A comprehensive solution to your timing problem in GMAT Verbal
Perhaps, the most common problem GMAT aspirants face is that they take more time than available to solve the questions. Only if they could solve the questions faster they would be done with the GMAT. This is what is called the “timing problem.”
This article aims to present a comprehensive solution to the timing problem.
To find a solution to the problem, we need to first understand the cause of this problem. So, here’s the question:
Why do you take more time per question than available on the GMAT?
The simple brief answer is that spending less time on the question decreases your chances of getting the question right. Do you agree?
So, you’re not spending more time ‘just for fun.’ You’re spending more time to increase your accuracy. This, of course, makes sense. This is a good use of time.
Naturally, the pertinent question is, “How can I reduce my time per question without reducing my accuracy?”
The answer is: by addressing the reasons for which you need more time on a question.
The reasons are primarily two:
- Process-level deficiencies
- Skill-level deficiencies
By correcting your process and improving your skills, you can solve your timing problem. There is no other way.
Is timing or speed your problem on the GMAT?
If yes, you’re not alone.
My students often ask me how they can solve their timing problem on the GMAT.
Here’s what I say:
For a patient, having a pimple on the face is a problem.
However, for a doctor, a pimple on the face is not a problem; it’s a symptom. The problem perhaps lies in impurities in the blood.
The doctor will try to treat the impurities; once the impurities go, so will the pimple.
People who consider the pimple their problem may want to treat it directly, perhaps by removing it with a plier. Of course, they don’t, since they know the consequences involved.
However, in the GMAT space, many people, in their efforts to directly solve the “timing” problem, resort to techniques and processes that worsen their problem.
We must understand that your speed or timing is a consequence of your skills and process.
Once you build your skills and follow the right process, your speed will automatically improve.
There is NO direct way to improve your speed. Remember, speed is not a skill; it’s a consequence of the skills.
Process-level Deficiencies
1. Rereading
Rereading can happen at the statement level. You read a statement, realize that you have not understood it, and so reread it.
Rereading can happen at the paragraph or the passage level too. You read a paragraph, realize that you have not understood it, and so reread it.
Naturally, reading something twice takes more time than reading something once. So, one way to reduce your time per question is to eliminate rereading as much as possible.
One way to reduce your time per question is to eliminate rereading as much as possible.
How can you eliminate rereading?
By reading things correctly the first time.
How can you read things correctly the first time?
To answer this question, let’s consider why you don’t understand something in one go. One contributing factor is that you read the thing faster than you should have. In other words, you needed more time to understand that statement than you spent.
The next question is: why did you spend less time than you needed to understand the statement?
Because you were not paying attention to whether you were understanding the statement. You continued to read the statement at your usual pace even though you were not understanding it.
However, there are statements that you need more time to understand. If you don’t spend the requisite time to understand those statements, you’ll need to reread them.
Rereading statements takes more time than reading them slowly the first time.
Thus, the way to read a statement, a paragraph, or any piece of writing is to read it at a pace at which you can understand it. This may mean slowing down to understand such statements. When you slow down, you understand the statements in one go. Thus, you save time that would have been spent on rereading.
So, what I am suggesting is
Slow down to save time
Please note:
- Rereading can happen not only at the passage level but also at the option level.
- Rereading can happen at the statement level as well as the paragraph level. Any rereading is bad, but rereading at the paragraph level is worse than reading at the sentence level.
2. Back-and-Forth between the options and the passage
Does it happen to you that for some options, you keep going back and forth between the option and the passage?
If it does happen, I hypothesize you did not understand the passage well the first time. Do you agree?
Why did you not understand the passage well the first time?
One reason is that you rushed through the passage, i.e., you spent less time than you needed to understand the passage.
The way to save time on questions is by eliminating this back-and-forth between the passage and the options. How to eliminate this back and forth? By reading the passage well the first time. And how do you do that? By spending the time you need to understand it. Not a second less.
If you try to save time in the passage by compromising your comprehension, you’ll eventually have to spend even more time on the options. Of course, in some questions, you can manage with a compromised comprehension. However, in others, you’ll go through this circus of back-and-forth.
Overall, if you pay attention, you’ll realize that this rushing through the passage leads to your taking more time to solve questions.
Again, the suggestion is the same:
Slow down to save time.
The correct process is:
Get it right the first time.
You don’t get things right the first time since you rush. That’s why you end up doing things the second time. That’s why you take more time than available on the GMAT.
3. Reading the entire sentence in one go
I have a question: should I the entire RC passage in one go? Or should I pause after each paragraph to comprehend its meaning before proceeding further?
Many people will rightly suggest taking a pause after each paragraph to comprehend its meaning before proceeding further.
Why not read the entire passage in one go? This must be a faster way to read than pausing after each paragraph.
