10+ Verbal study habits???

[confewshz]

Hello everyone,

I got lots of responses on my "30+ MCAT study habits" thread and they were greatly appreciated. Now I am asking the same , except this time, im asking more specifically for the verbal strategy used by those with 10+ verbal scores. I am aware of the verbal thread that gave some great advice, but I am wanting different perspectives because I am very weak in verbal (When I first took the MCAT, 5 years ago, I got a 6 ). So everyone's input would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

WooHoo, I made it to the 10 post mark. Yay

confewshz

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[tatabox80]

Hi there,
I got a 10 in verbal on my august 2002 mcat. I used examkrackers methods for verbal, and also practiced quite a bit. I bought their 101 verbal passages and the aamc stuff. I think the thing with verbal is that you need to develop more of an intuition about picking answers. I think it comes along with practice. Also I originally had problems with finishing on time before. Practicing helped improve my time and also learning not to dwell on questions and move on. So basically examkrackers and practice was what worked. Also note that I only started studying for the mcat 4 weeks prior, so with more practice who knows...hope it helps.

 

[Yogi Bear]

i got a 10v on april exam. can't say i praticed much but i did do like 1/3 the kaplan stuff. i think best thing u can do is just get all the passages u can find and do them all. (go online on ebay or maybe ask a friend who has old material and look for princeton review's verbal workbook from the late 90s...it has about 25% more passages than the current one..around 100 passages total). after that, do exam krackers 101 passages book. Then take kaplan to access their library of about 10-20 full lenth verbal tests. there's also the aamc pratice itmes. just pratice pratice practice!

 

[NKMU]

11V August MCAT

After each practice test I went over every verbal question. I got used to the types of question, and tried to learn what the MCAT was asking. I've since forgotten how I had those question types catalogued in my brain. I remember determing little things, like how when the MCAT says the word "implied", what they really mean is: "explicitly stated in the essay." that tripped me up for a while, I was always looking for the answers that only sort of made sense.

I tried lots of "methods." I underlined, i triaged, i read questions first and then the passage... no one method really stood out. on the real thing i attempted to triage, and tried to underline at least one key phrase per paragraph. it worked out ok. most important is practice!

 

[BananaSplit]

11O both times

Mostly, it's just practice. I took Princeton Review. I think the books do a great job of teaching you the format, breaking down the question types, teaching you how to map the passages. I discovered that there are pretty much two main strategies for verbal boosting:

Princeton Review: If you're missing too many questions...slow down. Don't finish all the passages...learn how to identify easy/med passages (they tell you how to do this in the book), and do those thoroughly.

Berkeley Review: Just plow through it. Attempt every question even if it means sacrificing a little accuracy here and there. If you go with this strategy...you HAVE to be able to read fast enough to cover all 9 passages.

Both strategies teach you not to read for memory...don't ever try to remember what the passage details are...just get the main idea(s), and mark your passage well enough that you can quickly return to the details. Anyhow, if you haven't already, check out a PR book.

 

[burlypie]

I got a 13 on the August 2002 exam (wish p and b were so high...) but to echo the others it really comes down to practice. I found that a lot of it was about going over my worng answers and seeing WHY they were wrong. Pretty soon you get an insight into how they think and what types of answers they're looking for when they ask particular questions. Fortunately for us, they're not too creative with different types of questions!

also, I didn't buy into kaplan's paragraph summary method. I am an underliner, but only of relevent information. topic sentences, and stuff. Box the numbers, the Q's often refer to them. Pay attention to tone and to the point of it all. also, try to read with a clear mind. I think that's the hardest part on the stressful day, but it just helps the info sink in a little better and that way you can answer without consulting the passage.

BUT PRACTICE and get used to the funky passages and funky responses. that's the only way I improved. reading things like the WSJ and newsweek probably help too, but I've always done that anyway so i didn't see any improvement *specificaly* from that.

 

[Samoa]

I made a 13 both times I took it. Here's a re-post of something I wrote for another thread:

I did not actually study for verbal at all. However, I'm aware that the "strategy" I used is remarkably similar to the one taught by Examkrackers in that I do the passages in order, reading for main ideas rather than details. I don't circle stuff or anything like that.

What I do that's a little different, and that made verbal easy for me was to read the passages as though I were reading for pleasure--to have an attitude like, "OK here's a topic I probably know nothing about, but that's kind of interesting. Let's see what it says." --Completely forgetting about the fact that there are questions to answer at the end. Then when I get to the questions, I find that I know the passage much better, and can answer them quickly.

