Verbal Reasoning/Writing Sample Questions Thread

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lorelei

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All users may post questions about MCAT verbal and writing sample here. We will answer the questions as soon as we reasonably can. If you would like to know what VR and WS topics appear on the MCAT, you should check the MCAT Student Manual (http://www.aamc.org/students/mcat/studentmanual/start.htm)

Acceptable topics:
-general, MCAT-level critical reading or writing questions
-particular MCAT-level verbal or writing sample questions, whether your own or from study material
-what you need to know about verbal or writing for the MCAT
-how best to approach MCAT verbal passages
-how best to prepare for MCAT verbal reasoning and writing sample
-how best to tackle the MCAT VR and WS sections

Unacceptable topics:
-actual MCAT questions or passages, or close paraphrasings thereof
-anything you know to be beyond the scope of the MCAT

***********

If you really know your verbal or (especially) writing sample, I can use your help. If you are willing to help answer questions on this thread, please let me know. Here are the current members of the Verbal Reasoning/Writing Sample Team:

-lorelei (thread moderator): I am a Kaplan MCAT teacher. On the MCAT, I scored 15 on VR and 43 overall.

This thread will probably work a little differently from the science threads, since there are no formulas to study or reactions to learn. Bear with us as we figure things out.

-MoosePilot: MoosePilot has completed TPR teacher training. He scored 13 on the VR section of the MCAT, and 36 overall.

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hippocampus said:
the passage had a lot of detail. a lot of review books say dont focus on the details, focus on the big picture. but.. how do you *not* focus on the details if you dont even understand the details? i feel that you need to understand the details to understand the big pic (?).

since you dont understand the details, you will just find yourself skimming the passage (since you think details dont matter) in hope of finding the big pic, and in the end, you are clueless on what the passage was about. (well, thats how it was for me :()
The point in the details isn't that you retain each and every point made in each detail. You have to do two things very quickly--1) understand what is actually being described, and 2) figure out why the author wasted your time bringing it up. How does the point pertain to his argument? Look for combining phrases used to link a point to the rest--does the author say "additionally" (implying that it is further support of the previour point) or "however" (meaning that the point is a caveat that might be partially contrary to the previous point) or "nevertheless" (meaning that a conclusion holds in the face of the caveats presented)? You don't need to know the details, but you do need to understand them briefly enough to relate them to a central point. Once you understand a point, and you can meake sense of it in context, you can forget it and move on.

Look for these things also in the transitions between paragraphs. Ultimately, you should be looking for a thesis and for a structured support of that thesis. the author is not trying to make you remember a concatenation of facts--they want to convince you of the existence and dynamics of a process.
 
Nutmeg has good advice about understanding WHY details are there, not understanding every little bit.

As far as recognizing what is skippable, there are some typical structures that give you that hint. For example: "Sandra Day O'Connor was a paragon, an example to women everywhere, a perfect choice as the first female justice." (I just made that up.) In that sentence, and pretty much any sentence with that structure, the three things set off by commas are all similar to each other. If you don't know what "paragon" means, that's OK - you know, based on the structure, that it has to be something similar to the other two. And you don't need to read them all carefully, just remember that this is stuff about why O'Connor is awesome.

There's a similar structure, like this: "Condoleezza Rice is a classically trained pianist, a figure skater, and a football fan." The "and" in there means that the details are NOT all the same thing, but they are three details that are somewhat related. In this case, it's Rice's hobbies. Still, you don't need to memorize them or even necessarily understand them all (my examples are obvious, but there could be one with words you don't know), just note what they're about in general.

Also, anything with numbers is a detail. Don't worry about memorizing or understanding them, just note where they are and what they're about.

Another hint: repetition usually hints that there are several examples or statements about the same thing. For example, this quote from the VR example on aamc.org (http://www.aamc.org/students/mcat/vrsampleitems.pdf):

"It is important to see that we don't just talk about
arguments in terms of war. We can actually win or
lose arguments. We see the person we are arguing
with as an opponent. We attack his positions and we
defend our own. We gain and lose ground. We plan
and use strategies."

All those sentences that start with "We" are examples of how arguments are not just TALKED ABOUT in terms of war, but really experienced and structured in terms of war (which is what the author says in words in the rest of the paragraph). This is typical. When you get a list like this, you don't need to necessarily understand every item, but understand what the list consists of, and why it's there.

I will try to keep an eye out for more examples of ways to identify details, but I hope these few starting points help.
 
hi lorelei, I have been practicing verbal with ek and kaplan practice tests(3 passages/day). I seem to be stuck around a 9. The questions I usually miss are like "which of the following conclusions can justifibly drawn from the passage?" or the questions regarding the meaning of the word in context of the passage, or how would a certain claim be viewed by the author or how would it affect the passage?" On occassion when i understand the passage well i'm able to get these questions correct. But sometimes i'm in the middle of the passage and i'm not sure if the author supports the point or is against it. The passages i usually have trouble with are the ones talking about review of a book or of some sort of written work and passages about art and stuff. I think in one of your previous posts you said look for words like however, moreover and etc. that has helped alot. Most of the questions i miss, i have them boiled down to two choices, but i end up picking the wrong ones. Do you have any tips for dealing with these questions and any other words or clues to understand tone of the passage? ty
 
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Mostwanted: Something I've done on occasion to figure out the author's point of view is to find the place where s/he is talking about the relevant point, and look for any non-necessary words: words that don't absolutely have to be there to convey the facts, as well as words that could have been chosen differently to give a different impression. See what would be lost by stripping the prose down to the bare minimum, and that usually gives you an idea of the author's viewpoint.

