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I Hate Hate Hate Verbal


medhopeful64

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Verbal is destroying my soul every day. Every test I do I get dismal marks (around 7-8, sometimes 9). I have been tracking the mistakes I make, and comparing it to last year (rewrite :( ), and it seems like I am STILL making similar mistakes. I have been using EK, and following their approach. Taking those 5 second breaks. Formulating the main idea/author's tone mentally before going onto the questions. And yet I still can't do this. These are the mistakes I tend to make (and continue to struggle with):

 

- whether support offered for a conclusion is weak or strong

- meaning of words in the context its used (got a couple of these wrong...seem obvious after I check the answer but why its not obvious to me at first try i don't know)

- A is B as C is to _____

 

And the number one mistake I make is that I can almost always narrow it down to 50/50...but end up choosing the wrong one. They both seem like good answers, and lots of the time I just guess and move on or overthink them and pick the 2nd best answer.

 

Also, I really struggle on business/legal/economics passages. I read them and have no idea what I just read, so its harder to formulate the main idea since I don't understand just about every other word in the passage. I think I'll try looking up a few legal terms and getting myself a little more familiar with these types of topics? Suggestions?

 

I am also a little stressed for time. At the beginning I kept missing an entire passage, but now I am only a few minutes overtime usually. But that's not good enough of course, I need to be able to finish comfortably within 60 minutes.

 

And, sometimes I actually get the author's main idea wrong or slightly twisted (this would explain why I get a few questions wrong) or misunderstand the author's tone toward the subject matter!! If I can't do this, then its like a lost cause...

 

What is wrong with me!? I feel like this is the ultimate hurdle that I just can't overcome...Verbal is designed to trick over analytical minds and that's exactly what happens to me but I can't break its hold on me! I am aiming for McMaster particularly, and I need a super high verbal mark to offset my sub-par GPA, but it doesn't look like I will ever get there :(

 

Suggestions please?

 

Edit: Before someone refers me to Erk's suggestions, I already read them awhile ago, and sadly I haven't been improving.

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Hey medhopeful64

 

I was in the same situation as you last week and since my test is on Friday I figured verbal was a lost cause for me as well. The biggest difference I found was that I was overstudying for the section. I was doing a test a day in the ek and I think my brain was literally melting lol. I would recommend taking a couple of days off from verbal to clear your mind and then try another test with a fresh mind. Also, I found that thinking about the answers logically helped narrow down my options. I always felt like there were 2 answers that were very similar and it could go either way. Just try to pick which one sounds the most logical to you. I found that in some cases, I could look at a question and answer it without referring to the passage and this helped me find the most logical answer. It may also be beneficial to ditch the techniques that mcat prep books tell us to follow. I found the most effective way to do a verbal passage is to just read it and just try to understand the flow of the argument and how the author approaches it and how he or she feels when writing it. Just remember, everything you need to answer the questions is in the passage so if you focus your attention to understanding the passage you will yield the highest results. If you don't understand certain passages it may be beneficial to start reading the economist or any other online newspaper that you can get your hands on. I changed my homepage to BBC news and before I do anything online I go to a couple of articles and read it how I would if it were a verbal passage. By using these techniques I have improved from a solid 8 to a solid 10 (which for me is shocking because I never thought I could improve on verbal). So don't give up because you will improve the more practice you get with verbal!

 

Good luck studying and I hope this helps!

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Solid advice by lekarza. I had the exact same problem as you two. I did 9 EK in a row and wasn't able to improve at all from the usual 7 to 9. Therefore I took a whole week off and during that week read random humanities articles (my weakest areas) and tried to devise a clear strategy and just kind of on the surface evaluated some of the things that i was consistently getting wrong. I have done 3 more verbal reasoning since and gotten scores in the range of 10-12. Therefore I would take lekarza's advice. Take some time off and don't think about how badly you need to do well, It will just cause you unnecessary stress.

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Well before the recent improvement in my score, I continuously found myself being frustrated and intimidated by the passages. My scores before continuously were somewhere along the lines of : social sciences 11/12 natural sciences: 10/11 humanities: 9/17.

