ExamKracker VERBAL 101 SCORES

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1: 8
2: 8
3: 8
4: 7
5: 7

Ugh I can't believe after all the time i've been spending doing these and kaplan practices i'm actually going down on this as well as kaplan..I don't know how you guys do it

Originally Posted by _T_

1: 8
2: 8
3: 8
4: 7
5: 7

Ugh I can't believe after all the time i've been spending doing these and kaplan practices i'm actually going down on this as well as kaplan..I don't know how you guys do it

this may sound cheesy, but one of the important things that has helped me is confidence. the more confident you are attacking these passages, the more youll get out as you read and the easier the answers will come.

Originally Posted by soccerpunk60

this may sound cheesy, but one of the important things that has helped me is confidence. the more confident you are attacking these passages, the more youll get out as you read and the easier the answers will come.

definitely true.. I've noticed that too

Yeah EK also says the same exact thing...Be arrogant when you are reading the passages. Always criticize what you are reading and pretend like you are reading something so damn interesting...Your brain will remember more like that.

Try VR #6.. the video game passage(first passage)

I got OWNED. I got 5 QUESTIONS wrong on that first passage. I normally get 2-3 wrong every 2 passages.

So far:

1: 8
2: 8
3: 10
4: 9
5: 10

I'll try that sometime soon.. I haven't taken any EK VR sections since my last post in this thread (maybe a week) and since then have gotten 13's on two Kaplan verbal sections from the Comprehensive Review Book. I think one of them would be from FL #1 (the FL that was in the back of the comprehensive review corresponds to FL #1, which I got a total of 37 on; 12P 13V 12B; I got 24 wrong on the PS and 13 wrong on the BS, which leads me back to my questions about Kaplan's curve!) so I figure Kaplan is at least decent practice, if a bit too detail-oriented.

Originally Posted by axp107

Try VR #6.. the video game passage(first passage)

I hated that too...

#5: 8
#6: 8
#7: 8
No damn improvement...

I think the confidence thing really works too...

1. 7
2. 5
3. 8
4. 8
5. 8
6. 8
7. 10 !! (One question away from an "11")

I was just a lot more confident when i started EK7, i mentally prepared myself and started that section, i guess it worked...

5: 10 (32/40)
6: 11 (33/40)
7: 12 (36/40)

Note, I have been practicing with shortened tests (7P,40Q) and have been using a linear interpolation for the scaled scores.

Originally Posted by MamadP

I think the confidence thing really works too...

1. 7
2. 5
3. 8
4. 8
5. 8
6. 8
7. 10 !! (One question away from an "11")

I was just a lot more confident when i started EK7, i mentally prepared myself and started that section, i guess it worked...

good job...it seems that you and I are in the same boat...What did you do to mentally prepare yourself?

Originally Posted by _T_

1: 8
2: 8
3: 8
4: 7
5: 7

Ugh I can't believe after all the time i've been spending doing these and kaplan practices i'm actually going down on this as well as kaplan..I don't know how you guys do it

I got a 9 on #6..not my goal but guess I can't really complain

Originally Posted by axp107

Try VR #6.. the video game passage(first passage)

I got OWNED. I got 5 QUESTIONS wrong on that first passage. I normally get 2-3 wrong every 2 passages.

So far:

1: 8
2: 8
3: 10
4: 9
5: 10

omg a passage on video games?

Originally Posted by Kaydubz

omg a passage on video games?

I thought the same thing...but the questions are a bit tricky...

Updated... just took EK VR 4 this past evening.

EK1: 11
EK2: 11
EK3: 12
EK4: 12

I was just one wrong answer away from a 11 though. I got seven wrong, and they were all from 3 passages: the conflict-resolution one (2) at the beginning, the Rembrandt forgery one (2), and the male-female evolution (3) one at the end. Interesting, especially since I got bookended. So here's a brief self-analysis, for anyone who cares...