Unfortunately I haven't had enough time to find good public-domain examples, but here is one from a blog I'm currently reading that might give you the idea. (Copied from http://www.corante.com/loom/archives/2005/06/16/look_up_in_the_sky_flying_hobbits.php)

Skeptics find this possibility implausible, arguing that it’s more likely this individual was just a pygmy human with some genetic defect. As far as I can tell, this skepticism about shrinking hominid brains flows from two sources.

(first source snipped)

The other source of skepticism, which I mentioned in my last post, is a vague sense that when it comes to hominid brains, evolution cannot run in reverse. It’s certainly true that if you draw a graph of hominid brain size over time, it has climbed to spectacular heights...


In the first paragraph, take "skeptics" - that's a loaded word. Does he consider himself a skeptic? Probably not. Saying "as far as I can tell" implies that he doesn't really understand the skeptics' viewpoint, so presumably he doesn't share it. ("implausible" and "just" are two other words you might take notice of.)

Second paragraph, "vague" also implies that he doesn't share that sense - respectable scientific hypotheses shouldn't be vague. Then in the next sentence, the use of "certainly" in this case is implying that a "BUT" is coming up soon (it's the next paragraph, in fact) - like saying "well, I'll give you that, BUT that's the only part you have right."

This is obviously not an ideal passage for this use, because Zimmer isn't at all trying to hide his viewpoint, but it might give you an idea of the kind of thing to look for.

If people think it would be helpful, I can try to find some more-suitable passages to point out these sorts of key words in.

---

rrshah, it's true that detail questions are relatively rare, though I don't know an exact percentage. Different test forms will vary. I don't think there's much of an analytical strategy - just use your passage map to find the relevant section, and look up the detail. If it takes more analysis than that, it's not a detail question.
 
rrshah2 said:
I was reviewing my Kaplan diagnostic and I noticed that there were 7 detail questions out of 32 total. That's almost 25%! In the Kaplan VR workbook, it is said detail questions are very rare on the MCAT. Can someone help explain this disjunction? What percentage are detail questions on AAMC tests? What is a good analytical method for attacking these suckers?


I don't know the details on detail questions (what percentage, etc), but how I deal with them:

I just go back to the text. You should have an idea where they're located from your first reading. Go back to the text, find the answer. Read a couple sentences before and after to be sure that really is the answer and then pick the choice that has the right answer. Easy points, I love these!!
 
Is anyone finding the Kaplan verbal reasoning section tests to be unreasonably difficult? I was doing test 7 and ****, I have the main idea and am really in control of the passages but the questions are so damn hard for me!! They require higher-level processing. Anyone care to comment? Thanks,

Franky
 
frankrizzo18 said:
Is anyone finding the Kaplan verbal reasoning section tests to be unreasonably difficult? I was doing test 7 and ****, I have the main idea and am really in control of the passages but the questions are so damn hard for me!! They require higher-level processing. Anyone care to comment? Thanks,

Franky

Bump
 
lorelei said:
Skeptics find this possibility implausible, arguing that it’s more likely this individual was just a pygmy human with some genetic defect. As far as I can tell, this skepticism about shrinking hominid brains flows from two sources.

(first source snipped)

The other source of skepticism, which I mentioned in my last post, is a vague sense that when it comes to hominid brains, evolution cannot run in reverse. It’s certainly true that if you draw a graph of hominid brain size over time, it has climbed to spectacular heights...


In the first paragraph, take "skeptics" - that's a loaded word. Does he consider himself a skeptic? Probably not. Saying "as far as I can tell" implies that he doesn't really understand the skeptics' viewpoint, so presumably he doesn't share it. ("implausible" and "just" are two other words you might take notice of.)

Second paragraph, "vague" also implies that he doesn't share that sense - respectable scientific hypotheses shouldn't be vague. Then in the next sentence, the use of "certainly" in this case is implying that a "BUT" is coming up soon (it's the next paragraph, in fact) - like saying "well, I'll give you that, BUT that's the only part you have right."

Wow, i would have never ever (not even in a million years) been able to analyze the paragraph in that depth...especially when there is a time limit during verbal!!!
 
Frankrizzo, I've been looking at the Kaplan subject tests and it is my own personal opinion (NOT an official Kaplan opinion) that they may be more difficult than the real MCAT. Better to practice on stuff that's too hard than too easy though! Feel free to PM me if you have any specific questions, as I do have access to those tests.

