BREAKING: Target Test Prep releases Brand New 2026 On Demand GMAT prep course

Redeem

(update#2) - Verbal Strategy I used b/c slow reader (RC)

This topic has expert replies
Post new topic Post Reply
Previous Topic Next Topic
Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts
Posts: 54
Joined: Sat May 15, 2010 10:08 am
Location: Toronto
Thanked: 6 times

(update#2) - Verbal Strategy I used b/c slow reader (RC)

by The Duke » Thu Jul 29, 2010 9:59 am
Hello,

I'm hopeing someone can assist me if this is a strategy I should undertake. (Verbal Section)

Background on me:
- I am a very slow reader (always have) and that wont change.
- Test in about 10 days.

I just took a Manhattan prep exam... Verbal 20 (21%)

However, on the Verbal section... I am going much too slow and I guessed on the final 10 questions (blindly). My estimated percentile before all the guessing was at 66%. The final 10 questions I got wrong taking the percentile from 66% to 21%.

My question is about a strategy I plan on doing in my next Manhattan GMAT test. (and using it on the actual)

I am thinking about sacrificing the 3rd set of Reading Comprehension Questions (whether its 3 or 4 questions - obviously unknown which one) .... and blindly guessing on those... so I gain about 8-9mins for the rest of my remaining verbal section. Typically, I dont perform well on the RC questions in the 3rd set anyways. (Usually 1/3 or 1/4 correct), so I think banking this extra time will allow me to perform much better on the backend, and in turn level my score intead of dramatically dropping it in the final questions.

In addition... I will perform the 4th RC set regularly, since I have the extra time.

This is a personal stratagy I'm refering to obviously, due to me being a very slow reader.

Thoughts on score impact?
Last edited by The Duke on Sun Aug 01, 2010 10:30 am, edited 4 times in total.
Top
Source: — GMAT Strategy |
Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts
Posts: 54
Joined: Sat May 15, 2010 10:08 am
Location: Toronto
Thanked: 6 times

by The Duke » Fri Jul 30, 2010 9:34 am
#2 Manhattan GMAT test results

The 3rd Middle Passage occured at Question 23 (23, 24, 25) and I blindly guessed all 3 in under 24seconds total.
(8 seconds/question)

Based on the scoring percentile ... I was at 78% prior to Question 23.

Finished at 72% (after guessing the final 3 questions essentially) --- V32

Essentially I'm glad that using this strategy worked on this 2nd test, as it kept my Verbal score from dropping dramatically over the last 8-10 questions.

Test #1 Verbal Score 20 (21%)

Using this Verbal strategy:
Test #2 Verbal Score 34 (72%)

*No extra study between test both Manhatten GMAT prep test.*
*Test taken in back 2 back days*

Will try again and see my results on Test #3... but thats a massive increase on scoring.

Im posting this here, so that perhaps others in my position (slow readers & struggle with RC), can see if utilizing this strategy will help their own personal score positively.
Top
Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts
Posts: 55
Joined: Tue Jul 27, 2010 8:37 pm
Thanked: 11 times

by KrazyKarl » Sat Jul 31, 2010 4:16 pm
Wow, that's crazy that it could make such a huge difference but maybe you're on to something. I'd have a hard time just totally guessing, but it sounds like you have a huge penalty for not finishing all the question so if it saves you that much time it might actually be a really smart thing for you to do. Let us know how test #3 goes.
Top
Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts
Posts: 54
Joined: Sat May 15, 2010 10:08 am
Location: Toronto
Thanked: 6 times

by The Duke » Sun Aug 01, 2010 10:24 am
Manhattan GMAT Test 3

*using same testing conditions (no AWA on each of these 3 prep Test)

Using no strategy
Test #1 Verbal Score 20 (21%)

Using this Verbal strategy:
Test #2 Verbal Score 34 (72%)
Test #3 Verbal Score 32 (67%)

So the Verbal Score held up reasonably on my 3rd test.

Notes - My 3rd Passage occured at Questions 20,21,22 (all guesses and not reading passage at all). Scarificing the 3 questions did lower my score during the middle of the test.... but since I had enough time to complete my CR & SC confidently I did well on the back end of the test (only rushed the last 2 questions). Also I performed well on the 4th RC passage since I knew I had the extra time to get them right.

My percentile before the 3rd Passage (up to question 19) was 62% ... it dropped due to me sacificing the 3rd Passage... but I was able to bring the score back to 69% at Question 39... guessed the final 2.. for a final score of 67%

I think the increased confidence is allowing me to relax more on the Verbal Section as well. My Quant section has always been my stronger section.

