How do you time yourself in RC?

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Arsene Lupin: Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts; Posts: 78; Joined: Mon Aug 11, 2008 8:44 am; Thanked: 3 times; GMAT Score:690

by Arsene Lupin » Thu Jun 11, 2009 3:01 am

For SC questions, I give myself 1.4 minutes/question, and 2 minutes for all other questions: CR, PS and DS.

With RC, it seems a bit more confusing since most of the time is spent on the passage and not the questions.

So far I'm also giving myself 2 minutes/questions. I take like 4 passages from OG, and give myself 2 minutes for each questions in there. But this seems to be a bit easy as it gives me so much time, since OG seems to put more questions than normal on a single passage. I'm hitting almost 100% correct (This might also be due to being in the early easy questions, not sure)

Either way, what is your personal timing strategy when practicing with RC?

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Source: Beat The GMAT — Reading Comprehension | Thu Jun 11, 2009 3:01 am

ket: Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts; Posts: 93; Joined: Sun Mar 15, 2009 9:07 am; Thanked: 7 times

by ket » Mon Jun 15, 2009 9:25 pm

I wanted to start out the same thread...

I am having the same questions

OK. Well Manhattan (they have ' OG stopwatch' that helps you with timing) says this:

"120 seconds per question for all question types but Sentence Correction.
90 seconds per question for Sentence Correction.

(Note that on the GMAT, Reading Comprehension questions will come in groups of 3 or 4. You should spend 3-4 minutes reading and understanding the passage, then about 60 seconds per question. This procedure results in 120 seconds per RC question, including the time for the passage.)"

I will try this approach now

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inmate: Junior | Next Rank: 30 Posts; Posts: 16; Joined: Tue Jun 08, 2010 12:09 am

by inmate » Tue Sep 28, 2010 7:33 pm

What do you use to time yourself?

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Alex_Knewton: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 15; Joined: Wed May 12, 2010 3:42 pmFollowed by: 2 members; Thanked: 3 times

by Alex_Knewton » Fri Oct 08, 2010 8:51 am

At Knewton, our policy on timing RC is as follows-

Spend 2-3 minutes on any passage- this includes both reading and making any notes you need to understand the structure and main ideas of the passage. A longer passage will take a bit longer, naturally.

Then spend 4-5 minutes on the set of questions (you can't know whether you'll get 3 or 4 questions beforehand, so this averages out to about 75-80 seconds per question)

This means spending 6-8 minutes on a passage in total.

Try these timing tips in practice:

-If you see a short passage (one-two paragraphs, 250-300 words or so), set a timer for 6 minutes and see if you can get through the passage and three questions in that time. If there are extra questions, use 75 seconds per question as a baseline for timing.
-With a long passage, (2-4 paragraphs, 350 words +) set a timer for 8 minutes and answer four questions. Again, use 80 seconds a question for any additional questions.

Best of luck! Remember, reading actively yet quickly always gives you more time to go back and find relevant details later!

Alex Sarlin
Verbal Lead
Knewton

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