A few things I changed to change the humanities score :

- Try to feel what the author is feeling (i know its been said alot) but it gave me a general intuition of what the right answer might be.This is very hard to do. You have to actively be reading the passage.

- In solving the questions for those passages, Unlike science passages there is no way to completely eliminate the wrong answers and pinpoint the right one. Hence the best option is to stop wasting time trying to justify and find the ABSOLUTE correct answer (there is no such thing). Instead narrow it down to the best two and have faith in your choice. Which has worked consistently well for me.

-Take every piece of advice by examkrackers. They're right its painful to go through the passage and come up with a main idea after reading. But taking a few seconds after each passage to formulate a main idea makes it easier to answer many questions and saves time.

-Don't mindlessly read a passage, pay attention so you can know that when you are not paying attention. Re read a paragraph if you have to instead of just moving on and hoping that you would get the right answer without understanding a passage.

 

Everyone is different so try to pinpoint what problem specifically applies to you . Analyse your past tests and try to figure out your way of thinking and where it went wrong.

 

Anyway I hope the post wasn't too long. But I hope it helps. I know the frustration that comes with trying to improve the score in this section. Best of luck :)

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Lol, your post could be a book and it wouldn't be too long.

 

I think everyone struggles with verbal at some point or another, I know very few people who just immediately start getting 10s or higher.

 

Thanks for the post though, in essence it's stuff I've read before but I suppose I haven't quite mastered yet. I do like the information about the absolute/justification of correct answers - do you have any tips on when you have two choices left? Like you've narrowed it down to B and C - what do you do then? I was thinking of deciding some sort of process like, determining if one answer is extreme, or too vague, or too <whatever> and eventually cross one out like that.

 

Thanks again for the help.

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I'm sorry if my post may have misled you into thinking that the improvement was that drastic. I have been actively working on this for 2 months now and tried at least 14 full length verbal ( both EK and aamc) and tried to analyse what exactly I was getting wrong. The only reason I started improving was because I took some time off and actually started listening to the advice on this forum and examkrackers. Because once you start a test under timed conditions It is very easy to get in the habit of just reading the passages and doing the usual banging of the head against the wall.

Btw one thing i had not done before was also writing a test without a time limit, That helped me in some ways as well.

 

Anyway in terms of narrowing an answer down. It comes down to how well you understand the authors main point. I find that most of the time two choices will have phrases/words from the passage that sound familiar but state exactly the opposite of what the author is trying to imply. Choosing between the last two is just more of a gut feeling for me. I started going for that and then that kind of has worked. I know this isn't very helpful but it was kind of a leap of faith in what I thought was the better answer. I can't really pinpoint as to what exactly my thought process was.

 

But don't let anyone tell you that it is impossible to improve in this section. Its extremely difficult but It is not impossible. I am sorry if i am not much of a help here but keep practising and you'll get there!

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Edit: Before someone refers me to Erk's suggestions, I already read them awhile ago, and sadly I haven't been improving.

 

D'oh :( Sorry mate. I got nothin' else really.

 

Well I got one thing but I think you have an understanding of it already, and just have to study your own mind and learn how to break it. That is that you may be overstudying the questions. A decent rule of thumb is usually this: If you have read the question and answers carefully, and a single answer seems immediately better, that is probably the correct answer. Take a moment to study it and make sure it doesn't have any glaring errors, then select it. I mean glaring errors, not niggling details that might damage it. In the end you may just need to go with your gut on these ones, which is often hard for analytical minds.

 

Other than that all I can advise is that you need to come to terms with your own mind. Find out why you are making these mistakes and focus on altering your thought patterns to get over it. Don't do it by bashing yourself in the head. Approach it calmly, meditatively, and study the questions you got wrong. Focus on the process that lead to selecting the wrong answer, identify the point where that process failed you, and as an exercise, try to develop an alternate train of thought that would not have failed you but is otherwise similar to the original pattern. This is a tough job that can only come through practice and dedication, but it can be done.

 

Some tips on that: Try doing a practice passage out loud with a sound recorder. Say out loud everything you think as you answer a question. Then after finding out the right answer, listen to your playback and see what you thought. Even if you were correct, check that you were correct for the right reason.

