Need tips to improve speed

[SaGo]

I'm struggling with completing all questions in my practice tests. I typically end up with 10+ questions in the last 10mts of both verbal & quant and am not good at guessing under pressure.

Can someone suggest a good method to time myself in these tests?
Also, should i spend more time on earlier questions?

Thanks!

[AleksandrM]

Your problem might be lingering. In other words, you dwell too long on the problems that you cannot solve, instead of just trying to quickly eliminate at least some of the answer choices and narrowing down your chances to 33.33%.

Also, realize that there will always be problems that you cannot solve. There will also be problems that you can solve if you had 5 minutes to solve them. You don't have that luxury, so just get enough to eyeball the answer and move on. OR, create the 5 minutes you need by quickly moving through the problems you definitely know you cannot solve by eliminating enough questions and guessing, as I said in the last paragraph.

On data sufficiency make sure you are not SOLVING the problem. Instead, just determine whether there is enough information to answer the question.

On the verbal part, you might be reading too much. Remember that most of the information on the reading comprehension questions will not be needed to answer the questions. Read for overall content and to become familiar with where the vital details are in the passage.

For critical reasoning, make sure you are evaluating what you are reading as you read it instead of reading it and re-reading it to evaluate.

For sentence correction, make sure you know the common patterns tested for COLD. This will make it easier for you to recognize what you need to look for. It also helps to know basic rules of English grammar.

Finally, just practice, practice, and more practice. Do whole exams, do single sections, do a set of 10 or 20 problems.. TIMED. I don't suggest doing this all the time. You need to take your time with most problems while you are studying from your books, flashcards, this site, etc... in order to learn patterns, ways to solve, etc. However, a couple of times a week you should do verbal and quant questions under timed conditions, just to simulate the pressure of a clock ticking ticking ticking.

Good luck.

[zacharyz]

I find the suggestion regarding Data Sufficiency to be a double-edged sword.

For timing, I agree, you do not need to find exactly that x = 5 or whatever, but you have to work the problem until you are sure that there will be a unique answer.

I cautious this because some questions, especially as they get harder in nature, might look like they have the necessary information. You do still have to work the problem until you are confident of this.

For example, you know that you need as many equations as you have variables. However, they need to be 'linearly independent.' So, you could run into a problem that x = 5 or -3...

For time, you can take the risk that it is not a trick question...

[Stuart@KaplanGMAT]

In some ways, Data Sufficiency is like chess.

A novice chess player looks at the board and thinks, "let's move this piece and see what happens".

A grandmaster chess player looks at the board and thinks "if I move this piece, here's what will happen.. and then this will happen.. and then this will happen... and so on...".

In fact, of measure of how good a chess player one is is how many moves ahead one can foresee.

A novice at DS also looks at a statement and says "let me try this calcluation and see what happens". A grandmaster at DS considers the situation carefully and projects how to (or whether it's possible to) use the information at hand to answer the question.

In fact, a measure of how good a DS "player" one is is how many calculations ahead one can foresee.

Now, just like chess, one does not become a DS grandmaster overnight. One starts by actually making the moves and seeing what happens - hey, that's what practice is all about. However, everyone's eventual goal should be to answer the questions without doing all the work.

So, after you do a DS question, whether you get it right or wrong, you should always review it and ask yourself "did I do the minimum work possible to answer this question?" If the answer is "no", then ask "at what point should I have known that the statement was or wasn't insufficient and stopped working?" The purpose of doing so is so that the next time you see a similar question (yay! for standardized tests, on which we know that new questions will be just like old ones), you won't do that extra step. And hey, maybe the next time after that you'll do it in two fewer steps.

Remember: the only score that matters is the one you get on Test Day. The whole purpose of practice is to learn from your mistakes (and "mistake" doesn't just involve accuracy, it also involves efficiency) and get better as you go.

[lunarpower]

In some ways, Data Sufficiency is like chess.

...

A novice at DS also looks at a statement and says "let me try this calcluation and see what happens". A grandmaster at DS considers the situation carefully and projects how to (or whether it's possible to) use the information at hand to answer the question.

In fact, a measure of how good a DS "player" one is is how many calculations ahead one can foresee.

i like this analogy, and may even lift it for use in my own instruction (with all due credit where it belongs, of course).

HOWEVER,

you CANNOT lose sight of the fact that everything on the gmat is done within strict time constraints.
therefore, if you are anything but a 'grandmaster' of data sufficiency already (i.e., you are consistently scoring 700+ on your practice tests, and you're getting at least half of the problems correct on the very last page of the OG data sufficiency section), you should NOT let time waste away while you squint at the problem and try to think several moves ahead of time.

here's the optimal process:
* examine the problem
* look for SIGNALS that tell you what you should do (for instance, if you see facts or questions about divisibility, then you should take this as a signal that you should use prime factorizations)
* think AS MANY moves ahead as you can in a few seconds
* start working on the problem immediately

the foregoing method is the best thing you can do, because the primary driving factor behind most students' inability to finish the test is indecision. i.e., students just sit there staring at the test, not knowing quite what to do, and find all of a sudden that a minute has already passed and they haven't even started the problem yet. DO NOT STARE AT PROBLEMS; instead, go for it right away with the first legitimate approach that comes to mind.

in other words, the difference is that chess grandmasters have the luxury of being able to stare at the board for minutes, and even hours, if necessary. the gmat is more like the speed chess played by hustlers in city parks; after a very short period of time, you have to stop deliberating and make a decision. NEVER forget this; delays are your worst enemy on this test, especially because the problems adapt very quickly to your ability level (and so you won't get a complement of "easy" questions on which to make up the lost time).

[ptgbeauregard]

Without being too redundant, I think the more you practice the more comfortable you will become in your own skin. This means that you will be able to realize what questions are worth spending your time on. If I see a really difficult question that I am not comfortable with, I blast through it, making an educated guess that looks right. That way I can spend the extra 30-45 second on a question where the will help, whether it be working it out or double-checking an answer.

There is no question worth spending more than 3 minutes on, in my opinion. Even if you get it right, you have mortgaged the rest of your time and will pay a heavy penalty for it.

[gmat740]

https://www.beatthegmat.com/speed-calcul ... 33641.html


I have posted some methods for making fast calculations, which might be of great use for GMAT