Working on time for Verbal Reasoning

[Uafl112]

So after I started using the strategy of reading the passage for 4 minutes and answering the ques in 4 minutes without looking back on the passage, my scores rose from a 5 to a 7. I had learned that reading the passage thoroughly for the author's argument/opinion could answer a good chunk of the questions.

The following week, my friend sat down with me and we took a verbal section together. He showed me his thought process and taught me that although my main point approach works, I have not accounted for the questions that ask me about very SPECIFIC topics that can be answered by going back to the passage. Both concepts together have been working for me fairly well. However, it has severely hindered my speed and now I am finishing passages in 10 minutes vs. 8. I am kind of lost on how to incorporate both thorough reading as well as running back to the passage.

I have tried to read thorough enough to absorb all the necessary details as well as the author's argument, but that did not really work out for me. I have tried to make mental points in my head about where I can find certain topics, but that has not been too successful either,.

Does anyone know another strategy that can help me?

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[Dr.Forssmann]

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Does anyone know another strategy that can help me?

I really like Ek's strategy in regard to timing. They say that people in general spend too much time trying to figure out the answers to the questions and not enough time focused on understanding the passage.

for me what works is taking your time and reading every single word of the passages and striving to understand it. then answering the questions quickly. what i've found when i do this is that when i understand the passage completely the answers to the questsions become super obvious.

i spend 4 minutes reading the passage 3 minutes answering questions.

EK says that even if you read really slowly you should beable to finish quickly. the problem is when people start to rethink their answers that they waste too much time.

with this strategy not only do i get most of the q's right but i also finish super quickly and i answer q's accurately

 

[cloudzz]

I really like Ek's strategy in regard to timing. They say that people in general spend too much time trying to figure out the answers to the questions and not enough time focused on understanding the passage.

for me what works is taking your time and reading every single word of the passages and striving to understand it. then answering the questions quickly. what i've found when i do this is that when i understand the passage completely the answers to the questsions become super obvious.

i spend 4 minutes reading the passage 3 minutes answering questions.

EK says that even if you read really slowly you should beable to finish quickly. the problem is when people start to rethink their answers that they waste too much time.

with this strategy not only do i get most of the q's right but i also finish super quickly and i answer q's accurately

I completely agree with this. I'm a super slow reader but I manage to finish in time by doing the questions quickly. The only thing for me though, is that I try to understand every idea in the passage, but NOT every detail. If there are key details, like names, places, years, etc. I'd just underline it and know why it's there (is it evidence used to support a statement?). If a question touches on the details then I'd go back to have a look, otherwise I wouldn't bother memorizing the details as it is very time consuming.

 

[Spinach Dip]

Here's my take:

Each passage should take ~8 minutes. It doesn't matter how long you spend on reading or answering questions, as long as you keep the whole process to 8 minutes each. This allows a 4 minute cushion in case you get stuck on a very hard passage.

It worked for me.

 

[Sugar Pharmacology]

Jack Westin is good for Verbal preparation. He has command over the section and teaches a good strategy to score around 11 or more in verbal. Worth giving a shot