Hi,
I just wrote the GMAT today, and scored only a 600 (Q44 V28). I was scoring around the 650 mark in MGMAT CATs with weaker math scores and Verbal scores between 35 to 38.
However, today, I started the verbal section with a bang, solved the first few questions (SC and CR) and came to a grinding halt with a small, but power-packed small RC passage. I ended up spending too much time here and this sapped me up totally. Im sure that I got those questions wrong as well ! This phenomenon recurred throughout the exam, and towards the end, I could see that the questions had gotten considerably easier and could feel that my score was going downhill. Finally, it did !
What do I do when I'm posed with difficult questions ? Would I have lost or gained by quickly giving up and moving on to the next ? I feel that would certainly have led me to a better score.
I desperately need help on this. I'm sure that I've studied hard enough for a V35+.
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- arjun.balachandran
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- messi10
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Re: Timing in verbal section
Hi Arjun,
Sorry to hear about your experience, although 600 is not a bad score.
When you say that this phenomenon occurred throughout the exam, do you mean that you frequently encountered questions that you struggled with and took too much time?
One thing you should never do is fall behind on the timing on any section. If you encounter a question that you cannot solve within reasonable time, then try and make an educated guess and move on. One of things that one has to learn and develop from practice tests is the ability to "guess". Very few individuals (if any) go through the entire exam without guessing. In one of my classroom sessions, I remember one of the instructors mentioning that Manhattan guys did a little study that found that spending more time on a question did not lead to the correct answer in majority of the cases. Basically it means that if the correct concept to solve the question does not come to you in 2 minutes, then it is highly unlikely that it will come to you in 5,6 or 7 minutes. This probably applies a bit more to the quant section than the verbal but as you yourself mentioned that you spent more time on that RC and still think you got it wrong.
Secondly, never think about the difficulty of the questions during the exam. I found myself doing that but as I practiced more, I stopped worrying about this as it only causes more anxiety. Remember that the actual GMAT also has experimental questions that do not count towards your final score. You will never know which ones are experimental. So you may actually end up spending a lot of time on experimental questions and that will affect your timing in a big way.
Thirdly, you need to assess whether you have a general problem with RCs or whether the one on the test was a particularly difficult one. Since you have given the MGMAT CATs, use the report generator and get some stats on your RCs and discuss with an instructor. I think there are some very good posts on the forums about how to improve your RCs.
If timing was the main problem then practice more CATs under timed conditions and learn to make good educated guesses. In fact, try doing a little experiment where you attempt one test by trying to get each and every question right with little regard towards the timing. Then do another test by trying to solve each question within the correct timing benchmarks and making educated guesses on those that you cannot answer. I am certain that you will do better in the 2nd test.
Hope this helps
Sunil
Sorry to hear about your experience, although 600 is not a bad score.
When you say that this phenomenon occurred throughout the exam, do you mean that you frequently encountered questions that you struggled with and took too much time?
One thing you should never do is fall behind on the timing on any section. If you encounter a question that you cannot solve within reasonable time, then try and make an educated guess and move on. One of things that one has to learn and develop from practice tests is the ability to "guess". Very few individuals (if any) go through the entire exam without guessing. In one of my classroom sessions, I remember one of the instructors mentioning that Manhattan guys did a little study that found that spending more time on a question did not lead to the correct answer in majority of the cases. Basically it means that if the correct concept to solve the question does not come to you in 2 minutes, then it is highly unlikely that it will come to you in 5,6 or 7 minutes. This probably applies a bit more to the quant section than the verbal but as you yourself mentioned that you spent more time on that RC and still think you got it wrong.
Secondly, never think about the difficulty of the questions during the exam. I found myself doing that but as I practiced more, I stopped worrying about this as it only causes more anxiety. Remember that the actual GMAT also has experimental questions that do not count towards your final score. You will never know which ones are experimental. So you may actually end up spending a lot of time on experimental questions and that will affect your timing in a big way.
Thirdly, you need to assess whether you have a general problem with RCs or whether the one on the test was a particularly difficult one. Since you have given the MGMAT CATs, use the report generator and get some stats on your RCs and discuss with an instructor. I think there are some very good posts on the forums about how to improve your RCs.
If timing was the main problem then practice more CATs under timed conditions and learn to make good educated guesses. In fact, try doing a little experiment where you attempt one test by trying to get each and every question right with little regard towards the timing. Then do another test by trying to solve each question within the correct timing benchmarks and making educated guesses on those that you cannot answer. I am certain that you will do better in the 2nd test.
Hope this helps
Sunil
- StaceyKoprince
- ManhattanGMAT Staff
- Posts: 9361
- Joined: Wed Oct 19, 2005 9:05 am
- Location: Montreal
Re: Timing in verbal section
I'm sorry you had a rough time on the test. Sunil, thanks for weighing in with your experience.
Yes, it sounds like the timing got away from you during the section - and, as you found, messing up the timing can have a really negative impact on your score.
As Sunil was saying, you've got to stick to your timing, even when it means bailing on a question. You ARE going to have to guess. Everybody does, even those of us scoring in the 99th percentile.
So, task #1 is to change your mindset. You are no longer taking a test, the way you normally think of taking a test (where the goal is to get everything right). You are now playing tennis. You need to win more points than your opponent (the computer). That's it. The computer IS going to win some points. That's fine. You just want to win a few more.
