Help, I suck at VR!

[The Madden Bus]

ok, so I bought the EK 6th edition complete study package and started the Verbal Reasoning book. I did the first 2 lectures (not following a specific schedule) and got the same results on both of the 30 min, 3 passage practice parts. 13 out of 21 questions right. I don't even know what this would translate to for the VR section. Probably something bad like a 5. Anyway, I think my problem is that I have trouble applying some of the concepts they teach in the given amount of time. Like question stem and answer choices specifically. Also, I have to keep looking back in the passage sometimes, even though they tell you not to. I do it because it actually does give me some correct answers. I basically understand what the questions are asking, but have trouble finding the right way that they phrase the answer. Does this just come with practice? Any tips on how I can improve? or if you think I'm a ***** and should just keep reading and it will come to me, that's good also (I'm open to constructive criticism).

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[DrBowtie]

Was your problem time related? It averages out to 10min/passage.

 

[md2011]

I share your pains. When I worked on Kaplan, I did much better. But for EK, I did wrong for half of problems. I don't know if MCAT will be more like EK or Kaplan. Anyone knows?

 

[The Madden Bus]

Was your problem time related? It averages out to 10min/passage.

Well, it's hard for me to call it time related as I had answered every question with like a minute to spare at the end. See I usually like to spend a lot of time on something to think it through, but that's bad for the MCAT. I need to efficiently answer the questions somehow.

 

[big_smiles]

This totally can turn around with practicing passages timed. try 10 min/ passage, but perhaps better, round it out to 3 for 27 minutes, in case you get an extra passage on your test. I went up from a 4 diagnostic to a 10 on the MCAT just practicing passages. Also, look for the topic, scope, and purpose of every passage, and think of why an answer choice is right rather than just eliminate. Luck!

 

[HunterGatherer]

do a search. Most people agreed that that they were all hard and that the 3rd exam was especially difficult.

there is a score guide somewhere in the book because I remember my 3rd exam correlating to a 6/7.

 

[riceman04]

Was your problem time related? It averages out to 10min/passage.

Hey Bret what is your strategy for studying for the verbal section?

cya

 

[DrBowtie]

Hey Bret what is your strategy for studying for the verbal section?

cya

Check out Day 2 of the blog. Newly completed. It covers verbal prep.

 

[shantster]

I don't even know what this would translate to for the VR section.

Check the back of the book by the answers for the lecture exams. It should have the conversion for the raw score to the scaled score. If not, PM me and I will send you the scale that they have in the 5th edition.

 

[The Madden Bus]

do a search. Most people agreed that that they were all hard and that the 3rd exam was especially difficult.

there is a score guide somewhere in the book because I remember my 3rd exam correlating to a 6/7.

i'm not talking about an entire exam or even an entrie section of VR for the mcat. I'm talking about the 3 passages at the end of each lecture that examkrackers has set up for you.

 

[riceman04]

Check out Day 2 of the blog. Newly completed. It covers verbal prep.

cool thanks!!!

 

[The Madden Bus]

Check the back of the book by the answers for the lecture exams. It should have the conversion for the raw score to the scaled score. If not, PM me and I will send you the scale that they have in the 5th edition.

Yea I checked the back. 13-14 is an 8 they said. Not so great, but not as bad as I thought it was. It was a confusing scale because it was only out of 21 questions yet it said 23 was a 15. Maybe I calculated the raw score wrong?

 

[shantster]

Yea I checked the back. 13-14 is an 8 they said. Not so great, but not as bad as I thought it was. It was a confusing scale because it was only out of 21 questions yet it said 23 was a 15. Maybe I calculated the raw score wrong?

I never realized that there were only 21 questions on the tests, but 23 is the 15. The inclass exams for the science books are all 23 questions, so that's probably why that's odd. In any case, I wouldn't look at the actual number to be indicative of your actual scaled score, but just use it to gauge whether you are improving.

 

[HunterGatherer]

i'm not talking about an entire exam or even an entrie section of VR for the mcat. I'm talking about the 3 passages at the end of each lecture that examkrackers has set up for you.

This is what I was talking about. There are 3 mini 3 passage verbal exams. most people thought they were unusually difficult and the third was a monster. I saw this in 2 different EK user thread and an EK verbal thread when I prepped for the MCAT. I scored a 6/7 on the third and maybe 8/9 on the first 2.

 

[The Madden Bus]

This is what I was talking about. There are 3 mini 3 passage verbal exams. most people thought they were unusually difficult and the third was a monster. I saw this in 2 different EK user thread and an EK verbal thread when I prepped for the MCAT. I scored a 6/7 on the third and maybe 8/9 on the first 2.

Well I finished the EK verbal reasoning book today (6th edition) and finished the final lecture exam at the end. Since there are 9 passages, that encompasses an entire mcat vr section. I got 36/63 questions which is terrible. That's probably like 7-8 for the VR section. I tried using the main idea technique, which I kind of already knew anyway, but applying it their way was tough. They want you to write down the main topic(s) (isn't there just supposed to be a main TOPIC [singular]) then write a phrase connected them, then make it a sentence or two. If anyone could provide an example of how to do this from a passage (show me how you would do it on a specific passage), that would be of great help to me. Also, it's hard to get the specific questions without looking back at the passage, which they insist you don't. And aside from the main idea, the question stem technique seems useless because if you read the passage (which you'd be an idiot not to) you know whatever info the question stem could offer. The answer choices part is basically just simplifying, which I sort of do in my head as I look through it. What I need now are two things. First, can someone show me with an example how you would get a VR main idea to answer the questions with? Second, since I read throught the VR book, should I just do more passages or should I try to go back over some techniques, or what? please help me.