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Hey medhopeful64

 

I was in the same situation as you last week and since my test is on Friday I figured verbal was a lost cause for me as well. The biggest difference I found was that I was overstudying for the section. I was doing a test a day in the ek and I think my brain was literally melting lol. I would recommend taking a couple of days off from verbal to clear your mind and then try another test with a fresh mind. Also, I found that thinking about the answers logically helped narrow down my options. I always felt like there were 2 answers that were very similar and it could go either way. Just try to pick which one sounds the most logical to you. I found that in some cases, I could look at a question and answer it without referring to the passage and this helped me find the most logical answer. It may also be beneficial to ditch the techniques that mcat prep books tell us to follow. I found the most effective way to do a verbal passage is to just read it and just try to understand the flow of the argument and how the author approaches it and how he or she feels when writing it. Just remember, everything you need to answer the questions is in the passage so if you focus your attention to understanding the passage you will yield the highest results. If you don't understand certain passages it may be beneficial to start reading the economist or any other online newspaper that you can get your hands on. I changed my homepage to BBC news and before I do anything online I go to a couple of articles and read it how I would if it were a verbal passage. By using these techniques I have improved from a solid 8 to a solid 10 (which for me is shocking because I never thought I could improve on verbal). So don't give up because you will improve the more practice you get with verbal!

 

Good luck studying and I hope this helps!

 

Hey lekarza, thanks for the suggestions. I feel the exact same way - I can always narrow it down to two, then often pick the wrong one. I think I am overanalyzing it because when I look at the answers they are usually so insultingly obvious. But sometimes I want to argue that my answer is more correct, but hey I guess verbal is supposed to make you feel like that, moreso on the EK tests than the AAMC ones I found. I'll try reading economist more often too (I did read a few but not many).

 

Solid advice by lekarza. I had the exact same problem as you two. I did 9 EK in a row and wasn't able to improve at all from the usual 7 to 9. Therefore I took a whole week off and during that week read random humanities articles (my weakest areas) and tried to devise a clear strategy and just kind of on the surface evaluated some of the things that i was consistently getting wrong. I have done 3 more verbal reasoning since and gotten scores in the range of 10-12. Therefore I would take lekarza's advice. Take some time off and don't think about how badly you need to do well, It will just cause you unnecessary stress.

 

Nice! That's encouraging to hear...I have taken a few days off since my last verbal exam and will do another one soon, hopefully it will go better! I know what I am doing wrong essentially, breaking it is harder to do though lol.

 

D'oh :( Sorry mate. I got nothin' else really.

 

Well I got one thing but I think you have an understanding of it already, and just have to study your own mind and learn how to break it. That is that you may be overstudying the questions. A decent rule of thumb is usually this: If you have read the question and answers carefully, and a single answer seems immediately better, that is probably the correct answer. Take a moment to study it and make sure it doesn't have any glaring errors, then select it. I mean glaring errors, not niggling details that might damage it. In the end you may just need to go with your gut on these ones, which is often hard for analytical minds.

 

Other than that all I can advise is that you need to come to terms with your own mind. Find out why you are making these mistakes and focus on altering your thought patterns to get over it. Don't do it by bashing yourself in the head. Approach it calmly, meditatively, and study the questions you got wrong. Focus on the process that lead to selecting the wrong answer, identify the point where that process failed you, and as an exercise, try to develop an alternate train of thought that would not have failed you but is otherwise similar to the original pattern. This is a tough job that can only come through practice and dedication, but it can be done.

 

Some tips on that: Try doing a practice passage out loud with a sound recorder. Say out loud everything you think as you answer a question. Then after finding out the right answer, listen to your playback and see what you thought. Even if you were correct, check that you were correct for the right reason.

 

Hey Erk! Thanks for your reply! Yeah I've found that the ones I immediately pick/go with my gut are often correct. And that's a good idea regarding the voice recording, maybe I'll try it!

 

The one thing I am really struggling with though is time. If I take an exam without time limits, then I can score a 10. I think its because it makes me feel calmer, and because I actually have time to read the passage more slowly and try to understand it better. Under the time limit though, I usually have only a couple minutes left to do the last passage.