1) I thought the conflict-resolution one was just a little dense, and I caught myself glazing over it. A lack of focus probably got me here. Wonder if I can blame that on starting the test right after dinner. A very detail-oriented passage, should have gotten 6/6, no excuses. Going to have to look into whether the PS can affect my VR performance like this, but it wasn't a problem before, especially since VR is my strong suit.

2) The Rembrandt had some interesting trap questions that I missed. Made some not-quite-so-good inferences that ended up getting me a decent answer that wasn't quite right. Have to remember to pick the best answer possible, not just an answer I think is plausible. Its worth noting that I remember at least one of them to be one of those questions with no good answer, requiring you to decide which of the crappy answers is the best one. God, I HATE these, and I identify these as the ones I still get wrong on a consistent basis. This is the type of thing that seems to get me every time I take a VR test.

3) Wow, the male-female evolution one was deceptively hard. The subject matter is very easy to read, but I don't think I properly blocked out the outside influences because I answered two of the questions in a way that I wouldn't have otherwise. Also, the third was one of these questions with no great answers. This passage kicked my ass, and I thought I had nailed this one. This is quite uncharacteristic of me, especially to get 3/6 in one passage.

4) The other ones were relatively simple and I was able to catch the traps and tricks. Even the one where there were like 8-9 questions weren't troublesome. I'm starting to think I need to make an even greater effort to focus 100% the whole way through, especially at the beginning and the end. Now it's time to go back and analyze the thought processes for those questions where there's no one great answer... my only complaint so far about EK is that I almost never agree with the reasoning behind the answers to those particular questions, which invariably go "Using the process of elimination, you should be able to eliminate the other answers and identify this one as the best" which isn't that easy when they all suck. Seems like the author goes out of his way to make some of these convoluted questions. I really need to solve these in a way that I can apply to the actual AAMC verbal passages.

Great job.. I got owned on VR 4.. got a 9 on it

Conflict resolution.. 1 wrong..
Abortion... 2 wrong..

going well so far.. almost half done..

Jacket passage: 3 wrong... yikes!
Polish Rider Painting: 3 wrong.. shiet
Sexual orientation: 3 wrong.. omg

I was rushing at this point

Japanese Yamato: 1 wrong..

OWNED on the men/women evolution passage... 4 wrong


How long are you spending on each passage.. I try to do each passage in 8 minutes. Except, I realized.. for the older format, we can spend up to 9 minutes, meaning 18 mins per passage pair. I think I'm rushing too fast and not "going back" to the passage enough.

I thought the homosexuality passage was tough as ****. I actually spent a lot of time on it, because I had to continually refer back to the passage to make sure my answers were correct (There was this one question about the author's conclusion about the two Doctors' theory; I must have spent maybe 2-3 minutes looking back at the passage for this one question because it required sorting through the entire theory and making inferences), and I think the time I spent on it could have been used to consider my choices at the very end (the evolution one) more carefully.

Oh well, that's what more practice is for.

I think I spent roughly 7-8 minutes on all the passages in between the beginning and the end, except for the homosexuality one, which probably ate up a significant 11-12 minutes. For the ones at the beginning and the end, I probably took the full 9 minutes each, maybe 10. I finished with roughly 5 minutes to go.

Basically, either I get it right away after looking at the answer choices, or I don't and I have to spend a bit of time to look at the question stem and the passage to figure it out.. and sometimes I take longer than I should, even though I often get it correct. I need to increase the occurrence of the former ;-)

Wow... VR #6 is by far the hardest Verbal test I've ever taken ... wow last time I got an 8 was in January when I got the book

1: 8
2: 8
3: 10
4: 9
5: 10 (Was 1 away from a 11)
6: 8

Uh oh.. I hope my scores don't go downhill from here..
I'm going to actually predict an answer before answering each question.. I tend to fall for traps easily.. answers that "sound right".. I choose them b/c it makes me feel good.. but it's ridiculous. I'm gonna predict first and see how it goes.

I started doing EK after the 5/31 VR fiasco, and here's how it has gone so far:

EK2: 11
EK3:12 (my first 12!)
EK4:11

OK, seriously, how did I get a 7 on the real MCAT VR? I'm starting to think it was burnout...

