Verbal strat I'm trying

[Jengreef]

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This can be a little time consuming at first, but I've gone from 8's and 9's to consistent 10's with this on FL's. I'd love to tell you this got me 11+, but I ran out of FL's 😛

But this method showed me a lot of promise, tell me what you think.

1. Read and absolutely own that first paragraph. Understand exactly what it's telling you. And know it like it's something you're a professional at.

2. Read every word of every following paragraph, but do it quickly. Read for overall content instead of paragraph by paragraph digestion.

3. After the full passage is read, link the last paragraph to the one prior to it and explain to yourself very briefly (in 1 or 2 sentence thoughts), how it contributes to the paragraph before it. Does this paragraph show contrast? Give an example? Further strengthen the previous thought? What does it do? Instead of summarizing the paragraph's contents, simply focus on the purpose and function of that paragraph. Repeat again for that paragraph to the one above it. You should be working from the bottom back up to the top. This should generally get easier as you work up as you will be working towards that first paragraph that you absolutely dominated.

4. By the time you reach the first paragraph, you will have already formed the main idea (ie you don't need to stop after that and think to yourself "Gee, now how can I summarize this into a single sentence?"). The main idea will already be in your mind since step 1 and will get increasingly stronger as you work towards step 4. Once you have step 4 done, you're now ready to kick butt on those questions.

Note: someone posted a strat similar to this but they reviewed each paragraph as they finished it. I tried it and it was bloody exhausting. I got through 3 passages and couldn't think anymore. It felt much more fluid to finish the whole passage at once and then repackage (quickly) what each paragraph contributed to the one before it (which is also done in one fluid motion as opposed to piecemeal digestion while reading the passage for the first time).

Any thoughts?

 

[Jwinsler7]

Nice strat. Did you just use FL's?
I did most of the passages on EK 101 and got consistent 10-11's. I just used the main idea to answer all the questions.

Past few days I've been doing TPRH verbal and getting destroyed on some of the passages.. avg 2-3 questions missed on each passage..

 

[Pigglyjuff]

Nice strat. Did you just use FL's?
I did most of the passages on EK 101 and got consistent 10-11's. I just used the main idea to answer all the questions.

Past few days I've been doing TPRH verbal and getting destroyed on some of the passages.. avg 2-3 questions missed on each passage..

Jwinsler, if you don't mind saying, how did you do on passages: 1,2,4,5,6?
I got right on those respectively:

1) 5/7
2) 5/7
4) 5/7 (surprised, this passage was HARD)
5) 4/8
6) 3/6 (and this passage was very simple)

Trend isn't looking good for me lol but at least these passages are helpful.

 

[Jwinsler7]

Jwinsler, if you don't mind saying, how did you do on passages: 1,2,4,5,6?
I got right on those respectively:

1) 5/7
2) 5/7
4) 5/7 (surprised, this passage was HARD)
5) 4/8
6) 3/6 (and this passage was very simple)

Trend isn't looking good for me lol but at least these passages are helpful.

1) 4/7
2) 1/8 (Business/Economics is the worst area for me)
3) 7/7
4) 4/7 (Yeah, difficult passage)
5) 4/8 (Thought the passage was fairly easy to read, but the questions weren't easy)
6) 5/6 (I didn't find this passage to be simple but got the main idea)
7) 5/7
8) 4/8
9) 4/6 (easy passage, difficult questions)
10) 5/7
11) 5/6

I usually miss detail Q's on TPRH. If I miss the main idea, then it's a different story.. missing half the questions. I think TRPH has more detail-oriented questions where you sometimes have to go back to passage and look for details whereas for EK, I never had to go back to any passages; I just used main idea to answer all the questions.

Like the OP mentioned, it's crucial to link each paragraph mentally as you read and try your very best to stay focused from the beginning to the end. Hard for me when it comes to any business related passages, but I guess a lot of practice will help.

 

[actor]

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