Verbal Practice

[Southern_Weather]

Dear SDN,

After doing numerous searches on this forum I've found that, when using EK 101 for verbal, I should only do 2-3 passages a day. My questions are: Should I be doing this everyday aside from break days? What sort of timing should I employ? And how will I do the scoring since it will not be a complete test I can't use the scoring provided in the book, I assume number of questions answered correctly/ total number of questions?

Thank you

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[stitchattack]

Depending on how many days you have left until test day, you should practice at least every other day. Timing should be 8 mins or less per passage. You can still do the scoring after you finish all 7 passages in 1 test. What also helps is calculating the percentage correct for the passages you did complete in a day to get an idea of what your average is. I sometimes split up the EK tests into 2 days (3 pass one day and 4 pass the next day) then calculate my score based on that.

 

[Jack Westin]

Try to do 2-3 passages a day for 3 months. But the more you do the better. As for timing. Try to give yourself no more than 7.5 mins to do a single passage. EK passages tend to be shorter in length than real AAMC passages. Don't worry about the scoring in the book as it is not a strong reflection of your current verbal score standing. The only good indicator of where you stand in terms of verbal are the AAMC exams 3-11.

What you should focus on after timing yourself for a passage is to read the passage again (not timed) and to do the questions again (not timed). See how you did this time around when you are not timed. Then review the questions and see why you got something right and why you got something wrong. If you got it right, go over your thought process for it. If you got something wrong, ask yourself why you got it wrong. Was it because of speed? Did you misread something? Did you not understand the main idea?

Jack

 

[tdod]

Dear SDN,

After doing numerous searches on this forum I've found that, when using EK 101 for verbal, I should only do 2-3 passages a day. My questions are: Should I be doing this everyday aside from break days? What sort of timing should I employ? And how will I do the scoring since it will not be a complete test I can't use the scoring provided in the book, I assume number of questions answered correctly/ total number of questions?

Thank you

Should I be doing this everyday aside from break days?
Everyday besides breaks and FL days.

What sort of timing should I employ?
Use any timer to time yourself. SN2ed suggests to "aim for 6-7 per passage, preferably closer to six." Personally, I think that being anywhere under 7 minutes is already fantastic; on the MCAT, you have around 8:30 per.

And how will I do the scoring since it will not be a complete test I can't use the scoring provided in the book, I assume number of questions answered correctly/ total number of questions?
(#correct/#attempted) x 40 = the equivalent numerical score; now, use the table in the EK book.


Personally, I found EK to be a great resource. However, I firmly believe that there answer choices are more hard to distinguish than are those on the real test. Also, you probably won't feel much pressure well practicing. Consequently, it's possible that your real scores on FL's will be 1-3 points higher than EK.