Tackling The Verbal, The Way I Think Is Best

[Brundlefly]

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its always trial and error for me when it comes to studying for the verbal. there are those who can read a 200 page novel in 30 minutes and find the verbal section a cake walk. you guys can go to hell. i am cursed with slow reading, and even on the (what now seems easy) ACT, the reading section was a pain. but after doing like 50 verbal passages now, i am happy to say that i really think the mcat verbal does not require any fast reading. in fact i've come to think its the opposite. i used to use the advice of spending 2 to 3 minutes reading quickly then hitting the questions. but this didnt work AT ALL for me. but luckily, i found that spending 3 and a half to even four minutes getting heavily involved in the passage and paying careful attention to main topics and ideas, (plus its plenty of time to easily read it all, even for the slowest of readers like myself) gives you a solid 5 minutes to do the questions. my goal is to do each passage in 9 minutes, so with 9 passages in verbal, i have 4 minutes of breathing room at the end. and most passages are 6-9 questions, and some might think 5 minutes to answer 9 questions is insane, but spending that much time reading really makes even hard questions seem managable. i dont know, but i have definetly been seeing a huge improvement in my later passages now that i use this technique. i suggest all slow readers use this. what do you guys think?

 

[SOUNDMAN]

I have found a technique that works very well for me and part of it comes from EK I think. I always red the questions first and in the question underline the actualy question. So much of the question is a bunch of crap. So the question is actually like 4 words. Then I go to read the verbal section primarily looking for the answers to the questions and along the way highlighting the main points of the passage. Also if I hit a part of the passage that I know is an anwer to a question I immediately answer the question, then continue through the passage. By the end of the passage I've ususally answered 1/2 the questions. The rest are the ones I need to re-read the question or look for inference etc. But this sped up my time and comprehension immensely.

 

[blz]

I'm a slow reader here. I agree with your strategy for slower readers. First time I took the verbal i got an 8 because I was trying to read the passages quicker. what ended up happening was that I spent too much time on the questions because of it (and plus i ended up getting them wrong anyways). The second time i took the mcat, i took all the time in the world to read the passages and then i answered the questions a hell of a lot faster - end result => 11VR

You dont even have to be a slow reader to use this method.

 

[N-toxicologist]

I flip through the section till I find an easy passage, skim a few questions, so I know the context and general theme, and start reading. I make notes in the margin: main idea, mood, pivot points, examples, etc. This takes about 3 minutes. The rest of the time is questions, and if I did a decent job reading, I don't have to go back and hunt for answers. Easy passages: about 5 min. This allows me some leeway for that anthropolgy or art passage that I saved for last. Incidentally, I go for the psychology/neurology passage first. That way, IF I run out of time (which I won't with this method), the ones I guess on were ones I would probably get wrong, anyway. I DO suggest careful, but quick reading here, whereas I don't read (as much as skim) science passages.

 

[skiz knot]

My strategy worked extremely well for me. I got a 12 on V.

I chose to answer as many questions correctly during the allotted time that I could. I used every resource that was available to me, including the passage! I think that if you all chose to employ my strategy that you would all see that you would get the highest score of which you are capable. If you would like more info, PM me!

 

[skiz knot]

2 people, I won't say who, actually PM'd me for info! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

 

[skiz knot]

My strategy worked extremely well for me. I got a 12 on V.

I chose to answer as many questions correctly during the allotted time that I could. I used every resource that was available to me, including the passage!:

I thought this was obvious enough. I was trying to say that my strategy was "to answer as many questions correctly during the allotted time..."



Sorry for the confusion, now stop PMing me 😉

 

[Medikit]

This is the technique I used, but you have to be careful there usually isn't enough time to go back. On the real deal I had enough to go back and fix five questions for which I accidently filled in the wrong bubble.

 

[JDAD]

It takes me about five minutes to read the damn passage. How do I fix that?