What to do when you Lose Track during a Verbal Section?

[an aspiring doctor]

While taking verbal sections I have noticed that during passages my mind strays away and subsequently I lose the grasp of the passage. What do you recommend as an efficient method of remaining on course while reading?

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[chewy2008]

When you find yourself blanking out, force yourself to remember what you are reading about. Then figure out the argument. I did this during the actual test and it worked. Also tell yourself that your getting admitted to medical school depends on your verbal score. Get your anxiety level a bit higher (not too high!) because it will help you focus! It's like getting an adrenaline rush.

 

[K1NG]

This actually worked for me lol.. At the beginning of each passage I just close my eyes for 5 seconds and countdown. Once I hit 1 I open my eyes and say No Fear or Focus. Gets me really into it.

 

[NextStepTutor_2]

Another excellent technique is making a passage map with paragraph summaries. This forces you to break the passage into manageable chunks and think about what you read at the paragraph level. You'll never read too far before zoning out. Plus it's helpful in so many other ways in terms of analyzing the passage.

 

[RC4L]

I like to write a sentence per paragraph that summarizes the author's main point in language as close to quotation as possible. In that sentence I capitalize key words as well. It really helps to keep the logic of the entire passage flowing rather than allowing your mind to separate each paragraph into separate stories. A ten second breather between each passage with eyes focused on a distant part of the room seems to help a lot too. You really do have to train your mind to stay focused while you practice though. Among other reasons, I stopped allowing myself to refer back to the passage while answering and that made me read more responsibly knowing I could only look at the passage once.

 

[Wasted Energy]

Exam Krackers touts the following logic, and I've found it to be fairly accurate:

The mind forces everyone to take (mental) breaks during the VR section. Everyone. No one can plow through the entire 60 minutes without losing focus. So what is important is when you take these breaks. If a break is taken in the middle of a passage (unintentionally of course), then the reader loses track of the main argument/logic and is forced to reread, losing additional time.

Their solution is to control when you take these breaks, so that your mind doesn't force you into taking them in the middle of a passage. To do this, look away from the screen before each passage (even the first one) and forget about the previous passage. Spend about 5 seconds here (stretch, yawn, deep breaths, whatever).

 

[an aspiring doctor]

Thank you for all of your help! I will put these methods into effect tomorrow on my next full length.

 

[ortnakas]

Princeton Review's passage-mapping technique was great for me (although I preferred ExamKrackers as a whole).

 

[pepocho]

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