Sweetstuff, it's really a different kind of thinking, honed through lots of practice. I do it pretty much automatically, so teaching Verbal has been fascinating for me because I get to analyze WHY I know what I'm getting from the passage. But although I say I've learned it through practice, I've actually been really surprised at how much of the skillset seems to be learnable through studying. I don't think it's required to always analyze the passage like that - stick to normal keywords like however, then, obviously, rhetorical questions, and so on. But analyzing word choice is another strategy that you can use if you're really stuck AND have some time.
 
lorelei said:
Frankrizzo, I've been looking at the Kaplan subject tests and it is my own personal opinion (NOT an official Kaplan opinion) that they may be more difficult than the real MCAT. Better to practice on stuff that's too hard than too easy though!

My personal opinion is also that the Kaplan VR sections are harder than the real MCAT VR. But many of my students say the two are comparable, so I'm not sure whether Kaplan's tests really are objectively harder or not. I think it's interesting that you and I both feel that way though, lorelei.

lorelei said:
I do it pretty much automatically, so teaching Verbal has been fascinating for me because I get to analyze WHY I know what I'm getting from the passage. But although I say I've learned it through practice, I've actually been really surprised at how much of the skillset seems to be learnable through studying.

The hardest thing about teaching other people how to take the MCAT, particularly this section, is that there isn't any objective knowledge that you need to learn for VR, and it's not always easy to tell an outside observer what you were thinking as you answered the questions or read the passage. I also never thought about how/why I knew something before I became an instructor and started consciously analyzing how I approach a passage or question. I can't tell you why some people figure out these techniques on their own and others don't. But the cool thing, like lorelei said, is that once you are aware of the techniques, you can practice them until they are second nature to you, too. I have to emphasize to you students that it is essential to practice your VR techniques to the point where you do them automatically. Some students don't practice VR because there isn't any content to study, and this is a huge mistake.
 
Kaplans questions and answer choices are a bit different than EK. There is one particular type of double qualifier kaplan question that does not appear on EK.

The claim that <enter your generic claim here> is:
A.necessarily true given the info presented
B.perhaps true and supported by info in the passage
C.perhaps true but not supported by the passage
D.necessarily false given the info presented in the passage

EKs answers choices tend to be more detailed. Anyone know if this combo of question/question stem pops up on AAMC exams?

I keep getting sucked into rereading the passages to nail down the correct answer for this combo or scuked into rereading the claim.
 
I read quite a lot of items from the Economist to the WSJ. My problem is that I have a tendeny to disagree with some of the answers presented in the MCAT sample tests.

I get to the point where I'm reading a passage and I'm arguing about the choices in answers because they don't match what I think the answer should be.

Is there a good way to "unlearn" techniques that (like reading between the lines) I learned that may work in one case, but doesn't work for the MCAT VR? Is there a good technique for the VR I should use?

Unfortunately, the more I critcally think about the passage, the more questions I come up with and the more the answers in the MCAT may not make sense.
 
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Hi,
As I am going over the the past taken full lenghts to analyze my mistakes, it is easy to pin point where I went wrong in the sciences (forgetting a formula etc...) but not so much in verbal. The explanations are related to the topic of the particular passage, rather than the question type/passage type etc. Is there any suggestions on how to go over past verbal sections so we can get the most out of it? Thanks!
 
stoleyerscrubz: I think that type of question does show up on real AAMC exams, but I could be misremembering because I've seen it in Kaplan materials. At any rate, it's a really good type of question for practicing argument analysis: basically it's asking you what the arguments given in the passage imply -- what has to be true given that the evidence in the passage is true. And that's an important skill to have.

NewtonNewberry: I bet just doing more VR practice items will get you more familiar with the types of questions (and answers!) on the MCAT. Certainly there are often times when they could go in more interesting directions, but they choose not to for whatever reason, and the task is just to find the best answer.

Viv2006: One thing you can do is take a sample passage and then grade it without looking at the explanations. Then, now that you know what the answers are, go over it and explain to yourself WHY those are the answers, and why the wrong ones were wrong. Compare your reasoning to that given in the explanations. This will help you be able to approach the problems in the same way as the people who write the tests.
 
umm, Success. Focusing directly on the argument really simplifies things. I just got 45/60 on test 3R. What a bitchin' relief. You guys have been a great way for me to bounce ideas and soak up the way people do well on verbal reasoning.
 
I hate to ask this but can someone confirm that the Verbal is only 60 questions now? When did it change? I've been practicing w/ 'old' 65 question materials, am I in trouble? Why did they reduce the test anyways?
 
It is only 60 questions. I think the change was in 2004.

