Timing strategy for verbal???

[ema2iur]

I apologize for the long post in advance but if anyone could weigh in I’d appreciate it (You can probably focus on the bolded part near the bottom to get the question but I am also providing my situation and reasoning behind my approach beforehand). I would like to ask whether someone has combined verbal strategies from different tutoring companies. I took a Princeton review hyperlearning course a couple of years ago, and they taught us to map the passages (Briefly summarize each passage paragraph in a few words, state the bottom line/main idea, and then determine the author’s tone/attitude). Moreover, princeton’s strategy is to rate passages according to difficulty and to leave the most difficult passage for the end and essentially guess on it if you run out of time. I also got the examkrackers books after many people recommended them, and their strategy essentially denounces this strategy. They say that summarizing each paragraph is a huge waste of time and so is rating passages. Rather, they recommend that we read passages straight, formulate the main idea and author’s tone, and just answer the questions with confidence according to the main idea. I have gravitated towards the examkrackers strategy simply because of timing issues and I have been getting some decent scores but with significant variation (From 8-12 but usually more towards the lower end) and I am looking for improved consistency.

 

Recently I have tried the Princeton strategy of at least briefly summarizing each passage paragraph and I have improved my accuracy at the expense of time. What I am trying to do is hybridize the strategies by doing the passages in chronological order as examkrackers suggests, but also making brief summaries for each passage paragraph as Princeton suggests. The problem with this is that as one of these companies mentions, people on average read at about 200 words per minute (With college students supposedly reading faster than this), which means that for a passage that is roughly 600 words, reading it straight would supposedly take 3 minutes, which is 21 minutes for all 7 passages (Leaving around 39 minutes for the 40 verbal questions). This timing strategy is advocated by both tutoring companies (3 minutes for reading each passage and roughly 5-6 minutes for questions and squeezing in the main idea/author’s tone somewhere in there), but it is much more realistic using the examkrackers approach without briefly summarizing each paragraph.

 

I have recently tried using a reading comprehension application on my phone and I am finding that I in fact do read between 200-250 words at the moment, which takes into account the fact that I have to understand and remember what I’m reading, rather than just speed reading through the material just for the sake of getting a more impressive number without remembering much. So I guess what I wanted to know is for those who score 11+ on verbal, how did you manage to combine these strategies if you did at all? To get a 12-15 you have to be accurate (Needing at least 35/40 in the section) and therefore quick, because I find it rather unlikely that someone is using princeton’s strategy of ranking passages and guessing on the hard passage that they leave for the end and getting such a high score (You would need to get nearly perfect on the 6 passages you actually try on which is daunting itself but then you’d also need at least 1-3 right on the last passage with guessing to get such a score which is even more unlikely). Are people reading at a much faster pace than I am, which I would be suspicious of on any passage where the language becomes more complex and the topic is exotic with lots of information. Essentially, can someone comment whether they are capable of tackling verbal by briefly summarizing each passage paragraph (In addition to formulating the bottom line & author’s tone) and getting to every question without running out of time? Two solutions that come to mind are i) make the paragraph summaries only 1 or two words (Which is practical but still takes time as the paragraphs would have to be glossed over after reading them to really reflect on what the main point of each paragraph is) or use the highlighting tool very very effectively and ii) increase my reading comprehension to improve my timing (Which is rather impractical as I believe it could really only be marginally improved in general reading outside the test, but even more unlikely in the test, where random passages in the arts and political science are difficult to understand/remember even at a slower pace than normal reading). I think I’d also like to mention that I find doing the brief summaries of each paragraph useful because abstract passages are difficult to understand/remember and just plowing straight through for the sake of time leaves me head-scratching at the end wondering what I just read. Congratulations on getting through my post if you read it all!

[ema2iur]

I would also like to add that I am generally capable of formulating the main idea/ author's tone by reading the passage straight as examkrackers suggests to do but I find that without the brief paragraph summaries, the smaller details often get lost in the process. And although I feel as though I shouldn't get hung up on the details, I think that sometimes by forgetting something, I may end up focusing on a wrong part of a passage for answering a particular question.

 

In addition, I also know that getting an 11+ is in many ways a matter of luck but for those who get such scores consistently in practice must be doing something right. Thanks!

