AAMC Official Unofficial Verbal Strategy

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tendiw

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I've read many MCAT books on verbal with many different strategies for verbal, however after taking all the AAMC CBT tests (including AAMC 6) and also all the old format tests with extra passages, I look at ALL the solutions and reasons for one answer being better than another.

It seems there is in fact a system that leds you to the correct answer and that system involve more than just the main idea, but the questions themselves are KEY to alot of answers. Everything from the wording of the questions to little details in the question stem make answers so darn obvious.

Here is a list on the strategy based on the question stem, and the solutions to all the AAMC:

Key Word:
Suggest is different from stated. When a question says the passage SUGGESTS, it is most likely something implied by the passage or paraphrased form the passage. Any direct statement from the passage isnt a suggestion and usually they may change one word in that statement to make it incorrect.

Implied, never pick a directly stated answer from the passage, look for something that is implied (obviously) and SUPPORTED by the passage.

The passage states, this is more likely a direct quote from the passage BUT your answer must be relevant to the question. There is almost always another true statement in the question choice but it is wrong because it has nothing to do with the question.

That leads me to the important point that the question stems usually have true answers but they have nothing to do with the question iself, this is why people struggle when they narrow down questions. They see two right choices, but really one is irrelevant

Conclusion, you choice must be a conclusion meaning it should be a general answer that sums up the passage or part of the passage the question refers to. All too often the AAMC will put in choices that are specific to just one point in the passage that is true but again isnt a conclusion. Usually a conclusion is something you should draw on.

Respectively, honestly when an question has a comparison with respectively, two answer choices are in the "wrong respective" and the 3rd wrong question has one part right and the other part is twisted (or belongs the the other point or person being mentioned).

Counter to main idea, if a passage question asks about anything except "which of the following weakens the..." or "which of the following is contrary to the authors point...." do not choose and answer that contradicts the main idea...even a little.

Conflicitng answers:
When two answers are in conflict AND they seems to answer the question, the most general answer wins. So long as the more general answer deviates fromt he question being asked.
Always ask if the answer is "necessarily true", this goes hand in hand with whether or not the answer is extreme (not some extreme answers may be true if the author says its true)
Watch for "mixed around words in senetences", again this is why picking an answer that seems word for word is dangerous, as one word may be changed and you wont realize it. The MCAT isnt reading comprehension so word for word answers are rare

Eliminate everything that has nothing to do with the question no matter how true it is, this will prevent you from overthinking it.

Reasing passage:
Highlight ares where the author states his opinions or rules, these make it easier to find answers to questions (even if you dont look back, the opinion is engraved in you)

Golden Rule
If it is not mentioned in the passage, if it is not inferable from the passage, if it is general knowledge that most people know but it is not presented in the passage (like everyone knows the heart represents love, and the question asks about the meaning of the heart in that passage)...THOU SHALT NOT PICK THAT ANSWER CHOICE.

As you can see, the strategy above makes the question stem itself seem more important than the main idea. BUT you should still know the main idea then apply the strategy.

Try this out in an untimed test, read the passage and have this stragey next to you and just try it.

The golden rule and the "if it has nothing to do with the question" rule alone can raise you score from and 8 to a 12. So many people can get a question down to 50/50 most of the time and pick the wrong one, these two rule will save you on 50/50 questions

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Nicely written strategy :thumbup: I will definitely keep your words in my mind.
 
I highly agree that question stems are so important...

I feel as if utilizing question stems are half the game in VR.
 
I highly agree that question stems are so important...

I feel as if utilizing question stems are half the game in VR.

Yep, when people scream main idea all the time...i tell them that you already know the main idea when you're finished ready. Some people say they dont, but that just means you can put the main idea in words but you have an intuition on what it is whether you believe it or not.


If you pay attention when you read, you'll get the main idea. Whats more important is the question stem.

Prep companies fail to draw attention to the question stem and ramble on the main idea.

If a question uses IMPLIED instead of STATED, you might pick the STATED answer thats in line with the main idea and get the question wrong.

I think it is why people find verbal hard no matter how much they practice the main idea. People must realize the questions themselves are KEY
 
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This is a good overview.

But I think you can merge the suggest and implied paragraphs together, as, in my opinion, implied questions are similar to suggest questions (if not completely the same).
 
