Thoughts on new verbal technique?

[Manzielin]

At this point I am hopeless. Seems like I can't consistently answer verbal (or CARs) questions very well. I've tried many techniques. I tend to just forget small details in the passage that end up showing up in the questions. I am also a slower reader.

Here is my new plan of attack: Read first and last paragraph, get an idea of what the narrative is about. Then move right into the questions. Quickly find what the question references if it requires it. I think this will save me time and prevent me from forgetting key details. Thoughts? Has anyone tried this?

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Cawolf]

I think being a slower reader is really what drags most people down in VR.

Depending on how far out your exam is, I would try to focus on simply improving your reading skills (and rate).

 

[jamcat]

I'm not so sure that plan will work. Often the questions ask about the tone of the passage, or the attitude of the author about something. You won't be able to answer those as accurately if you've only read the first and last paragraphs, and if you have to search through the passage for the tone, that's essentially reading the entire passage anyway.

With your strategy you could really get tripped up if the author offers some sort of acknowledgement of the weakness of his/her argument somewhere in the passage. If you haven't read the whole thing, get a tone/attitude question, then go back to the passage to look for the answer, you could find the author saying something negative about X and choose a negative attitude when really s/he was just acknowledging the other side's points.

Even aside from that situation, if you have a detail question and have to look through the entire passage for the detail, you'll essentially be skimming the entire passage every time you have to do that. I think it would be much faster to read the entire passage the first time and be able to focus your search on the area of the passage where you know the detail is located. There are also situations where a detail is referred to multiple times in one paragraph, but the text around the detail lets you know which one is most applicable. If all you're doing is looking for the detail, you could completely miss more applicable details and get the question wrong.

I adopted an approach pretty much opposite from the one you described, and that served me well. I found that once I gave myself more than the "recommended" time on the passage, I was able to fly through the questions because I was so comfortable with the passage. The slower I read, the more I remembered, and the less I needed to refer to the passage during the questions. I took the old MCAT where we only had 8 minutes per passage, and I would routinely give myself 4.5 minutes to read the passage.

Different things work for different people, so it's good that you're experimenting and you may well find success with your method. Give it a go recognizing its potential weaknesses, and be willing to adjust if necessary. Good luck!

 

[Manzielin]

I'm not so sure that plan will work. Often the questions ask about the tone of the passage, or the attitude of the author about something. You won't be able to answer those as accurately if you've only read the first and last paragraphs, and if you have to search through the passage for the tone, that's essentially reading the entire passage anyway.

With your strategy you could really get tripped up if the author offers some sort of acknowledgement of the weakness of his/her argument somewhere in the passage. If you haven't read the whole thing, get a tone/attitude question, then go back to the passage to look for the answer, you could find the author saying something negative about X and choose a negative attitude when really s/he was just acknowledging the other side's points.

Even aside from that situation, if you have a detail question and have to look through the entire passage for the detail, you'll essentially be skimming the entire passage every time you have to do that. I think it would be much faster to read the entire passage the first time and be able to focus your search on the area of the passage where you know the detail is located. There are also situations where a detail is referred to multiple times in one paragraph, but the text around the detail lets you know which one is most applicable. If all you're doing is looking for the detail, you could completely miss more applicable details and get the question wrong.

I adopted an approach pretty much opposite from the one you described, and that served me well. I found that once I gave myself more than the "recommended" time on the passage, I was able to fly through the questions because I was so comfortable with the passage. The slower I read, the more I remembered, and the less I needed to refer to the passage during the questions. I took the old MCAT where we only had 8 minutes per passage, and I would routinely give myself 4.5 minutes to read the passage.

Different things work for different people, so it's good that you're experimenting and you may well find success with your method. Give it a go recognizing its potential weaknesses, and be willing to adjust if necessary. Good luck!

I think you're right. I dont think I am giving myself enough time to really appreciate the passage. I've been trying to read it in 3.5 but ill shoot for 4.5 - 5. Thanks.

 

[Sause Baus]

I really don't think your method of reading only the "first" and "last" paragraph of the passage is going to help you achieve a high verbal score...
For me personally, I found that the best way to improve on verbal is to read with a sense of purpose (I raised my score from 7 to a 10 in a matter of less than a month). Try and integrate different points from the passage such as "how did the author get from this point to the next" as well as getting a gist of what each paragraph is about for easy references later.

Im not a strong reader (believe me, I wouldn't even pick up a book if you paid me to do so..), but I was able to pace myself to a minimum of 7.5-8min a passage +questions (for the old mcat). <-- I think this is critical because on test day you would most likely have to spend an extra 30sec-min per passage.
I don't exactly know how the new mcat sorts out verbal passages, but I would suggest you cut your allotted time down to an amount that is LESS than what is normally needed to finish a passage and answer the questions...but not SO MUCH that you're essentially rushing through the passage with no real understanding of what it's about (3.5 min per passage seems like overkill).

One last thing I found that helped me (and this actually clicked for me DURING my actual test..haha) was reading the question BEFORE looking at the answer choices for that question. Once you're sure of what you think your answer is, THEN look at the answers, and your brain will immediately cross off the irrelevant ones and lead you to the choice that is best attuned to what you initially thought it would be.

Verbal is hard..and it was the only section that kept me from scoring in the high 35+ range, but if you really take the time to PRACTICE PRACTICE and PRACTICE some more, it WILL work in your favor (this I promise you).

Good luck, and let me know if you have other questions

 

[Jack Westin]

Reading slowly is actually an advantage on this exam. Reading the first and last paragraphs is not a good idea at all. Do you really think the MCAT wants you to do that? You can definitely read all of the passages and answer all of the questions of the CARS section in a timely manner, especially if you are slow reader. You just have to learn what to look out for, how this exam presents questions, etc. This comes with a lot of preparation and studying. Specifically, studying AAMC passages.

 

[Manzielin]

Reading slowly is actually an advantage on this exam. Reading the first and last paragraphs is not a good idea at all. Do you really think the MCAT wants you to do that? You can definitely read all of the passages and answer all of the questions of the CARS section in a timely manner, especially if you are slow reader. You just have to learn what to look out for, how this exam presents questions, etc. This comes with a lot of preparation and studying. Specifically, studying AAMC passages.

Okay, I'm taking your word, and I have revived sense of hope. Any ideas where I can get a hold of more practice passages/practice tests? I bought the new 2015 question packs. It seems as though AAMC took down old practice exams.

 

[Jack Westin]

The AAMC question packs, MCAT2015 Official guide to the MCAT, MCAT2015 sample exam and the soon to be released MCAT2015 Practice Test #1 are the resources I recommend looking at. You can buy them here: https://www.aamc.org/students/applying/mcat/prepare/

As for older exams, you would have had to bought them prior to their expiration. I don't think it's a big deal if you don't have them. The AAMC question pack is essentially all of those passages bundled together.

 

[GCSDOC]

The AAMC question packs, MCAT2015 Official guide to the MCAT, MCAT2015 sample exam and the soon to be released MCAT2015 Practice Test #1 are the resources I recommend looking at. You can buy them here: https://www.aamc.org/students/applying/mcat/prepare/

As for older exams, you would have had to bought them prior to their expiration. I don't think it's a big deal if you don't have them. The AAMC question pack is essentially all of those passages bundled together.

Practice test #1 is scheduled for Fall 2015 release date so won't be of much help for us studying for this cycle's mcat.