Pacing on the Verbal Section

This topic has expert replies
Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts
Posts: 36
Joined: Mon Jul 06, 2015 5:27 pm

Pacing on the Verbal Section

by sgraves » Tue Jul 05, 2016 3:29 am
I'm in the process of bulding my GMAT gameplan as I prepare to take the exam in a little over two weeks. I'm having a hard time figuring out which questions to dump on the Verbal section. I feel like it is easier to spot harder questions in the quant section because their are certain topics we know are a weakness or not spending time to solve. With Verbal I feel as though no matter how hard a question you can reason and eliminate answers, which takes time rather than looking at a question and knowing its not worth it, guessing and moving on.

User avatar
Legendary Member
Posts: 2663
Joined: Wed Jan 14, 2015 8:25 am
Location: Boston, MA
Thanked: 1153 times
Followed by:128 members
GMAT Score:770

by DavidG@VeritasPrep » Tue Jul 05, 2016 4:21 am
sgraves wrote:I'm in the process of bulding my GMAT gameplan as I prepare to take the exam in a little over two weeks. I'm having a hard time figuring out which questions to dump on the Verbal section. I feel like it is easier to spot harder questions in the quant section because their are certain topics we know are a weakness or not spending time to solve. With Verbal I feel as though no matter how hard a question you can reason and eliminate answers, which takes time rather than looking at a question and knowing its not worth it, guessing and moving on.
Yeah, verbal is a different beast than quant. Whereas on quant, you can have a somewhat fixed strategy in terms of the number of questions you plan to guess on and what types of questions are good candidates for guesses, you'll need a bit more flexibility for verbal, and this flexibility is best cultivated by taking regular practice tests. The good news is that timing on verbal tends, in general, to be less of an issue than timing on quant. You'll get a sense from your practice tests of whether you'll even need to budget some guesses in. You may not. So that's the first assessment: when you take a practice exam, how close are you to finishing the verbal section when time expires?
Veritas Prep | GMAT Instructor

Veritas Prep Reviews
Save $100 off any live Veritas Prep GMAT Course

Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts
Posts: 36
Joined: Mon Jul 06, 2015 5:27 pm

by sgraves » Tue Jul 05, 2016 5:44 am
Typically it isn't an issue. The last test I took I was a little behind so I probably shouldn't be too alarmed. I have one last CAT before test day so I will see how the timing goes on that one.

GMAT/MBA Expert

User avatar
Elite Legendary Member
Posts: 10392
Joined: Sun Jun 23, 2013 6:38 pm
Location: Palo Alto, CA
Thanked: 2867 times
Followed by:511 members
GMAT Score:800

by [email protected] » Tue Jul 05, 2016 8:34 am
Hi sgraves,

Even if you don't have a pacing issue in the Verbal section, dumping a tough Verbal question can still provide you with some benefits (you won't get mentally 'bogged down' in it, so you can avoid the frustration and you won't expend a bunch of energy on it, so you can spend that energy on other questions). If you're looking for a couple of questions to dump, then keep an eye out for "EXCEPT" questions and tough Inference questions (although not all inference questions are that difficult, you will likely see 1-2 on Test Day that are).

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich
Contact Rich at [email protected]
Image