How to Improve Your Speed on the Verbal Section of the GMAT

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The Verbal section of the GMAT can give a lot of people problems, especially those who don’t speak English as their native language.  On this section of the test, it is very easy to take a lot of time to answer questions, so there is always the threat that you won’t be able to finish the section on time.  If you feel like you won’t finish on time, you will most likely panic and start to not think clearly and miss problems you would otherwise get correct.  Here are a few ideas you can try to naturally improve your speed on the test so you don’t have to panic towards the end of the section.

-Create an Answer Chart

One thing that really helped me and is discussed briefly in the Powerscore Critical Reasoning Bible is making an answer chart ahead of time.  Write A,B,C,D,E across the top of your scratch paper and then write 1-41 going downward.  Then draw lines to create a chart for each question.  Then when you are going through each question you can mark each answer choice down as either a contender (mark with a C) or a definite wrong answer (mark with an L).  If you do this, you will not waste any time going back and considering definite wrong answer choices.  Doing this will save you probably 10 to 15 seconds per question on average.  I know that it really helped me go faster on this section.

-Know Your Grammar Rules / Idioms Down Cold

You should only take roughly one minute on average for each sentence correction question.  This will allow you more time to spend on the critical reasoning and reading comprehension sections.  Make flashcards of all the grammar rules and idioms and go through them a bunch and make sure you have them all down cold.  Sentence correction is the one area that is most easily improved on the Verbal section, so you should spend a lot of time getting to know the grammar rules.  This is a great way to go faster on this section of the test.

-Practice a Lot

The most obvious thing you can do is practice, practice, practice.  If you practice enough critical reasoning questions, you will start to see patterns in the ways they test you.  If you can pick up on these patterns, then you can start to anticipate what the correct answer choice will be.  You will really do well if you can get good enough where you see these patterns.  The only real way to do this is by going through enough of the practice problems.  Good preparation will give you confidence going into the test and you will definitely be at a significant advantage.