I skim through the mags even to this day. The strategy that I use for the WT is to look at the two study articles. The first study article is usually the set-up article. The second article contains the WT counsel for th R&F. I get a general ideal of the articles and then look at the paragraph about two-thirds into the second article. That paragraph contains the "zinger," or the reason why the articles were written. I then know what the R&F can and can't do.
Zing! Exactly. This is my method to a tee. In 30 seconds, you know exactly what message the GB wants to send.
2 hours of Watchtower study fluff, to get to a point which could be made in about 10 seconds. "Intellectual novacaine" is right!