Shoot. I took VR 5 today, and I got -7. Same as EK4, one away from a 11.

EK1: 11
EK2: 11
EK3: 12
EK4: 12
EK5: 12

Doing a detailed self-analysis, there are four things that stood out to me:

1) In the first passage alone with music theory, I got 3 wrong. I hope this isn't a trend, as in EK4 I got 2 wrong in the first passage alone. It looks like I failed to distinguish between the author and Mr. Rothstein. A lot of the questions in this passage involve the author, so I can see why I got 4/7. But these are rookie mistakes.. this is pissing me off pretty good.

2) The third passage about spanking was tricky. It basically lists two studies where its kind of difficult to know what the author's intentions are without knowing the big picture, and there are a lot of details that get in the way of seeing the big picture. I got 6/7; I got tricked on #20 because I was too lazy/confused to realize what exactly "on the basis of the passage quote" really meant.

3) The fourth passage was kind of confusing. It shouldn't have been that hard but I made poor deductions about the passage argument, I guess. 5/7.

4) Everything else was easy though. Got 6/7 on the Descartes one though. The fact that the majority of my wrong choices come in the first couple of passages is interesting. Could be the passages, because my mistakes seem to come in bunches with regards to passages.

Originally Posted by RoadRunner17

Shoot. I took VR 5 today, and I got -7. Same as EK4, one away from a 11.

EK1: 11
EK2: 11
EK3: 12
EK4: 12
EK5: 12

Doing a detailed self-analysis, there are four things that stood out to me:

1) In the first passage alone with music theory, I got 3 wrong. I hope this isn't a trend, as in EK4 I got 2 wrong in the first passage alone. It looks like I failed to distinguish between the author and Mr. Rothstein. A lot of the questions in this passage involve the author, so I can see why I got 4/7. But these are rookie mistakes.. this is pissing me off pretty good.

2) The third passage about spanking was tricky. It basically lists two studies where its kind of difficult to know what the author's intentions are without knowing the big picture, and there are a lot of details that get in the way of seeing the big picture. I got 6/7; I got tricked on #20 because I was too lazy/confused to realize what exactly "on the basis of the passage quote" really meant.

3) The fourth passage was kind of confusing. It shouldn't have been that hard but I made poor deductions about the passage argument, I guess. 5/7.

4) Everything else was easy though. Got 6/7 on the Descartes one though. The fact that the majority of my wrong choices come in the first couple of passages is interesting. Could be the passages, because my mistakes seem to come in bunches with regards to passages.

my mistakes definitely seem to come in bunches too! I hate it!

Well, I got ambitious and decided to do EK VR 6 to make it the second time I took a VR test today. I got -9 to make it a solid 11. Probably should have waited until tomorrow at the earliest to attempt another full section, but oh well. Practice makes perfect.

Some shorter notes this time around:

1) Video game passage was easy. The only one I got wrong was the one at the end about the realism of the games. I chose the one answer about dying and then being able to restart the game. Oh well.

2) Lots of those annoying problems where if you didn't completely understand the passage, you were more likely to get it wrong than right. So it's definitely a comprehension issue in some passages.

Given that I've done almost half the VR book, I think I'll spend some time this weekend to look over the tests I've done so far, and go through the reasoning behind some of the answers. Won't be too fun, but as you can tell, I really want to get my scores up.

The biggest problem I have with EK 101 is..

they give you 85 minutes for 9 passages

that's almost 9.5 mins per passage.

The CBT MCAT is 60 minutes for 7 passages

thats 8.5 minutes per passage.

Adding it all up, we get an extra 9 minutes on EK 101 that we shouldn't be getting! The reason I haven't been doing that great lately is that I've been reading the passages too fast to stick to 8 mins per passage. However, each EK passage seems to take >8 mins.. but I try to limit myself and make more mistakes. Perhaps, I should stick to EK's timing and give myself 9.5 mins per passage? But this might get me into a bad habit! Ahh don't know what to do.

The two 10s I got (which were almost 11s) happened when I took the full Verbal test. The other scores were when I split it up...