Answer: My comprehension will suffer if I don’t take pauses. I may not be skilled enough (or comfortable enough with the passage) to understand the entire passage in one go. Taking pauses in between will help.
The principle is:
If I am not skilled enough to handle the entire thing in one go, it makes sense to break the thing into parts, understand one part at a time, and then combine the understanding of individual parts to understand the entire thing.
The thing, as mentioned in the above sentence, could be:
- A passage
- A paragraph
- A sentence
If ‘the thing’ is a paragraph, applying the above principle means NOT reading the entire paragraph in one go. The sensible strategy is to pause after every sentence and connect the sentence back to the previous sentences. That’s how you understand the paragraph, one sentence at a time.
If ‘the thing’ is a sentence, applying the above principle means NOT reading the entire sentence in one go. The sensible strategy is to pause after every few words and connect those words to the previously read part of the sentence. That’s how you understand the sentence, one part at a time.
Rarely do people follow this divide-and-rule principle for understanding individual sentences. As a result, as the sentences become more and more complex, their comprehension of sentences suffers. They don’t realize that reading the entire sentence in one go gives their brain more data than it can handle. Since the brain receives more information than it can handle, it does an erratic job at comprehending the sentence – sometimes, it’s right; other times, it’s not.
The way out is straightforward:
Read sentences part by part rather than in one go.
A common apprehension with doing this is that this will take time. Given that people are already struggling with timing, how does it make sense to adopt a process that will further slow them down?
It makes sense, as I have already highlighted above.
Slow down to save time.
Why does it make sense?
Because it will improve your comprehension. As a result, your accuracy and, thus, score will improve.
Secondly, it will eventually reduce the time you need by eliminating rereading. Think about it. Why do you need to reread? Because you didn’t understand the statement the first time. With this process, you will start understanding even complex statements the first time.
Thus, while it may seem that following this way of reading will slow you down, the eventual result will be the contrary. Your speed will increase because you will understand the statements the first time you read them.
Here’s a video that explains how to read sentences part by part.
4. Reading the entire paragraph in one go
Very commonly, people pause only at the end of a paragraph. Thus, as the complexity of the paragraphs increases, people end up rereading the paragraphs frequently or having deficient comprehension.
The way out is highlighted above: pausing after every sentence and connecting the sentence back to the previous sentences. This way, at any given time, you are connecting just one sentence with the context, a task much easier and thus much more likely to be successfully accomplished by the brain than connecting all the sentences of a paragraph together.
Can this divide-and-rule have a significant impact on your speed and accuracy?
Yes.
Let’s say you and I have the same skill-level w.r.t. carrying weights for a distance. We each can carry 50kgs at a time.
Suppose we each are given a task to carry a certain weight for a distance.
Task: 20kgs – Both of us can do the task easily.
Task: 40kgs – Both of us can do the task without much difficulty.
Task: 50kgs – Both of us can do the task by performing at the peak of our skills.
Task: 70kgs – You cannot do this task, but I can do it. Why? Not because I have more skills than you – I have the same skills. But because I have a process to break down the task into smaller parts and do one part at a time. For example, I’ll break the weight into two parts of 35kgs each and carry one part at a time. Of course, I’ll take more time to complete this task than for a task I don’t have to break down. However, I’ll complete the task, but you won’t – you will keep trying to lift 70kgs at a time, and you’ll fail every single time.
In summary, I can handle more complex tasks than you can, not because I have more skills but because I have a better process to handle complexity.
If you follow the abovementioned processes for reading sentences and paragraphs, not only will your accuracy improve, but your timing will also go down since the amount of rereading and the amount of time to solve questions will decrease.
5. Not paying attention to KEYWORDS and not identifying the exact REFERENCES
A typical process deficiency is that people ignore the keywords such as so, therefore, however, thus, although, since, but, etc. Paying attention to the keywords while reading a text is not a hack; it’s an essential aspect of comprehension.
If the author uses the word “so” at the beginning of a sentence, we can be sure that this statement is a consequence of the previous statement. The connection between this statement and the previous statement has been made clear by the author. We don’t have to figure out the connection. We just need to figure out how this statement is a consequence of the previous statement.
When people ignore the keywords, they sometimes form connections different from the ones intended by the author. As a result, they carry incorrect ideas. As a result, the statements after the current one do not make sense. As a result, they have to come back to reread this statement. This leads to a waste of time. In addition, any deficiency in comprehension means increased chances of getting stuck in the options, which means more time to solve the questions.
Another typical process deficiency is that people don’t take the pains to figure out the EXACT ANTECEDENT of the pronouns or phrases referring to ideas previously mentioned in the passage. For example, when such phrases as this conversion, this trend, these obstacles, they, it, and its implication come, people just go with the first idea that strikes their minds; they don’t make an effort to ensure that they are correctly identifying these pronouns with their exact references.
As a result, their comprehension suffers. As a result, the amount of rereading and the chances of getting stuck in the options increase. As a result, they take more time.
