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While my verbal score is not astronomically high, I think it's pretty good compared to what it was when I started studying (started around a 7, now 11/12). Also, since I've gotten some PMs based on just one comment I made in a thread a while ago, I've decided that maybe other people in MCAT Discussions would at the very least be interested in reading something for 5 minutes if there was even the slightest chance it would increase their VR.
One of the biggest things I've realized in all my time studying VR is that the #1 reason that I'll flop on a passage (like getting 75%...wrong) is because I just didn't understand the passage as a whole. Not that any particular questions "got me," or "seemed confusing". Those are all secondary to not understanding the entire passage and internalizing it. That led me to perusing the MCAT forums or the EK book for guidance, but these sources mostly failed me because the only advice I would get for better reading comprehension was "read a lot" or "act like you're interested in the material" or some other vague, unhelpful drivel. After some experimentation, this is what I came up with (and I quote this from a PM I sent).
After adopting this strategy, I've used it on ek101 with a huge amount of success. I literally just kind of "discovered" this strategy a few days ago, and before I had a big problem with finishing a passage on time, now for some reason I'm just zooming through questions and finishing passages with 1-2 minutes to spare (with 100% accuracy). Now this is starting to sound like an infomercial, but I'm not trying to sell anyone anything, I'm not asking for money, or offering any guarantees. I'm mostly just kind of excited and was hoping to validate this method by seeing if anyone else could get anything from it. I also realize this has probably been stated by someone elsewhere in MCAT discussion at some point in time in one form or another. Well, here it is again!
Cheers.
EDIT: Edited to address some of the questions brought up in the topic, as well as some things that I have realized about this method. Also, some comments to address common problems/questions are found below.
Also, as far as TIMING goes, yes, you may initially find yourself losing a little time with this method. It is not unlikely that you will spend 4 minutes just reading the passage. However, this is offset by being able to complete questions much faster (Say about 15 seconds to read through each answer and pick out the right one just off the top of your head, and maybe another 15 seconds to confirm it by looking at the corresponding paragraph in the passage). Getting used to reading like this combined with getting used to answering questions with less reliance on digging through the passage for clues will contribute to faster times.
It WILL still be difficult to tackle those hard artsy passages with crappy language, because lets face it, nobody in real life writes like that and it's a little unreasonable for AAMC to ask a bunch of science majors to read an article about the cubism movement written by the author equivalent of a hipster.
A common problem a significant number of people seem to encounter with this method is that it can be very mentally draining. I don't know exactly why this is, though I theorize that having to read for complete comprehension of ideas is much more taxing on your brain than is doing a superficial reading and painfully making your way through each question. You might find yourself running out of steam midway through a VR test. Be aware of when this happens, take a quick 5-10 second breather and try to empty your brain, then go back to the questions/passage. It's better to recognize when you've begun to lose focus and take a step back than to just keep trying to push through it, then finishing the entire passage while realizing that you have not 1) actually understood any of the words you just read and/or 2) did not focus on connecting the ideas.
One of the biggest things I've realized in all my time studying VR is that the #1 reason that I'll flop on a passage (like getting 75%...wrong) is because I just didn't understand the passage as a whole. Not that any particular questions "got me," or "seemed confusing". Those are all secondary to not understanding the entire passage and internalizing it. That led me to perusing the MCAT forums or the EK book for guidance, but these sources mostly failed me because the only advice I would get for better reading comprehension was "read a lot" or "act like you're interested in the material" or some other vague, unhelpful drivel. After some experimentation, this is what I came up with (and I quote this from a PM I sent).
After adopting this strategy, I've used it on ek101 with a huge amount of success. I literally just kind of "discovered" this strategy a few days ago, and before I had a big problem with finishing a passage on time, now for some reason I'm just zooming through questions and finishing passages with 1-2 minutes to spare (with 100% accuracy). Now this is starting to sound like an infomercial, but I'm not trying to sell anyone anything, I'm not asking for money, or offering any guarantees. I'm mostly just kind of excited and was hoping to validate this method by seeing if anyone else could get anything from it. I also realize this has probably been stated by someone elsewhere in MCAT discussion at some point in time in one form or another. Well, here it is again!
Cheers.
EDIT: Edited to address some of the questions brought up in the topic, as well as some things that I have realized about this method. Also, some comments to address common problems/questions are found below.
Also, as far as TIMING goes, yes, you may initially find yourself losing a little time with this method. It is not unlikely that you will spend 4 minutes just reading the passage. However, this is offset by being able to complete questions much faster (Say about 15 seconds to read through each answer and pick out the right one just off the top of your head, and maybe another 15 seconds to confirm it by looking at the corresponding paragraph in the passage). Getting used to reading like this combined with getting used to answering questions with less reliance on digging through the passage for clues will contribute to faster times.
It WILL still be difficult to tackle those hard artsy passages with crappy language, because lets face it, nobody in real life writes like that and it's a little unreasonable for AAMC to ask a bunch of science majors to read an article about the cubism movement written by the author equivalent of a hipster.
A common problem a significant number of people seem to encounter with this method is that it can be very mentally draining. I don't know exactly why this is, though I theorize that having to read for complete comprehension of ideas is much more taxing on your brain than is doing a superficial reading and painfully making your way through each question. You might find yourself running out of steam midway through a VR test. Be aware of when this happens, take a quick 5-10 second breather and try to empty your brain, then go back to the questions/passage. It's better to recognize when you've begun to lose focus and take a step back than to just keep trying to push through it, then finishing the entire passage while realizing that you have not 1) actually understood any of the words you just read and/or 2) did not focus on connecting the ideas.
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