the score scale will be by doing 25 correctly?

This is true for everyone (unless you are at the very highest or lowest ends of the scoring scale). This is how the GMAT works - the scoring is NOT based on how many you get right. This is another way in which the "old school" approach is hurting you. It's really important to understand how the scoring works.

As you lift your score, you don't get more right. You get about the same number right, but you are answering harder questions correctly, so the whole mix of problems that you are given changes.

For instance, in a classic case, let's say someone scores in the 50th percentile. Most of the questions given will be clustered in the 30th to 70th percentiles (this is very approximate). That person answered a lot of 30th to 50th percentile questions correctly but not as many 50th to 70th percentile questions correctly.

As that person gets better, he starts to be able to answer more 60th percentile questions correctly. As he can do that, the mix changes: now his score moves to 60th percentile, and the question mix becomes more like 40th to 80th percentile. He's still answering the same number of questions correctly. He's still getting lots of the lower-level questions in his mix right but not a ton of the higher-level questions in his mix.

This is how people mess up the timing and then kill their score: The example person from before is now capable of answering 60th percentile questions correctly. He starts seeing 70th and 80th percentile questions - which he can't answer. They're too hard. But he spends lots of time trying to answer them. Then, he has to rush on the 40th and 50th percentile questions to make up the time - and he starts to miss questions that he does actually know how to do. His overall score gets pulled down as a result and then the test ends.

The GMAT is a "where you end is what you get" test, so if, by the end of the section, his score has dropped back down to 50th percentile again, then he's going to score 50th percentile even though he knows enough to score 60th percentile and even though he actually was scoring up at 60th percentile for the earlier part of the section.

I think timing problem is NOT a problem that only has something to do with time,instead, it is connected with the academic knowledge you have mastered on verbal and quant section. Because it is easier to fnd out the problems and then solve them, I think advancing the academic skills on verbal and quant is the main factor to save and manage the time, . But I agree that giving up some questions is also necessary. Do you agree with my point?

No, it is not the main factor. It is A factor, yes. But the test will ALWAYS give you questions that you don't know how to do AND the test will ALWAYS give you questions that will just take too long, even if you could do them. That's just how the GMAT works.

If you don't recognize how the test works and you keep trying to do more than you should, then you will not get the score that you want to get on the test. I just told one of my students yesterday: "The goal is to make the best decisions among a series of possible investments, knowing that you can't invest in everything and that you can't go back to an opportunity on which you've already passed. Make the decision, move on confidently, no regrets."

If you want to maximize your score on the GMAT, you MUST start approaching it from that point of view. If you keep sticking to the "I have to learn as much as possible / I have to get as much right as possible / this is an academic test" view, you are going to have a very frustrating road ahead of you.