TOPIC: Long and wordy question

Hello,

Happy new year!

I am looking for some good tips for handling very long questions, what is best way to find correct answer for such questions without spending lot of time on reading it.

Thanks !!

For those types of questions I often would jump to the bottom of the question to understand exactly what was being asked. I would then read the question in its entirety. I found more often than not that the question was very simple and the amount of information provided was not necessay to answer it. Don't over think it. Tracey

I actually found that I did better when I would just stop, take a deep breath, and read the entire question through rather than trying to skip around. That's personal preference, though ... it just worked better for me and my reading/comprehension style. And yes, I wasted some time reading one or two questions that had a paragraph of detailed but ultimately irrelevant information, but in my mind I'd rather spend that time than risk missing something because I was trying to apply a test strategy, and since I usually hand plenty of time to spare during my practice exams I knew I could afford to waste a little here and there.

Short answer is go with what works best for you. Try approaching these a few different ways when taking practice exams and see what's most comfortable. The one thing I will suggest is that if you are concerned about time, consider marking these and then skipping over them when you first run into one, then circling back after you've answered all of the remaining questions, much like you would on questions that involve crunching numbers. That way you don't run the risk of missing the chance to answer two or three short questions because you spent too much time on one long one.

I agree with Tracey's approach. I read what's being asked for bottom up to give context to the question so that I can pick out key words. Often, longer questions have superfluous/irrelevant information but if you know your material and have done well studying you should have no problem identifying it.

If you don't know your material well, or it appears confusing right at the onset I would suggest simply marking the question for review and moving along right away. Otherwise you may end up spending extra time re-reading the question when you'll ultimately be making a guess.

The biggest thing to take away is that while these are long, they are a learning opportunity! You will become better at spotting them, picking out the crucial parts of the question, and answering them the more you practice.

As Jonathan Said, what works for someone may not work for you as it is a personal preference and depends on everyone's style. My advise to you is to try the different suggested techniques in simulation exams so that you know which style works for you or you may combine different techniques and come up with a technique that works for you.

I usually approached such question by first reading the answers and the last sentence of the question as this will highlight what the question is all about and what should I look for and focus on while reading the lengthy question, hope this help.