Originally Posted by axp107

The biggest problem I have with EK 101 is..

they give you 85 minutes for 9 passages

that's almost 9.5 mins per passage.

The CBT MCAT is 60 minutes for 7 passages

thats 8.5 minutes per passage.

Adding it all up, we get an extra 9 minutes on EK 101 that we shouldn't be getting! The reason I haven't been doing that great lately is that I've been reading the passages too fast to stick to 8 mins per passage. However, each EK passage seems to take >8 mins.. but I try to limit myself and make more mistakes. Perhaps, I should stick to EK's timing and give myself 9.5 mins per passage? But this might get me into a bad habit! Ahh don't know what to do.

The two 10s I got (which were almost 11s) happened when I took the full Verbal test. The other scores were when I split it up...

I would advise that you take the tests under the shorter time (8.5 min/passage). More and more people are saying that the CBT VR passages seem much longer than the practice ones. It would be much more useful if you can get yourself accustomed to finishing passages more quickly, trust me on this one. I was finishing the Kaplan and AAMC VR practice tests 10-15 minutes early, and I barely finished the real MCAT VR section on time. If you can train yourself to be fast and accurate, you're golden.

Originally Posted by axp107

The biggest problem I have with EK 101 is..

they give you 85 minutes for 9 passages

that's almost 9.5 mins per passage.

The CBT MCAT is 60 minutes for 7 passages

thats 8.5 minutes per passage.

Adding it all up, we get an extra 9 minutes on EK 101 that we shouldn't be getting! The reason I haven't been doing that great lately is that I've been reading the passages too fast to stick to 8 mins per passage. However, each EK passage seems to take >8 mins.. but I try to limit myself and make more mistakes. Perhaps, I should stick to EK's timing and give myself 9.5 mins per passage? But this might get me into a bad habit! Ahh don't know what to do.

The two 10s I got (which were almost 11s) happened when I took the full Verbal test. The other scores were when I split it up...

Yeah but there are more questions per passage.

I only look at the timer once and that's after the fifth passage. If there's at least 40 minutes left, I'm golden.

Do you guys practice with 6 passages at a time (or whatever gets you to 40 first) and just extrapolate your EK score? Or do you just do the entire tests?

Originally Posted by axp107

The biggest problem I have with EK 101 is..

they give you 85 minutes for 9 passages

that's almost 9.5 mins per passage.

The CBT MCAT is 60 minutes for 7 passages

thats 8.5 minutes per passage.

Adding it all up, we get an extra 9 minutes on EK 101 that we shouldn't be getting! The reason I haven't been doing that great lately is that I've been reading the passages too fast to stick to 8 mins per passage. However, each EK passage seems to take >8 mins.. but I try to limit myself and make more mistakes. Perhaps, I should stick to EK's timing and give myself 9.5 mins per passage? But this might get me into a bad habit! Ahh don't know what to do.

The two 10s I got (which were almost 11s) happened when I took the full Verbal test. The other scores were when I split it up...

I want to say, don't go by a strict 8 minutes a passage. Go with the time it takes to do all passages at 8 minutes a passage. Each passage will vary in difficulty for you. Sometimes I'm done with a passage in 6-7 minutes. It gives you a little time to spend on the passages that might make it tougher for you.

Finally if you're always worried about time, its going to affect your verbal performance. Don't worry about how fast you read, its more about how fast you answer questions. That means you shouldn't spend too much time on a single question. Guess and move on.

Originally Posted by RoadRunner17

I only look at the timer once and that's after the fifth passage. If there's at least 40 minutes left, I'm golden.

Do you guys practice with 6 passages at a time (or whatever gets you to 40 first) and just extrapolate your EK score? Or do you just do the entire tests?

I do the entire test, but I limit myself to a total time of 72 minutes for 9 passages. I still finish with 2-5 min. to spare, and it keeps me in the CBT VR timeframe.

I do 7 passages at a time....they usually amount to 46 questions! so I take about 66 minutes...

Interesting. I'll have to make changes accordingly. It's not a huge stretch to do that because I usually finish with 6-10 minutes to go.

