Getting worse and worse at verbal MCAT 2015

[ballin4dapandas]

So I started studying about 2 months ago for the MCAT and I'm taking it August 21st. I followed Testing Solutions 30 day plan and used TPR material for my practice in the beginning...towards the end of the 30 days I found I made huge improvements getting on average 5 questions wrong every 4 passages. I bought Testing Solutions practice exams and the AAMC question packs and started doing those once I finished TPR material and I find them EXTREMELY harder...like in the sense that in the past 2 months I feel like I've gotten absolutely no practice. I can't follow the passages at all and I don't even understand what the questions are asking and I'm freaking out. I did 4 passages yesterday and got 9/28 correct...I figured I should restart and start doing 2 passages a day again. I just did 2 and got 3/13 right and I didn't get one question right in one of the passages. Basically I'm freaking out and I don't really know how to handle this; reading has always been my worst subject but I thought i was making improvements. Any advice would be appreciated!

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[Shreyasthegreat]

Get your hands on the TPR Hyperlearning Verbal book and start doing 4-5 passages a day. Then review them and note patterns in question types you're getting wrong. Once you've determined what kinds of questions, you're getting wrong (say after a week of this), look over your worst offenders and try to determine how you could tackle them better, look at your old practice and see what could work. Slowly but surely, your verbal will improve with thorough analysis and consistent practice.

 

[radioactive15]

Do some additional practice for the next week or so, and if you don't feel you're ready, push back your test date.

 

[OrdinaryDO]

CARS is one of those sections where practice makes perfect. You can't just learn a method and ace every question of that style like you could on a standardized biology exam. You need to read the passage thoroughly and at a pace that is considered a little above average. Through my experience with practice MCAT material and the real MCAT exam I have realized that most questions are based off of very broad areas of the passage. They questions may be worded differently or asked 50 different ways, but the end result should require the same method to choosing the right answer. Some of the hot topics I like to take into account while actively reading is: How would I quickly summarize THIS paragraph, what is the stance of the author, does anything really stand out, who are the opponents/proponents of the topic's subject at hand, etc. Also, look for extreme words, such as "very", "never", "Always", etc.

My biggest issue with CARS is actually a very common problem amongst most MCAT test takers, and that is the fact that we have a hard time summarizing the whole passage once we are finished reading. We are clueless as to what we just read, which leads to obvious confusion and frequent referral to the passage for every question. Every person has a different method that works for THEM. My method was a short sentence for each paragraph where I would label either the paragraph summary or key words I felt would be significant to refer back to (Dates, names, comparisons, conclusion key words, comparison and contrasting keywords, etc. IMPORTANT KEY WORDS.)

Lastly, I will say that if you are getting questions wrong on a consistent basis, then I would use untimed practice CARS passages to help you figure out a way to get the right answers, then work towards using that method under timed conditions.

The MCAT is a hard test that deserves the utmost respect when studying for it. Form a strategy, THEN work on your time. YOU CAN DO THIS!

 

[ballin4dapandas]

I'm going to keep practicing for another week or so while I begin reviewing all my notes on the different sources I've read. I'll probably take an exam by the end of the week and base my decision of whether I should push my exam back or not on how well I do.
Thanks a lot for the responses and good luck to those who have yet to take their MCAT!

 

[Dr. Trenb]

Definitely don't take it if your score is not improving. I suggest you go to @Jack Westin profile and see his posting, and the advice he gives. He knows what he's talking about.

 

[GrapesofRath]

If those are your scores on AAMC tests you really should push the test back unless something dramatically changes.

Get your hands on all the old AAMC practice tests and use those verbals as practice(the section has essentially stayed the same). Don't use them as full lengths either in your case; break it down passage by passage. See how you do. Don't use a timer for now either. You need to identify trends in how the AAMC writes and thinks and what constitutes a right answer and wrong one. You have to first see success before you can start doing it under simulated test conditions.

TPRH Hyperlearning Verbal Workbook and EK 101 are the best practice you can get outside of the AAMC. All in all that's almost 200 passages and probably over 1000 questions to practice from. Like I said if you take the old AAMC verbal sections and keep getting the same scores do not take now, slow down and really go through all these passages and build up your skills and confidence.

Also if your issue is understanding passages I wouldn't recommend wasting too many of these passages which are such valuable practice at this moment(don't do more than a handful of AAMC practice passages). Read some harder more abstract articles from journals and editorials. Really improve your speed and comprehension. The issue of understanding the AAMC questions and a strategy for them is secondary to being able to read abstract complex passages on really dull topics. For this, you can also use Kaplan verbal and other test companies who don't do a very good job simulating the MCAT but at least give complex passages where you can practice your reading comprehension and speed.

 

[ballin4dapandas]

Thanks for the advice. I don't know what the problem is I feel like ALL the passages I read in the AAMC question packs were super complicated and abstract and one after another put me in panic mode. I just did 4 EK passages timed in a row and only got 4 wrong with no problems finishing under the time restraint. Dr. Trenb I'll check out the Jack Westin's profile but yeah the exam is less than a month away and I'm still learning a lot of the material for the first time so I'll probably push it back to sometime towards the end of my winter break. I wake up at 6:30 everyday study till 8pm (with about an hour to eat) and then watch another episode of any random TV show to unwind while eating dinner and I'm asleep by 10:30 so I think my daily schedule itself is fine I just need more time to first learn the material and then start practicing (which I haven't even started yet) and it seems to be too great of a feat to do in less than a month

 

[GrapesofRath]

Thanks for the advice. I don't know what the problem is I feel like ALL the passages I read in the AAMC question packs were super complicated and abstract and one after another put me in panic mode. I just did 4 EK passages timed in a row and only got 4 wrong with no problems finishing under the time restraint. Dr. Trenb I'll check out the Jack Westin's profile but yeah the exam is less than a month away and I'm still learning a lot of the material for the first time so I'll probably push it back to sometime towards the end of my winter break. I wake up at 6:30 everyday study till 8pm (with about an hour to eat) and then watch another episode of any random TV show to unwind while eating dinner and I'm asleep by 10:30 so I think my daily schedule itself is fine I just need more time to first learn the material and then start practicing (which I haven't even started yet) and it seems to be too great of a feat to do in less than a month

A big part of it is mental. Many people actually think EK is harder than the AAMC practice tests and score lower on them. Identify what specifically gives you so much trouble with AAMC and what allows you to have success on EK.

 

[ballin4dapandas]

I'm pretty sure it's just the comprehension. Reading itself for me has always been a big weakness and once college started I never really had to worry about it because i took more science based courses (i mean critical reading when i say reading...I have no problem reading my textbooks)...the use of complex words and abstract subjects just goes right over my head. I can actually understand what the EK passages are conveying because the language is, what i feel to be, a bit simpler and I can more easily follow the flow of the passages. What I'm trying to say is that for the complex passages...it's not a matter of "understanding it in X amount of time"...it's understanding it period. I'll go back to passages to review, read them them at an extremely relaxed pace, and still not pick up main points in the passage. I'll read the solutions for questions and not have any clue what they're talking about. I also officially decided to take this MCAT in the winter because regardless of how prepared I am my stress levels are high and it makes it hard to really learn information when I'm always thinking 'i have to get this done as quick as possible'