How do you improve Critical Thinking skills for the MCAT?

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DocKayEMDEE

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Any tips, books, strategies that you would recommend to improve critical thinking?

I plan on retaking the MCAT for the third time next August so I'd really like to get a head start in improving my critical thinking skills. I realized I learned the fundamental topics through rote memorization - I pretty much absorbed every information like a sponge. It took me two MCAT exams to realize just simply knowing the content is NOT enough. Although, I did plenty of practice passages using TBR, that didn't help at all.

I'm ready to tackle the MCAT again, but I know it's too early to start studying for the August 2012 MCAT. What should I do?

Right now, I'm reading Asking the Right Questions: A Guide to Critical Thinking.


Your advice is much appreciated!

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Have a better/more thorough background on the topics being covered on the test. Don't fret about "critical thinking"
 
Normally, I would say practice and more practice although it seemed like you did plenty of practice passages for your previous MCATs.

What really helped me was to not only do practice passages but then actively correct them. Go back through the passages and understand not only why the correct choice is correct but also why the incorrect choices were wrong. I'm not sure you need expert critical thinking skills, but it is helpful to pick up on trends that are common to the MCAT. After awhile, you should be able to read the passage and begin to imagine or predict what questions might be asked. I think this type of "active thinking" may be more necessary than "critical thinking." However, I'm sure any type of dense reading would be helpful.
 
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Berkeley Review books definitely sharpened my critical thinking skills...if u haven't used those books i'd highly recommend it.
 
Critical thinking in test-taking is looking at the same problem from different angles and then figuring out which angle the test writer took for the question and which angle each of the answers fit best in. When you can identify why the wrong answers are wrong, you have mastered the concept. For a new concept, you should be able to identify how you arrived at the right answer.

For practice, do the books...
 
Any advice for enhancing such skills in the verbal section?

Verbal is the most difficult section to improve, and I think that the 'skills' for this section are pretty much set into a test taker by the time he/she sits for the exam when they are 21 years old. You can probably learn 'how' to use these skills better, but it is challenging.

I worked on my verbal over 3 months parallel to my science preparation. My first practice test was an 11, my actual test score was an 11, and about 90% of the 20 practice tests I took in between were....you guess it...11. :laugh:
 
one thing that helped me was that I made materials interesting no matter how freaking boring they are supposed to be
 
What were your practice exam score averages? Why did you take the exam if you were scoring below what you wanted on the practice tests?
 
Whenever you learn something, or answer a question, ask, "Why?" If you can reason the answer without spitting out, "Because XYZ is true," but by saying in basic terms the logic behind it for multiple steps, then you are thinking critically.

MCAT like medicine involves a lot of thinking backwards. Most books teach you to apply "If,Then,Else" statements to questions to arrive at the correct answer choice. This is an decent tool for underperforming test-takers to get them to score in an average range. Unfortunately, it is time consuming and not how the test is meant to be taken. "If,Then,Else" statements use prospective logical reasoning (ie, you make up point A, then apply variables to get to answer choice C). It's a big reason why students with a good, but not concrete knowledge of subject material can 'reason out' most of the answer choices to make them correct.

Reasoning backwards is a skill like any other. You can apply it to anything from the MCAT to why your girlfriend is upset that night. The more steps you can reason backwards, the more proficient and comfortable you are with it.

Example of how "Why" is tested at various stages in your career in medicine, using a clinical example. MCAT wants you to hit med student level. Which is past simple association into mechanics.

A woman with diabetes had a heart attack
It's because diabetes predisposes atherosclerotic heart disease
Atherosclerotic heart disease can be caused by diabetes, and increases risk of heart attacks. [college-tested thought process]
Glucose is a molecular that may form bonds with other chemicals
Le Chatelier's principle tells us that when we have more of a reagant we can drive a reaction towards a product
This is reasonable, since with more reagants in a solution, they are more likely to collide and react.
With adequate reagant (glucose) we may bind amino groups in the vascular endothelium, neutralizing them.
Ionized materials, including proteins, may now flow into the endothelium more easily secondary to a lack of charge gradient.
Change in the endothelium will cause (through a sequence of events) narrowing of the vessel lumen
Narrowing of vessel lumen will predispose to occlusion, causing a heart attack [med school level]
Maybe if I lowered the average level of blood sugar, took away things that could cause occlusion, or reduced other factors that would cause glucose to react with amino groups I could lower someone's risk of heart attack with diabetes [doctor level]
 
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