Emann8 said:
I hate to ask this but can someone confirm that the Verbal is only 60 questions now? When did it change? I've been practicing w/ 'old' 65 question materials, am I in trouble? Why did they reduce the test anyways?
 
would you guys recommend trusting what you got out of the passage more so than referring back to specific parts of the passage too much? i think i'm really afraid to trust myself too much b/c i think "what if i didn't really understand what the author was trying to say" and i will end up getting that question wrong. timing is a big issue for me and i think this fear of mine might be the reason for it. w/my practice exams i find that there is usually 1 passage that i just didn't seem to understand well at all and i guess that has conditioned me to refer back to each passage more than i should. any advice on how to break this habit and stop scaring myself? i try to take a short break after each passage but apparently it doesn't seem to work very well. help! :(
 
Misty said:
would you guys recommend trusting what you got out of the passage more so than referring back to specific parts of the passage too much? i think i'm really afraid to trust myself too much b/c i think "what if i didn't really understand what the author was trying to say" and i will end up getting that question wrong. timing is a big issue for me and i think this fear of mine might be the reason for it. w/my practice exams i find that there is usually 1 passage that i just didn't seem to understand well at all and i guess that has conditioned me to refer back to each passage more than i should. any advice on how to break this habit and stop scaring myself? i try to take a short break after each passage but apparently it doesn't seem to work very well. help! :(

Hm. It's hard to say. While you're taking the practice exam, are you able to pick out the passage that's giving you trouble? If so, there's nothing wrong with skipping that one and coming back to it at the end when you have more time.

Do you think this is more of a psychological thing or a real problem with understanding? That is, when you go back over your tests, were your first thoughts usually right? Or did you actually have to go back over the passage to find the right answers? If what you got out of the passage usually seems to be accurate, I would definitely recommend trying to get over the feeling of needing to go back to check, and only do those checks for questions where they're necessary (like details you can't recall). Then you can save time so that on the one passage you do have a hard time with, you can go back and scour the passage for answers.

On the other hand, if you're not able to tell while you're taking the test whether you're successfully understanding the passage or not, I'm not sure what the best course of action is. Here's an idea I just had, so I don't know if it's really good or not (but maybe worth a try if it sounds helpful for you): take the test while trying to trust your instincts as much as possible, but mark the questions you were worried about. At the end of each passage, if there were several iffy questions go back and look, but if there were only a couple move on. At the end if you have time you can go back to a passage that had the most tough questions. Knowing that you can come back might help with your nervousness, while keeping moving will help with timing, and marking the questions might help you figure out which passages were giving you the most trouble.

That only works if you're unsure about the questions that you actually don't know - meaning, if you feel confident about wrong answers and iffy about right ones, there's a totally different problem, and in that case I think probably the standard advice about focusing on the argument applies.

I hope that helps - without knowing for sure what's going on, my advice is sort of scattershot, but I hope you can get something out of it.
 
Hi, I am new to the forum, but I share many of the same concerns as the members in the forum. My problem is that there is just that ONE passage that makes NO sense to me either because the author's writing style is confusing/florid, or the subject matter is too abstract. In this situation, what should I do? Should I continue to try to read the passage or just skip it? I definitely want above a 10 on the VR section, and skipping a passage would greatly slim my chances. I am currently taking TPR class right now, and they tell you to identify answer traps and such...but does it really help?
Sometimes, I have trouble relating the answer choices to the question, especially the weaken/strengthen and "least supported" types of question.
I usually get about 16 wrongs on the verbal section, which turns out to be about 2 wrong per passage, I'm frustrated because I'm not improving!
Lorelei--I understand that you got a 15 on your VR, do you usually understand every passage? Or does your "reasoning" skill play a big part as well?

Sorry for the ranting, but VR is, in my opinion, the most difficult section to improve on the MCAT.
THANK YOU
 
I'm having a lot of trouble with the Verbal section too. I'm using EK 101 Passages in VR and Kaplan materials (I just want to get as much practice as possible). I'm scoring about 7-8 with the EK stuff. I understand the Kaplan stuff but I'm having some trouble with EK. I understand how their methods can work, but it's not working for me (yet). Although I've identified and fixed most of the major problems (which contradict the EK and Kaplan methods), I continue to infer the wrong things about the passage plus I look back at the passage TOO MUCH . This is going to kill my score. I had planned to take the test in August, but now I'm thinking about putting it off until April (yep, I'm that bummed about the whole thing). I never had a problem with critical reading before but this test has me worried.

Any suggestions are welcome.
 
I am taking the EK Verbal 101 and the question I always get wrong is:

Which of the assertions offers the least support?

I always pick the one that has no support (think none would be the least) but EK goes on to explain that since this was not a passage assertion is cannot be the right answer. Does MCAT make this distinction(none=least) or does it have to be a point brought up in the passage(with little support) to be a right answer?

Thanks, Sorry it is so wordy.
 
Hi all!

Lorelei,

Do you have any strategies for these questions? I have horrible luck when it comes to these questions because I automatically mark out the answer. After checking my exam, it is pretty much the one that I first marked off.

Besides, the strategy of choosing the one I mark off as the correct answer I'd really like something more substantial. :D

Thanks so much!!
 
lorelei,

I've been having trouble coming up with a main idea. I seem to coming up with a summary rather than a main idea for those more scientific passages. As well, sometimes, my main idea doesn't seem too "detailed" as I compare it with some of the answers presented in questions.
 
freakingoutkid said:
Hi, I am new to the forum, but I share many of the same concerns as the members in the forum. My problem is that there is just that ONE passage that makes NO sense to me either because the author's writing style is confusing/florid, or the subject matter is too abstract. In this situation, what should I do? Should I continue to try to read the passage or just skip it? I definitely want above a 10 on the VR section, and skipping a passage would greatly slim my chances. I am currently taking TPR class right now, and they tell you to identify answer traps and such...but does it really help?
Sometimes, I have trouble relating the answer choices to the question, especially the weaken/strengthen and "least supported" types of question.
I usually get about 16 wrongs on the verbal section, which turns out to be about 2 wrong per passage, I'm frustrated because I'm not improving!
Lorelei--I understand that you got a 15 on your VR, do you usually understand every passage? Or does your "reasoning" skill play a big part as well?

