I do pretty well on 6 out of 7 passages most of the time- I get somewhere between 4 and 6 wrong and then there is that ONE passage I have no clue what it is even talking about. Especially the one written very vaguely with no direct approach or making much sense- for example university students learning that truth is subjective to the norm in which they were living under or something like that. How can I minimize the damage here?
How to tackle that one crazy hard verbal passage
- Thread starter Rebeldocs
- Start date
- Joined
- Sep 30, 2013
- Messages
- 623
- Reaction score
- 242
There's actually no real separate or distinct strategy for passages with harder content - all of the usual strategies that apply to any verbal passage will help improve your performance, even on really hard passages.
You've got to remember that what makes verbal hard is not the content of the passage, and not even the wording of the questions. What makes verbal hard is when the trap answer is really tricky and really "close" to the right answer.
If you're having trouble focusing on a passage and extracting the main idea, and opinions and contrasts, because you just don't understand the content, then at the very least try to focus on the tone of the passage. "Okay I have no idea what [this long winded crazy phrase] means, but the author seems to like it." When analyzing the questions, stick as much as possible to that tone. The EK verbal workbook has a good exercise on this.
Good luck!
You've got to remember that what makes verbal hard is not the content of the passage, and not even the wording of the questions. What makes verbal hard is when the trap answer is really tricky and really "close" to the right answer.
If you're having trouble focusing on a passage and extracting the main idea, and opinions and contrasts, because you just don't understand the content, then at the very least try to focus on the tone of the passage. "Okay I have no idea what [this long winded crazy phrase] means, but the author seems to like it." When analyzing the questions, stick as much as possible to that tone. The EK verbal workbook has a good exercise on this.
Good luck!
- Joined
- Jan 30, 2014
- Messages
- 274
- Reaction score
- 96
great question
I always notice there is one crazy one too. I try to leave a few extra minutes for it by going faster on an earlier one.
There is always two good answers, make sure you analysis the semantics of the question carefully, as every word is the most literal meaning of it in the question.
And never pick answers that seem too strong, like always false because, etc. The lukewarm ones seem to usually be correct. Try my method on your next practice, gurantee it works.
There is always two good answers, make sure you analysis the semantics of the question carefully, as every word is the most literal meaning of it in the question.
And never pick answers that seem too strong, like always false because, etc. The lukewarm ones seem to usually be correct. Try my method on your next practice, gurantee it works.
I agree with cryhavoc. I have tried that too and extremes (too strong ones) are wrong most of the times. So you can cross that out right off the bat.
For me personally, I have also found that I should never second guess myself and go with what I chose the first. Because what happens is that the more time I spend on other option, the more I try to justify them. The choice I pick the first time is usually I "feel" is the right one because it resonates the most with the overall feel that I get after reading the passage.
For me personally, I have also found that I should never second guess myself and go with what I chose the first. Because what happens is that the more time I spend on other option, the more I try to justify them. The choice I pick the first time is usually I "feel" is the right one because it resonates the most with the overall feel that I get after reading the passage.