When the computer hits a really good shot, acknowledge that and cut your losses. You may not want to skip an entire passage, because that's 3 or 4 questions in a row, but you may be able to answer the main idea question or a specific detail question without understanding EVERYthing in the passage. Look for the questions that are NOT about whatever it is that you really didn't understand. :)
Know what your timing guidelines are (how do you check / keep track of things as you move through the section?), and:
(1) stick to them as much as possible
(2) know what to do if you find yourself off track
If you are off pace by more than about 2 minutes in either direction, you need to take action. If you're behind on time, bail on the next hard problem (you start reading and within 15s, you're thinking, oh boy - I don't know what's going on, this is too hard). Don't immediately just bail on the next problem - if you can do it WITHIN the expected timeframe, then do it. But if it's too hard, say "Nice shot!" and let it go. :)
Here are the per-question guidelines:
Quant - about 2m; max of 2.5m
SC - about 60-75 sec; max of 90 sec
CR - about 2m; max of 2.5m
RC - about 2.5m (short) to 3.5m (long) to read; about 1 min for general purpose questions; about 1.5 to 2 for everything else
And the general section benchmarks:
Quant:
Q10: 55 min left
Q20: 35 min left
Q30: 15 min left
Verbal:
This is trickier because it partially depends upon where the 3 or 4 RC passages begin. The below assumes that one new passage starts within each quarter of the test (Q1-10, Q11-20, Q21-30, Q31-41).
Q10: 56 min left
Q20: 37 min left
Q30: 19 min left
You may have to adjust the above if the passages don't start in the way described above. For instance, if by the time you get to Q10, you've actually had 2 passages start, not just one, then you should expect to have fewer minutes left - maybe 53 instead of 56. If, on the other hand, you get to Q10 and you've had no passages start, then you should expect to have more - maybe 59 left. Every time a new passage starts, I keep track with a tick mark on the first page of my scrap paper. If you're worried about losing that or having to flip back to find the tick marks, then keep track on your hand - maybe with dots, so that you don't have as much skin to scrub later. :)
When practicing, did you do sets of problems (as opposed to only one or a few problems at a time)? Did you time yourself? Do problems in sets of 5 or 10 (at least) so that you can practice managing time across questions. Vary it up - today you might do a 10-problem mixed (meaning CR, RC, SC) set, and tomorrow you might do a 15-Q set, the next day a 20-Q set, then back to 10 again. (And, of course, you're going to review everything thoroughly and do some quant, which is why I'm not telling you to do a bunch of 10-Q verbal sets all on the same day.)
Yes, it sounds like the timing got away from you during the section - and, as you found, messing up the timing can have a really negative impact on your score.
As Sunil was saying, you've got to stick to your timing, even when it means bailing on a question. You ARE going to have to guess. Everybody does, even those of us scoring in the 99th percentile.
So, task #1 is to change your mindset. You are no longer taking a test, the way you normally think of taking a test (where the goal is to get everything right). You are now playing tennis. You need to win more points than your opponent (the computer). That's it. The computer IS going to win some points. That's fine. You just want to win a few more.
When the computer hits a really good shot, acknowledge that and cut your losses. You may not want to skip an entire passage, because that's 3 or 4 questions in a row, but you may be able to answer the main idea question or a specific detail question without understanding EVERYthing in the passage. Look for the questions that are NOT about whatever it is that you really didn't understand. :)
Know what your timing guidelines are (how do you check / keep track of things as you move through the section?), and:
(1) stick to them as much as possible
(2) know what to do if you find yourself off track
If you are off pace by more than about 2 minutes in either direction, you need to take action. If you're behind on time, bail on the next hard problem (you start reading and within 15s, you're thinking, oh boy - I don't know what's going on, this is too hard). Don't immediately just bail on the next problem - if you can do it WITHIN the expected timeframe, then do it. But if it's too hard, say "Nice shot!" and let it go. :)
Here are the per-question guidelines:
Quant - about 2m; max of 2.5m
SC - about 60-75 sec; max of 90 sec
CR - about 2m; max of 2.5m
RC - about 2.5m (short) to 3.5m (long) to read; about 1 min for general purpose questions; about 1.5 to 2 for everything else
And the general section benchmarks:
Quant:
Q10: 55 min left
Q20: 35 min left
Q30: 15 min left
Verbal:
This is trickier because it partially depends upon where the 3 or 4 RC passages begin. The below assumes that one new passage starts within each quarter of the test (Q1-10, Q11-20, Q21-30, Q31-41).
Q10: 56 min left
Q20: 37 min left
Q30: 19 min left
You may have to adjust the above if the passages don't start in the way described above. For instance, if by the time you get to Q10, you've actually had 2 passages start, not just one, then you should expect to have fewer minutes left - maybe 53 instead of 56. If, on the other hand, you get to Q10 and you've had no passages start, then you should expect to have more - maybe 59 left. Every time a new passage starts, I keep track with a tick mark on the first page of my scrap paper. If you're worried about losing that or having to flip back to find the tick marks, then keep track on your hand - maybe with dots, so that you don't have as much skin to scrub later. :)
When practicing, did you do sets of problems (as opposed to only one or a few problems at a time)? Did you time yourself? Do problems in sets of 5 or 10 (at least) so that you can practice managing time across questions. Vary it up - today you might do a 10-problem mixed (meaning CR, RC, SC) set, and tomorrow you might do a 15-Q set, the next day a 20-Q set, then back to 10 again. (And, of course, you're going to review everything thoroughly and do some quant, which is why I'm not telling you to do a bunch of 10-Q verbal sets all on the same day.)
Stacey Koprince
Instructor
Director, Content & Curriculum
ManhattanPrep
Instructor
Director, Content & Curriculum
ManhattanPrep
3 posts Page 1 of 1