Timing long and short passages

[pp]

How much time should i spend on long and short passages. What should be the breakdown for
i) time for reading the passage
ii) time for answering the questions.

Thanks

[RonPurewal]

There's no simple answer to this question, because timing depends on your skill set. There's a considerable amount of variation in how long people take for the three different kinds of verbal questions (sc, rc, cr); you need to determine that balance for yourself.

The average time for a short passage + 3 questions is generally about six minutes. The average time for a long passage + 4 questions is generally about eight minutes.

But, those are only averages, and they may not apply to you very well.
To explain, I'll use myself as an example. Some relevant facts about me:
* I am very, very good at scanning passages and understanding "what's generally going on" in them, WITHOUT understanding (or even being able to understand) the details.
* I am dyslexic, and also not good with remembering specific information.

Because of the second fact, I am VERY slow on CR problems. Because I'm dyslexic (can't read all the words in a straight line), I regularly have to read through CR passages 4-5 times to have a sufficient understanding of the facts, and, as a result, I sometimes take three minutes to solve CR problems.
Because of that, I don't have as much time for RC's.

However, because I'm very good at "browsing" (first fact above), I can get through a short RC passage in 30-40 seconds, and a long passage in about a minute.
(During this time, I am not paying ANY attention to specific details. As soon as I notice that something is "support", I skip it completely.)
On the other hand, I need lots of time for RC detail questions, because, as stated above, I'm very slow and clumsy with specifics. It's not uncommon for me to need more than two minutes to answer a RC detail question.

If you are the opposite (good with specifics, not as good with "browsing"), then your timing may be exactly the opposite of what I have described above. So, use the averages as a starting point, and then adjust for your own profile.

[RonPurewal]

There is one thing that should be common to all test takers: Main idea questions should not take much time.

Regardless of who you are, you've already read through the passage, so you should already understand what the main idea is. So, no main idea question should ever take more than about 30 seconds or so.