Doing bio and then ochem is not "triage" -- you're dividing into two groups, not three. Semantics aside, it will take you about ten extra seconds, so those who are claiming you're wasting your time are out to lunch. It's not like it takes a lot of reading to figure out what subject the passage is on. Go ahead and do it on bio and phys sciences if it feels good.
On verbal, the problem is entirely different. It would be lovely to do the easy passages first, quickly; the medium passages next, carefully; and then zip through two of the three toughest ones, perhaps skipping the worst of the lot. The problem with that, as you've now all gathered, is that it's pretty hard to know beforehand how difficult a passage is. Writing style and clarity is only part of it; to really have an idea you'd have to check out all the questions, and that reallly does take too much time. Still, it's a good idea to give some thought to difficulty.
About half of my students are now spending the first two minutes triaging the passages, the other half rank as they go. When we started we all used a triage method, because ranking as you go depends much more on experience (you need a substantial knowledge base against which to contrast each passage). But neither method helps very much, so don't expect miracles. Better for some is to skip or nearly skip the toughest questions.
Sorry there's no magic solution.