Today I experimented on myself to see if trying to finish a test too quickly would have detrimental effects. I took EK 101 #5 and finished in just over 65 minutes, and I still got an 11 .

Sidenote: Mad props to the people who suggested using the LSAT reading comp for practice... quite helpful!

Ever since i got my first "10" ive been very consistent...

1. 7
2. 5
3. 8
4. 8
5. 8
6. 8
7. 10
8. 10
9. 10
10. 10
11. 11 Hell Yea!!

I started out pretty low and had no confidence. I was getting 6-7 on aamcs and a few lucky 9s, then i decided to retake one of the aamc to boost my confidence. Scored a "10" and then started doing EK again. Scores remained consistent 10s and i finally got an 11 on the last one. Its all about confidence...

Awesome job man!

1: 8
2: 8
3: 10
4: 9
5: 10 (Was 1 away from a 11)
6: 8
7: 11
8: 8
9: 10

updated! I got a 11 on #7.. my first 11 ever yay lol
I guess this is kind of a good sign.... except... Kaplan's VR is kicking my @$$

i've gotten mostly 10's, a few 11's and one 9

i'm pretty happy with that and will be more than satisfied if i get a 10 on the real thing

Kaplan QBank verbal is kicking my ass but the FL VR isnt so bad (getting about a 10 using AAMC curve)

I normally feel "in control" when I take EK passages..

does anyone else feel that they have no control when they're taking Kaplan VR lol

I've always thought Kaplan was the easiest VR compared to AAMC and EK. I always get 13's, no less than 12, as opposed to 11's on EK. It's more detail oriented and asks you to make less inferences, IMO.

I realized I was doing better when I "predicted" the answer before looking at the choices..

Originally Posted by axp107

I realized I was doing better when I "predicted" the answer before looking at the choices..

That's because you understand/comprehend the passage better.

I've been doing 2-3 passages per day.. EK 8. I'm getting raped.. 12 wrong so far in 5 passages.. I haven't done this badly in a loooong time.

On EK #7, I only got 11 wrong total!

I really believe the EK tests go: hard, easy, hard, easy

You REALLY, REALLY, have to understand the passage as well as you can the first time through.. I don't know about you guys.. but in every passage, there are about 2 questions where I have NO idea what the answer is. I just eliminate answers and pick one. A lot of times, in retrospect, these answer choices don't really have to do with the passage all that much. I feel most comfortable picking it though b/c it sounds complicated or correct. Otherwise I'll run out of time.

It sucks.. but ultimately its just a test of reading comprehension and how much raw "detail" you can remember in one reading ... not how well you can eliminate answers. Most people have "normal" elimination skill.. eliminate extremes etc.. and you're down to 2. The only way to pick the best out of the 2 is to have understood the passage well while picking up the necessary details.

That being said, you never see anyone going from a 8 - 12. You see people going from 8s (with no prep) to 10s .. and you see people starting off at 11s (with no prep) and moving to 13s. lol.. sorry about the pessimistic post.. VR is just pissing me off.

My favorite answer explanation: If the other answer wasn't there, this would have been the correct answer. Damn you, salty the cracker.

Hey guys, are you doing 9 passages at once or 7 and then approximate the appropriate amount of time?

To Spartanbluejay - I accidentally timed myself wrong today and gave myself 78 minutes instead of 85 minutes to do nine passages on test 6 and got owned. I missed 8 questions just on the last two passages to get a 9 *sigh* I don't know how you can do it in 72 minutes =/

What are you guys doing? I'm not sure if I should continue to practice with the reduced amount of time to better prep in case AAMC throws a curveball, but it would be inaccurate predictor of my performance and might drop my self-esteem if I'm not scoring high enough. Oh the dilemma.

On another note, I'm starting to love VR again. I've been pretty consistent recently and I hope the trend will continue. To those of you whose marks are taking a dip, I'm suggesting that you guys take about 2 days (or more, as needed) off verbal and then come back to it. I felt that it helped me tremendously and gave me the concentration I needed.