 

[UCDavisdude]

i scored a 9/21 on the first 30 lec 1 exam, lol. i think thats like a 5 or 6, oh well, it was my first practice and i still havent done lec 2 and 3 30 min exams yet. practice makes perfect ,right!

 

[cabrillo]

i scored a 9/21 on the first 30 lec 1 exam, lol. i think thats like a 5 or 6, oh well, it was my first practice and i still havent done lec 2 and 3 30 min exams yet. practice makes perfect ,right!

I scored the same on the first 30 min verbal test!!! 10/21 . I decided to use some of the verbal tests that I have from kaplan and TPR and incorporate them everyday into my study plan. I would probably read 3 passages per day which is the equivalent of a 30 minute test every day. I have tons of resources so I hope that I can get the most practice before the real deal.

 

[The Madden Bus]

i scored a 9/21 on the first 30 lec 1 exam, lol. i think thats like a 5 or 6, oh well, it was my first practice and i still havent done lec 2 and 3 30 min exams yet. practice makes perfect ,right!

Yea I share your pain. I got 13/21 on the first one, 13/21 on the second, and 10/21 on the third. I don't know how to rectify my technique. I don't know if this is the type of thing that just come naturally with practice or what? I hear everyone saying how examkrackers strategies are the best for VR but I find them hard to apply. I guess I'm not doing it right or something. I dunno, damn you mcat!

 

[DrBuro]

Yea I share your pain. I got 13/21 on the first one, 13/21 on the second, and 10/21 on the third. I don't know how to rectify my technique. I don't know if this is the type of thing that just come naturally with practice or what? I hear everyone saying how examkrackers strategies are the best for VR but I find them hard to apply. I guess I'm not doing it right or something. I dunno, damn you mcat!

The most important thing you guys need to do is just practice. I received scores lower than 10 on all three of those exams and am now, a couple of months of practice later, doing just fine. Buy the EK Verbal 101 book and do a few passages a day (I didn't exactly follow the EK strategies precisely). By the time you get a quarter of the way through the book, you're pretty much smoking every passage. Just as important as practicing verbal is to read for pleasure and increase your reading comprehension. Try to read as much as possible, as great reading comprehension makes the verbal section seem so much easier.

 

[The Madden Bus]

The most important thing you guys need to do is just practice. I received scores lower than 10 on all three of those exams and am now, a couple of months of practice later, doing just fine. Buy the EK Verbal 101 book and do a few passages a day (I didn't exactly follow the EK strategies precisely). By the time you get a quarter of the way through the book, you're pretty much smoking every passage. Just as important as practicing verbal is to read for pleasure and increase your reading comprehension. Try to read as much as possible, as great reading comprehension makes the verbal section seem so much easier.

I like your philosophy. I'm worried though that if I don't try to apply the EK strategies everytime all the practice I get from the EK 101 book will be useless be cause I won't have gained anything from it. Just curious, what kind of scores do you get now on the verbal sections, DrBuro?

 

[DrBuro]

I like your philosophy. I'm worried though that if I don't try to apply the EK strategies everytime all the practice I get from the EK 101 book will be useless be cause I won't have gained anything from it. Just curious, what kind of scores do you get now on the verbal sections, DrBuro?

It depends on what company prints the tests. If you start thinking more about the score on every test than you do about the practice, you will get nowhere, as stated ubiquitously by Kaplan (Diagnostic tomorrow! woo). The scores for EK, Kaplan, TPR, and even AAMC practice tests pretty much mean d*ck since you never know when they are going to throw a curveball at you come April. If you really want to know a more important piece of information, I receive an average of 1 question wrong on each passage, which IMO, is more important than specific numbers. DON'T CHECK SCORES TOO OFTEN!

Also, I tried EK's approach and got nowhere. I took my own approach, which was pretty much just doing as many passages as possible and really concentrating on the answer explanations, and my score jumped significantly. All people learn differently.

 

[The Madden Bus]

It depends on what company prints the tests. If you start thinking more about the score on every test than you do about the practice, you will get nowhere, as stated ubiquitously by Kaplan (Diagnostic tomorrow! woo). The scores for EK, Kaplan, TPR, and even AAMC practice tests pretty much mean d*ck since you never know when they are going to throw a curveball at you come April. If you really want to know a more important piece of information, I receive an average of 1 question wrong on each passage, which IMO, is more important than specific numbers. DON'T CHECK SCORES TOO OFTEN!

Also, I tried EK's approach and got nowhere. I took my own approach, which was pretty much just doing as many passages as possible and really concentrating on the answer explanations, and my score jumped significantly. All people learn differently.

only 1 wrong per passage, eh? That's not bad at all. I like your approach, I think maybe I'll try it that way.

 

[BiteSize]

The most important thing you guys need to do is just practice. I received scores lower than 10 on all three of those exams and am now, a couple of months of practice later, doing just fine. Buy the EK Verbal 101 book and do a few passages a day (I didn't exactly follow the EK strategies precisely). By the time you get a quarter of the way through the book, you're pretty much smoking every passage. Just as important as practicing verbal is to read for pleasure and increase your reading comprehension. Try to read as much as possible, as great reading comprehension makes the verbal section seem so much easier.

Wait . . . a few passages a day? As in you broke up the lecture full length exams? I've been told that the more full length sections you do, the better you'll get with Verbal. I'm studying under the assumption that the more I practice the higher my score will get . . . am I doing the right thing here?

 

[The Madden Bus]

Wait . . . a few passages a day? As in you broke up the lecture full length exams? I've been told that the more full length sections you do, the better you'll get with Verbal. I'm studying under the assumption that the more I practice the higher my score will get . . . am I doing the right thing here?

That seems to be the general consensus. I guess I will use that method and hope it works. It does seem rather useless to just do passages over and over without a proven strategy in place, but people are saying it works, so I guess I'll give it a try.