[apache]

it's weird, i can use words to keep track of time, but ive played bass getting close to 13 years now. so i just have this backround bass for a ten minute tool song (easier since there are many long ones), really simplifies it

[apache]

yeah my phonological reading speed is off the charts, not even close to 99th percentile

 

i wish i could help, but telling you generalizations wont help much, like i get 15 on 40-50 percent my practice exams, like 4-5 years ago... then like rare 13, mostly 14s

 

I apologize for the long post in advance but if anyone could weigh in I’d appreciate it (You can probably focus on the bolded part near the bottom to get the question but I am also providing my situation and reasoning behind my approach beforehand). I would like to ask whether someone has combined verbal strategies from different tutoring companies. I took a Princeton review hyperlearning course a couple of years ago, and they taught us to map the passages (Briefly summarize each passage paragraph in a few words, state the bottom line/main idea, and then determine the author’s tone/attitude). Moreover, princeton’s strategy is to rate passages according to difficulty and to leave the most difficult passage for the end and essentially guess on it if you run out of time. I also got the examkrackers books after many people recommended them, and their strategy essentially denounces this strategy. They say that summarizing each paragraph is a huge waste of time and so is rating passages. Rather, they recommend that we read passages straight, formulate the main idea and author’s tone, and just answer the questions with confidence according to the main idea. I have gravitated towards the examkrackers strategy simply because of timing issues and I have been getting some decent scores but with significant variation (From 8-12 but usually more towards the lower end) and I am looking for improved consistency.

 

Recently I have tried the Princeton strategy of at least briefly summarizing each passage paragraph and I have improved my accuracy at the expense of time. What I am trying to do is hybridize the strategies by doing the passages in chronological order as examkrackers suggests, but also making brief summaries for each passage paragraph as Princeton suggests. The problem with this is that as one of these companies mentions, people on average read at about 200 words per minute (With college students supposedly reading faster than this), which means that for a passage that is roughly 600 words, reading it straight would supposedly take 3 minutes, which is 21 minutes for all 7 passages (Leaving around 39 minutes for the 40 verbal questions). This timing strategy is advocated by both tutoring companies (3 minutes for reading each passage and roughly 5-6 minutes for questions and squeezing in the main idea/author’s tone somewhere in there), but it is much more realistic using the examkrackers approach without briefly summarizing each paragraph.

 

I have recently tried using a reading comprehension application on my phone and I am finding that I in fact do read between 200-250 words at the moment, which takes into account the fact that I have to understand and remember what I’m reading, rather than just speed reading through the material just for the sake of getting a more impressive number without remembering much. So I guess what I wanted to know is for those who score 11+ on verbal, how did you manage to combine these strategies if you did at all? To get a 12-15 you have to be accurate (Needing at least 35/40 in the section) and therefore quick, because I find it rather unlikely that someone is using princeton’s strategy of ranking passages and guessing on the hard passage that they leave for the end and getting such a high score (You would need to get nearly perfect on the 6 passages you actually try on which is daunting itself but then you’d also need at least 1-3 right on the last passage with guessing to get such a score which is even more unlikely). Are people reading at a much faster pace than I am, which I would be suspicious of on any passage where the language becomes more complex and the topic is exotic with lots of information. Essentially, can someone comment whether they are capable of tackling verbal by briefly summarizing each passage paragraph (In addition to formulating the bottom line & author’s tone) and getting to every question without running out of time? Two solutions that come to mind are i) make the paragraph summaries only 1 or two words (Which is practical but still takes time as the paragraphs would have to be glossed over after reading them to really reflect on what the main point of each paragraph is) or use the highlighting tool very very effectively and ii) increase my reading comprehension to improve my timing (Which is rather impractical as I believe it could really only be marginally improved in general reading outside the test, but even more unlikely in the test, where random passages in the arts and political science are difficult to understand/remember even at a slower pace than normal reading). I think I’d also like to mention that I find doing the brief summaries of each paragraph useful because abstract passages are difficult to understand/remember and just plowing straight through for the sake of time leaves me head-scratching at the end wondering what I just read. Congratulations on getting through my post if you read it all!

[bored]

Lol at a 1000 words per minute reading speed and you dont that's a gift?

[ema2iur]

As a child/teenager I was always bored in class because of it but now I realize its a pretty cool talent to have.

 

Do you by any chance know what reading speed you pull off for the verbal passages? Do you think you are around that speed for verbal passages, which would be a feat in itself as verbal passages aren't really designed for you to joyfully fly through. I can't imagine you reading at a 1000 wpm in a philosophy passage and comprehending it much, but if you do, then your gift is all the more impressive!

 

Do you do well in verbal if you don't mind me asking? Reading it over and over can be helpful in cementing small things you may have forgotten reading it through once more slowly but I'm just wondering how accurate you are with the questions? I feel the questions themselves can often leave you grappling between choices, regardless of how well you understood/retained the passage.