Facing hard time in verbal section

Hi HasnainAfxal,

I’m glad you reached out, and I’m happy to help. So, given that you’ve been preparing for three months and are still at a V21, you really need to look at how you’ve been preparing and make some changes, right? A few things stand out to me from what you wrote:

1) You struggle to understand the meaning of sentences when given a time constraint.

2) You “lose interest and focus” when reading multiple sentences in SC, RC, and CR.

So, let’s address point number 1. Struggling with the meaning of a lot of what you read is a sign that you are lacking some basic, fundamental skills in Sentence Correction, Critical Reasoning, and Reading Comprehension. Your first order of business is to go back and really learn the foundations of ALL verbal topics. Once you feel that you have sufficiently learned those foundations, then move on to more advanced topics.

Point number 2 is a big one. If you find that you are losing focus when reading long paragraphs or passages, you MUST adjust your strategy for attacking such questions. For instance, instead of trying to keep track of the content of longer passages in your head, jot down general notes as you read. Doing so will keep you engaged in what you’re reading and help minimize confusion.

Overall, it is likely that you have to slow down to speed up in GMAT Verbal. You have to learn to comprehend what you read and keep it all straight, and to use what you are reading to arrive at correct answers. So, at this point, your best bet is to focus getting the correct answers to questions one at a time,taking as much time as you need to see the key details and understand the logic of what you are reading.

If you don't understand something, go back and read it one sentence at a time, even one word at a time, not moving on until you understand what you have just read.

So, for instance, if you are working on a Critical Reasoning question, read each sentence of the passage carefully, asking yourself whether you understand what you have read so far. If the answer is "No,", then reread what you have read, one word at a time until you get it. Then identify the conclusion of the argument, if there is one, and figure out how any conclusion is supported.

Reading Comprehension passages can be handled similarly, You have to just take your time and learn to understand exactly what is being said, reading one sentence at a time or ever one word at a time if necessary. There is no way around this work. You have to learn to comprehend what you are reading.

In each case, your goal should be to take all the time you need to understand exactly what is being said and arrive at the correct answer. You can be sure, that, if you can learn to get answers taking your time, you can learn to speed up. Answering questions is like any task. The more times you do it carefully and successfully, the faster you become at doing it carefully and successfully.

To get better at seeing what is going on in Sentence Correction questions, take your time with every choice for now, noticing the key differences between choices and how effective each choice is. and why one choice is better than the others. You could even review Sentence Correction questions that you have already answered, as the is plenty in each question for you to learn to see.

The point here is for you to work differently from how you have been, seeking to completely understand what is going on and to arrive at correct answers consistently without worrying about time constraints at all. Only once you consistently arrive at correct answers should you seek to speed up.

By doing this type of work, you can improve your reading and analytical skills, and eventually, those skills will be so good that, even when you are faced with time constraints, you will comprehend what you are reading and correctly answer verbal questions.