Sorry for the ranting, but VR is, in my opinion, the most difficult section to improve on the MCAT.
THANK YOU

wow we are in almost the same exact situation. i usually miss 16 per exam too, and for ek that's 1 away from a 10 which kills me!
 
uvapremed said:
lorelei,

I've been having trouble coming up with a main idea. I seem to coming up with a summary rather than a main idea for those more scientific passages. As well, sometimes, my main idea doesn't seem too "detailed" as I compare it with some of the answers presented in questions.
I think a lot of what this test looks for is the ability to separate fact and opinion. That's why you get questions like "does it strengthen or weaken to say...?" and so forth. So with each assertion, you need to look for the facts (which mean something to the summary, but not to the point) while the conclusions derived from those facts--which are opinions that they seek to support by the facts--are the main idea.

View all authors as attempting not to inform you, but to pursuade you. What conclusion are they trying to make you draw from the data? Are there any conceivable ways in which the data might be construed to mean something else? Even if you know nothing about the subject, can you imagine a person disagreeing with the conclusions?

When they ask you "what's the main idea?" the answer is not likely to be the pure informational themes that they give, like "many painters in the 18th century worked with one another." That's just informational--it sounds like that's just a trend demonstrated by the anecdotal evidence that might be presented. More interesting as an idea is that, say, they were not appreciated in their time, or that European painters were more appreciated in the US than at home, or so forth. There's a subjective quality to these sorts of assertions, and to back this up, one would likely give a series of anecdotes.

Don't just try to identify what the anecdotal information has in common; try to seek why it is relevant. Try and find the assertion which would be constroversial or unexpected if the anecdotes weren't there.

Apart from that, there are situations with those sorts of questions where every answer choice is an opinion. It these instance, you want to be sure that you find something that applies to every (or almost every) paragraph, rather than applying to only one paragraph. If the selection applies to one example given, it is not the theme.

The final pitfall is the qualifiers seen at the beginning of the article. Sometimes you have a choice which refers to a statement made in the opening paragraph that is not the thesis itself. Generally, such a claim, made at the outset, is made to justify the course of reasoning that will proceed. It is common for people that are seeking to pursuade that they first rty to justify why you should read the article, or to dispel a common conception that impedes their ability to teach you something new. These things are not theses.

*In short, look for the theme/thesis/main idea as an *opinion* that acts as a recurrent theme throughout, and that the supporting evidence would act to support in all or most all instances.*
 
I've been reviewing the questions i've gotten wrong. I've been getting the questions about drawing conclusions or implications from a statement or the passage wrong. Are there any hints or suggestions that you guys think will help?
 
Misty said:
wow we are in almost the same exact situation. i usually miss 16 per exam too, and for ek that's 1 away from a 10 which kills me!

I'm glad to know that someone is in the same boat as I am. Where are you from? I'm from MD and taking the MCAT in August...so close...yet so far.

I've been getting 16 wrongs on the practice ones I did at home (timed), but in the diagnostic in a testing situation, I've only been scoring a 7/8. I need to figure out what my problem is...and FAST! Any help is appeciated
 
I'm in a bit of an odd situation. I feel like I've stonewalled in my VR scores (I've gotten a 12 the past couple tests). Not bad, I know, but I would like to improve because I'm afraid that on the real MCAT, my score will drop (happened to me in April). I'm taking Kaplan and I've analyzed my score reports and tried to go from there. For example, I usually label each passage type (NS, SS, H) and do Humanities last because that's where I usually get caught up in the prose, although some psychology passages throw me. I've always been strong in the liberal arts, love argumentation and analyzation (I am a competitive debater), so verbal is actually quite enjoyable for me. Except when I see that my score hasn't changed. Again. Any recommendations on how to break this wall I keep running into? My lab supervisor told me to read the questions first, I tried this on the last practice test and got the same score.

As for writing, I think I've found a way to improve my writing skills considerably. I got a P on the August MCAT, which was much lower than I expected but I kind of knew it was coming. What I've done since then is print out the seventy prompts AMCAS lists on their website, cut the prompts out individually and put them in a jar. I try to do at least two a day (one complete set) and more if I have time. I always time myself and usually can tell when I'm struggling (ie, getting stuck in the setup and wasting time). After I finish each essay (I always finish even when I know it's crap), I take notes on how I think I did and what I need to fix. I then try and fix this the next time. This continual process of reevaluating and improving has helped my essays A LOT. I'm much more confident in my ability to write a cohesive and succint essay. Plus, I've cut down about 5-10 minutes in writing time. Whereas I used to work up until the last minute, I am now able to go back, check and do quick edits if needed.

