ExamKracker VERBAL 101 SCORES

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Originally Posted by dcohen

I just do as close to 40 questions as I can and interpolate my score (score/# questions)*(total # questions). I take 60 minutes but try to do it in a bit less time. I plan to later take the passages I didn't do and just take them in 40 question sets if I have time.

I'd been trying to work out if I should do 7 passages or just go for the 40 questions, and then do the same type of math you're doing to get my estimated score. Today was a trial run, and I did 7 passages and 46 questions, which I think the passages are a bit longer too, cause it took me a bit over 60 mins to get through, where I usually have a few mins to spare.

I go for 40 questions regardless of how many passages simply because I tend to finish a few minutes early and it only takes about 1.5-2 minutes for me to read the passages. Whether this is a good idea or not I'm not sure, but I didn't have any trouble finishing my diagnostic.

Originally Posted by LittleRocker

update (been taking them at one week intervals):

#1: 10
#2: 9
#3: 10
#4: 10

At least I'm getting pretty consistent 10s. Still waiting for that score increase when everything just clicks...

#5: 10

no luck yet...

Originally Posted by LittleRocker

#5: 10

no luck yet...

lol I almost always scored 10 on those danged things, i scored one 8 and two 9s and the rest were 10s.

Ek 1: 7
Ek 2: 8
Ek 3: 10

Ek 4: 8
Ek 5: 8
Ek 6:9

EK 1- 5
EK 2- 7
EK 3- 9
EK 4- 7 (WTF and I thought I was doing good lol)

I so hate when I'm on a roll, getting -0 to -2 per passage only, and then getting slammed with a hard passage where the answer choices are too close to call

I just went over a speaking passage (Passage V, Test II) and that one nailed me on my 50/50s almost every time. Only did 3 passages, but at least it was a solid 8 (based on those three). The only bummer is I'm still going over my time on each passage by like 20 seconds on average (about 2-3 min over a total 60 min period). I really hate verbal.

I hate these tests. I've gone 1-9 and have scored 8,10,11,10,10,9,9,9,9.

I think I'm stuck on scoring 9. I'm a couple questions away from 10 every time. I usually do the first two passages in 16 minutes, then take the remaining 7 in 60 minutes. Then I take my raw score for all the questions for my scaled score. On the AAMC tests I am scoring consistent 10's (AAMC 3,4,7). Any tips for getting past this hurdle. I take on April 5th!

I've been doing just 3-4 passages a day out of my EK. I'm trying to spread out the material a little bit more that way. I haven't had any real problems with being able to finish on time, and my verbal has always been fairly decent. Today I took kaplan FL4 though and got 13ps 13bs and 8vr. What do you guys think? Does this even say anything, or is Kaplan's verbal section too different to compare it with EK and AAMC... is a change in strategy in order? thx...

Have you done EK verbal? I don't mean to alarm you, but I've got the impression from most people that Kaplan verbal is too easy.

yeah, I took two full EK tests (EK1- 10 EK2- 11) then moved to just doing a few passages a day, every day. I edited my previous post, the 8 was in verbal not bs...

Then I wouldn't worry too much about the 8--it looks like you're in good shape.

Should I do the whole full length test or just do 3-4 passages a day?

What do you think would be more helpful in improving my VR score?

Lol did anyone find the first two warm up passages to be tough... more so the second one... I thought I understood and then got smoked.

I found the first two warmups to be much easier than most of the passages from the first two tests

Originally Posted by tncekm

I found the first two warmups to be much easier than most of the passages from the first two tests

Well it may just be me then...
lol I haven't started studying for the mcat again.... but I wrote in 06 and scored an 11 on the real thing..... I may be a bit out of of practice...


I got 4/7 and 2/7 on the warm ups... and panicked and just wrote the next two in the first test which I got 6/7 and 7/7 lol and am now feeling better

Originally Posted by jdla

Should I do the whole full length test or just do 3-4 passages a day?

What do you think would be more helpful in improving my VR score?

I am personally going to do 2-3 passages a day. I don't want to burn through my material quickly, and I think working on it every day for an extended period of time will help me build more on each practice session. I do think doing full length verbal tests will help, since part of the issue on the real test will be stamina. But when I'm closer to my test date, I'll rely on my practice exams to give me that experience.

If you do break up your tests and do a few each day, make sure you still do them timed. I think 8 minutes per passage is the golden number.

Thanks JA Prufrock

Ah this thread just caught my eyes.

I've been doing poorly too. I think these passages are just harder.

I don't do as poorly on Kaplan verbal or AAMC verbal.