Took EK 7 today, got -6, for a 12.

Also took a reading comprehension section from the first LSAC LSAT book (the one with the first three tests). I got 27/27. It seems more ambiguous at first and difficult but its actually quite easy and straightforward. I didn't feel like the other choices could have been the answer too, it was just a matter of understanding what's going on.

Originally Posted by RoadRunner17

Also took a reading comprehension section from the first LSAC LSAT book (the one with the first three tests). I got 27/27. It seems more ambiguous at first and difficult but its actually quite easy and straightforward. I didn't feel like the other choices could have been the answer too, it was just a matter of understanding what's going on.

My verbal sucks big time.. I'm working on it every other day with good results on one test and then really bad on another. Basically I've got an unstable verbal score that jumps around a lot. I was just about to work on some LSAT verbal cuz someone mentioned it on here.. after reading what you said about it, would you suggest that I not waste my time?

Originally Posted by RoadRunner17

Took EK 7 today, got -6, for a 12.

Also took a reading comprehension section from the first LSAC LSAT book (the one with the first three tests). I got 27/27. It seems more ambiguous at first and difficult but its actually quite easy and straightforward. I didn't feel like the other choices could have been the answer too, it was just a matter of understanding what's going on.

Yup, go on the Kaplan website.. they have a free LSAT to take.. I tried their Verbal and got a 27/27 also. 5 answer choices, but its much more straight forward.

Originally Posted by sunset

My verbal sucks big time.. I'm working on it every other day with good results on one test and then really bad on another. Basically I've got an unstable verbal score that jumps around a lot. I was just about to work on some LSAT verbal cuz someone mentioned it on here.. after reading what you said about it, would you suggest that I not waste my time?

I would use the LSAT as practice, but it should not be something you rely on to develop your verbal strategy as it is slightly different in terms of question mechanics. There is an extra answer choice, and answer choices tend to be longer/wordy so if you don't completely comprehend the passage before doing the questions, you're going to waste more time just by reading through the answer choices. In that respect you can improve your ability to comprehend different types of passages right off the bat, which should translate very well to the actual VR. Those are just my thoughts anyway, you should try a section from an actual test released by the LSAC and see what you think.

I have been using old real LSAT exams for practice. Not so much to develop strategy, because, as RoadRunner has mentioned, there are some differences. However, I do find that using the LSAT passages has helped me in figuring out the organization of arguments, and has also helped me with timing. It is also helpful if, like me, you struggle with the humanities passages. Overall, between the LSAT practice and EK 101, I feel much more confident about VR this time.

Originally Posted by tennisboy85

Hey guys, are you doing 9 passages at once or 7 and then approximate the appropriate amount of time?

To Spartanbluejay - I accidentally timed myself wrong today and gave myself 78 minutes instead of 85 minutes to do nine passages on test 6 and got owned. I missed 8 questions just on the last two passages to get a 9 *sigh* I don't know how you can do it in 72 minutes =/

What are you guys doing? I'm not sure if I should continue to practice with the reduced amount of time to better prep in case AAMC throws a curveball, but it would be inaccurate predictor of my performance and might drop my self-esteem if I'm not scoring high enough. Oh the dilemma.

On another note, I'm starting to love VR again. I've been pretty consistent recently and I hope the trend will continue. To those of you whose marks are taking a dip, I'm suggesting that you guys take about 2 days (or more, as needed) off verbal and then come back to it. I felt that it helped me tremendously and gave me the concentration I needed.

It's taken a good amount of practice to get under 72 minutes. I took EK5 a couple days ago in 66 min and got an 11, which is where I was scoring when I was taking more time. I found that the mistakes I was making are not due to a timing issue and if I push myself to read faster, I do still get the point of the passage. It sounds like from your recent experience that you rushed at the end because you were running out of time. Panic can be your worst enemy. I shoot for finishing each passage/questions under or just around 8 minutes. If I can finish the tough ones at 8 or a little over, and the easier ones in less, I'm good on time.