Another side note on writing- if you don't have the time to read, listen to NPR or KCRW. I download their podcasts of Left, Right, and Center on iTunes. It's a good way to get a thorough analysis of the weekly news. Plus, it's funny when they good-naturedly attack each other. That last sentence makes no sense unless you listen to the show.

Thanks in advance.
 
hey q and lore!...
I have been doin really bad in verbal so far....I am takin kaplan and i have done every single kaplan hw so far. I had a 6 on my verbal on the diag..then i got a 7 on fl1 and an 8 on fl2 and now i got a 6 again on fl 3.....I have no idea wat is going on...First, I tried to use kaplans strategy of mappin things and I ran out of major time when i was doin sectional tests at home...Then i started using EK strategy of reading the passage str8 thru keepin the purpose and main idea in my mind and i did that for FL2 and got an 8 so i figured that would work for me...However, with the same thing i got a 6 on fl3 like 10 more wrong than the previous exam....I am also getting bogged down on questions too much which is why i have yet to finish a verbal section on time...i always have atleast a passage left over...NEED HELP PLEASE!!!
 
I'm also having some trouble with the verbal section. What usually happens to me is that there's always one or two passages in one test that I really struggle on. On my last practice test, I did well on most of the passages, but on two of them I got 11 out of the 12 questions wrong! I could have guessed and gotten better than that!

Does anyone know what is wrong with me?
 
mostwanted said:
is it possible for the verbal test to have more than 9 passages? two of the last kaplan Fl 10 and 11 both have 10 passages and i had trouble finishing both of them.

I believe it is possible. That's one of those tough breaks. You can deal with it, though. It's got the same number of questions. Don't let it phase you.
 
hlchess said:
I'm also having some trouble with the verbal section. What usually happens to me is that there's always one or two passages in one test that I really struggle on. On my last practice test, I did well on most of the passages, but on two of them I got 11 out of the 12 questions wrong! I could have guessed and gotten better than that!

Does anyone know what is wrong with me?

You've outlined the best strategy for dealing with that situation, although I bet you don't realize it.

1. There are "always" one or two you struggle on

2. You'd answer more right through guessing than you do through trying.

3. Guessing is faster

4. More time on the other passages can't hurt

5. GUESS! Don't try to answer them and screw yourself up, especially if it's that radical a situation. Just guess on all those and distribute the extra time to passages you can do well on.
 
KiTmAn said:
hey q and lore!...
I have been doin really bad in verbal so far....I am takin kaplan and i have done every single kaplan hw so far. I had a 6 on my verbal on the diag..then i got a 7 on fl1 and an 8 on fl2 and now i got a 6 again on fl 3.....I have no idea wat is going on...First, I tried to use kaplans strategy of mappin things and I ran out of major time when i was doin sectional tests at home...Then i started using EK strategy of reading the passage str8 thru keepin the purpose and main idea in my mind and i did that for FL2 and got an 8 so i figured that would work for me...However, with the same thing i got a 6 on fl3 like 10 more wrong than the previous exam....I am also getting bogged down on questions too much which is why i have yet to finish a verbal section on time...i always have atleast a passage left over...NEED HELP PLEASE!!!

I'm not very familiar with EK's method, so I'm not going to comment about it. But I can tell you that the biggest mistakes that Kaplan students make when trying to map passages is that they write too much, and they focus on the wrong things. Lorelei has written some excellent posts previously about how important it is to focus on the author's purpose, argument, and thought process, and not on the details s/he uses to support that argument. Your map should be an outline of the purpose of each paragraph, not the details (in other words, not just a paraphrase). Also, it is absolutely essential that you write very little. Be as lazy as possible. Abbreviate as much as you can, leave out articles (a, an, the), and take other shortcuts to minimize the amount of writing you can do while still making your notes readable. If you are writing whole sentences, you are writing way too much. Save that for the essay section. Finally, you mentioned getting bogged down on questions; are you predicting answers before you look at the answer choices? If not, start doing this, as it helps to force you to think about the important parts of the passage and avoid choosing answers that are outside the author's scope and purpose.

It is definitely harder to raise your VR score compared to the science sections, but it IS possible with enough practice and effort. Unfortunately, there isn't any suggestion I can give to you that will automatically make it easy. Try to keep a positive attitude, and keep practicing your critical reading and answer prediction skills for the next few weeks. A very large portion of success in this whole process of becoming a physician comes from simply refusing to give up. :luck:
 
QofQuimica said:
I'm not very familiar with EK's method, so I'm not going to comment about it. But I can tell you that the biggest mistakes that Kaplan students make when trying to map passages is that they write too much, and they focus on the wrong things. Lorelei has written some excellent posts previously about how important it is to focus on the author's purpose, argument, and thought process, and not on the details s/he uses to support that argument. Your map should be an outline of the purpose of each paragraph, not the details (in other words, not just a paraphrase). Also, it is absolutely essential that you write very little. Be as lazy as possible. Abbreviate as much as you can, leave out articles (a, an, the), and take other shortcuts to minimize the amount of writing you can do while still making your notes readable. If you are writing whole sentences, you are writing way too much. Save that for the essay section. Finally, you mentioned getting bogged down on questions; are you predicting answers before you look at the answer choices? If not, start doing this, as it helps to force you to think about the important parts of the passage and avoid choosing answers that are outside the author's scope and purpose.

