Guest ChrisJones Posted July 18, 2006 Report Share Posted July 18, 2006 Just wondering if someone had strategies for getting through verbal reasoning? Trying to pick up my speed a bit... seems like the 9th passage is just one too many. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest dopetown Posted July 20, 2006 Report Share Posted July 20, 2006 Read actively, annotate, try to memorize where some key words and names are, and note the organization of the essay while you read. When you read the question stem, make sure you understand what the question is asking. Praise Allah. Drink Pepsi instead of Coke. Note the scope of each answer choice; some choices may look attractive because of their convoluted or elaborate diction, but are ultimately wrong because it is not supported in the essay. Be suspicious of strong or extreme answers that may include "always," or "never," or "proven" etc. I have a friend who, as soon as he saw a strong or extreme answer choice, would cross it off immediately. I think he scored a 12, but it may have been 11. Take what you will from this. I'm only getting a 9 give or take 1, and I seriously got raped last night with about a 6 or 7, so my real score may not even be a 9! :x Oh yes, I'm flipping out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Jochi1543 Posted July 20, 2006 Report Share Posted July 20, 2006 Just a question - can you underline and otherwise mark the text during the actual exam? I always circle important prepositions and other types of junctions like "however," "although," etc. It usually helps with some questions that ask about the author's tone, degree of support of the theory he's describing, etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest grobz Posted July 20, 2006 Report Share Posted July 20, 2006 Yup, you can go crazy on the test booklet. In fact, that is a very good stragey b/c you will map the passage better visually. good luck, grobz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest darlaa Posted July 21, 2006 Report Share Posted July 21, 2006 I found that figuring out which kind of questions I consistently screw up on and then why I was screwing them up. For example, I've been able to learn how to deal with my idiocy on specific questions-I wasn't going back to the passage and i should have been. To me, analysing why I got the answers right or wrong has been why my score has gone up 2 points (PR)-still not high enough to get anywhere, but that's what the practice is for right? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest dopetown Posted July 21, 2006 Report Share Posted July 21, 2006 Although practicing with passages is crucial to improvement, I would not necessarily rely on them exclusively. Note what subject matter pesters you the most, and read their associated magazines, journals, essays, etc. to familiarize yourself. At the very least, I think you can further acquant yourself with subjects' esoteric vocabulary than you would if you read only VR passages. Mine has always been law and politics. This one passage I did today talked all about canon lawyers and ecclesiastical law. WTF?! Needless to say, I scored a shameful 3/7 on that piece of tripe. I find that if I don't understand even one or two paragraphs of a difficult passage, I might as well do the questions with my head up myass. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest darlaa Posted July 21, 2006 Report Share Posted July 21, 2006 I have exactly the opposite problem dopetown, if I know the material (like cognitive psychology that PR loves), I do much worse than on the topics I'm clueless about. I think b/c I figure that I MUST know the answer, and shouldn't bother checking the passage....death. With my clueless topics I check the passage the religiously and score much better. You'd think I'd just learn to always check the passage Getting a handle on a range of vocabulary is a great idea -thanks for that! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest SevenAges Posted July 21, 2006 Report Share Posted July 21, 2006 Read actively. Many don't pay attention to the passage as much as they should. If you force yourself to be interested in the topic, it goes much smoother. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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