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Time factor in verbal

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Time factor in verbal

by gmatplayer » Fri Jun 19, 2009 8:08 am
This question is a particularly about timing on verbal section. Through my (and probably most of yours) preparation I found that time is very important factor in GMAT. Almost anybody can solve these questions if sufficient time is given. So my question is how some test taker finish verbal section with 30-35 min in spare (WOW)? That is almost 1 min per question.

I know they are 760+ guys and surely top in 1%. But what exactly makes them so sure about answers with such a short time. Lets say, if I am on 30th question and I have 40-45 min left, I would really slow down and use all 75 min and may be take 5 min per remaining question.

When I first read about person finished 35 min before, I honestly thought he/she was boasting or exaggerating. But it does not seem very rare if I read some posts from "I just beat GMAT!"

I would really love to hear from experts about it. If they can let us know the time in min (or in seconds!) for each of three types in Verbal would be great. At least I can try to use proportionate time in my preparation.

Thanks & wow again!
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by aj5105 » Sun Jun 21, 2009 10:27 am
Can any of the verbal experts (high scorers) answer please?
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by 4seasoncentre » Sun Jun 21, 2009 10:41 am
Most test takers like to go as quickly as possible in the beginning out of fear that we are going to run out of time, and then slow down toward the end. However verbal is very different from Quant in the sense that you can't really check your calculations or anything. There's only so much time you can spend.

I think I had maybe 10 minutes to spare at the end, and i did drag out those last questions, but there's no point in reading the question over and over again just to run out the clock.
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by DanaJ » Sun Jun 21, 2009 11:25 am
I'm no verbal expert, but I did score a decent 47 on the real thing, so maybe my personal opinion will help you guys.

I generally had something like 20-25 minutes to spare at the end of tests taken at home. There are several reasons for this, I believe.

First of all, it's your general fluency in reading in English. If you are a native speaker, then this won't be a problem, since you've been reading English tests your whole life. But if you're not, it all comes down to practice. The GMAT was not the first test of English I had taken: my first was the Cambridge Certificate of Advanced English (CAE), about three years back. I studied for this test for about a year, but I must say that my studies were a lot less concentrated than for the GMAT. The CAE has 5 sections: Reading, Writing, Use of English, Speaking and Listening. The reading bit of it was... a lot harder than RC passages in the GMAT, i.e. they were about 350 words in length and you got two such passages, with around 15 questions each. My strategy was to practice a lot, using paper tests from various prep companies. After 40 or so tests, Reading was no longer a challenge for me: I'd learned how to read really fast and most importantly CRITICALLY.

This brings us to the second reason I managed to finish verbal with so much time left: while reading, I made an effort to formulate my very own questions inside my head, i.e. create some expectations. Most of the time I'd get it right (at least for the CR). The critical reading part is also extremely helpful when you try to follow the structure of a text. Usually - who am I kidding? ALL OF THE TIME! - GMAT texts are greatly written, with a clear argument and structure. You can practically smell the premises, conclusions and counter arguments! You'll most often see what I call land posts or connectors that introduce the various parts of a text.

Third, SC is all about two things: your grammar and your understanding of different types of errors tested on the GMAT. If your grammar is lacking, then go back to basics - especially if it's those darn blasted idioms! There's no other way around... Besides, this is going to be extremely helpful later on in life as well! After I realized that I should be looking for parallelisms, subject-verb and times, my hit rate in SC rose dramatically. You need to study the different types of problems that often come up on the GMAT. I found the Kaplan program particularly convincing with this one, but I admit I haven't tried the MGMAT SC guide that everyone holds in such high esteem.

On test day, I actually forced myself to tone it down a bit, but still finished like 5 minutes ahead of time.... Anyway, best of luck with everything!
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by gmatplayer » Sun Jun 21, 2009 11:46 am
Thanks for your answer. So basically it all came to fluency in english & some time management. I can beat later through practice but the former is problem. As Dana said, English is not my first language. Although I have taken GRE and finished my masters in USA I am still not so good in english (not proud of that).

But I felt lot confident when I saw my Verbal score of 29 recently from MGMAT-1. Because I was very depressed about how I will do. With excellent analysis from MGMAT test plus my own statistical analysis (which is very similar to MGMAT) I can narrow down my weak (& strong) areas and work more efficiently.
This is fantastic forum!
Thanks again
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by myohmy » Sun Jun 21, 2009 12:50 pm
Like Dana, I scored a 47V with 35 minutes to spare and hopefully I can answer some of your questions.

As she said, a lot of it is English fluency. If you are not fluent in English, you need to be regularly reading the WSJ, FT, Economist, literature, etc. It's also a speed reading skill - I've always read quickly, so I was never worried about time on RC passages (I usually finished the Harry Potter books in 3-4 hours).

In addition, work speed. I take tests quickly, and I always have. I am usually the first or second person done. I work quickly in general. It doesn't mean I'm any smarter, I just tend to do things at a quicker pace than most people, which helped with GMAT timing.

It's also practice - SC is all about knowing the types of tricks they're going to throw at you (misplaced modifiers, agreement errors, etc.) and looking for those first.

I agree though - if you have the extra time, you might as well take it. But V is not like Q -- there's no real way to "double check" your answer besides going back and rereading the passage in RC. So once you pick an answer you can spend time justifying it, or reread the answer choices again, but there's no way to make sure it's correct.

I wish I could be more helpful, but honestly, I felt like I was going crazy during the verbal section of my test - I felt like my eyes were literally zeroing in on the correct answer. I honestly felt like I was screwing everything up because the questions seemed way too easy. I don't think anyone's goal should be to finish V (or Q) with time to spare, rather, do what works for YOU, so long as you finish on top. There are no bonus points for finishing early!
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