It’s easy to get the impression that you could complete the GRE Verbal section in the allotted time if you didn’t have “timing issues.” However, the truth is that, when people have difficulty completing the GRE Verbal section, timing itself generally is not the main issue. The main issue is a skills issue. After all, what enables you to answer GRE Verbal questions quickly is skill. So, another key move you can make to increase your GRE Verbal speed is simply to develop stronger GRE Verbal skills.

Now, you may be wondering how exactly to develop stronger GRE Verbal skills. The answer may surprise you because much of the answer is to slow down when practicing. It’s true: practicing slowly is the way to speed up in GRE Verbal. Here’s why.

When you’re practicing GRE Verbal, your goal is to develop skill in doing things such as identifying keywords in Text Completion and Sentence Equivalence questions, finding information in Reading Comprehension passages, and analyzing arguments in Critical Reasoning questions. Sure, once you’re fully prepared for the GRE, you’ll be able to do these things in a minute or two per question. However, to develop skill in doing these things, you’ll have to spend much more time on each question. In other words, you’ll have to give yourself time to learn.

So, to speed up in GRE Verbal, rather than set a timer and seek to answer practice questions at the pace you’ll keep on test day, work untimed and focus on skill development. Speed will come with skill.

Warmest regards,
Scott