Reading Comprehension

I am taking the GMAT this weekend and I am trying to solidify which strategy is wiser to user with Reading Comp.

Which is better:

1) Thoroughly read the passage at least once or twice (investing about 4 minutes for longer ones), and then answer each question.

2) Scan the passage understand the gist of the passage and the context in which the passage flows. Then refer back to the passage while answering each question?

I find that the second technique works fine till I run into one of those the following can inferred from the passage EXCEPT questions. I find myself spending the entire time re-reading the entire passage anyways just to answer this one question.

How do people handle these EXCEPT questions?

Second question is, do people actually take notes while reading the passage? What notes do you take if you do? I found whenever I took notes during RC, I ended up not finishing verbal. And when I didn't take notes, I finished the verbal fine. In both cases, the difference in my RC score was minimal.

Thanks for any and all help.

I usually follow the first approach which enable me to answer atleast 3-4 question types without generally going back deeply into passage - like main idea of passage, tone of author, a suitable title to passage, most suitable para following the passage.
Plus you get to know where to look for the answers in case you need to go back to passage.

By the way my friend , I end up taking 5 to 7 minutes in long and difficult passages .I never finish up only in 4 minutes the long ones. Looks Like I need to speed up.


Disadvantages i see in second approach is you end up going to the passage in every question.
As you mentioned, except questions , also inference questions, implied questions and many more - which depend upon reading different parts of passage rather than just reading 12 lines above/below the occurence - waste too much time and decrease your confidence.

Please read the last line in my reply as 1or 2 ( 1/2) lines above or below the mentioned occurence.