Help with Speed on VR of MCAT

[Topper Harley]

im having trouble with my speed on the VR section of the mcat.

I take on ave. 11 - 12 min per passage.
my goal is to be at 9 min per passage.

does anyone have any suggestions?

~Topper

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[MasterShakeDO]

My best advice is don't read the passage. Seriously, it's a real time waster. Some people go directly to the questions. What I was taught to do (Princeton Review) was to skim the passage for key words and ideas and circle/bracket them. I found this extremely helpful so I could recognize where in the passage I had to go when I got to a question. Most of the time you're going to have to re-read the section the question refers to anyway, so reading every word before getting to the questions wastes a lot of time. Key words include phrases that switch the tone (i.e in contrast, as opposed to, in spite of) or support an idea (because, any statistics, thus)
Also, we were taught to jot down the main idea (in 2-3 words) of each paragraph in the margin and then the theme of the entire passage in one sentence. This however takes much longer than 11-12 minutes unless you practice this a lot. You'll be surprised how often questions relate to the main idea of the article and not just to specific parts and you'll get those answers without re-reading the passage, thus saving time.
They also say to flip quickly through all passages to see which ones were the most dense (long paragraphs, boring subject matter). You want to do those last. Do the easier ones first so you can get a good percentage accuracy going. Accuracy is better than speed in verbal. You can get a 10-11 and not even do one of the passages! But each passage has a different amount of questions so do make sure the passage you save for last doesn't have the most questions...

Not every technique works for every person. I used it this way and scored a 12 (not to brag but to give my post more credibility).
Above all, PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE.
Good luck!

 

[jkhamlin]

im having trouble with my speed on the VR section of the mcat.

I take on ave. 11 - 12 min per passage.
my goal is to be at 9 min per passage.

does anyone have any suggestions?

~Topper

I got a 10 on VR and had about 15 minutes left when I was done with that section. I AM NOT A FAST READER! Here's my advice:
The problem with VR is that it does not work like we are trained in science classes. We are trained to pick out facts and ignore everything else; data, data, data. Suspend this training while doing verbal reasoning. Read the passage, but don't look for anything. Just read. Read it fast with nothing in mind, don't try to predict where it is leading or anything. See the whole passage as though it is the only point of "data." When you get through the passage you should have a general idea of what it just was.
It's kind of a zen thing and is hard to describe. Practice a little and I think you will get it. It would also help if you studied up on logic and reasoning. Learn the 3 laws of logic, what a formal fallacy is, and what the informal fallacies are. This is, after all, a test of logical ability and not a test of data acquisition and regurgitation. If you can do this, the questions at the end will seem a lot less bizarre.

 

[Ologist]

I read the questions first before the passage. Ended up with an 11 on the verbal, my best section.

________________________________________________________
the best blog out there: http://www.xanga.com/home.aspx?user=kmd1

 

[Supernova]

use LSAT reading comprehension questions to practice your speed. The LSAT passages are more structurized than MCAT verbal but require faster reading speed--good for practice speed reading

 

[dr.z]

You just have to read more I guess. I didn't do so well on verbal, but if I had the time to read lots of MCAT passages, I probably could have done better.

 

[futuredo32]

I went to Kaplan to prepare for the MCAT and the strategies sound pretty similar to TPR. They suggested that we read materials that were not things we were specifically interested in, magazines like the republic, or maybe scientific america. Also, Kaplan does have a specific verbal reasoning class(It was 400 or 500 when I took it). Kaplan's strategies worked great for me, but I have a friend who took Kaplan four times and never got above a 7 in VR., ie, what others have said about different strategies working better for some than others is definitely true.

 

[JohnDO]

Different people need to approach verbal differently.

The way I did it worked out well for me. I would skim over the passage until I had an idea of what the passage was talking about. I did not read the whole thing (I usually would stop at the last paragraph), and I didn't pay attention to details. I just read till I could say, "ok, this passage is about art in early america and the interpretation of it". I didn't use the mark strategy, because I found it distracting.

Then I would hit the first question. At this point you have to start reading and comprehending, but since you have a general idea of the passage, you can start eliminating things. For instance, if it's asking about the interpretation of a certain painting, you're wasting your time reading the introduction. You know it's somewhere in the middle, not likely in the conclusion. I am pretty good at skimming for key words, and so I would skim until I found 'key words'. At this point, I would read the paragraph and answer the question.

This worked out excellent for me. I scored 11 on the verbal section, and I finished with almost 22 minutes remaining. Oddly, I had never finished so fast in a practice exam, and so I was worried I skipped passages or something. Probably nerves :\

You just have to find what works best for you. Try a few different techniques with practice exams and see how they work out for you.

 

[Manifesting]

All of the prior posts have validity and I do believe that what works for one may not work for another. That being said, my opinion is that there are three keys to success for everyone on the mcat verbal section:
1) focusing on the main idea of each passage;
2) serious practice of mcat passages under timed conditions to gain confidence and effective pacing techniques;
3) serious practice of full-length mcat verbal tests to develop mental stamina by employing 1&2 above for duration of the 85 minute test.

I have ADHD and have attention/pacing problems on tests, but I followed the Examkrackers program for verbal and scored a 10 (not great, but good enough for acceptance ). The EK strategy is very simple, but it works. I definitely recommend the verbal prep and 101 passages books.

Here is the program in a nutshell: Read (don't skim) each passage carefully enough to absorb the author's tone and to grasp the main idea. Do not read for detail. Do not underline or make notes. Try to enjoy the passage (tough, I know) and take it in as a whole. The majority of questions (like 80% or so) deal with the main idea and the author's opinion.

It takes too much time to write a summary of each passage before doing the questions, but what I did do was answer these three questions after each passage and jot down a word or two to remind me of my answers and keep my focus:
1) Who is this author (not name, but a mental opinion: what does he/she do? what does he/she stand for? conservative or liberal? scientist or artist? etc);
2) WHY did the author write this piece? (for fun? profit? information? scholarly pursuit? persuasion? argument? etc);
3) WHAT is the author trying to say? (the piece may stink, but there is a main idea in there somewhere)

Once you have done that, approach the questions with confidence and without going back to the passage unless absolutely necessary (usually only for a detail question). I found that breaking that habit of going back to the passage was a huge time saver. It takes practice, lots of it, to break this habit, but once you realize that the majority of the questions are based on the author's overall main point, you stop desparately searching the passage for the exact wording which you think will help you answer the question. Generally, such exact wording is not present and looking for it does nothing but waste precious time. You must understand the main idea of the passage.

Sorry if this got to be too long, but I hope this helps. Best of luck to you. Just be certain to prepare as carefully for VR as you do for the other sections and you will do great.

 

[crimicmar]

Here is my two cents:
I practiced a speed reading course at my local junior college. This gave me the speed I needed and the confidence that I can retain information reading fast. I wasn't finishing the verbal and was getting 6 on practice exams. I ended up with a 10 on verbal and was thrilled.

 

[pratik7]

I agree with the above posters...do not read for fact. Read through the passage quickly and try to get a sense of what type of info each paragraph contains( when you need to go back), and most importantly get a feel for the attitude of the author on the subject