Last week, we focused on pacing best practices for the Quantitative section of the GRE which with 20 questions in 35 minutes has a 1:45 per question average pace that is already faster than the average GMAT Quantitative section pace of 2:00 per question. In this post, we'll address the even faster pace that you'll need to excel in the GRE Verbal section.

Verbal Pacing Goals
In a section with 20 questions in only 30 minutes, the average is once again an easily calculated one minute and 30 seconds per question, but here as well the format and content of the questions, in concert with your own personal abilities will dictate your overall pacing decisions.

Vocabulary or Reading Comprehension - Which Should I do First?
This is a question I am asked consistently, and abstractly my answer is always - do the questions you can in under 90 seconds on average first, regardless of the subject matter. However, if you struggle with reading a long passage in fewer than five minutes, it may be beneficial to skip around to attempt all of the vocabulary questions and shorter reading comprehension passages before engaging the long passage(s).

However, this should only be a strategy for those aiming for less than a 160 score on the verbal section, because you will generally be rushed to answer those long reading comprehension passages and potentially make mistakes because of the time pressure. Additionally, for many test takers, breaking up the Reading Comprehension with some vocabulary format questions provides a nice respite from the deep focus required by the dry reading content of the exam. So, ideally, it's best to attempt questions as you encounter them on the Verbal section with some decisions to make based on the format and your ability to answer efficiently that we'll address in this post!

Vocabulary Pacing Guidelines
While there is not a defined format order in the Verbal section as there is in the Quantitative, where Quantitative Comparisons always come first, usually GRE Verbal sections begin with a Vocabulary set of 4-6 questions. These can be either Text Completions of one to three blanks or Sentence Equivalences of one blank and two selections to be made. Ultimately, the format of the vocabulary questions is immaterial. The important question is can you understand the sentence(s) and subsequently the choices to compare your predicted word or phrase against!

The default position for any vocabulary content question on the GRE is to do it now as long as you can understand the sentence(s), predict your own word or phrase for each blank in the sentence(s), and finally evaluate the choices against that prediction. If you can complete each of these steps not only should you get the question correct, but also you should do so in well under 90 seconds.

However, if you get stumped on any of these three steps, you must immediately change your tactics to move on from a question that you are quickly becoming unlikely to get correct. So, as soon as you cannot understand the sentence, produce your own prediction for any blank, or differentiate between multiple unknown terms in the choices follow this process:

1. Guess for tone - Consider whether the term in the blank and subsequently the correct choice(s) should be positive, negative, or neutral
   
   
2. Guess for affixes and roots - Consider any parts of words that you might recognize in choices to help determine if it does or doesn't match the intended tone of the blank in the sentence
   
   
3. Guess for instincts - This is inexact to be certain but quickly think about where you might have heard the word before or simply whether it sounds positive or negative acoustically!

The tough part is that you must complete the three step process in fewer than 20 seconds before you must guess, flag the question, and move on. The reason is that as soon as the challenge in a Sentence Equivalence or Text Completion becomes a matter of vocabulary, you are only wasting time, so better to guess and move on to use those seconds on Reading Comprehension where more time to read the passage can make a correct answer more attainable.

Reading Comprehension Pacing Guidelines
Now, Reading Comprehension should also be addressed as you encounter it on the exam, but with attention paid to the number of questions for the passage and the format of the questions. Generally, the longer a passage is, the more imperative it is to do it immediately. So, if there are three or more questions for a passage, assume that you should do it now, probably by reading the full passage up front, unless you are seeking a target score of less than 160 and have preemptively decided to leave all long passages until the end of the section. However, for passages of one or two questions only, you can rely more on the format to inform your pacing, in similar fashion to the Quantitative section.

Multiple Choice | Single Answer - Do Now!
For these question types with five options and one selection, process of elimination is a very viable tactic, so they are usually the easiest of the Reading Comprehension question formats. When you encounter one of these questions, attempt it and use reasons to eliminate to help guide you to the correct choice.

Multiple Choice | Multiple Answer - Do Later!
Even more so than in the Quantitative section, these questions with 3-5 options and 1-5 possible selections are giant time wasters, so be very wary of attempting these on your first pass through a section. They also often composed of a broad task with no term or location reference. Think, "Which of the following can be inferred from the passage?" This will require cross-checking every option carefully against the entire passage! So, instead consider just guessing, flagging and returning to these GRE sandbags.

Select-in-Context - Do Now! or Do Last!
The most unique question type on the exam is the select-in-context that requires you to click a sentence, phrase, or word in the passage with your cursor that represents the answer to the question. Usually, no more than one question per section will be of this type, but much like the numeric entry the answer should either be obvious based on your understanding of the passage or will require you to reread the entire passage! So, just consider the task and if you know the answer proactively, do it now, but if you don't recall the subject matter, flag the question and leave it for last.

Check Your Pacing
Because the Verbal section is so much more variable than the Quantitative section is, a definitive pacing checkpoint is much harder to come by. However, a good rule of thumb is regardless of the subject matter, after question 10, you should have at least 15 minutes remaining. The reason it is that conventional is that you should be aiming to see every question and skipping as necessary to guarantee that you will be able to see every question since there is not a defined order of difficulty for the section.

This will also allow you the opportunity to get to the end of the section, where frequently an "easier" passage awaits. So, if you have fewer than 15 minutes remaining halfway through the section, be ready to skip more aggressively in an attempt to mine those easier questions that conclude a Verbal section to reap the rewards of pacing well executed!

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