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you read it, don't really understand the main idea. whats the best strategies to troubleshoot?
Troubleshooting a tough verbal passage
- Thread starter Hopefuldoc22
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1. If your in a serious time crunch use POE to eliminate answers that are extreme if the passage wasn't extreme, then eliminate answers that you don't remember being talked about based on the assumption they are outside of the scope of the passage. Use your gut instinct to pick the best answer that remains.
2. If you are good on time, reread the passage. An extra 3 minutes reading the passage can easily be made up if you can answer the questions instead of endlessly referring back to the passage.
**3. Read passages slowly. Counter to some SDN advice spending 3-4 minutes a passage to really digest it, instead of 2-3 minutes to move through it quickly, will typically net higher comprehension. This leads to higher scores and the reduced time spent hunting through the passage for the 5-6 questions following will more than make up the extra 1 minute spent reading slowly and "losing yourself" in the passage (like reading a good book). The only downside is you can't really do a passage faster than 5.5 minutes (3 to read + 30 seconds per Q X 5Qs) so you can't "make up time" for a passage you spent 10+ minutes on. However, if you can average 8 minutes a passage or less you should finish the verbal section on time.
** I started using method 3 about 3 weeks ago and saw my average go up a bit and after getting the hang of it my times went down some too.
I went from the 7-8 range at about 10 min/passage with zero practice to the 9-10 range at 8.5 min/passage with several weeks practice, and then to the 10-11 range at 7.7 min/passage with this method and still appear to be improving.
2. If you are good on time, reread the passage. An extra 3 minutes reading the passage can easily be made up if you can answer the questions instead of endlessly referring back to the passage.
**3. Read passages slowly. Counter to some SDN advice spending 3-4 minutes a passage to really digest it, instead of 2-3 minutes to move through it quickly, will typically net higher comprehension. This leads to higher scores and the reduced time spent hunting through the passage for the 5-6 questions following will more than make up the extra 1 minute spent reading slowly and "losing yourself" in the passage (like reading a good book). The only downside is you can't really do a passage faster than 5.5 minutes (3 to read + 30 seconds per Q X 5Qs) so you can't "make up time" for a passage you spent 10+ minutes on. However, if you can average 8 minutes a passage or less you should finish the verbal section on time.
** I started using method 3 about 3 weeks ago and saw my average go up a bit and after getting the hang of it my times went down some too.
I went from the 7-8 range at about 10 min/passage with zero practice to the 9-10 range at 8.5 min/passage with several weeks practice, and then to the 10-11 range at 7.7 min/passage with this method and still appear to be improving.
