someone give me hope?

[MoonShiNe]

Verbal is killing me..
Did anyone went from ~5 to over 10 in verbal?
If there is, can you tell me how you prepared for the verbal?
I know there are threads dealing with these kind of stuff, but I'm looking for an extreme; from REAL LOW to HIGH.

Just practicing doesn't seem like its going to bring up my speed and score.
Timing and Reading critically are the issues I'm having.. they don't seem to mix well..; when I read quick, it's hard to understand the passage: when I read carefully, I'm too slow..
Should I just pay more attention in reading critically than reading quickly at this point of the game and worry about the timing later?
or, should I just suck it up and practice like the real deal with the timing?

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[ARAP]

Take your time to read and understand the passages real well, this way atleast you're sure of scooping something like an answer or better, the correct answer. Don't gamble with it and later regret. Better score with a snail's speed, than get nothing with lightening speed.

Hope it helps!

 

[UCdannyLA]

I went from 6 to 12

I just practiced...even doing ONE passage a night before i slept...that helped a lot. I just started getting used to them.

 

[NontradICUdoc]

Went from a 5 to an 8 in just under a month. I am using both the kaplan method of passage mapping and the EK method of NOT skipping around.

I found that the mappinghelps because you can find things a little quicker (time factor) but it also forces to not pay attention to the minor details but rather the big picture.

 

[Turkeyman]

I went from 6 to 12

I just practiced...even doing ONE passage a night before i slept...that helped a lot. I just started getting used to them.

I totally agree that this is the way to do it. I'm on the lower end right now as well, but I've been practicing at least four passages a night(individually) and some days where its my full concentration --> I'm starting to see a huge pattern in the way questions are asked and it does seem that after a while you just get "used to" the section itself.

One thing you should make sure of...I suggest doing one passage at a time only, and keep working at that till you can do one passage at a time and get over 60% correct...or at least your comprehension is consistent. Also, do it in under 9 minutes (9x9 passages) = 81 minutes From there, just add on another, and move on up to the full thing as you see fit. You have two months, a little practice a day (with a couple of concentrated verbal days scattered throughout) should really help your score.

Jumping into full-lenghts or even half-lenghts right now would be useless I think, build an individual passage approach then build stamina after. You've got the time to do it.