EK has a practice where to answer the questions without reading the passage to demonstrate how much info the question stems contain. And another practice to see how much info the question answers contain.
I scored better on that practice than by reading the passages and answer the questions. Now I don't know if it was just that particular example, perhaps the question stems were easier.

In any case, it is easy to lose focus with the passage present, and everyone forgets about the questions.
 
Amazing strategy! I agree. Little words make a lot of difference on verbal reasoning. If you can pay careful attention to the little words, you are saving yourself a lot of pain and agony.
 
Impressive post, if I retake I'll definitely be referring back to this for verbal. Its a nice change from all the posts where people are begging for verbal strategies.
 
I know that EK has a similar strategy for reading question stems, but my confusion pertains to when to actually read the question stems...do you read the question stems before reading the passage or after? And, would it not be a waste of time to actually take the EK strategy (reading question stems) in addition to reading the passage?

Also, do you guys think it is a good idea in general to preview the questions before reading the passage?
 
NEVER!!!!! look at the questions before you read the passage NEVER

It will make you focus on finding the answers and you will miss the point of the passage and every underlying theme as you are too focused on the questions.

On reading comprehension looking at questions first might help because it tests your recollection but on verbal it will hurt you!
Looking at the question first will make you pick an obvious and usually wrong answer, please don't do it. NEVER

Analyze question stem after reading passage. The end.
 
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Hey thanks alot for this post i'm scheduled for a retake and verbal is my weakest section and after weeks of doing verbal i had been coming to a lot of the same conclusions that you have written down here. Thanks a lot for this post and for everyone else having trouble remember that the main idea of the passage is important but the points are in effectively answering the QUESTIONS!
 
Thanks for writing this! I have my MCAT in about 2 weeks and focusing on key words that you have stated is pretty important. :thumbup:
 
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Counter to main idea, if a passage question asks about anything except "which of the following weakens the..." or "which of the following is contrary to the authors point...." do not choose and answer that contradicts the main idea...even a little.

I am confused with your counter to main idea point.
If a question asks "Which of the following statements, if true, would most directly undermine the author's central argument?" don't you pick an answer that contradicts and weakens the main point that the author made in the passage?
 
I am confused with your counter to main idea point.
If a question asks "Which of the following statements, if true, would most directly undermine the author's central argument?" don't you pick an answer that contradicts and weakens the main point that the author made in the passage?

if a passage question asks about anything except "which of the following weakens the..." or "which of the following is contrary to the authors point...." do not choose and answer that contradicts the main idea...even a little.
.
 
I've read many MCAT books on verbal with many different strategies for verbal, however after taking all the AAMC CBT tests (including AAMC 6) and also all the old format tests with extra passages, I look at ALL the solutions and reasons for one answer being better than another.

It seems there is in fact a system that leds you to the correct answer and that system involve more than just the main idea, but the questions themselves are KEY to alot of answers. Everything from the wording of the questions to little details in the question stem make answers so darn obvious.

Here is a list on the strategy based on the question stem, and the solutions to all the AAMC:

Key Word:
Suggest is different from stated. When a question says the passage SUGGESTS, it is most likely something implied by the passage or paraphrased form the passage. Any direct statement from the passage isnt a suggestion and usually they may change one word in that statement to make it incorrect.

Implied, never pick a directly stated answer from the passage, look for something that is implied (obviously) and SUPPORTED by the passage.

The passage states, this is more likely a direct quote from the passage BUT your answer must be relevant to the question. There is almost always another true statement in the question choice but it is wrong because it has nothing to do with the question.

That leads me to the important point that the question stems usually have true answers but they have nothing to do with the question iself, this is why people struggle when they narrow down questions. They see two right choices, but really one is irrelevant

Conclusion, you choice must be a conclusion meaning it should be a general answer that sums up the passage or part of the passage the question refers to. All too often the AAMC will put in choices that are specific to just one point in the passage that is true but again isnt a conclusion. Usually a conclusion is something you should draw on.

Respectively, honestly when an question has a comparison with respectively, two answer choices are in the "wrong respective" and the 3rd wrong question has one part right and the other part is twisted (or belongs the the other point or person being mentioned).

