22 October 2026Deniz Bulut
Running out of time on reading passages? 6 practical tactics
Practical tactics to spend less time on paragraph questions in Turkish exams such as LGS and TYT: reading the question stem first, reading once with purpose, elimination and mock-exam analysis.
The sentence I hear most often from my students is: “I know this, but I run out of time.” In Turkey's high school entrance exam (LGS) and the university entrance exam (TYT), most of the Turkish section is made up of paragraph questions, and they can put even a strong reader in a race against the clock.
The good news: most time problems come not from reading speed but from reading order and indecision. These are the six tactics that work best in my lessons.
1. Read the question stem first
Before you dive into the paragraph, read the question. Is it asking for the main idea, a supporting idea, or is it a negative stem such as “which of these is not mentioned”? Eyes that know what they are looking for scan a text much faster. Underlining negative stems also cuts careless mistakes noticeably.
2. Read the paragraph once, with a purpose
Reading the same paragraph two or three times is the biggest time sink. In a single reading, focus on three things:
- What is the topic? (What is the text about?)
- What does the author think? (Usually in the last sentences, or after words like “but”, “whereas”, “actually”.)
- Which examples are given? (This is where supporting-idea questions come from.)
3. Work by elimination
Instead of hunting for the right answer, eliminate the wrong ones. Options that never appear in the text, or that are broader or bolder than the text, are usually the first to go. When you are stuck between two options, return to the text and read only the sentence that concerns those two; don't reread the whole paragraph.
If you are torn between two options, the answer is the one closer to what the text explicitly says, not the one closer to your own interpretation.
4. Mark the question you are stuck on and move on
If you have spent more than a minute and a half or two on a question, mark it and keep going. Every question is worth the same; five minutes on one hard question can cost you three easy ones you never get to read. Come back to the marked ones after you finish the round.
5. Set your time budget in advance
Know how much time you will give Turkish before the exam starts. The LGS verbal session includes other subjects besides Turkish, and in TYT Turkish is only one part of the exam. In mock exams, set yourself an upper limit for Turkish and note which question you should be on at the halfway mark. That way, instead of wondering “Will I make it?”, you simply check your plan. Always check the current number of questions and timings in the official ÖSYM and MEB guides each year.
6. Analyse mock exams by question type, not just by score
When a mock exam is over, don't just look at your net score. Sort your wrong and blank answers by type: main idea, supporting idea, mode of expression, completing a paragraph, ordering sentences… Once you see where you slow down, your practice becomes targeted. Focusing on a single type for two weeks makes more difference than solving a hundred random questions.
A small exercise to try this week
Solve ten paragraph questions every day, timing yourself. For each one, read the stem first, rewrite it in your own words in a single line, then move to the paragraph. At the end of the week, compare your time on the first and the last day. Most students get faster not by reading faster, but by reading in a more organised way.
If you struggle with a particular type of paragraph question, write to me through the contact form and we can build a study plan for that type together.