Test #4 I will do AWA + Quant + Verb
Top
User avatar
Legendary Member
Posts: 1893
Joined: Sun May 30, 2010 11:48 pm
Thanked: 215 times
Followed by:7 members

by kvcpk » Sun Aug 01, 2010 11:39 am
Sounds like an interesting strategy.. Keep them coming :)
Top
Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts
Posts: 56
Joined: Wed Jan 07, 2009 10:59 am
Location: New York City
Thanked: 2 times

by bond0007 » Sun Aug 01, 2010 5:37 pm
very interesting indeed. Im a lot like you, i had to guess on my last 10 verbal on the practice test. So please keep updating this thread!
Top
Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts
Posts: 54
Joined: Sat May 15, 2010 10:08 am
Location: Toronto
Thanked: 6 times

by The Duke » Sun Aug 01, 2010 7:10 pm
Thanks guys for the positive feedback.

Personally I think im an ideal candidate for this type of strategy.

* Very slow reader (so RC questions take alot longer then the avg test taker)
* Typically perform average on RC under regular conditions
* Can spend more time on CR & SC (throughout test) knowing I have extra time to reason the correct answer.
* Possibly can do better on the 1st, 2nd, and optional 4th RC passages (knowing I dont have to rush & can better reason the anwsers)

The way I reason my strategy is this way.

I understand that my weakness is going to be time and the time devoted to Reading Comprehension. At best, I'm only average on Reading Comprehension while taking alot (too much) time on it. I'm better on Critical Reasoning questions (when I have time to reason the answer), so I need to optimize the value of these CR questions, by at a minimum, actually answering all them under regular conditions (not being forced to blind guess these ones). The added benefit is that my SC abilities seem to be increasing since I have more time... and thats important since typically you get the most SC questions.

All in all.... thus far... this strategy seems to be able to maximize my best parts (CR and SC) when I get the "extra" time. It also minimizes my RC weakness, which I'm only average at any way.
Top
User avatar
Legendary Member
Posts: 1460
Joined: Tue Dec 29, 2009 1:28 am
Thanked: 135 times
Followed by:7 members

by selango » Sun Aug 01, 2010 8:04 pm
...
Last edited by selango on Wed Aug 04, 2010 8:23 pm, edited 1 time in total.
--Anand--
Top
User avatar
Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts
Posts: 318
Joined: Mon Jul 13, 2009 3:55 am
Thanked: 12 times

by nikhilkatira » Mon Aug 02, 2010 5:45 am
selango wrote:Yes this is the good strategy..

When you guess 1st and 2nd question of your 3rd RC.....possibility of getting both questions wrong is high..

So the 3rd question will surely be easy or very easy ( depends on luck or your performance of past 20-23 questions )

my suggestion is just try skimming the passage after reading the 3rd question...who knows the right answer may click immediately (with high probability )..


P.S. Unlike MGMAT , GMAT may punish harshly for continuous wrong answers.
Best,
Nikhil H. Katira
Top
Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts
Posts: 54
Joined: Sat May 15, 2010 10:08 am
Location: Toronto
Thanked: 6 times

by The Duke » Mon Aug 02, 2010 7:12 am
nikhilkatira wrote:
selango wrote:
P.S. Unlike MGMAT , GMAT may punish harshly for continuous wrong answers.
This is actually the one thing I'm wondering also.

But for me, my alternative is that, I read the passage (take too much time), and still normally go 1/3 anyways, and dont have alot of time to finish the remaining 15 questions. Guessing about half of the remaining ones due to time limitations.

Also the 1st question after the 3rd passage (non RC), I spend a lil bit more time, making sure I definitely get that one right.

I just hate spending all this time (typically close to 7-8mins) on RC and still only going 1/3 on the questions. I might as well take my chances with 3 quick guesses... and use the 7-8mins to try and help out my other sections (where I'm better).

Edit - I have thought about doing... (no reading passage), 2 quick question guesses, followed by reading the 3rd question and scanning the passage, and taking a lil bit more of an educated guess (if the question was more general-global).
Top
Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts
Posts: 54
Joined: Sat May 15, 2010 10:08 am
Location: Toronto
Thanked: 6 times

by The Duke » Tue Aug 03, 2010 10:45 am
Using no strategy
Test #1 Verbal Score 20 (21%)

Using this Verbal strategy:
Test #2 Verbal Score 34 (72%)
Test #3 Verbal Score 32 (67%)

Test #4 (with AWA included) Verbal Score 31 (62%).

Test #4 I used the method of trying to scan the passage for correct answers, and I got all 3 wrong... so essentially wasted my time (2mins).... the payoff for me for scanning obviously did not help.

