Congrats Anubhav!

(Mera number kab aayega?)
I got way too many PMs asking me about strategies in verbal. Here's something I do... be warned, it might not work for you... but give it a try all the same!
PS: Don't expect overnight changes, RC and VA take some amount of work...
THOUGH, if you get good marks in VA/RC, that kind of sets you up for better scores. It's way easier to score in than QA, and not as time consuming too, provided you get your strategy right.
Firstly, I'd advise you to complete as many PASSAGES as possible in 30 minutes, with an upper time limit on the amount of time taken for each passage.
Do the Maths
Average number of passages per AIMCAT = 5
Average number of questions = 5
Ideal time to read passage <3 (1-3)
Average time to answer all questions (if you know them) <2
25 minutes = 25 questions (again ACCURACY, first, please!)
VA takes even lesser.
Ideally, to read a passge you must
never take more than 3 minutes. In fact, the faster you can scan through, leaving our useless facts and figures and quotes at the first go, the better. Go down, look at the questions. Come back to passage, with an idea of where the question is asked from.
Quick reading tip: When reading, try to cover one line at a glance, instead of each word. In RC,the words
don't matter, the gist of the sentence does.
The first scanning would be enough to answer questions like "What does the author intend to convey.." or "what is the tone of the passage.." etc.
A re-reading will help to answer slightly more incisive questions.
You need to know the tone of
each paragraph, if you're to answer questions like "what does the author intend by the sentence...etc" and of course, where the sentence comes, so generally, a quick pursual, coupled with a glance down the questions, a first round of answering and then quick read for right answers through paragraphs should take you upto 5 minutes if you can understand what you read. A tall task sometimes, especially when it's about subjects like Indian philosophy or some medical miracle.
Any word meaning question you can attempt with your eyes closed. (Please don't attempt this at home!)
Questions that ask you to choose which is true or false, need to be answered
ON the basis of the passage, not on your knowledge (eg :Tagore is a Bengali)
For VA, people had difficulty with the fill in the blanks. Thing is, there's a tendency for people to answer any fill in with words that they don't know, the rationale is, of course, "We know the other words, but this might be
most appropriate." So, unless you know the other 3 words can never, conceivably, be used in the sentence.. LEAVE it!
Fill in words within a paragraph... That's easy, if you read through the paragraph first, inserting appropriate words as you deem fit. Once that's done, you'll get a gist of the paragraph, go down to the questions and fill in appropriately.
(
Tip: ALWAYS look at the article preceding a noun, They might slip up, there was one lin 0606, check out the last page again, you ought to have gotten
that one, if you'd narrowed the answer down to 2)
For paragraph jumbling, unless they're very convoluted, try getting a fix on the beginning. Any sentence starting with but, however, or stating reasons are definitely not the beginning, nor are they usually the end. If the passage is too hard, put one answer choice in and resubstitute (sounds like Maths now, doesn't it...)
Most Analogies are either...
Word: Antonym (Good:bad)
Word: Synonym (Good:nice)
Word: Extreme form of Word (good:best)
Okay, the examples sucked, but it's 2 am!!!
Attempt these only if you know at least 8 out of the 10 words, and all belonging to the same group!
Suddenly, those kind of questions sound hard, don't they?
What is the main idea of the passage?... For those kind of questions, kindly go with your gut feeling.
Choosing the correct sentence.. read the first sentence, identify errors (if any), compare suceeding simultaneously *Another area where scanning sentences quickly can be a help, ie, GOOD READING SPEED!*
If you can't get any errors in any sentence, sound the sentence
in your HEAD please. you wouldn't want angry neighbours muttering at you!
Above all,
go with your gut feeling.... You need to have the stomach for the risks...
On that corny note
Adios
Shruti
PPS: Pray for me and my Quant abilities!!!
PPPS: Another tip... to improve VA abilities, try not to use abbreviations in your emails, or smses or messages and be as grammatically correct as you can, upto and including punctuation. "U r 2 sw8 2 b 4got10" doesn't cut it, because it's a sign of a lazy mind. Plus, if you, actually type properly, chances are you will write properly... reflecting on your verbal abilities..
I think THAT, definitely, is enough!