Verbal Timing

[doclkk]

I've been through the speed labs and class and I'm still not the proper time allotted for each question should be.

In class we typically do

1:30 for SC
2:30 for CR
6:00 for Short Passages
8:00 for Long Passages

The lab says the optimal method is 1:00 for SC and 2:00 CR and 6:00 for SP and 8:00 LP

If its two short / two long

12 + 16 = 28.

So the remaining 27 questions are split between SC and CR.

If you pair them that's 4:00 min per pair (13 pairs) - that's 52 minutes + 28 minutes is too much.

Can someone comment on the optimal speed?

I've got a strong hit rate on CR but it takes me about 2:30. Any faster and I'll lose comprehension, but 1:00 on SC seems really short.

Any thoughts?

[StaceyKoprince]

I generally use:

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
Quant - about 2m; max of 2.5m

Most passages lately have been 3 short and 1 long. Most have 1 general question and either 2 (short) or 3 (long) specific questions. So that works out to about 75m. It's tight of course - this test is just like that!

It's okay to go to 2.5m sometimes on CR as long as you're saving time on some others - the 2m thing is an average, not an absolute. If you are averaging 2.5m, then you have to ask yourself: what is that costing me elsewhere in the section? Everything comes with a trade-off; is that trade-off worth it?

For most people, if they find themselves behind on a test like this one, they don't just make a random guess in 5 seconds to catch up, and they don't just wait until the end of the section to run out of time. Rather, they try to work a little faster - 15 to 30sec - on questions they think are "easy." The problem? First, that increases the chances that you'll make a careless mistake. Second, you're probably right that the problem is "easy" for you, so now you're more likely to make a mistake on a question that you really should get right. Third, you're usually right that the problem is easier in general - a lower-rated problem - so now you're more likely to get a lower-ranked question wrong. Those are big problems. That trade-off is NOT worth it.

So what's the situation with you? Go take a look at your last practice test and figure out what that time is costing you elsewhere. Then come back and let us know.

(Also: how long have you been practicing CR? Where are you in the course? It might be that you just haven't done enough yet!)

Finally, are you actually studying how to work more efficiently on CR? When you finish a set of CR questions, do you go back over them while trying to find specific instances in which you could have saved 10 seconds or so? (Hmm. I didn't need to use so many words to write down that info. I could have abbreviated more heavily and still remembered what I was writing. Etc.)

[doclkk]

I generally use:

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
Quant - about 2m; max of 2.5m

Most passages lately have been 3 short and 1 long. Most have 1 general question and either 2 (short) or 3 (long) specific questions. So that works out to about 75m. It's tight of course - this test is just like that!

It's okay to go to 2.5m sometimes on CR as long as you're saving time on some others - the 2m thing is an average, not an absolute. If you are averaging 2.5m, then you have to ask yourself: what is that costing me elsewhere in the section? Everything comes with a trade-off; is that trade-off worth it?

For most people, if they find themselves behind on a test like this one, they don't just make a random guess in 5 seconds to catch up, and they don't just wait until the end of the section to run out of time. Rather, they try to work a little faster - 15 to 30sec - on questions they think are "easy." The problem? First, that increases the chances that you'll make a careless mistake. Second, you're probably right that the problem is "easy" for you, so now you're more likely to make a mistake on a question that you really should get right. Third, you're usually right that the problem is easier in general - a lower-rated problem - so now you're more likely to get a lower-ranked question wrong. Those are big problems. That trade-off is NOT worth it.

So what's the situation with you? Go take a look at your last practice test and figure out what that time is costing you elsewhere. Then come back and let us know.

(Also: how long have you been practicing CR? Where are you in the course? It might be that you just haven't done enough yet!)

Finally, are you actually studying how to work more efficiently on CR? When you finish a set of CR questions, do you go back over them while trying to find specific instances in which you could have saved 10 seconds or so? (Hmm. I didn't need to use so many words to write down that info. I could have abbreviated more heavily and still remembered what I was writing. Etc.)

Hi Stacey:

I finished the course. My test is next week. It really depends on the CR. I've had my final consultation with my instructor and I have a high payoff right for CR. When I T diagram, I do really well. 60+ percent and I'm getting 730 - 750 problems wrong 710 problems right. My assessment report based on the last 3 exams indicate bold faced CR and reading comp take me the longest. From Gmat prep, I've discovered that its Science passages that take me longest because I come from a liberal arts background and anything remotely related to social sciences / economics / i typically do ok with but if its about the earth's crust or the moon's mantle then at that point I'm hoping for a short passage and 1/3 but saving time on that passage seems futile because its only saving a minute because you should only spend 3 minutes reading - so tossing out one question saves only a minute?

I've done my reports and I have high payoff rates but I'm still deciding what to throw away. In math, I know to throw away long paragraphed WT problems so that's bank 2 minutes for 30 seconds more on 4 problems - i'll take it but verbal identifying is difficult.

For Math, you allude to this problem on beatthegmat.com of spending more time on PS and then of course getting DS wrong. I'm typically right about 74:45 when I finish math, with sometimes last question 30 seconds left - some division left to do and don't want to risk penalty so I'll think about it and do a 50/50 guess.

Anyway - that's a bit about me. Any timing help would be great about what to throw away. What about just throwing away really long bold faced questions?

I've exhausted all of V / Q and most of 11th, GMAT prep and most other stuff.

[StaceyKoprince]

Most people see one bold-faced question, max, on the test. I'm okay with assuming you'll make an educated guess from the start.

Note: that doesn't mean literally "throwing it away" - you still read and try to narrow down your answers. But you NEVER go over time on a question like this and you maybe even pick up a little time - maybe 1:30 instead of 2. Basically, you never let it hurt you (and it obviously hurts you if you spend too much time). Just do what you can in 1:30 to 2, pick, and move on.

For science RC, as soon as you see that, go into "high-level skim mode" (this is not for everyone reading; just for people who really struggle with science). Get the main idea + point of each paragraph. Dumb it down for yourself. Skim the detail even more than you usually do. Actually go a bit faster than you normally would.

Now, you can answer the "main idea" question and you can even narrow down some answers on the specific questions. You can also decide, when you see a specific question: is there an easy keyword or way for me to find where I should be looking in the passage? Then, again, let me try before I make a guess. Maybe I can't understand everything, but maybe I can get what I need from this one sentence or paragraph to answer this question. I'm supposed to take 1.5 to 2m on specific detail questions and I could even take just a bit longer, if I went faster at the beginning and skimmed more than I normally do. And then there will probably be another specific idea question where you think: yeah, I have no idea where to start with that one. Read the answers quickly and see if anything contradicts or doesn't make sense with the main idea, pick, and move on.

And even if I don't feel comfortable with anything more than the main idea question - well, I've got that one, at least. I can narrow down some choices on others and make educated guesses. And then I can move on and pick things up again on other questions.

Just be careful about the quant timing. It's not a huge penalty to get just the last one wrong, but if you get a bit more behind and we're talking 3 or 4 questions, that will bring your score down.

The general rule is that we don't EVER want to go more than about 30 seconds over the average timing expected for a problem of a certain type. That's the point at which the extra time spent is going to come back to hurt you elsewhere (and, if you need that much time, chances are you don't really know how to do the problem anyway). So practice holding yourself to that - just keep reminding yourself: I'm supposed to get a lot wrong and there's a 25% chance that the question is an experimental and doesn't even count anyway!