Possible to not read the passage in Verbal?

[medemic]

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Here's a question/thought...

So I'm reading the EK verbal strategy and they make a good argument and provide good support for using the questions and answers as your main source of information. I was wondering, if you took this a step further, could it be possible to simply not read the passage at all and go straight to the answers? Has anyone tried this?

 

[Captain Sisko]

Here's a question/thought...

So I'm reading the EK verbal strategy and they make a good argument and provide good support for using the questions and answers as your main source of information. I was wondering, if you took this a step further, could it be possible to simply not read the passage at all and go straight to the answers? Has anyone tried this?

Sure you could, but you probably wouldn't do very well 🙂

If you keep reading, they emphasize getting the main idea from the passage, which is the crux of their strategy. Furthermore a certain percentage of the questions in any given verbal exam are straight from the passage. It's a small percentage, but these are the low hanging fruit, "gimme" questions. Why forfeit them?

 

[Shjanzey]

Dang dude. Just do a few verbal's and you will know why you shouldn't do that.

 

[gettheleadout]

Not possible.

 

[angldrps]

Here's a question/thought...

So I'm reading the EK verbal strategy and they make a good argument and provide good support for using the questions and answers as your main source of information. I was wondering, if you took this a step further, could it be possible to simply not read the passage at all and go straight to the answers? Has anyone tried this?

if you are able to succeed at this, you deserve a Nobel prize.

 

[NuttyEngDude]

Here's a question/thought...

So I'm reading the EK verbal strategy and they make a good argument and provide good support for using the questions and answers as your main source of information. I was wondering, if you took this a step further, could it be possible to simply not read the passage at all and go straight to the answers? Has anyone tried this?

I've actually tried this. It doesnt work, and I would be very upset if it did and i got a better score this way. I've also tried a variation of this where i ended up spending more time on the passage than just reading it to begin with. If you can get your initial read to a very fast pace, it becomes irrelevant to try to skip it.

 

[medemic]

I've actually tried this. It doesnt work, and I would be very upset if it did and i got a better score this way. I've also tried a variation of this where i ended up spending more time on the passage than just reading it to begin with. If you can get your initial read to a very fast pace, it becomes irrelevant to try to skip it.

Yeah that's what I'm trying to do now. I'm just starting out on verbal so I'm trying to find a strategy that works best. I do think, though, that you can narrow down the answers to two for each question by just reading the question stem and the answers and eliminating.

 

[Mehd School]

👍

 

[mcatforme]

I wouldn't advise this. It's ok to skim through it, which is what EK tries to push, but I would definitely not disregard reading it at all, and just referring back to it after looking at the problems. I tried this when I was going through some strategies for EK, and it was extremely difficult. It ended up taking more time than just reading it.

 

[Spinach Dip]

Go ahead and try it once.

Let us know how that goes! 👍

 

[osprey099]

Here's a question/thought...

So I'm reading the EK verbal strategy and they make a good argument and provide good support for using the questions and answers as your main source of information. I was wondering, if you took this a step further, could it be possible to simply not read the passage at all and go straight to the answers? Has anyone tried this?

The time taken to read the passage is not why people end up not having enough time or feel rushed. The time taken to answer questions is the real time killer. Don't try to improve your reading speed at the cost of missing something in the passage. Everyone has their own comfortable reading speed that has been ingrained in themselves throughout their life and it's not going to change in a matter of a couple of months. Besides, the time difference between a fast reader and a slow reader is not even that much.

Focus your energy in reducing the time it takes you to answer questions. Use POE aggressively for every single question. This is where you can reduce your time in doing passages.

 

[Mehd School]

It's ok to skim through it, which is what EK tries to push,

You obviously misunderstood EK's strategy.

EK wants you to read actively and attack the passage. They want you to digest the passage on your first read so that you don't have to come back to the passage multiple times. They also teach you to look at tone, big picture, etc. Read their strategy again, it's a good one. 👍

 

[gettheleadout]

I agree totally with osprey here. I finish reading the passages in a few minutes every time, but whenever I go over 7 minutes total its because I get stuck on a particular question.

Now, if you consistently go substantially over 7 minutes per passage AND you're spending 5 minutes reading, you might want to improve your reading speed.

 

[YouNeverKnow22]

I agree totally with osprey here. I finish reading the passages in a few minutes every time, but whenever I go over 7 minutes total its because I get stuck on a particular question.

Now, if you consistently go substantially over 7 minutes per passage AND you're spending 5 minutes reading, you might want to improve your reading speed.

agreed, reading only takes 2-3 mins max.

 

[Mehd School]

agreed, reading only takes 2-3 mins max.

I'd say I average about 4 minutes reading per passage. But I read that thing once and proceed to zoom through the questions. I've been pretty consistently at a 10, but want to bump that up to 12. Trying a couple things, but my pace as it stands feels very natural.

I got a 7 on my diagnostic test a couple weeks ago. It was my first time seeing verbal in like 5 months. I got 1/6 correct on the first passage, and only missed 1 out of the rest of the section. Ridiculous scale.

 

[YouNeverKnow22]

I'd say I average about 4 minutes reading per passage. But I read that thing once and proceed to zoom through the questions. I've been pretty consistently at a 10, but want to bump that up to 12. Trying a couple things, but my pace as it stands feels very natural.

I got a 7 on my diagnostic test a couple weeks ago. It was my first time seeing verbal in like 5 months. I got 1/6 correct on the first passage, and only missed 1 out of the rest of the section. Ridiculous scale.

I've been stuck at 10 and my test is tomorrow, always one question away from an 11...hopefully I can get it higher on the real thing....funny thing is I always know which ones I missed. I would say triple check the ones where you feel doubtful about the answer.

 

[menogo]

I absolutely think its possible! When ever I am running out of time (10 mins) left for two passages, I definitely just read the questions instead of the passage and answer questions by eliminating extremes, things that don't answer the question etc.

I have been able to almost always get 4/5 right for the last passage and 4-5/6 right for any passage in between.

You definitely have to know your strategy however. You need to know the bases of the passages and questions types.

Humanities : focuses on authors ideas, tone, voice, whats the main idea
Social Sciences: looks at an argument and how the author accepts or goes against the views
Natural Sciences: details

Once you can master passage type questions anything is possible! lol

Also, its kind of a mix of EK strategy and Kaplan. Kaplan does a good job with question types EK does a good job with getting you to understand the question first.