Well after getting killed on the warm up passages...
I got an 11 on test 1... however I did it 3 passages at a time... so while not the best indication, it's much better than 2/7's haha

EK1: 6
EK2: 7
EK3: 10
EK4: 9
EK5: 10

I got a 7 on the VR for Kaplan's free practice test. Verbal is definitely my weakest topic, so it's nice to see that I'm improving. The first 10 was a point away from an 11, and the 9 was a point away from a 10. I think the biggest thing that helps is to pay close attention to the wordings of the answers and questions. Anything that is along the lines of "all", "definite", "none", "must", etc. is always going to be wrong.

Ek1: 8
Ek2: 9

FYI: I found the scoring of the examkrakers more representative than either kaplan or AAMC for the final test.

For the examkrakers I scored 10-12 every time. For the kaplan, I scored 12-15 every time, for the aamc I scored 11-14. My real score was 11. The kaplan and AAMC practice scores are a bit inflated.

Originally Posted by RapplixGmed

FYI: I found the scoring of the examkrakers more representative than either kaplan or AAMC for the final test.

For the examkrakers I scored 10-12 every time. For the kaplan, I scored 12-15 every time, for the aamc I scored 11-14. My real score was 11. The kaplan and AAMC practice scores are a bit inflated.

That's wonderful to know because my last test (#3) I averaged an 11! I started with a 5/6 in verbal. I really hope this uptrend continues *crosses fingers*. VR is the only wild card in my MCAT score.

UPDATE: Progress hasn't continued. I'm either really good, or really bad. There is no in between.

EDIT: Seems the progress was not really progress. I'm all over the place again

tncekm, Congrats on your progress. Also, that chart is really encouraging.

Thanks... although, its hard to stay feeling encouraged about that progress after doing over a TPR VR test. I find those very difficult

^eh, don't sweat it....i heard EK is the best estimate of what your actual score will be

oh my gosh!!!! do you guys think some of these passages are difficult to read?? am i dyslexic or something?? arghhh....

anyway, so i tried to redo passage 7 for test 6 and i thought it was so freakin hard to understand....did anyone feel the same way?? other passages were manageable, but this one...i just can't do it. i spend way too much trying to read the passage and then barely have enough time to answer the questions. anybody else feel me on this one? so i tried to do this passage in 9 minutes, but i spent 8 minutes trying to understand the freakin passage....if this caliber of passages appear on the real MCAT, i'm dead!!! sorry...but anybody else feel me or am i retarded? sigh...plus i tried coming back to this passage about 3 times now....

"update (been taking them at one week intervals):

#1: 10
#2: 9
#3: 10
#4: 10

At least I'm getting pretty consistent 10s. Still waiting for that score increase when everything just clicks...
#5: 10

no luck yet..."

#6: 10
#7: 10... 1 away from 11

For #7 I felt very comfortable and paced myself nicely. I finished with 3-4 minutes to spare and even had time to take the last couple passages more leisurely. I felt that I did much better than a 10 but oh well...I sure hope you guys are right about EK being harder than the real thing. I sure would love to get a 12...

Originally Posted by tncekm

I'm so happy! My EK scores have been getting better and better! Mterp45 et al are definitely on the right track when they say you should read The New Yorker. I strongly believe that reading MCAT level stuff for long periods of time (the articles are like 5000-6000 words) has allowed me to become a much more effective / efficient reader so that I can focus on answering the questions. Reasoning largely was never my problem, but retaining the information and getting through the passages was.

Over my last 13 passages I've averaged an 11. My first three 30 min exams in the EK Verbal book were ranging from 4-6! So, I think I've made some improvement, haha. If I can get a 10+ on my MCAT for VR, I'm very confident I'll be in medical school next year. Soooooooooo happy!

Anyway, just for kicks I posted my EK progress over 30+ passages.

Just an update. Although my TPR VR has been averaging like 8's to 9's, I just took an AAMC today and my VR perfectly matched my last 14 EK 101 with an 11!!!!! I found the passages to be a little less entertaining than the EK passages, but overall the questions were pretty similar.

UPDATE: Since then I just suck. I'm either good, or bad. There doesn't seem to be much in between. I'm talking 100% or 10%. Its abso-freaking-lutely-ridiculous

Originally Posted by axp107

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.

The sexual orientation one was hard as heck...holy cow..I got destroyed on that one...rest were decent...but all it takes to pull your score down on the real thing is 1 bad passage

Originally Posted by LittleRocker

"update (been taking them at one week intervals):

#1: 10
#2: 9
#3: 10
#4: 10

At least I'm getting pretty consistent 10s. Still waiting for that score increase when everything just clicks...
#5: 10

no luck yet..."