I will try the method on the GMAT prep in 2 days... however I have done them both before about 5 weeks ago... so my results will be slightly skewed upwards. I want to do this method to see if there is a high penalty for missing 3 or 4 in a row based on GMAT prep.
Top

GMAT/MBA Expert

User avatar
GMAT Instructor
Posts: 2228
Joined: Wed Dec 27, 2006 3:28 pm
Location: Montreal, Canada
Thanked: 639 times
Followed by:694 members
GMAT Score:780

by Stacey Koprince » Wed Aug 04, 2010 3:06 pm
Received a PM asking me to reply.

First, let me address this:
When you guess 1st and 2nd question of your 3rd RC.....possibility of getting both questions wrong is high..

So the 3rd question will surely be easy or very easy ( depends on luck or your performance of past 20-23 questions )
This is inaccurate. The three (or four) questions are chosen at the point that you are given the passage in the first place. In other words, RC is not adaptive within one passage.

Also:
Unlike MGMAT , GMAT may punish harshly for continuous wrong answers.
We both punish harshly for strings of wrong answers. Did you see upthread where The Duke described getting 10 in a row wrong and dropping 40 percentile points? The longer the string, the larger the "punishment" - only 3 in a row wrong is not totally terrible.

Okay, The Duke's strategy is working for (his? her?) situation because of the severe timing problems - missing 10 questions in a row at the end is a HUGE drop, as you noticed. Given the limited amount of time for this student (test in 10 days), the general weakness in RC, and the very severe timing issue, this is an acceptable strategy. You're doing what you can do to make sure your score doesn't bomb on the test, basically.

BUT, for others reading this, this is not how you are going to maximize your score. This is really only to prevent your score from completely tanking. If that's acceptable to you, great (and I'm not being flippant - not everyone wants / needs a 700 on this test). If you're looking to maximize your score, and in particular if you want a 700+ score, this is not the strategy for you. :)

Good luck on test day!
Please note: I do not use the Private Messaging system! I will not see any PMs that you send to me!!

Stacey Koprince
GMAT Instructor
Director of Online Community
Manhattan GMAT

Contributor to Beat The GMAT!

Learn more about me
Top
Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts
Posts: 54
Joined: Sat May 15, 2010 10:08 am
Location: Toronto
Thanked: 6 times

by The Duke » Wed Aug 04, 2010 5:48 pm
Hi Stacey,

Thanks for the response here.

I am definitely not advocating this strategy for others... I'm just saying that thus far its a strategy that I can undertake due to my huge timing weakness (and general struggle with RC compared with other Verbal Questions)... and since I'm taking the actual test this coming week.

I'm reasonably strong in Quants ... averaging 43-44 in Manhattan Prep test, so that is helping my score as well.

I'm doing the actual test this coming week, after 8 weeks of total study.

Typically I'm over 80% Percentille before the 3rd passage (but I've been able to achieve that score by taking extra time to answer the first 24ish questions)... for that reason I'm simply forced to guess the 3rd or 4th passage for timing issues.

I understand my limitations and I'm just maximizing the mark I hope to achieve on test day (by minimizing the % drop from questions 25-41).
Top
Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts
Posts: 54
Joined: Sat May 15, 2010 10:08 am
Location: Toronto
Thanked: 6 times

by The Duke » Thu Aug 05, 2010 7:32 am
Incase anyone wanted to know:

GMAT Prep

Quant 43
Verbal 35
Total 640

3rd passage went (1/4) with the blind guesses... and got 9 right of the remaining 15 questions afterwards, which included going 1/3 on the final passage (that I read and answered as best I could taking sufficent time).

Theres one thing that qwerked my brain after the test. I'm wondering which is better for me: Guess on 3rd passage or guess on 4th passage?

My performance up to the 3rd passgae is typically pretty good. So one would think that harder RC questions will come in that 3rd passage (ones I prolly wont get right), so its better to take my guesses there, rather then in the 4th passage.
Top

GMAT/MBA Expert

User avatar
GMAT Instructor
Posts: 2228
Joined: Wed Dec 27, 2006 3:28 pm
Location: Montreal, Canada
Thanked: 639 times
Followed by:694 members
GMAT Score:780

by Stacey Koprince » Mon Aug 09, 2010 11:20 am
I would go for 3rd rather than 4th for one main reason: the closer you get to the end, the more damaging it can be to have 3+ questions wrong in a row (less time to recover).

Also, for those just reading this, read what we wrote above. The Duke is not advocating this method for others in general (and neither am I). It just happens to be the best strategy right now for The Duke's very specific situation.
Please note: I do not use the Private Messaging system! I will not see any PMs that you send to me!!

Stacey Koprince
GMAT Instructor
Director of Online Community
Manhattan GMAT

Contributor to Beat The GMAT!

Learn more about me
Top
Post new topic Post Reply
• Page 1 of 1