Thus, the way to reduce your time per question is to focus on keywords and identify each pronoun’s exact reference.
Skill-level Deficiencies
Skill has two aspects:
1. Clarity
Clarity is not a black-and-white thing; it is on a spectrum. If, for every situation, you get one thought, which is the correct thought, you are 100% clear. If, for every situation, you get one thought, which is an incorrect thought, you are 0% clear.
Almost everyone is somewhere in between. Your clarity is essentially about the mix of correct and incorrect thoughts in your mind.
If you are 100% clear, you’ll solve questions quickly because you’ll not get stuck in the options. On the other hand, if you have a lot of incorrect thoughts in your head, you’ll get stuck in many options and thus will take more time to solve questions.
2. Comfort
How much time do you need to calculate 7*4?
And how much time do you need to calculate 17*14?
I believe you need more time to do the second calculation. Why?
It’s not a matter of less clarity; it’s a matter of less comfort. When you calculate 17*14, you’ll be 100% sure of your answer. So, it’s not a problem of clarity. You need more time to calculate 17*14 because you are not as comfortable with 17*14 as with 7*4.
Suppose two software engineers can complete a particular task successfully. However, the first takes 7 days to complete the task, while the second takes just 2 days. The quality of their outputs is the same. Wouldn’t you call the second more skilled?
The second aspect of skills is comfort. If you are very comfortable with a task, you’ll naturally need less time to complete the task.
How do you build comfort?
Repetition.
Once you have clarity, the way to build comfort is through repetition.
However, when GMAT aspirants practice, they try to build both clarity and comfort. Thus, the practice is not only about repetition but also about building clarity. Thus, the practice needs to be deliberate and with intense focus.
1. Statements are difficult to understand
If the statements are difficult for you, naturally, you’ll need to read slowly to understand them. Thus, you’ll take more time on the question.
Why is the statement difficult for you?
1. The words are unknown to you – The solution lies in building your vocabulary. Whenever such words come, save them in a google sheet. Also, save the sentence in which that word was used and the dictionary definition of the word. Revise this list at regular intervals. If you know all the words in a sentence, you’ll be able to read the sentence faster.
2. The statement is long – For everyone, reading a longer sentence will take more time than reading a shorter sentence. However, some people take enormously more time on a long sentence. Why? The problem could lie in your process of reading the sentence, as explained in process-level deficiencies. The problem could lie in your skill level, i.e., you are just not used to handling such long sentences. The solution lies in reading and understanding texts with longer sentences.
3. The structure of the statement is complex – The statement may not be long but could still be complex, with layers of modifiers. Again, one way to digest such statements is reading them part by part, which is a process-level intervention. The way to become comfortable (increase your skill) with such sentences is to expose yourself to texts such complex sentences and try to understand the exact meaning of such sentences.
4. The context is unfamiliar – If the context is very unfamiliar, you’ll need to slow down to comprehend the statement. You’re not expected to read history books to build familiarity with history texts, but what is expected is that whenever you read history-based RC or CR passages, you do your best to understand the passages. Slowly, you’ll grow familiar with such passages.
2. Making connections between statements is difficult
This is another reason you’ll take more time on the question.
Why is making connections difficult for you?
- The context is unfamiliar – This aspect has been discussed above.
- You did not understand the statements clearly – The solution lies in reading every statement in a way that you understand its exact meaning. Read it slowly, but understand it in one go.
- You do not pay attention to the keywords – This is a process-level deficiency explained above.
- The repository of connections in your mind is limited – This is a skill-level issue. It happens at times that people don’t understand certain connections because they haven’t thought in such ways earlier. The solution lies in understanding new connections and revising such connections so that they become a part of your repository.
3. Getting stuck in the last two options
One very common reason people take longer in solving questions is that they spend a lot of time in the last two options. Naturally, the problem is that you cannot see the incorrect option as incorrect. This is a problem of clarity. If you were clear, you wouldn’t get stuck in the last two options and would take much less time to solve the question. The solution lies in understanding:
- The correct reasons
- Why the correct option is correct
- Why the incorrect option is incorrect
- Your mistakes
- What apprehensions you had in selecting the correct option and why those apprehensions are misplaced
- What reasons you had to select the incorrect option and why those reasons are incorrect
As your clarity increases, you will take less time to solve the questions.
Summary
In this article, we learned that there are two ways to improve your timing: by improving your processes and by improving your skills.
The processes can be improved by:
- Eliminating rereading
- Eliminating back-and-forth between the passage and options
- Reading sentences part by part
- Making connections between sentences after reading every sentence.
- Paying attention to keywords and identifying the correct references.
The skills can be improved by:
- Building vocabulary and familiarity with the kinds of texts you see on the GMAT, both in terms of complexity and content
- Building clear reasoning by learning from every question
