Some people find that taking notes can help them answer Verbal questions on the GRE. For instance, note-taking might help you to focus on a Reading Comprehension passage. The thing is, what may be helpful in small doses can be score-eroding in large ones. After all, you can use up a lot of time if you get caught up in taking many notes on GRE Verbal questions.

So, if you’ve been taking many notes when answering Verbal questions, one way to speed up could be to reduce the amount of note-taking you do. The truth is that most GRE Verbal questions are not very long. So, there is not so much to keep in mind when answering them that taking notes makes a significant difference. Also, when answering RC questions, you can refer back to the passages to find any information you need. So, there isn’t really any need to note many details of the passages.

In fact, many people score high on GRE Verbal without taking any notes at all. Others take large quantities of notes only to completely ignore those notes after taking them. You may find that you can go through the Verbal section of the GRE faster and increase your Verbal score by simply refraining from taking notes. Alternatively, if you feel that taking some notes helps you, then you can seek to optimize your note-taking, so that it benefits you without wasting your time.

Warmest regards,

Scott Woodbury-Stewart
Founder & CEO, Target Test Prep