 

So I think I need to clear my head and not pressure myself, but reading the passages too calmly slows me down and I can't finish on time. Any suggestions on the timing issue? (sometimes I finish on time, sometimes not)

 

Thanks guys for all your suggestions.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Hey guys... im also struggling with verbal more than other areas, i've been doing 3 EK 101 passages everyday. but since my test day is approaching (sept 1st)... i've started doing an entire test in a sitting. I find myself getting really tired on the 8th passage. Im consistent with the rest of them... only make one mistake per passage/ sometimes two if its a really intense history passage. But when I get to that 8th passage, i feel like im fried- and always end up making 4-5 mistakes. its driving me insane. So i tried stopping my timer after the 7th passage, and taking a nice long 1 min break... and then doing the 8th passage. and i do really well on it.

 

How can i fix this problem... just more practice?

 

Ps. I've also been doing teh Kaplan FLs (haven't started AAMC ones yet) and I have the same problem with the verbal section only though, don't seem to get as tired with the PS and BS sections.

 

Any tips :) ?

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Hey guys... im also struggling with verbal more than other areas, i've been doing 3 EK 101 passages everyday. but since my test day is approaching (sept 1st)... i've started doing an entire test in a sitting. I find myself getting really tired on the 8th passage. Im consistent with the rest of them... only make one mistake per passage/ sometimes two if its a really intense history passage. But when I get to that 8th passage, i feel like im fried- and always end up making 4-5 mistakes. its driving me insane. So i tried stopping my timer after the 7th passage, and taking a nice long 1 min break... and then doing the 8th passage. and i do really well on it.

 

How can i fix this problem... just more practice?

 

Ps. I've also been doing teh Kaplan FLs (haven't started AAMC ones yet) and I have the same problem with the verbal section only though, don't seem to get as tired with the PS and BS sections.

 

Any tips :) ?

 

I'm guessing you have the older version of the EK101 VR book, which follows the older MCAT format - 9 VR passages in 85 minutes. The new format consists of 7 passages in 60 minutes, so if you get tired by the 8th passage, then you should be in good condition to complete 7 passages!

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I'm guessing you have the older version of the EK101 VR book' date=' which follows the older MCAT format - 9 VR passages in 85 minutes. The new format consists of 7 passages in 60 minutes, so if you get tired by the 8th passage, then you should be in good condition to complete 7 passages![/quote']

 

right :) THANK YOU!

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The way I trained was to start at the humble bottom, targeting 60 minute tests only and scoring low. Then, you start to study what you do wrong, improve your score, get less tired, and get faster and faster. It's just a matter of training. No prep course can teach you verbal the way YOU need to do verbal IMHO because in the end, it's only your brain digesting the info presented immediately before you have to answer the questions (which can only be answered that fast upon learning what sorts of prompts and answers will appear on the test anyway). You just have to work hard. Verbal training exhausted me, physically and emotionally (no extra drama here - it really did) but it improved my score. Is it worth it? Heck yes.

 

If I had to write on September 1st, then I would do full-length tests between now and then. I did one every day for 2 weeks and I improved.

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The way I trained was to start at the humble bottom, targeting 60 minute tests only and scoring low. Then, you start to study what you do wrong, improve your score, get less tired, and get faster and faster. It's just a matter of training. No prep course can teach you verbal the way YOU need to do verbal IMHO because in the end, it's only your brain digesting the info presented immediately before you have to answer the questions (which can only be answered that fast upon learning what sorts of prompts and answers will appear on the test anyway). You just have to work hard. Verbal training exhausted me, physically and emotionally (no extra drama here - it really did) but it improved my score. Is it worth it? Heck yes.

 

If I had to write on September 1st, then I would do full-length tests between now and then. I did one every day for 2 weeks and I improved.

 

hey. thank you so much... that was actually really good advice.

thanks!

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I lucked out, cause Erk has been my VR tutor this summer:D

 

I am rewriting my MCAT in hopes to get at least a 10 on VR. In addition to strategies already mentioned above, there is one important thing that I learned about what I was doing wrong:

 

I used to think my own thoughts waaay too much when reading the passages. I don't mean just thinking about the weekend or something. I basically injected my own opinions into the passage as I was reading it, instead of treating it analytically...or, how should I say that, instead of treating it objectively. Once I learned to "detach" myself and become more of a sponge, my score went up to 10 on AAMC practice tests. It is very hard to do, since your ego just LOVES incorporating your own ideas into everything you read. Gotta let your ego go.

