12+ verbal strategies?

[EECStoMed]

Hi there everyone,
For me it seems that I've reached a pinnacle when it comes to verbal, I seem to be getting 10s and occasional 11s but what are some strategies that I can use to get 13s or 14s? I have about 2 more months to study and have been pouring most of my time into verbal. The sciences seem rather easy for me but the verbal, most definitely killer. I have been using the EK strategies but hopefully somebody would shed some light further. I also use the EK 101 workbook but they don't accurately represent the real MCATs too well, too much retrieval and not much main idea from what I can tell. Anyone? I occasionally read the New Yorker, what are some other types of magazines or journals that represent the type of writing the MCAT uses? Thanks in advance?

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[akinf]

I am not verbal master (i got a 6VR then a couple months later a 9VR) however, I would think studying for VR to get an 13/14 is something that doesn't happen. Those who get scores that high probably have a lot of natural ability when it comes to that section. If you started with a 11/12...then maybe, but not dissuade you, getting scores like that is very hard. If you can hit 10/11 already...I would focus my efforts on getting 13/14/15 in the sciences because that's more reasonable.

 

[smuwillobrien]

If you're getting 10 or above consistently I think you're there - you just need to have luck on test day.

 

[Tired Pigeon]

Hi there everyone,
For me it seems that I've reached a pinnacle when it comes to verbal, I seem to be getting 10s and occasional 11s but what are some strategies that I can use to get 13s or 14s? I have about 2 more months to study and have been pouring most of my time into verbal. The sciences seem rather easy for me but the verbal, most definitely killer. I have been using the EK strategies but hopefully somebody would shed some light further. I also use the EK 101 workbook but they don't accurately represent the real MCATs too well, too much retrieval and not much main idea from what I can tell. Anyone? I occasionally read the New Yorker, what are some other types of magazines or journals that represent the type of writing the MCAT uses? Thanks in advance?

You could try Atlantic Monthly, The Economist, and Cosmopolitan.

(J/k about that last one. )

 

[DrBowtie]

If you're getting 10 or above consistently I think you're there - you just need to have luck on test day.

I'd say ditto. Especially on the new version, the difference between 11-13/14 is the matter of probably 3 answers.

 

[EECStoMed]

Thanks guys. I'll take a look at the economist.

 

[nelsondb]

I disagree with the myth that reading profusley improves your verbal score. I read at least a book a week for classes, and I can only hit a 10 on the MCAT verbal.

Why? I think because I tend to read slowly. My point is, study for the verbal as the verbal is. Speed read and always think about how to pull out details and extract the main idea. Read the economist to learn about world affairs, and for fun! But the only way you'll improve the MCAT is by thinking about the MCAT, not generalized "reading." But do read the economist.

 

[AtreyuRocks]

If you're getting 10 or above consistently I think you're there - you just need to have luck on test day.

You could try Atlantic Monthly, The Economist, and Cosmopolitan.

(J/k about that last one. )

agreed. economist, scientific american, + luck for me (7V-->11V)

EDIT: also agree with nelson, pretend that everytime you read its the f*cking MCAT, then it's pretty much natural when you get to the real thing

 

[HelpingHand]

These folks forgot to mention to you how expensive subscriptions to The Economist and Scientific American cost!

You should go read them at the library if that wasn't already your plan!

I notice costs a lot because I am poor...

 

[wisguy]

For the really high scores it comes down to luck on test day for all sections, but especially vr. The scale is the tightest. If you lose focus or get a passage that's tough for you the high scores are probably out of reach because you can't use outside knowledge to answer at least some of the questions like you can in bs or ps. Just practice and do your best on test day. If you're hitting 11's you are probably fine.

 

[AtreyuRocks]

These folks forgot to mention to you how expensive subscriptions to The Economist and Scientific American cost!

You should go read them at the library if that wasn't already your plan!

I notice costs a lot because I am poor...

(hehe, forgot to mention that! poor or wealthy, it can be a waste of money if there are other resources available to you =) and if you are studying at the library, you just mosey over to the magazine area and then you can read a whole bunch of articles at once. also forgot to mention to practice types of passages that you HATE or BORE you... cause then you get used to it and don't tune it out on game day.

 

[ankit1ag]

When practicing verbal, do you really follow the plan outlined in ek verbal lecture 4. After you take a timed test, do you really come back to it two days later, and then again two days after that. When do you go through the explanations?

I don't understand how after going back to the passages will change anything since you have already taken the test two days earlier. The lecture 2 method doesn't seem that it would help raise your score in the end.

