If you really can’t pay attention to a passage, focus yourself by reading just the first and last sentence of each paragraph. Then go to the questions. You’ll be surprised at how many of the questions you can successfully answer with just that much information. Of course, there will be some questions that you’ll have to go back to the passage to answer, but you’ll have a good idea of where to go to look.

This strategy doesn’t work for everyone, but for some people who get bogged down in the really verbose passages, it can be helpful. It’s not something you should just walk into the test and do, though — practice with it so that you a) trust that it works and b) are used to looking back to the passage this way.

Most of the passages in the physical and biological sciences are for informational purposes only and really only introduce the questions that are coming. Most of the questions are based on information you already know and only one or two will refer back to the passage. The verbal reasoning is an entirely different beast and you should do you best to mark the passages and make notes as you read the passages. All the questions in verbal reasoning have the answers located somewhere in the passage. If you take notes and mark the paragraph you will be able to more easily find the answer in the passage.