Verbal is ruining my life.

[tik-tik-clock]

I have a real issue on completing this section. I take 12 minutes per passage in the EK 101 passages. The shorter time than 12 minutes I take, the more I tend to miss out on reading the question stems carefully and thus picking the wrong answer choice of the two possible answer choices that I usually narrow down to.

Can anybody please suggest me something that will help me shorten the time I spend per passage?

I dont go back to the passage. I take 5 minutes to read the passage. I think it takes me longer to answer the questions like more around 7 minutes.

Thanks for the help people

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[DrCurious]

i have never finished the damn section. But you have to increase your accuracy. I get through 8/9 passages, but was able to up my score from a 6-7 to a 9-10. Just increase your accuracy, its not the end of the world if you dont finish(in fact if u get through only 7 passages but get 45/50 right thats already a 9-10). The key is to get the questions that you do have time to get to correct. You may wanna try to think about the questions less, and maybe go with what agrees with the main idea. But it will depend on you, its moreorless a personal struggle. But these were my 2cents, hope they helped in some way or form. Good luck.

 

[mnmsuccess]

I noticed with verbal I used to take 12-15 minutes per passage but the 2 things that help me shorten my time was: more focused reading, and guessing. Sometimes you just have to make an educated guess. If I spend 12 minutes I usually get the whole passage right but when I shorten it I had the same problem. I think with practice I am able to make more educated guesses. With verbal I think its all about sensing the right answer rather than knowing the right answer. That was the toughest thing to do especially for science people like all of us...we are so used to numbers and formulas etc...

EK 101 helped me a lot!

Good Luck!

I have a real issue on completing this section. I take 12 minutes per passage in the EK 101 passages. The shorter time than 12 minutes I take, the more I tend to miss out on reading the question stems carefully and thus picking the wrong answer choice of the two possible answer choices that I usually narrow down to.

Can anybody please suggest me something that will help me shorten the time I spend per passage?

I dont go back to the passage. I take 5 minutes to read the passage. I think it takes me longer to answer the questions like more around 7 minutes.

Thanks for the help people

 

[ADeadLois]

I have a real issue on completing this section. I take 12 minutes per passage in the EK 101 passages. The shorter time than 12 minutes I take, the more I tend to miss out on reading the question stems carefully and thus picking the wrong answer choice of the two possible answer choices that I usually narrow down to.

Can anybody please suggest me something that will help me shorten the time I spend per passage?

I dont go back to the passage. I take 5 minutes to read the passage. I think it takes me longer to answer the questions like more around 7 minutes.

Thanks for the help people

First, you shouldn't be giving yourself 12 minutes. EVERY time you take a verbal practice exam, you need to give yourself 9 minutes per passage. After 9 minutes, stop.

Also, as someone suggested, you should be quicker on the trigger to make an educated guess. Remember, since there is no emperical way to get the right answer, you're basically making 60 educated guesses. So a skill on VR is to know when to guess and move on.

 

[deleted106503]

First, you shouldn't be giving yourself 12 minutes. EVERY time you take a verbal practice exam, you need to give yourself 9 minutes per passage. After 9 minutes, stop.

You mean for EK passages only, right? Since those ones have about the same number of questions per passage. I did that 9min/passage timing on 3R and it screwed me up. Once I got to the back to back 10 question passages, my timing got off. I think when I take 4R today, I will go by EK's timing strategy. Just check the clock after the first half and adjust speed with that. Does this sound good?

 

[ADeadLois]

You mean for EK passages only, right? Since those ones have about the same number of questions per passage. I did that 9min/passage timing on 3R and it screwed me up. Once I got to the back to back 10 question passages, my timing got off. I think when I take 4R today, I will go by EK's timing strategy. Just check the clock after the first half and adjust speed with that. Does this sound good?

Actually, a better way to do it is probably giving yourself 27 minutes for 3 passages. It's the Kaplan triad strategy (the only portion of their verbal strategy I used). This accounts for the passages that vary in number of questions.

 

[Frank Hardy]

I have a real issue on completing this section. I take 12 minutes per passage in the EK 101 passages. The shorter time than 12 minutes I take, the more I tend to miss out on reading the question stems carefully and thus picking the wrong answer choice of the two possible answer choices that I usually narrow down to.

Can anybody please suggest me something that will help me shorten the time I spend per passage?

I dont go back to the passage. I take 5 minutes to read the passage. I think it takes me longer to answer the questions like more around 7 minutes.

Thanks for the help people

You should not let 1 section of 1 test ruin your life.

 

[doc G]

Actually, a better way to do it is probably giving yourself 27 minutes for 3 passages. It's the Kaplan triad strategy (the only portion of their verbal strategy I used). This accounts for the passages that vary in number of questions.

This strategy is good however kaplan bases their 27 min triad on passages with relatively equal numbers of questions. On the real deal some passages have 4 questions some as many as 10 or 11. I found the best policy is this:

3 min to read each passage 3*9 = 27
1 min or less for each question = 60 min

Total = 87 min

But....every question will not take a minute to answer some will go faster and the 2 min discrepancy will will be accounted for.

This is a general guide line. I took the April exam with Kaplan stragedy and scored a 7 because I RAN OUT OF TIME ( I didnt get to the last passage). Since I have changed to this stragedy using EK I have 1-2 minutes left every single time and I am scoring 11-12 on every test now. I hope this helps ..