Mike's Verbal Strategy?

[labqi]

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Hey Guys
I was wondering if anyone used and has been successful with Mike's Verbal Strategy? He suggests that we read the first and last paragraphs fully. And I guess skim, or attack the questions right away.

 

[XxSynapsexX]

Thats like an SAT strategy. I just prefer to read it like a logical train of paragraphs and the questions seem easier.

 

[Strudel19]

Yeah, I really try to understand the first paragraph, read the next paragraphs and follow the progression and keep track of what is where, and then understand the last paragraph especially well.

 

[deleted439911]

Try it first for a few passages and see how that works for you. Verbal really has no set in stone strategy, some ppl might have the weirdest strategy but it works for them.

Chances are you're probably gonna be referring back to the 1st or last paragraph for some questions. But this seems limited to type I comprehension questions, i.e mostly those dealing with main idea and author's. If there is type II evaluation type, they might want you to evaluate a theme or argument that was only in say P3-4 but not mentioned in either intro or conclusion. So just don't focus on one spot.

I got a better sense of how to figure the main idea by judging the type of subject it falls under from the AAMC outlines. https://www.aamc.org/students/download/285240/data/vrcontentcat.pdf

 

[sloppypapi]

I've noticed an immediate improvement in comprehension from using this strategy for humanities-themed passages, where the having a firm understanding of the main idea and arguments helps a lot with answering almost all the questions.