Is this EK method really helping in the end? I don't want to waste any time and just wanted to make sure that this technique is worth the time.


Thanks,

 

[Snowman5214]

What was your greatest resource as you improved from a 7 to an 11 Atreyu?

 

[J ROD]

I think EK Verbal 101 is a good resource to practice reading those types of MCAT passages and getting your timing down. However, I think for the most representative example the AAMC tests most obviously are the best.

Personally, I started at a 10 on AAMC 3. I have done a couple of Ek practice tests and got 11 and 12. I do not plan on taking until August so I am waiting to do more.

I truly believe this section is the hardest to improve on. It really is natural ability that is hard to acquire. To get in the 12 and above range, it comes down to those few questions. If this is your worst section, I would try to just get a 9-11 and be happy and focus more on the sciences where more work usually produces more results. My best advice is read fast, get the important facts (main idea, etc) and only refer to the passage when the question states "in lines so and so". Practice is the best advice and try to figure out what types of questions you miss and why. But, it is very hard to teach or learn comprehension. It usually is just natural or acquired over many years. Attack the MCAT to the best of your strengths and try to just cover your weaknesses. If you are good at BS get a 13 to offset the 9-10 Verbal. Gluck!

 

[AtreyuRocks]

What was your greatest resource as you improved from a 7 to an 11 Atreyu?

yup took the MCAT twice =)

EDIT: 1st time Aug 2004, 2nd time April 2006

 

[sexyman]

Wouldnt 12+ strategies be the same as 10+ strategies, or just strategies to do well in general? I would imagine its just how well you execute the strategies. I dont see any need to make a specific 12+ strategies thread...

wow thats a lot of strategies in one paragraph

strategies...

 

[quiksilver87]

10s and 11s are just fine....I have no contributions but im just wondering how much you used to get when you just started?

 

[AnEyeLikeMars]

I've heard that it sometimes helps to do LSAT or GRE verbal practice tests because they're generally harder than MCAT verbal. I didn't do this, but it makes sense to me.

Also, it helped me to just keep practicing and really reviewing the answers to questions (the ones I got wrong, obviously, but also the ones that I got right so I know it was for the right reason). My score jumped from 10-11 on practice tests to 13 on the real thing. I really benefitted from practicing a lot and getting a better idea of the types of questions that are generally asked. Also, I had to get used to the fact that all of the information necessary to answer the question is contained in the passage. I found myself making too many inferences and trying to bring in outside knowledge at first.
Finally, I think that if your getting 10s and 11s your reading and critical thinking skills good, so I don't know if heavy reading (like the economist) will really help you. My opinion is that targeted practice will help you the most.

 

[AtreyuRocks]

What was your greatest resource as you improved from a 7 to an 11 Atreyu?

yup took the MCAT twice =)

EDIT: 1st time Aug 2004, 2nd time April 2006

HAHA. clearly, my verbal skills have declined since taking the MCAT because i totally misread your post (totally missed the whole RESOURCE part and only saw the improvement, i am proud of myself, sorry haha). my best resource in improving was reading the economist weekly for over a year before re-taking the MCAT. The month prior to the MCAT, i was doing lots of passages in addition to reading scientific american and the economist daily. i focused on passages i hated like politics (boo) and pretended that everything i read (whether enjoyable or not) was as if i was taking the MCAT, and attempted to quickly extract the main point of an article. hope that helps... sorry if i am lousy at extracting the main point of a post (thank god i didnt have to take CBT, i suck with the whole computer screen thing ) good luck

 

[EECStoMed]

Alright guys, after spending about 1 month and taking Tired Pigeon's and AtreyuRocks advice about verbal I am happy to report that I am now consistently scoring 11+ on my verbal section. All it took was a bit of work and pacing myself faster, looking for what the author is trying to truly say. The Economist is by far the best strategy and read that represents the MCAT-- the length, style of writing, everything emulates the MCAT in a "fashionable" way. The subscription is quite expensive though but being a student makes it only $77 dollars a year and you also have online subscription which I use daily and read often.

Just for reference, missing 8/40 puts you at around a 10. In order to get to the 11+ level you simply have to miss only 1 to 2 less. Less than 6 overall in general. Getting to the 12+ is missing 5 or less which is going to be extremely hard. I don't know if anyone agrees with this or not though, but studying for the MCAT really brings out your A game, you would simply go above and beyond what you would normally do just for that extra point or two. ANyone else?

