I'm always short of time!

[vivek1110]

I'm in quite a pickle at this point of time, I've done all the manhattan books for CR, SC & RC, and well, those books are really good. My skill at solving a verbal problem has certainly improved over time. I've still got a problem though - I seem to be really short on time. Most of the strategies outlined by the MGMAT books involve a lot of note making and I feel that it kind of slows me down. So while I'm doing the verbal section on a practice exam, I would have, say, 7 minutes left and still about 13 questions to go, but the upside is, I would've got almost all the questions right until that point. I end up fretting and getting most of the last 13 wrong, I really need some help with my timing, is there anything I can do to consciously improve my timing? Do all of you take notes while doing the RC's & CR?

[papgust]

One effective way to improve timing is by setting a timer while you practice questions. You should follow strict time limits for eqch question type (SC, RC, CR).

SC - 1.5 min
CR - 2 min
RC - 3 min (Passage) + 1.5 min (Questions)

Then, take many practice tests to get used to timed conditions. This will eventually help you tackle timing problems.

[vivek1110]

RC - 3 min (Passage) + 1.5 min (Questions)

Wow 3 minutes for the passage? I take at least 5-6 minutes on the passage, and do the questions in about a minute each. I guess I need to practice a lot of reading!

[gmatninja]

It usually is a good idea to take notes of some sort on RC and CR, but you might want to make sure that you're taking the right notes. You really don't need to write down every little detail, especially on RC... it's possible that you're writing down way too much information. All you really need to do on RC is make sure that you're keeping track of the main idea of the passage as a whole. If you find yourself reading something over and over on an RC passage, you might be wasting time.

I have no idea whether any of this applies to you, but it might be possible for you to reduce the amount of time you spend on passages without hurting your accuracy at all.