Good at bio section, getting owned at verbal (crit. anal). Very discouraged, can anyone else relate?

[evaporation132]

So ive been going through the Princeton review books and the biology book i loved and just finished and was doing good at the practice questions in it. However i got to the critical analysis and reasoning and even though im almost done with the book (read all the strategies and methods and tips and tricks) and the whole time through the book I've been getting F's on the practice passages. I loved the Bio book but on this one I just can get it right no matter what I try. I am really frustrated and discourage. I am wondering if anyone else had trouble in particular with this section and wants to share a success story?

I dont even think a tutor could help me, i get like 4/7 or less correct on average. and I was taking 24 minutes per passage on average, now I rush through them because at the end of the book it said i should be taking 12 minutes max but now I don't even know what I am reading since I have to go through each passage in 4 minutes, and i still get 3/7 or 4/7 correct on average. =( I feel like if im still failing at this ill never be able to get it right =[. Maybe im not cut out for this.

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[mcatjelly]

I don't even know what I am reading since I have to go through each passage in 4 minutes

Nope, nope, and nope. I am willing to bet that the majority of your problem is right there.

The goal of CARS is not to see how quickly you can read a passage, but how well you can pick out the main idea of what you've read (in a short amount of time, to be fair). You have ten minutes per passage--if you spend 6-7 minutes reading carefully through the passage and highlighting key phrases in case you need to refer back, you can easily answer the questions in 3-4 minutes. Actively reading the passage means you won't have to think as much to answer the questions.

So I highly recommend that you 1.5/double the time you spend reading the passage. After each paragraph, do a quick mental synopsis of what you read. What is the author saying? Are they for or against something, or are they really just stating facts? What kind of language is the author using? Negative? Positive? Did they introduce an idea that contradicts their initial argument? What sort of evidence did they provide for their assertions? Etc, etc, etc. If you come across a sentence that makes you go "wtf where did that come from?", you need to go back and figure out where you got lost.

But I'm sure that simply spending more time on the passage will help you out quite a bit.

I'm happy to answer any specific questions if you have them! Or elaborate on any of the above.

(Context: consistently score 80%+ on CARS with plenty of time to spare)

 

[Jack Westin]

Read books. Try reading for 2 hours a day for a couple of months. I have a feeling you're lacking in reading comprehension. Unfortunately, this causes anxiety and decreases confidence. I realize you want to take this exam now and get it over with but if you don't have at the least average reading comprehension, this exam in it's entirety will be difficult for you.

Here's what you should do starting today: pick up a semi-dense but interesting book that you've been wanting to read and start reading it for 2 hours a day. Additionally, from now on, write down any words you come across in your reading that you do not know. Notecard these words on a daily basis and test yourself. Reading + vocab daily is the best wait to improve your reading comprehension and reading speed. I realize this may take some time, maybe even up to 6 months for some people but I think it's such an important part of the exam- more so than content. The immediate question I usually get when I tell students this is, "But I want to take the exam in 2 months, I don't have that time." My answer to this: that's ok, even a month of reading daily will significantly help you.

 

[evaporation132]

thank you i am definitely lacking in reading comprehension. maybe ill buy like 100 verbal passages and just study those to increase reading comprehension while figuring out how to answer at the same time? or maybe i should just read a book... but it sucks cause i have 4 more fat books in other MCAT subjects to read

 

[Jack Westin]

Just read a novel for 2 hours a day. Something like Game of Thrones.

 

[summergirl]

CARS is hard for everyone, so don't panic if this is happening to you. Also, the method to approach CARS is different for everyone, so pick and choose the advices others give you.

My advice: You have 90 minutes total for 9 passages. You'll want to practice to finish with at least 10-15min to spare to account for test-day jitters, going back to review your answers, and the very possibly true rumor that the actual MCAT passages are longer than the practice ones. FYI, my MCAT from 2 years ago had longer passages than my practice. This means you should finish each passage in about 8-8.5 minutes. Personally, I think the worst thing that can happen to someone is not finish a particular section, so get the timing down.

