A Clear Problem

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magictouch

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What can I do specifically to get better at humanities passages?

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I literally have have received a 10 on every verbal I've taken (AAMC, TBR, PR, etc). (Diagnostic in May and the one yesterday) Humanities is consistently what's holding be back, but it was particularly dramatic on the last test (AAMC 8).

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Humanities is harder because its ambiguous. Sciences are basically reading comprehension -- what species has the opposable neck joint or whatever, what strata has the silicon deposits, which theory explains why the lake had excessive sodium content, etc. Social sciences is also a large amount of reading comprehension with a health splash of trying to understand things from the author's perspective. Humanities is actually the "hard" part of VR. Everything you will have to strain to think "what would the AUTHOR say is the strongest support?" or "which statement if true would most weaken the argument according to the passage's AUTHOR?" --- key here is that author's viewpoint is what matters. Best way to get better? 1. Take a huge interest in reading this crap. Sit up straight, smile, pretend to really care about the progression of the 18th century impressionist movement in europe 2. read first paragraph, then last paragraph to get passage idea, then read the whole thing straight through before attacking question 3. read the New Yorker magazine -- especially its literary, music, and cinema reviews, and its fiction --- not its news, finance stuff.
 
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Thank you for the very clear recommendations. I'll try the New Yorker! What do you recommend I do to see if I'm comprehending the passages? Like a time reading...summarize MP/tone/etc and then a detailed reading to see if it matches?

I tried the first/last paragraph technique when I took that test, but it was the first time using it so maybe I'll get better at it.
 
Guys this has 107 views and only 1 reply -- I would love to hear advice from others as well!
 
you need to work on your inference strategies (taking the passage as a whole into context of the question they want you to answer)
 
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