Man, good questions. I don't think you can distill V44 into just one important point, but if I had to try I'd say it this way:
Be proactive.Don't just read the prompt and react to it, but instead go in and "attack" each problem. That means...
On SC: prioritize the decision points you're best at making. Just like my point up further in this thread - don't let the testmaker bait you into making hard decisions just because they're the ones you see first. Make decisions in your own order: proactively look for the binary, easy stuff like subject-verb agreement, pronoun agreement, parallel comparisons, etc., and make those decisions first before you try the harder stuff. So much of SC is about prioritizing which decisions you make so that you do it on your own terms.
On CR: proactively read the question stem first and then have a plan for how you read the rest. If it's Strengthen/Weaken you're spending 2/3 of your time on the stimulus really attacking the weakness in the argument, taking extra time to read the specifics of the conclusion; if it's Inference or Method/Boldface you know you're doing more process of elimination so you'll spend more time on the answer choices. For Strengthen/Weaken *do not* give each answer choice a fair chance! You want to attack the answers, not let yourself be talked into them. You want to have a feel for what the right answer should do and if A, B, C don't do that, don't spend too long on them - you can always come back to them later if you don't find what you're looking for by the time you reach E. But don't go into those answer open-minded or playing process-of-elimination - instead be proactive as you look for the answer that deals with the flaw in the argument.
This video might help explain what I mean about CR:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8MAeW-vZ80On RC: you don't have enough time to become an expert on the passage, so read it just carefully enough to understand the skeleton of it (the general scope and main point, and where the transitions are) and then be really question-driven. Save your time on details to go back to only the details they ask you about.
The whole key is being proactive...have a plan for each question type and execute that plan with how you read. Don't just read, then look at the question, then start thinking - be proactive, be in attack mode, and take the test on your own terms without letting the testmaker distract you or waste your time.