Recognizing Hard Verbal

[ch339]

How do I recognize a hard verbal passage (700+)? Some harder passages (judging by their placement in the OG) are longer and take up the entire first column or more. Some, however, are quite short. Do harder passages have more inference questions, weaken/strengthen, etc.? More nuanced answer choices? Are they more scholarly? So far, I think harder passages are denser. Do I just assume that a denser passage is hard? How do I know when I'm looking at a 500+, 600+, or 700+ passage?

[StaceyKoprince]

Passages themselves are not rated by difficulty level - only individual questions are. You can write easier or harder questions for a passage.

Questions can be made harder based upon both the question itself (making it harder to understand) and the answer choices (including more tricky wrong answers).

More important: you shouldn't need to recognize harder or easier questions of ANY type. Whenever a question pops up in front of you, do not waste a SINGLE second thinking about how hard it is - that's a complete waste of time and brain energy.

Just do your best* in the time given on the question in front of you right now and then you move to the next one. That's all. :)

*Note that "do your best" can mean "try to get to the right answer" or it can mean "guess quickly because it's clearly too hard or going to take too long" or it can mean "use some time to make an educated guess but don't lost time on it." "Do your best" doesn't just mean "get it right." :)

[ch339]

Hello Stacey,

Thank you for the clarification. 2 follow-ups:

1) Would people of different proficiencies then receive some of the same passages with different-level questions?

2) How do I cut down on time? I know not to rush, but it feels like I take a while (averaging almost 2 minutes per question on reading sometimes). I know that's good pacing, but I wonder what will happen when I get to really hard questions. Right now I've completed Reasoning 1-49 (2 wrong) and Reading Passages 1-14 (1-68, 8 wrong, 4/8 inference questions. I also messed up all three questions in Passage 4.) These questions are still "easy," right? Already, I find myself having to take more time to outline.

[StaceyKoprince]

1) Yes. They do write something like 5 to 9 questions per passage, so two people at different levels could get the same passage with different questions. Yet another reason not to get caught up in all of that annoying detail!

For RC, the questions are grouped according to passage, not difficulty level, so you've already been seeing a mix of easy to hard. For CR, yes, the lower numbers are (relatively speaking) the easier ones and they get harder as you go higher.

Note a couple of things. Your goal is NOT to get everything right; the test doesn't allow that. It will literally just keep giving you harder stuff till it finds your limit, no matter how good you get.

Your goal is to decide where you do want to spend your time and where you don't. You're *always* going to have to guess on some questions. You just want to be in charge of the choice as to when and how (vs. being forced to when you run out of time).

So when a new question pops up, bailing on the question is always on the table. You have to ask yourself, "Is this one really the best use of my precious time?"

Next, yes, the harder ones are going to take longer than the easier ones. Part of what you're trying to do when studying the easier-for-you questions is to look for shortcuts and better / faster ways of processing. Don't just do a problem, think "I got it right and I get it" and move on. Learn even more from that problem!!

Read this:
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... -the-gmat/

Are you analyzing like that when you study?

Next, RC resources:
https://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/inde ... rehension/

Pay particular attention to the "what to read and what not to read" lessons. Spend 2 to 3 minutes max reading a passage for the first time. You're going to skip / skim a LOT of stuff! That's okay - you'll go back and learn the details you need later (only after you get questions about those details).