Verbal: Problem Area. Please HElp.

how much time should you spend? i dont think it matters. you either get it right or you get it wrong. i think the best way to improve your retention skill is to make a quick snapshot of what each passage is saying.

after every paragraph, there will something new introduced into the passage. so stop for a few seconds and evaluate what you have "learnt" about the passage. make notes if necessary.

when you finally finish reading the passsage, you will have understood it really well. then for the questions, you wont have to re-read the passage and the context.

a good way to save time is SC. scope of SC's is limited , though you need to be really good to get to the right answers in under a minute. if you can get through a SC under a minute (successfully), you will have more time and thus a better chance of getting the RC's and the CR's correct. that said, the first fifteen questions will have RC's and you will have to get them right if you want to be anywhere close to a 40+V.

About the cautious approach, i think you should be careful with every question. take it a question at a time. but if you obsess over the first ten-fifteen , you wont have enough time for the last 10-12 and it really wont matter how well you did.

if you are aiming for 700-730 + , you should have total control of the test....there should NOT be a mad scramble towards the end to finish the test. till such time as you are confident, i suggest you concentrate on the concepts and practice every single day. if you take a break of even a week in your prep time, it will affect your prep.

regards
praetorian

If you want to do good on the Verbal, you wanna do a Kaplan book with questions, then the OG, then you want to Do LSAT for Critical Reasoning and Reading Comprehension, go to the libary get some old books, CR and RComprehension aren't going to change through time.

The sentence correction is tough, theres about 8 rules, but theres like rules within those rules, so you need to see a lot of sentence correction quiestions, once you do a lot of them, you can eye ball the right answer, and on the hard ones use Process of elimination to find the right answer.

The Kaplan Method, is really retarded on the RComprehension, they tell you to right down the Topic Scope and Summary of each paragraph, thats right, but you shouldn't waste ure time writing it down, do it in ure head.

Try Princeton Review's techniques instead. They are better for verbal.

Timing will be less of an issue if you master various aspects of the fundamentals. SC is fairly easy to improve if you work on grammar rules. Get a good grammar review book like Grammar Smart. RC is a little harder to improve, but just keep practicing on RC questions from the OG - don't use your practice tests to improve in this area. Use questions outside of the tests, focus on just RC, and then return to full tests after you've spent more time on them. The timing will begin to work itself out after you're more comfortable with them. Be sure to review your answers for each question carefully so you can see the patterns and learn what they're going for.

Oh, and don't worry about your Kaplan practice scores. They're known for being harder than the real thing and are not an accurate reflection of your capabilities. They can easily freak you out.

Have you taken the Powerprep and Princeton Review tests? Their verbal questions are much more representative of the real thing. Try those - you might see a big difference right there and can begin to relax a bit!