#6: 10
#7: 10... 1 away from 11

#8: 10... made the cutoff by 1 point. That Chinese Communism passage killed me. I was basically guessing with absolutely no passage comprehension at all.

Why can't I get a break? This is pissing me off.

EK1: 8
EK2: 9
EK3: 9

argh this is frustrating...

all this nonsense about whats a better predictor is kinda annoying...on test day...there is so much more going on in your mind that i dont know if you can really predict..at least for verbal...i could easily see myself ultra focused and bustin out a 13 or the opposite and getting an 8...i range between these scores and so my average is technicall a 10.5 but i mean 4real tho...it could go either way

btw.....can somebody check Exam#9 passage 4, number 23? apparently it says ALL the answer choices are wrong? well, it says d is correct, but in the explanation it explains why it is incorrect...?????

edit: useless

well i seriously cannot get above an 8 on these tests.. i dont know whats wrong with me, but im retaking in a few weeks and i got an 8 the first time, so i certainly cant get an 8 again!.. im very upset

edit: more useless stuff

Originally Posted by tncekm

How fast do you get through the passages? IMHO getting through passages fast is a must, so to increase reading speed I suggest (against the grain) that you use outside reading sources and read your brains off with articles from places like The New Yorker, Harpers, and some would Suggest Scientific American and The Economist. Read for speed and comprehension, and make sure to pick the long articles so you can train your focus.

When I started out, I was skeptical as well. Whenever people told me to read, I would think to myself: "How stupid... like my reading comprehension will increase that quickly." b/c I had convinced myself that whatever "Jordan and John" from EK say was golden. Turned out not to be the case for me, and a few other people who have been suggesting this.

i give my self 8 minutes a passage.. and i finish on time.. its just lack of accurancy when answering the questions. I've experiemnted as well, such as not even giving myself a time limit.. and i DONT do any better.. its pathetic i know

Lack of accuracy meaning even when you think you understand the passage you can't find the right answer?

If so, have you reviewed to see patterns in your logic flaws? E.g. I used to always fall for extremes.

Originally Posted by tncekm

Lack of accuracy meaning even when you think you understand the passage you can't find the right answer?

If so, have you reviewed to see patterns in your logic flaws? E.g. I used to always fall for extremes.

yes, like looking at the answer choices.. i wont understand or see why one is more correct than another.... of course this is not the case for all of them, but at least 2 per passage.

Well, if you can just eliminate whatever it is that is causing the errors that aren't those 2 per passage, then you're pretty good. If you're talking 2/6 are mistakes you just don't understand, then technically you can get an 8 or 9.

If you're not understanding the logic of the question askers, all you can really do is review and look for patterns.

What kind of review have you done so far?

Originally Posted by tncekm

Well, if you can just eliminate whatever it is that is causing the errors that aren't those 2 per passage, then you're pretty good. If you're talking 2/6 are mistakes you just don't understand, then technically you can get an 8 or 9.

If you're not understanding the logic of the question askers, all you can really do is review and look for patterns.

What kind of review have you done so far?

just EK101 and practice tests (aamc and GS).. i tried avoiding the other stuff like kaplan and princeton.. i mean i have verbal books from those prep companies as well.. you think i should hit those?

Oh, I mean, what do you do when you've finished a test. What kind of review of the VR section?

And, just out of curiosity, how did you personally feel that GS VR compared to you AAMC's, and how did your scores compare?

Originally Posted by paranoid_eyes

EK1: 8
EK2: 9
EK3: 9

argh this is frustrating...

EK4: 8

omg, i am starting to go downhill now...

on a side note, i just read a post saying that EK is coming out with a new verbal book next month. anyone know if these will be completely diff passages or if they'll be the same passages incorporated into the new MCAT format (40q's, 60min)??

Originally Posted by paranoid_eyes

EK4: 8

omg, i am starting to go downhill now...

on a side note, i just read a post saying that EK is coming out with a new verbal book next month. anyone know if these will be completely diff passages or if they'll be the same passages incorporated into the new MCAT format (40q's, 60min)??

They are? Where did you read this?

Originally Posted by nothing123

They are? Where did you read this?

https://www.examkrackers.com/store/p...ac22d1b461e9df

Originally Posted by tncekm

Anyway, throwing those 6 passages from that one horrible day to the side (b/c I'm now convinced they're anamolous) here is a progress update.

I take it back. I'm not making progress, I'm just all over the freaking place! OMFG!

EK1 9
EK2 7
EK3 11
EK4 8 <--- "thought this was the result of a 'bad day' until..."
EK5 10
EK6 7 <--- "I got this."

Notice the strong upward trend until about 30. Yeah... that didn't last.