How to improve verbal reasoning past 10?

[z32019912]

Hi guys,

I have been trying to improve my verbal reasoning, it's usually at 10 but i want to push for 15.

Is there any tip for over 10? I've seen quite a bit for helping people to get 10, but I am trying to go for 15.

9-10 is what I've been getting since I started full length sections from 101 passages and that is also

what I got for my diagnostic. ( it's mostly a 10 now.)

Thank you in advance!

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[cryhavoc]

Well, I can get 10-11 on practices and only miss like 4-5 total questions. So, to get 15, you need 100%. I bet every section has at least one question with two right answers but one option that is "more correct". Maybe doing practice passages until you get the gist of what they are looking for could help.

In fact, it always seems to be the ones I narrow down to two options that I miss, as if they are misusing the logic I used on previous questions to trick me. I think I'm my next practice, when I get to those types of questions, I'll select the option I'm not leaning toward and see how I do and report back.

 

[efle]

First off, a 15 is not going to happen, because they curve the Verbal to make that essentially impossible. As far as I can tell from AAMC stats test takers did not get 15's in Verbal in all of 2013.

Even a 13 is 99.7th percentile, so that's about the highest you could realistically shoot for. Like cryhavoc said, the curve at scores of 12+ become 1 question wrong = 1 point lost, so there is not much you can do to push yourself further - it comes down to chance in a MAJOR way whether you can eliminate two bad options and then guess well for the hardest couple questions.

For improving a 10 a small amount though, practice the AAMC verbal sections. Buy every single AAMC full length, and proctor yourself very strictly on every single verbal section. Getting to your best in verbal comes naturally from repeating the process of "why did I get this wrong, how do I correct for it in the future" dozens and dozens of times. You'll start to pick up on intangible "wrongness" in answers based on how they are worded (too generally, specifically, or absolutely) and also get better at finding phrases and ideas in the passage which support one answer above the others.

 

[baxt1412]

make sure you know the types of AAMC questions
make sure you READ EVERY SINGLE WORD in the question
obviously use elimination first
there may be two correct answers, but only one will answer the question
don't pay attention to any 3rd party explanations of the right answers (because they don't make the MCAT so their reasoning doesn't matter)
the AAMC is always correct because they make the test, so make sure you analyze WHY you got something wrong according to their explanations
more practice could help, but it is unlikely.
just keep working

increasing from 8-10 = practice
increasing from 10-11+ = luck, good passages, etc

 

[Rhino1000]

First off, a 15 is not going to happen, because they curve the Verbal to make that essentially impossible. As far as I can tell from AAMC stats test takers did not get 15's in Verbal in all of 2013.

Even a 13 is 99.7th percentile, so that's about the highest you could realistically shoot for. Like cryhavoc said, the curve at scores of 12+ become 1 question wrong = 1 point lost, so there is not much you can do to push yourself further - it comes down to chance in a MAJOR way whether you can eliminate two bad options and then guess well for the hardest couple questions.

For improving a 10 a small amount though, practice the AAMC verbal sections. Buy every single AAMC full length, and proctor yourself very strictly on every single verbal section. Getting to your best in verbal comes naturally from repeating the process of "why did I get this wrong, how do I correct for it in the future" dozens and dozens of times. You'll start to pick up on intangible "wrongness" in answers based on how they are worded (too generally, specifically, or absolutely) and also get better at finding phrases and ideas in the passage which support one answer above the others.

or else at the very most, less than .05% of test takers, because they only gave percentiles up to 99.9%ile... .04 would round to 0% and so it's possible that up to a maximum of 47 people got a 15 on VR... right? This comes from .0005*95000