It is definitely harder to raise your VR score compared to the science sections, but it IS possible with enough practice and effort. Unfortunately, there isn't any suggestion I can give to you that will automatically make it easy. Try to keep a positive attitude, and keep practicing your critical reading and answer prediction skills for the next few weeks. A very large portion of success in this whole process of becoming a physician comes from simply refusing to give up. :luck:

thanx for the advice Q, imma do three verbal passages timed everyday...and atleast 1 full kaplan verbal test once a week for the next two and half weeks left...I will definitely let you know my progress on here....THANK YOU!
 
KiTmAn said:
thanx for the advice Q, imma do three verbal passages timed everyday...and atleast 1 full kaplan verbal test once a week for the next two and half weeks left...I will definitely let you know my progress on here....THANK YOU!

No problem, hope it helps and best of luck to you. :luck: :love:
 
Hey guys, I'm sorry I've been incommunicado for awhile. My move to St. Louis has taken me away from an internet connection for huge stretches of time. However, Nutmeg and Q have been doing a great job in my absence.

Re: strengthening and weakening questions.

Basically when you come to one of these questions, the first thing you have to know is - what is the author's argument? What assertions does s/he put forward, and what conclusions does s/he draw? Something that strengthens the argument will very often be something that supports the assertions - more data, or something that lets you know the author's assumptions are correct. On the contrary, something that weakens the argument will contradict the author's evidence or assumptions, or show that the conclusions don't necessarily follow.

So you have to be really clear on what argument the author is making. Then, you can frequently predict the type of answer that would strengthen or weaken the argument (though obviously you can't predict the exact answer).

As far as becoming clear on the argument, of course there's a lot of stuff earlier in the thread that QofQuimica and I have written. I think the overall best question to ask yourself is: WHY did the author take the time to write this passage? What is it that they're trying to convince the reader of? If you figure out why someone would bother to spend all that time writing something, you know what the overall point is, and the purpose of the argument.

I'm going to try and go back through and answer the questions that still seem to be outstanding in the next day or two - I know you guys are really getting down to the wire. Keep working at it - I think everyone who's asked questions and then gotten back to me with results has been making good progress.
 
Hey, what do you guys recommend on the 10-question passages? I usually spend 13 minutes on those passages. This works because I finish other passages in 6 minutes!! They take longer because the questions are usually of the sort that ask you to strengthen/weaken or infer/interpret new information. So, it takes time for me to recall the specific argument that is being questioned, then predicting how the question wants me to evaluate!! Thanks
 
GPACfan said:
I am taking the EK Verbal 101 and the question I always get wrong is:

Which of the assertions offers the least support?

I always pick the one that has no support (think none would be the least) but EK goes on to explain that since this was not a passage assertion is cannot be the right answer. Does MCAT make this distinction(none=least) or does it have to be a point brought up in the passage(with little support) to be a right answer?

Thanks, Sorry it is so wordy.

I am pretty sure that on the MCAT, that question is worded better, specifying that they're looking for an assertion that was actually made in the passage. I recall it as something like "Which of the following assertions is made in the passage but not supported?"
 
uvapremed said:
I've been reviewing the questions i've gotten wrong. I've been getting the questions about drawing conclusions or implications from a statement or the passage wrong. Are there any hints or suggestions that you guys think will help?

First, if you're not doing it already, look back over this thread for the tips QofQuimica and I have given on analyzing arguments. (I say that so often. It's good advice though!)

For these questions, it's important to understand what a conclusion or implication means in this context.

A conclusion is what the evidence adds up to: given A, B, and C facts or assertions from the passage, conclusion X has to be true. Look for something that HAS to be true given the evidence in the passage. (To check this, see what happens if you say your chosen answer is NOT true. Does it make the argument in the passage fall apart?)

An implication is what has to be true in order to build an argument. That is, it's something that's assumed as part of the evidence.

Here's an (obvious) example of this. I just moved, and while unpacking I couldn't find my box cutter. I told my mom "Only you and I packed boxes, and *I* didn't pack the box cutter into a box."

The (unstated) conclusion there is that my mom was the one who packed it into a box (useful place for a box cutter, eh?). The implication, as you might have noticed, is that the box cutter WAS packed into a box, as opposed to riding in the glove compartment or something.

While I'm analyzing arguments, let's talk about strengthening/weakening again. I could strengthen my argument by supporting either the facts or the assumption implicit in the argument. Examples of this: No one else who helped me move packed any boxes. It is discovered that the box cutter is not in the U-Haul truck.

To weaken the argument, again, I can either contradict the facts or attack the assumption. For example: My dad packed two boxes. A grocery bag full of important stuff was packed and carried in the front seat of the car.

(I still haven't found the box cutter.)
 
Hey, what do you guys recommend on the 10-question passages? I usually spend 13 minutes on those passages. This works because I finish other passages in 6 minutes!! They take longer because the questions are usually of the sort that ask you to strengthen/weaken or infer/interpret new information. So, it takes time for me to recall the specific argument that is being questioned, then predicting how the question wants me to evaluate!! Thanks
 
I am slowly getting worse on my verbal thru EK(6 7 10 9 9 7 6). I went through all my questions very carefully and I also narrow down the wrong ones to 2 final choices. I always pick the wrong one.