When I took practice tests for my first MCAT go-round, I took them in the normal time frame and didn't take to many tests b/c I was consistently in the 10-11 range, so I thought I'd be fine. I got owned on the real thing. Sometimes I think that the occasional low practice score can be a good thing b/c it'll push you to work a little harder.

Just a note I would like to add since Verbal is usually my highest (12-13) now.

When I get one of those detailed passages and I know I am going to have to come back to answer some of the questions. I speed through the passage in 2-3 minutes (get the main point) and come back.

EK verbal test (2) passage (6), the one with the director and all the different types of shots, optics, ect. is a good example of what I am referencing. (not exactly sure about its location)

I started in and realized it was going to be so detailed I would not remember all the different crap so I skipped over it and went straight to the questions.

Only missed one and got it in around 7 minutes what I would consider a harder, time wasting passage.

I think that is what many say about the critical thinking aspect of the test.

Trying to avoid the time sinks and maximizing the easy ones.

Hope this helps someone. Thought I would share some of my strategy to see if it can help others.

I also think that EK is harder than AAMC after taking more practice tests. I also can read the AAMC almost twice as fast.

Originally Posted by J DUB

Just a note I would like to add since Verbal is usually my highest (12-13) now.

When I get one of those detailed passages and I know I am going to have to come back to answer some of the questions. I speed through the passage in 2-3 minutes (get the main point) and come back.

EK verbal test (2) passage (6), the one with the director and all the different types of shots, optics, ect. is a good example of what I am referencing. (not exactly sure about its location)

I started in and realized it was going to be so detailed I would not remember all the different crap so I skipped over it and went straight to the questions.

Only missed one and got it in around 7 minutes what I would consider a harder, time wasting passage.

I think that is what many say about the critical thinking aspect of the test.

Trying to avoid the time sinks and maximizing the easy ones.

Hope this helps someone. Thought I would share some of my strategy to see if it can help others.

I also think that EK is harder than AAMC after taking more practice tests. I also can read the AAMC almost twice as fast.

I agree with avoiding time sinks; but with regards to reducing the time spent on individual passages, I would add the stipulation that going through it TOO fast might not be good. I've been doing that and finishing tests early (on the EK's, I finish 10 minutes early, and on the first AAMC CBT3 test I just took, I finished with 20 minutes to go. On those, I get 85-90% correct).

Sometimes I feel like there's a balance. Spend less time answering the easy questions so I get some more time to answer the hard ones, right? Then, when I look at my breakdown, its quite obvious that I spend too much time on the hard questions because 4 of the 8 questions I got wrong were because I changed the answer choice. So I think I want to take a little more time going through the section, and above all, just forget about past passages and don't go back to them if I chose a reasonable answer. I'll have to trust in my reading ability... which is probably the most important approach to verbal.

I agree. The one time I got a 90% right on VR, I had 5 mins remaining.. and just relaxed and got something to eat. I'm trying it on some passages right now and I am doing better. I think EK hates me though lol.. I'm getting tired of the homosexuality passages (where you're forced to use background knowledge) with extreme answers,

Originally Posted by RoadRunner17

I'll have to trust in my reading ability... which is probably the most important approach to verbal.

best advice! guys, confidence is the key!!! you know you can read. give yourself A LOT of credit for that. believe in your reading ability!

Get your mind set in the right mode before attempting a verbal exam. If you tend to get nervous, then try thinking about the way you felt when you did really well in a class..that feeling of accomplishment and all that hard work that you put in to get that A. Or anything else you did really well in. Just get that feeling of accomplishment and that you're just as smart as anyone.

Read with unbelievable interest, like you're captivated by it. Don't care about the scores, all that you should be thinking about in the back of your mind is 'i wanna read this because "i" want to read it' not 'i wanna read this because i have to get a good score on verbal' or 'i've got to read this right so that i can pick the right answers to the questions.' Think about it, when you read something you wanted to read, did you care whether or not you could answer questions about it? no. you read cuz you wanted to of your own volition and thus you remembered (one of the benefits of reading with interest).

see if this works for you.. seriously, this exam soo mental.