Need help on Verbal...

[dannybht]

So far My scores have been fluctuating between a 6,7, and 8. My main problem is that it's hard for me to grasp the main ideas in philosophical passages. I can do fairly well in natural sciences passages that deal since its easier for me to find the main ideas and important details.

My strategy right now is to read at
A good pace and visualize the information as much as I can, while thinking what each paragraph meant. I just barely utilized this strategy for a
few days so far but my timing is taking a toll due to clearly not getting the main ideas. When I think about the main ideas as I read, it kills my time. I try to read at a good pace and find the main ideas, but when I tackle the questions that deal with main ideas I get stuck because the questions or answers are either confusing due to me not understanding the main ideas....

What are your guys strategies for finding and understanding the main ideas?

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[Gauss44]

So far My scores have been fluctuating between a 6,7, and 8. My main problem is that it's hard for me to grasp the main ideas in philosophical passages. I can do fairly well in natural sciences passages that deal since its easier for me to find the main ideas and important details.

My strategy right now is to read at
A good pace and visualize the information as much as I can, while thinking what each paragraph meant. I just barely utilized this strategy for a
few days so far but my timing is taking a toll due to clearly not getting the main ideas. When I think about the main ideas as I read, it kills my time. I try to read at a good pace and find the main ideas, but when I tackle the questions that deal with main ideas I get stuck because the questions or answers are either confusing due to me not understanding the main ideas....

What are your guys strategies for finding and understanding the main ideas?

My best advice given the above info: Make sure you don't waste time on questions that are really difficult. Skipping and returning to the worst question is a sound strategy.

Other than that, some advice will work for you, and other advice won't. It all depends on what your problem is and isn't.

Do you normally have good reading comprehension AND speed?
-If no, why? (Is English your first language? Do you read words and not meaning? Something else?)

What do you mean by "philosophical passage"? (Anything based on ancient philosophers, aristotle, plato, socrates, descartes...? Or passages with artsy language or weird language use? Or just really dense passages with lots of new concepts or definitions?)
-If it's the former, you might just need practice. If it's the later, you might need a different strategy, like mapping those passages, even if you don't map any others.

How long have you been studying, and how?
-If you are just starting out, this is somewhat normal. If you have already gone through the entire EK VR 101 book or TPR VR book, that's a different story. (Most people who study VR at some point catch on to the sorts of questions asked so they can predict while reading the passage. And they catch on to the common types of wrong answers, helpful in the process of elimination. And they catch on to how most passages are organized. And after trying out various techniques, eventually come up with a style or combo of styles that optimizes their individual skill set, and minimizes shortcomings.)

Some people don't need to study for VR. For some people, their scores just sort of magically improve or things click into place. Everyone else, pretty much learns the stuff described directly above. VR can be misleading because it can seem like you are prepared when you aren't. And in all likelihood, you will have little trends of doing well, and then not. It's a tough subject to assess.

 

[dannybht]

I think read at a good pace and understand it well. There are some sentences that I don't understand because its written so vaguely. I'm having trouble with passages that deal with philosophy( Plato Descartes) and also those dense passages with wordy sentences.

Also Im ESL but then I grew up in America since I was like 1. My score on SAT critical reading was a 540 so verbal is not a strong subject of mine.

I've gone through 13 practice tests so far going from 2 to 3 passages per day and from 7min 30 to 6 min per passage. Ive been practicing for over a month now but it's still fluctuating. I'm gonna try the EK 101 method and see if that works.

 

[dannybht]

I've been using ek 101 passages btw. I review every answer I get and write down why I get the answer wrong and write. It tends to be the questions that deal with main ideas, relationship questions, conclusion questions and inference questions.

 

[onedirection]

I grew up in germany, I moved to america later on, I had trouble with SAT CR too at first

it's like a brick that you keep hitting. it'll break eventually. I managed to end up acing the SAT CR within a year

It's just a matter of doing it over and over again

I personally like to do a quick skim through..like 15 seconds/not really a skim through, more to get an idea of what every paragraph you get to is going to be about

then start reading [often times I get caught up in pointless stuff but knowing there's stuff coming up later that may clarify things allows me to ignore details[

Also be willing to skip questions and come back to them later

Even jump around passages

It's stupid to think you'll forget what a passage was about just because you moved onto the next one

Mark and keep going

I like highlighting too

but I don't really highlight to keep track of important stuff
it just helps me stay focused on the passage and pace myself. I end up like highlighting everything

It also helps if I chunk the passages

I read half of it, then see if I can answer anything

then finish the rest of it

Also at first I used to go line by line and wonder, okay what's the point of this...why are they telling me this

by now it kind of comes second nature; does this sentence tell me anything new. Think that to yourself

 

[dannybht]

I grew up in germany, I moved to america later on, I had trouble with SAT CR too at first

it's like a brick that you keep hitting. it'll break eventually. I managed to end up acing the SAT CR within a year

It's just a matter of doing it over and over again

I personally like to do a quick skim through..like 15 seconds/not really a skim through, more to get an idea of what every paragraph you get to is going to be about

then start reading [often times I get caught up in pointless stuff but knowing there's stuff coming up later that may clarify things allows me to ignore details[

Also be willing to skip questions and come back to them later

Even jump around passages

It's stupid to think you'll forget what a passage was about just because you moved onto the next one

Mark and keep going

I like highlighting too

but I don't really highlight to keep track of important stuff
it just helps me stay focused on the passage and pace myself. I end up like highlighting everything

It also helps if I chunk the passages

I read half of it, then see if I can answer anything

then finish the rest of it

Also at first I used to go line by line and wonder, okay what's the point of this...why are they telling me this

by now it kind of comes second nature; does this sentence tell me anything new. Think that to yourself

I'm going to try not to understand every single word..I'll read the keywords. Anyway I'm doing much better in answering the questions. It's mainly because I was looking back at the passage too often for the main idea questions...now I need to better my timing.