I know it's kind of dorky, but making yourself interested in each passage as you go along makes the whole section far more pleasant.

 

[tryinghard]

hey guys can you tell me...the list of books, and magazines to read to help with your verbal score..there's lots of time now.

 

[misscalipig]

yes! i want to know also =D

 

[Nefertari]

Originally posted by tryinghard
hey guys can you tell me...the list of books, and magazines to read to help with your verbal score..there's lots of time now.

The New Yorker is great! Also National Geographic & Smithsonian. I didn't read them cover to cover--only what interested me, so that I wouldn't get bored. I supplemented that w/ scouring the Wall Street Journal or New York Times everyday.

For me, timing strategy made the biggest difference. When I tried to finish all 9 passages, I never scored higher than 9, and had 7 the first 2 times I took mcat. However, I decided when studying for this last exam to only do 8, blind guess on the 9th. On practice exams, I was able to score @ 10, then 11 on the Aug exam. Believe me, I was desperate & tried every technique. This is what finally worked for me.

 

[confewshz]

bump

 

[STi555]

Originally posted by Samoa
I made a 13 both times I took it. Here's a re-post of something I wrote for another thread:

I did not actually study for verbal at all. However, I'm aware that the "strategy" I used is remarkably similar to the one taught by Examkrackers in that I do the passages in order, reading for main ideas rather than details. I don't circle stuff or anything like that.

What I do that's a little different, and that made verbal easy for me was to read the passages as though I were reading for pleasure--to have an attitude like, "OK here's a topic I probably know nothing about, but that's kind of interesting. Let's see what it says." --Completely forgetting about the fact that there are questions to answer at the end. Then when I get to the questions, I find that I know the passage much better, and can answer them quickly.

I know it's kind of dorky, but making yourself interested in each passage as you go along makes the whole section far more pleasant.

I agree with your idea of reading the passage as if you were reading for pleasure. I did the same thing and I also got a 13 on VR.

 

[2DEG]

I am taking my pre-med post-bacc courses part-time (unfortunately). But while I am taking other classes, I thought
I would slowly start preparing for the verbal section.

So, with that in mind, like many others, I am also looking for suggested reading list. I am not sure if others will find it useful, but I will create a website link with different reading materlials if they are public domain or link to appropriate reading materials.

I will put it together this coming weekend. I would love to get different suggestions so that I can put it on the webpage. I think this would be very helpful even if it is just a bunch of links. You can just go to this site and read stuff.

Thanks and have a good day.

Shahab
P.S: If you can, please email me at [email protected]
with your suggestions.

 

[johnstoner]

I got a 10 and T on verbal parts.

I originally had a 8 and N first time i took it...wasn't prepared well b/c i was barely finishing the passages. This time, I took it and I had about 5 minutes left to look over the impossible questions.

What changed was that I took about 2 months to study verbal 3 months to study all three sections about 5-6 hours a day everyday. I used every single kaplan thing that was in the center and also some princeton review stuff. Its always about practicing. Its better to practice on the really hard passages b/c there are 2 types of verbal....

a really hard verbal set which scores easier
an easier verbal set which scores a lot tougher.

basically if you have the harder version you can get about 60-70 percent right and get a 10. with the easier version....basically you want to only get one wrong per passage or you're dead meat.

okay hope this helps

stoner

 

[confewshz]

Thanks everyone for your great advice. I now know how to most effectively structure my MCAT study schedule. Have fun everyone.

confewshz

 

[whitesoxfan]

I got an 11 on the april MCAT
I took the kaplan course which kind of sucked, but you get a lot of practice. Just do alot of practice passages and don't get hung up on a difficult passage. Make sure you spend around 8 minutes on a passage, then just move on.

Good Luck.

 

[whitesoxfan]

Indo

I got an 11 on the verbal section.

 

[Lebesgue]

11Q

It's easy to get into passages that you relate to and do well on those, but I found that practicing on topics that I was uninterested in helped immensely. Get used to immersing yourself in the bizarre passages so that you're not turned off by them when you see them on the MCAT and you can crush them. I think the fact that I was able to treat all the passages sort of equally improved my score a bunch. KAPLAN will tell you to triage the passages and do the easy ones first, but I found doing them in order was the best method since the goal is to get to them all, and you should do this if you hope to get a good score.

I also agree with the previous posts that practice is the key so you get used to the type of questions they ask, make sure to get a hold of AAMC II-VI. Read out of your comfort zone in your spare time.

Good luck!