Verbal Reviewing Techniques?

[rls303]

Hi Everyone,

I was wondering if you guys could give me some tips on what I should be doing after completing a verbal practice test, I just go over the solutions, and feel sad afterwards...I honestly don't learn anything new. Today was a horrible day, I got a 4 on AAMC 10....I've heard that the real MCAT's are harder .


Any advice or tips would be genuinely appreciated. English is my first language, and I am not too avid of a reader, but any tips you guys have would really help me.

I read a thread on SDN about going through the passages and getting a "feel" of the content of each passages and then attempting them in order of increasing difficulty (I tried it today)...does it work for you guys?

Also, how much do you budget your time per passage, 7-8 minutes per passage including questions? Then gives you time to look over the questions you were iffy about? Or would you just suggest completely giving your 100% on each passage and answer every question to the best of your ability and then move on to the next one?

Also, do you take a minute to sort of look over the questions, then selectively read the passage?

This is the one passage that really makes me sweat about time!

I think with sufficient review, I can tackle the PS and BS, but I'm just not getting the verbal down....

I'm sorry about the plethora of questions! I'd be really grateful if someone could give me some advice!

Thanks in advance!

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[crazyasian]

I aim for 4-4.5 minutes to read the passage and to complete each passage with the questions in under 8 minutes. I don't read the questions first as i find that it takes to much time, and i can't really remember anything. I really saw an improvement once I started going back to passages and looking for key things that would tell me something about the author. For example words that would suggest an authors opinion, or that he may be a teacher, or reporter. Once I started reading and noticing these things it really helped. Whats your average verbal score? AAMC 10 was pretty tough, I did alot better on the real verbal than aamc 10 verbal. If you need a framework for analyzing passages try the Berkley review verbal. I don't necessarily agree with some of their methods, but to get you into the right mindset I found it helped alot.

 

[rls303]

I aim for 4-4.5 minutes to read the passage and to complete each passage with the questions in under 8 minutes. I don't read the questions first as i find that it takes to much time, and i can't really remember anything. I really saw an improvement once I started going back to passages and looking for key things that would tell me something about the author. For example words that would suggest an authors opinion, or that he may be a teacher, or reporter. Once I started reading and noticing these things it really helped. Whats your average verbal score? AAMC 10 was pretty tough, I did alot better on the real verbal than aamc 10 verbal. If you need a framework for analyzing passages try the Berkley review verbal. I don't necessarily agree with some of their methods, but to get you into the right mindset I found it helped alot.

Hi,
I have been averaging about 6 on verbal.

I tried a Berkeley Review test verbal today and I got a 4

I have the book, but I will try to review their methods. When I go back to review the test, should I review/re-read the passages again as well?

Thanks

 

[fizzgig]

Hi Everyone,
after completing a verbal practice test, I just go over the solutions, and feel sad afterwards...

this just made me a sad panda haha... i've been there fo sho just doing lecture questions in EK. eek.
i havent done a load with verbal yet (just a kaplan diagnostic and 4 or so BR passages someone lent me), so grain of salt as always.

personally i can't imagine taking the time to look over all the passages and choose a difficult order would work for me. the time it'd take to accurately do that would be missed, and i think i might lose focus trying to think about all the passages at once then trying to focus only on one..

i've been reading the passage first. again the reason was if i look over the questions then as i read i will be getting sidetracked thinking about the questions instead of trying to really absorb the passage in all its boring glory. as you read people say you should think about who is writing and what their opinion is all the time. is the person opinionated? empathetic to those who aren't in his camp? thinks people who aren't in his camp are *****s? that kind of stuff. when you go back over your answers what are the reasons you miss stuff? didnt know what a word meant, or thought the author had a different opinion than he did, etc?

fwiw i actually did what the EK verbal book said and worked through their example passage where you wrote out what the author was like, then answer questions where you only have the question answers and no stems. not that you have the time to ponder all that during the real thing but it was a good way to convince me that the main idea and authors TONE were super important and some answers could be guessed with just those even when you couldn't see the question. maybe it would be worth it for you to do a few passages under easier time constraints to really work through your logic, then add each bit back in at full speed as you can? dunno. just musing.