Do you guys suggest to increase my time limit from 6 minutes to 7 minutes. I think because I'm doing a new strategy I'm still not used to it yet under time pressure.

 

[Person0715]

I'm going to try not to understand every single word..I'll read the keywords. Anyway I'm doing much better in answering the questions. It's mainly because I was looking back at the passage too often for the main idea questions...now I need to better my timing.

Do you guys suggest to increase my time limit from 6 minutes to 7 minutes. I think because I'm doing a new strategy I'm still not used to it yet under time pressure.

When I gave myself 6 min to do each passage, I was scoring in the 9-11 range, but when I gave myself 8 min per passage, I began to score in the 11-13 range. 2 minutes is a world of difference. Now, this means you won't have any time to double check your answers, but giving yourself more time the first time around will help you avoid more mistakes.

 

[hawkeye3211]

Hi Person0715, do you have like a main strategy that you use to score that well on the verbal, because my average on verbal right now is a 9.

 

[Member5072]

So far My scores have been fluctuating between a 6,7, and 8. My main problem is that it's hard for me to grasp the main ideas in philosophical passages. I can do fairly well in natural sciences passages that deal since its easier for me to find the main ideas and important details.

My strategy right now is to read at
A good pace and visualize the information as much as I can, while thinking what each paragraph meant. I just barely utilized this strategy for a
few days so far but my timing is taking a toll due to clearly not getting the main ideas. When I think about the main ideas as I read, it kills my time. I try to read at a good pace and find the main ideas, but when I tackle the questions that deal with main ideas I get stuck because the questions or answers are either confusing due to me not understanding the main ideas....

What are your guys strategies for finding and understanding the main ideas?

i TOTALLY get what you're going through because this is me exactly. English technically was my second language, but it's now my most proficient, yet I've struggled so much with verbal reasoning throughout my life: elementary, middle, high school, college. I guess the best thing to do is to keep practicing. Actually, I just got back my mcat score and the verbal score definitely reflected my struggle.
I've tried the TPR method and that did not work for me. EK method was slightly better but not markedly so. I tried reading the passage word for word and focusing on understanding it, which worked on the AAMC practice tests with range of 7-10 and mean of 8 almost 9 ish, but on the real thing... well, let's just say it wasn't in that range at all.
I also logged the questions I got wrong and as you've mentioned, inference and occasionally main idea questions were the question types I was getting wrong.
VR is going to haunt me for life. For reals. Let me know if you find a strategy that works because I might retake this test... next year.

 

[dannybht]

Alright guys I think I've found the solution to verbal. It's been helping me get at most 1-2 wrongs per passage!!!

3 Major things!

1. Attack the passage critically!
How? Read it like a story and attack each and every paragraph! Find the MAIN IDEA in each paragraph. You HAVE to do this in order to see the development of the authors argument and be able to do even answer half the questions!!

2. Attack the questions and scrutinize every ANSWER! (One of the most important skills you need to master)

Master POE! Live breathe and sleep Process of elimination. No doubt about it. You need To prove every answer wrong until you get a correct answer that is left. The importance of POE is that it will get rid of answers that will make you second guess!!! The key to POE is to find the KEYWORDS that aren't used correctly, phrases that aren't even mentioned in the passage.

3. Write down a log of questions you got wrong and why!

This will help you prepare for questions and help you see patterns in the answer choices.

My advice is to practice doing main ideas and POE!!! Then review your log of questions and mistakes.

PRACTICE then REVIEW and REPEAT!!!

 

[487806]

So far My scores have been fluctuating between a 6,7, and 8. My main problem is that it's hard for me to grasp the main ideas in philosophical passages. I can do fairly well in natural sciences passages that deal since its easier for me to find the main ideas and important details.

My strategy right now is to read at
A good pace and visualize the information as much as I can, while thinking what each paragraph meant. I just barely utilized this strategy for a
few days so far but my timing is taking a toll due to clearly not getting the main ideas. When I think about the main ideas as I read, it kills my time. I try to read at a good pace and find the main ideas, but when I tackle the questions that deal with main ideas I get stuck because the questions or answers are either confusing due to me not understanding the main ideas....

What are your guys strategies for finding and understanding the main ideas?

Philosophical passages are,abstract, but they can be analyzed in a,similar manner. Each paragraph can be summarized by a certain topic, and the topics create the main idea. It can be a bit difficult.

 

[487806]

Hi Person0715, do you have like a main strategy that you use to score that well on the verbal, because my average on verbal right now is a 9.

The EK method is good.