 

...and Erk was the one to point this problem out lol :P

 

Hope this makes sense!

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Hey guys,

 

for those of you who took princeton review prep course and did well on the verbal, did you use their "do 6 passages well and skip 1 technique?" I'm also very frustrated with the verbal section; I might get 1 wrong in each passage but if I skip a passage then for sure get 6 wrong in one passage...Or is most people doing all seven passages?

I'm sorry if it has been asked a lot, but if you are doing all seven passages, how have you been able to pace yourself? Now that I typed it out, it sounds ridiculous to be skipping a passage..I don't know, any inputs?

 

thanks in advance!

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Hey guys,

 

for those of you who took princeton review prep course and did well on the verbal, did you use their "do 6 passages well and skip 1 technique?" I'm also very frustrated with the verbal section; I might get 1 wrong in each passage but if I skip a passage then for sure get 6 wrong in one passage...Or is most people doing all seven passages?

I'm sorry if it has been asked a lot, but if you are doing all seven passages, how have you been able to pace yourself? Now that I typed it out, it sounds ridiculous to be skipping a passage..I don't know, any inputs?

 

thanks in advance!

 

Honestly, I was using princeton's verbal strategy and found it to be useless. I think that you need to do all the passages properly in order to pull of consistent double digit scores. When I was using this strategy i barely had time to do 6 passages, never mind 7. I think this is because I was wasting time ranking passages, highlighting useless things, and other time-wasting techniques they want you to do etc.

 

I have switched to EK's method, and my scores have improved (on AAMC practice tests). I don't highlight anything, do the passages in order, always read for the main idea, and try not to go back to the passage as much when answering questions. I now have time to do all 7 passages relatively comfortably.

 

Just by doing one of the passages properly and not guessing can improve your score dramatically.

 

TL; DR ditch princeton's verbal strategy and try EK's, it has worked for me on practice tests so far.

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Honestly, I was using princeton's verbal strategy and found it to be useless. I think that you need to do all the passages properly in order to pull of consistent double digit scores. When I was using this strategy i barely had time to do 6 passages, never mind 7. I think this is because I was wasting time ranking passages, highlighting useless things, and other time-wasting techniques they want you to do etc.

 

I have switched to EK's method, and my scores have improved (on AAMC practice tests). I don't highlight anything, do the passages in order, always read for the main idea, and try not to go back to the passage as much when answering questions. I now have time to do all 7 passages relatively comfortably.

 

Just by doing one of the passages properly and not guessing can improve your score dramatically.

 

TL; DR ditch princeton's verbal strategy and try EK's, it has worked for me on practice tests so far.

 

 

Thanks for replying! That's how I feel. With the 3min reading, 1min per question, somehow I still ran out of time after 6 passages. Skipping one passage is like throwing out 6 marks, which makes a really big difference..

 

I only have princeton review books. How is it that you have time to do 7 passages comfortably? Is there a different pacing? Can you share the EK strategies?

 

Thanks! :)

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Thanks for replying! That's how I feel. With the 3min reading, 1min per question, somehow I still ran out of time after 6 passages. Skipping one passage is like throwing out 6 marks, which makes a really big difference..

 

I only have princeton review books. How is it that you have time to do 7 passages comfortably? Is there a different pacing? Can you share the EK strategies?

 

Thanks! :)

 

Don't spent 3 minutes on the passage. Spent at least 4 or 4.5. You're going through the passages too quickly; if you can't get the main point and nuances in the argument then you'll be wasting time "figuring out" obvious questions, hence your trouble with finishing on time.

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Thanks for replying! That's how I feel. With the 3min reading, 1min per question, somehow I still ran out of time after 6 passages. Skipping one passage is like throwing out 6 marks, which makes a really big difference..

 

I only have princeton review books. How is it that you have time to do 7 passages comfortably? Is there a different pacing? Can you share the EK strategies?