I suggest using 2.5-4 min of reading per passage. I took the old MCAT, when the avg time/passage given was shorter, and everyone aimed for about 3 minutes per passage. It worked for many many many people. Most people who have gotten 90+% percentiles said they aimed for that range. The problem with using more time on passages is that you spend less time on questions, and the questions are where you get the points. A lot of MCAT questions are not simply the ones you can pick out from the passage, but are things that require analysis and reasoning (hence the name "Critical Analysis and Reasoning"), so you'll need a bit of time to actually reason the answers given.

 

[Blueprint MCAT Tutor]

I was taking 24 minutes per passage on average . . . at the end of the book it said i should be taking 12 minutes max but now I don't even know what I am reading since I have to go through each passage in 4 minutes, and i still get 3/7 or 4/7 correct on average . . .

There's no single right answer here, since every student will read slightly differently. You've thrown out some really odd facts in your post, though, that should be addressed. First, why were you taking 24 minutes to do a passage? That is an insane amount of time and we need to figure out what was going on there. That kind of time could only come from something like a reading issue, attention issue, or ESL problems.

Next, you say that you can still get about half the questions right when "I don't even know what I am reading". You would only get 25% of the questions right on blind guessing, so clearly you do know some of what you're reading. The trick is going to be adjusting what you are getting out of the reading to align with what the MCAT will ask.

So wat do?

1. If you really do require almost a half hour to read ~500 words and answer some questions, then you're a strong candidate to go get evaluated by an educational psychologist who specializes in reading issues.

Let me be clear here, I am in no way qualified to diagnose anything, and based on one little SDN post, I am suggesting only that you consider seeing a reading professional for advice.

2. You need to systematically practice several different reading strategies, including slower reading (6.5-7min/pass), moderate-pace (4.5 min/pass) and skimming (1.5min/pass) so that you can find what works for you.

3. Keep track! Be really anal retentive about recording the strategy you used, how well it worked, and how comfortable it was.

4. As Jack said, read every day. Every day. Read a book, a magazine, the New York Times, whatever. You have to make yourself into a reader if you're not one by habit.

With patience, time, patience, steady work, patience, maybe some outside help, and more patience, you can get where you need to go. Good luck!!!!

 

[Eppur Si Muove]

I was terrible at the verbal reasoning and ended up doing very well becuase I learned how to summarize the information quickly. You need to focus on what each paragraph is saying in a passage and separate between the main idea of the paragraph and the evidence that the author uses to support their opinion in that paragraph. The main idea of the paragraph is usually listed in the first or second sentence. The rest is going to be the evidence. Use all the main ideas of the paragraph to create a summary of a whole passage. When I broke it up like this, it became way easier. Try to take it one paragraph at a time. It sounds like it might take longer but it doesn't because you wont be taking so much time to stop and ponder what the main idea of the whole essay is. Once you take it piece by piece by the end of the passage the main idea will just come together all at once.

Another thing that might help is finding which kinds of answers are usually wrong answers so you can cross those out immediately. There are wrong asnwer types that regardless of the passage will be used to throw you off. I havent used the princeton review books but they should list them. Once I practiced this enough, I could read a passage, predict what question will be asked without even looking, and sure enough, the question type and wrong answer was there. I could cross those off immediately and limit my chances of choosing an incorrect answer. Usually every set of questions has a wrong answer that can automatically be crossed off even before reading the passage. For example, an answer that has a strong opinion word such as "always" or "never" will almost always be wrong. This is because authors rarely have strong opinions in the essays selected. If this wasn't the case, it would be easy to understand the passage.

 

[Havito123]

All great advice's, i have also struggled with verbal/CARS but try reading the passages and paying attention to every single punctuation mark ( periods, commas etc). Before i used to read passages and have no idea of what it meant, but after i started paying attention to punctuation i have not had a problem with comprehension. This advice is only for passage comprehension and not attacking passage questions