 

[AtreyuRocks]

Alright guys, after spending about 1 month and taking Tired Pigeon's and AtreyuRocks advice about verbal I am happy to report that I am now consistently scoring 11+ on my verbal section. All it took was a bit of work and pacing myself faster, looking for what the author is trying to truly say. The Economist is by far the best strategy and read that represents the MCAT-- the length, style of writing, everything emulates the MCAT in a "fashionable" way. The subscription is quite expensive though but being a student makes it only $77 dollars a year and you also have online subscription which I use daily and read often.

Just for reference, missing 8/40 puts you at around a 10. In order to get to the 11+ level you simply have to miss only 1 to 2 less. Less than 6 overall in general. Getting to the 12+ is missing 5 or less which is going to be extremely hard. I don't know if anyone agrees with this or not though, but studying for the MCAT really brings out your A game, you would simply go above and beyond what you would normally do just for that extra point or two. ANyone else?

CONGRATS . Can't wait to see your official score!!

Also, for those who cannot afford The Economist, I don't know if I mentioned this before, but you should be able to find it at the library. However, the online subscription seems to be a good idea since it will train you to read articles off of a computer screen.


Congrats again EECS!

 

[unsung]

I've heard that it sometimes helps to do LSAT or GRE verbal practice tests because they're generally harder than MCAT verbal. I didn't do this, but it makes sense to me.

Also, it helped me to just keep practicing and really reviewing the answers to questions (the ones I got wrong, obviously, but also the ones that I got right so I know it was for the right reason). My score jumped from 10-11 on practice tests to 13 on the real thing. I really benefitted from practicing a lot and getting a better idea of the types of questions that are generally asked. Also, I had to get used to the fact that all of the information necessary to answer the question is contained in the passage. I found myself making too many inferences and trying to bring in outside knowledge at first.
Finally, I think that if your getting 10s and 11s your reading and critical thinking skills good, so I don't know if heavy reading (like the economist) will really help you. My opinion is that targeted practice will help you the most.

GRE verbal is a BREEZE compared to MCAT verbal... for me at least. I scored 95% on GRE verbal but MCAT verbal is kicking my ass.

I don't quite get it because the only reason I did okay on GRE verbal is because I read a lot and have a decent vocab, so I didn't have to cram word lists or anything. But that "history of reading" has not seemed to help my ability to decipher cryptic MCAT reading passages! It's not a matter of vocab either... grrr.

 

[Tired Pigeon]

Alright guys, after spending about 1 month and taking Tired Pigeon's and AtreyuRocks advice about verbal I am happy to report that I am now consistently scoring 11+ on my verbal section. All it took was a bit of work and pacing myself faster, looking for what the author is trying to truly say. The Economist is by far the best strategy and read that represents the MCAT-- the length, style of writing, everything emulates the MCAT in a "fashionable" way. The subscription is quite expensive though but being a student makes it only $77 dollars a year and you also have online subscription which I use daily and read often.

Just for reference, missing 8/40 puts you at around a 10. In order to get to the 11+ level you simply have to miss only 1 to 2 less. Less than 6 overall in general. Getting to the 12+ is missing 5 or less which is going to be extremely hard. I don't know if anyone agrees with this or not though, but studying for the MCAT really brings out your A game, you would simply go above and beyond what you would normally do just for that extra point or two. ANyone else?

Good for you! And thanks for the feedback - it's always nice to hear that your ideas were helpful to someone.

Good luck on the MCAT!

 

[DiscoDoc]

Alright guys, after spending about 1 month and taking Tired Pigeon's and AtreyuRocks advice about verbal I am happy to report that I am now consistently scoring 11+ on my verbal section. All it took was a bit of work and pacing myself faster, looking for what the author is trying to truly say. The Economist is by far the best strategy and read that represents the MCAT-- the length, style of writing, everything emulates the MCAT in a "fashionable" way. The subscription is quite expensive though but being a student makes it only $77 dollars a year and you also have online subscription which I use daily and read often.

Any decent University (or College as you folks say) library should have it, and an online subscription to boot. Select a few that look good and view/save the PDFs. This will be more realistic, reading it on a computer screen.

 

[Haemulon]

For me, the strategy I used just relied on my many years of reading ... a lot. Everything from philosophy to history to scientific journals. I think power reading journal articles in preparation for a group discussion was most similar to the verbal test, because it forced me to pick out the important ideas quickly while skimming through the less important details.