Counter to main idea, if a passage question asks about anything except "which of the following weakens the..." or "which of the following is contrary to the authors point...." do not choose and answer that contradicts the main idea...even a little.

Conflicitng answers:
When two answers are in conflict AND they seems to answer the question, the most general answer wins. So long as the more general answer deviates fromt he question being asked.
Always ask if the answer is "necessarily true", this goes hand in hand with whether or not the answer is extreme (not some extreme answers may be true if the author says its true)
Watch for "mixed around words in senetences", again this is why picking an answer that seems word for word is dangerous, as one word may be changed and you wont realize it. The MCAT isnt reading comprehension so word for word answers are rare

Eliminate everything that has nothing to do with the question no matter how true it is, this will prevent you from overthinking it.

Reasing passage:
Highlight ares where the author states his opinions or rules, these make it easier to find answers to questions (even if you dont look back, the opinion is engraved in you)

Golden Rule
If it is not mentioned in the passage, if it is not inferable from the passage, if it is general knowledge that most people know but it is not presented in the passage (like everyone knows the heart represents love, and the question asks about the meaning of the heart in that passage)...THOU SHALT NOT PICK THAT ANSWER CHOICE.

As you can see, the strategy above makes the question stem itself seem more important than the main idea. BUT you should still know the main idea then apply the strategy.

Try this out in an untimed test, read the passage and have this stragey next to you and just try it.

The golden rule and the "if it has nothing to do with the question" rule alone can raise you score from and 8 to a 12. So many people can get a question down to 50/50 most of the time and pick the wrong one, these two rule will save you on 50/50 questions
How about "According to the Passage" questions .... are those inference or direct statements from the passage?
 
Any tips for those who have no clue what the author's talking about or what to focus on until the end of the 2nd paragraph?
 
Bump. :D

I'm going to try to pay more attention to the question stem words this time. Usually, I'm just scrambling to answer questions.
 
"Counter to main idea, if a passage question asks about anything except "which of the following weakens the..." or "which of the following is contrary to the authors point...." do not choose and answer that contradicts the main idea...even a little."[/B]

Just wondering if anyone could expand on this a little bit, these are the types of questions that I have the biggest issues with. So for a question that asks "which of the following weakens the author's point" should I not choose the answer that contradicts the main idea?

Same with the following type of question, "Which of the following, if true would weaken the author's assertion"
 
"Counter to main idea, if a passage question asks about anything except "which of the following weakens the..." or "which of the following is contrary to the authors point...." do not choose and answer that contradicts the main idea...even a little."[/B]

Just wondering if anyone could expand on this a little bit, these are the types of questions that I have the biggest issues with. So for a question that asks "which of the following weakens the author's point" should I not choose the answer that contradicts the main idea?

Same with the following type of question, "Which of the following, if true would weaken the author's assertion"
He's saying not to pick an answer that disagrees with the author, even if it's in the slightest way. Unless the question is asking, "which of the following weakens the author's point?" then your goal is to find the answer that contradicts the author's point.
 
Here is a list on the strategy based on the question stem, and the solutions to all the AAMC:
This strategy is essentially the same strategy that I've gleaned from doing EK 101 VR so there might be something to it.

Any tips for those who have no clue what the author's talking about or what to focus on until the end of the 2nd paragraph?
Try scanning the entire passage for a few key words to figure out what subject the passage is on. Within five seconds, I can establish a broad subject and connect that with a tone or mode. Try not to be too specific or else you might wind up hinging your bets on an incorrect inference.
 
Yep, when people scream main idea all the time...i tell them that you already know the main idea when you're finished ready. Some people say they dont, but that just means you can put the main idea in words but you have an intuition on what it is whether you believe it or not.


If you pay attention when you read, you'll get the main idea. Whats more important is the question stem.

Prep companies fail to draw attention to the question stem and ramble on the main idea.

If a question uses IMPLIED instead of STATED, you might pick the STATED answer thats in line with the main idea and get the question wrong.

I think it is why people find verbal hard no matter how much they practice the main idea. People must realize the questions themselves are KEY

If you are still studying for the MCAT or will be, read this. Read it again. Imply is something that is not stated in the passage. Sorry but this just gave me a huge...light bulb ;)
 
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