 

Thanks! :)

 

I honestly, don't know how I had more time at the end, I just did lol. I guess it's because I cut out all the time-wasting crap.

 

1. Do the passages in order. You will have to do all of them anyways, so stop wasting time jumping around and trying to rank the passages (ranking implies that you read a passage for a bit and some of the questions --> big time waste)

 

2. Minimal highlighting, if any at all. I don't highlight anymore. When you highlight, you are essentially reading twice, which wastes some time. Just make mental notes. EK asks you, "When was the last time you referred to highlighted text when answering a question?" Honestly, right there I stopped, because the answer for me was never lol.

 

3. After you read the passage, take about 20 seconds to form the main idea of the passage, and the author's tone. These two things will help answer the MAJORITY of questions relating to the passage. EK emphasizes to answer questions without referring to the passage (as finding and reading stuff wastes time) and just relying on the main idea. I've been much quicker answering questions this way (I was really unsure of this method, but it works well). Although, obviously you need to refer to the passages sometimes, just try and limit it.

 

4. Eliminate answer options that don't relate to the question, are too extreme or narrow. Princeton does a good job on this front.

 

5. Be confident when you are doing this section, and try to be interested in what the passages are about. Getting into the 'zone' before verbal has really helped me out.

 

As Alchemist11 (Mac FTW) stated, take your time (about 4 minutes) reading the passages and understand it to the best of your ability. You don't need to understand the whole thing, just the main idea, which most of the questions will be about. Remember, not to re-read paragraphs or sentences if you think you haven't been paying attention (big time sink), you've retained more than you think!

 

These are some things that have worked for me. Obviously I'm not an authority on Verbal, so take my advice with a grain of salt. I write tomorrow, so I'll let you know in a month if this works on the real thing lol!

 

If you need anymore help, feel free to ask, especially Erk who is awesome with this stuff.

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I hate verbal too!!! The only thing I improved so far is timing. I am finally able to finish all 7 readings without being too rush, most of the times at least. But the mark is not improving at all..I was getting 10s last week and this week I did aamc 4 and 9, VR is 8!!!!I got 12 on aamc 7 though, and I don't know why. I feel when I am guessing, I get a better score. When I think I got it all, it always ended badly for me..Test is next Tuesday, what should I do?

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I honestly, don't know how I had more time at the end, I just did lol. I guess it's because I cut out all the time-wasting crap.

 

1. Do the passages in order. You will have to do all of them anyways, so stop wasting time jumping around and trying to rank the passages (ranking implies that you read a passage for a bit and some of the questions --> big time waste)

 

2. Minimal highlighting, if any at all. I don't highlight anymore. When you highlight, you are essentially reading twice, which wastes some time. Just make mental notes. EK asks you, "When was the last time you referred to highlighted text when answering a question?" Honestly, right there I stopped, because the answer for me was never lol.

 

3. After you read the passage, take about 20 seconds to form the main idea of the passage, and the author's tone. These two things will help answer the MAJORITY of questions relating to the passage. EK emphasizes to answer questions without referring to the passage (as finding and reading stuff wastes time) and just relying on the main idea. I've been much quicker answering questions this way (I was really unsure of this method, but it works well). Although, obviously you need to refer to the passages sometimes, just try and limit it.

 

4. Eliminate answer options that don't relate to the question, are too extreme or narrow. Princeton does a good job on this front.

 

5. Be confident when you are doing this section, and try to be interested in what the passages are about. Getting into the 'zone' before verbal has really helped me out.

 

As Alchemist11 (Mac FTW) stated, take your time (about 4 minutes) reading the passages and understand it to the best of your ability. You don't need to understand the whole thing, just the main idea, which most of the questions will be about. Remember, not to re-read paragraphs or sentences if you think you haven't been paying attention (big time sink), you've retained more than you think!

 

These are some things that have worked for me. Obviously I'm not an authority on Verbal, so take my advice with a grain of salt. I write tomorrow, so I'll let you know in a month if this works on the real thing lol!

 

If you need anymore help, feel free to ask, especially Erk who is awesome with this stuff.

 

LOL what? Did I write I go to Mac somewhere? >_> How do you know I go to mac bro!

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