Sometimes I will miss all the questions on a single passage. On one test that happened to three whole passages!!! I miss intrepreted the main idea I think and it ruined me since EK is main point based.

I have taken other AAMC, Kaplan exams and received 9-10s. On Apr05 I received a 9. Why am I getting worse at VR? I try and spend 4-5 minutes a passage, 40 sec a question(not going back unless necessary, so not much). I try and focus on main idea, I underline/circle sometimes a lot but try to only sparingly if short on time.
 
Verbal has been my only consistantly strong score across every practice exam I've taken, and I would love to score a 12 or so on the actual test. But I don't think this will happen unless I can fix this:

Almost every single question that I get wrong when I practice, I had the two answer choices crossed out and was down to two answer choices...one of them is the right one, one of them is the wrong one, and obviously I pick the wrong one when I'm wrong... How can I overcome this? I asked my Kaplan VR teacher, and she said to relate the answers to the purpose, but even when I do this under no time constraints, I can't seem to CONSISTANTLY pick the correct answer.

Any tips or suggestions? I have been doing a full VR test everyday for a while now and plan on doing so until the Weds or Thurs before the MCATs to fine tune.

Thanks
 
Frankrizzo, I'm not sure what you're asking. You say spending longer on the longer passages "works" - does that mean you are indeed able to finish in time? If so I don't understand the question. As far as moving faster, having the purpose of the passage in mind should help. It sounds like you might be spending a lot of time making a detailed prediction? For these types of questions you can really only predict the *sort* of answer you need, not the precise one.

GPACfan and juiceman, it sounds like the two of you have similar problems (correct me if I miss something about either situation). First of all, if you're doing verbal sections daily, you might be burning out. Take a break. Seriously. One day will not hurt you and will probably help.

The other thing I would recommend is this. Score your test but don't look at the explanations. Then write down why the wrong answers were wrong and the right ones were right - basically writing your own explanations (in enough detail so you can't weasel, but not so detailed that you could publish your own book). Then compare them to the real explanations. The point of this is that you need to learn to think like the test writers. The answers aren't arbitrary; they're right or wrong for a reason. Understanding what those reasons are will help a lot.
 
I had that problem with getting down to two and often picking the wrong one.

I finally just did enough that I got a bit of a intuition for the right one.

Keep track of how often it happens. On your practice tests write a "2" next to those. Note your percentage. If it's worse than random, stop picking between them and just randomly pick one (that's the least work intensive answer... not great, but if you're doing worse than random on your own, it wouldn't hurt). Maybe always the second one. If it's random or better, then just keep working on it.
 
MoosePilot said:
I had that problem with getting down to two and often picking the wrong one.

I finally just did enough that I got a bit of a intuition for the right one.

Keep track of how often it happens. On your practice tests write a "2" next to those. Note your percentage. If it's worse than random, stop picking between them and just randomly pick one (that's the least work intensive answer... not great, but if you're doing worse than random on your own, it wouldn't hurt). Maybe always the second one. If it's random or better, then just keep working on it.

Hi everyone. Moosepilot, Lorlei, and QfQuimica thanks for doing a great job giving us priceless tips. I have taken the advice from you guys and have found that my score went from a dismal 4 to a 8-9 range. I find that I end up getting 1 or 2 wrong on 8 passages then I miss like on 1 passage. I am still trying to nail the, "What is the author trying to convey?'. I think it is the hardest, because when I ran into the killer passage I did the same thing as I did with other passages, but I don't know what it means! Are there any tips that you would suggest/recommend? I got an all time high on my verbal raw score (42/60)!!! Previously it used to be high 20's and low 30's... I appreciate your advices.
 
That's a good idea, I'll try that.

Another question, is there anything that can be done to improve Natural Sciences? It's odd, but I generally am able to do fine on Humanities and Social Sciences, but the "Easy" ones eat me up...Maybe too much outside info?
 
adiddas125 said:
Hi everyone. Moosepilot, Lorlei, and QfQuimica thanks for doing a great job giving us priceless tips. I have taken the advice from you guys and have found that my score went from a dismal 4 to a 8-9 range. I find that I end up getting 1 or 2 wrong on 8 passages then I miss like on 1 passage. I am still trying to nail the, "What is the author trying to convey?'. I think it is the hardest, because when I ran into the killer passage I did the same thing as I did with other passages, but I don't know what it means! Are there any tips that you would suggest/recommend? I got an all time high on my verbal raw score (42/60)!!! Previously it used to be high 20's and low 30's... I appreciate your advices.

I think you left out a number. Can you rephrase?

I love that question! It's the whole point the author is trying to tell you. Read for content and any emotional aspects. Is he emotionally neutral or trying to evoke an emotion?

As for the thanks, you're welcome. If I helped you at all, it's worth any time I spent here. I want everyone to whoop ass on the verbal, especially if they're not applying to my number one school for the class of 2010! :D
 
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