AAMC verbal self-assessment

[brood910]

I am half-way through the verbal self-assessment, and I find the passages REALLY HARD to comprehend..

Also, it takes me 11-12 mins for each passage!! This surprises me since it took me only 7-8 mins per passage for EK and TPRH.

Am I screwed since the passages are the actual passages from the previous MCAT?..
I do not know what I got on it yet since I did not finish it, but I am assuming that my score will be below the avg.....

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Traumweber]

My strategy was to force myself to reading as fast as I could and finish reading the whole passage in 4 mins... At the end of this time, all you need is to have is a mental map of how the ideas in the passage connect with each other and the tone and mood of the author and a general idea of what he is trying to tell you. You do not need to understand things in detail nor know every stated fact or understand every strange word (but make sure to highlight names, numbers, strange words and change and continuation of ideas (but, however, furthermore... etc ), as you read through.
Go to the questions and refer back to the passage when needed in the rest of the 4.5 minutes you would have...
This strategy at the least, helped me get my timing under control (though I still could not get all questions in the passage correct).
Once I realized that I get points for answering the questions rather than understanding the passage, my timing was under control!

 

[texan2414]

The passages on self assessment (in VR) go from easy → medium → hard. So you are probably about to make the transition from medium to hard.
Don't be discouraged by the subsequent passages because the actual MCAT has a mix of easy,med,hard passages.

I usually adopted N+1 timing for earlier passages and closer to the end, you need N+2 minutes for a passage. N = number of questions.

 

[makingthejump]

I get more "moderate" questions correct than the "easy" ones in the verbal SA...doesn't make any sense.