On exam day, i just skimmed through a passage quickly to get the general idea, and then quickly read the questions. I answered what I could based on my initial skim of the passage, and then referred back for details that I needed to answer the remaining questions. If you already have a general idea of the passage and its structure from an initial speed-read/skim, it makes finding these details quickly relatively easy. It just takes practice, that's all. Got me a 13.

I just wish I would have practiced working physics problems, that's what killed me as I performed horribly in that section on the MCAT.

 

[midn]

I found the Economist online through my library. I have to say, this is an amazing magazine/journal. Wall Street Journal never tried to explain any of the gibberish they were saying, but each of the Economist articles have a clear opinion and they give you sufficient background information to establish some sort of context.

Why didn't I find this earlier?!

 

[EECStoMed]

Just took the PrinetonReview 4110, and scored a 10 on the verbal. Looks like it's back to the drawing board, and I thought I was consistently at 11+. Man, what a way to ruin a weekend.

 

[midn]

Um, you do realize that TPR's verbal tests are a bit harder? 4110 was especially brutal from what I remember.

The difference between a 10 and 11 is a few questions. You probably just got stuck up on one of their difficult passages.

 

[Surf Rx]

I don't think that a 10 is bad at all. At least it's in the double digits. Don't be so hard on yourself but do maintain that motivation and focus to do better.

 

[Chargers]

Hi all. I am a new member but a long time reader. I wanna post a verbal question but I don't have access to the new thread feature yet. Hope you guys don't mind that I post it here. It's kinda long, but I know you guys are smart mcaters. It probably takes you like 3 min. I was doing this passage and was really pissed off by some of the key answers. They don't seem to make any sense nor self-proven. Ok I can't copy and paste the passage on here so I have to describe it to you then.

The passage is from Kaplan verbal test #9 passage II. It talks about the free speech and the 3 justifications for free speech. They are classical model, fortress model and self-restraint model. Does anyone know about this passage? If you do please help me on questions 9 and 11. The key answers really bother me

 

[Dr OCD]

tpr 4110 was ridiculous. i took it on tuesday and did so poorly, it was a total shot to my motivation. then i took an aamc one on saturday and did better by about three points...while not alot, it did make me feel better

 

[EECStoMed]

tpr 4110 was ridiculous. i took it on tuesday and did so poorly, it was a total shot to my motivation. then i took an aamc one on saturday and did better by about three points...while not alot, it did make me feel better

Really? It was that much harder? I didn't quite feel that it was necessarily harder but rather the passages were a bit more abstract. Just out of curiosity, what did you get on 4110? and what did you get on that AAMC one? I missed 8 on the 4110 making it a 10. So if you increased by 3 points, I'm hoping my 10 was actually a 13. HAHA. Just wishful thinking.

 

[kstreet]

There is only one strategy that I would add on to EK's verbal strategy of simple reading comprehension.

That is to scan the passages for one type of question: The question that asks about the context of a specific descriptor.

This way, you can get a heads up on the word, as well as where in the passage the word is in case one needs to look at the context once more. This can save a test taker a few minutes.

 

[rajpurohitdhruv]

hey guys i started doing verbal on ek 101 passages. (my verbal on aamc 3 was 5 )
my first 4 ek tests (40 q's were 7, 8, 8.5, 8) the fifth one I got a 11. What i changed was a couple of important things. When i read a passage, i don't skim through them rapidly (i read every line, but at a faster pace and VISUALIZE what I am reading. (it really helps to put a picture in your mind what you were reading about) then after a paragraph (pause for 3-4 seconds to think about the main point in it.) after all passage is read (take 10-15 seconds to develop a main idea). trust me its not going to waste time b/c i finish all with more than 10 minutes to spare. The only way it will get better is practicing alot. Try the VISUAL technique see if it works!

 

[Jack Westin]

Verbal is all finding the ideas within each paragraph. Try to look for the argument made, that is key.

 

[beachbum87]

I've taken the Princeton Review class, and while their methods may work for some, I have personally found them unhelpful. The biggest help for me is this...you need to get completely absorbed in your passage. If you're worried about finding the main point or trying to find a shift in tone or busy highlighting too much, those things will bring you up out of the passage. Don't focus so much on the trellis (structure) that you lose sight of the vine (content). Trust me, if you get completely absorbed in the passage you will know what the main point is without having to think about it. This makes for being able to get through the passages more quickly and gives you greater confidence in the answer choices, although there will always be some you just have to move past in ambiguity. I take the real MCAT on Saturday, so I can tell you for sure if it works in a month, but I've taken all the AAMC's, made one 13, two 12's, and the rest 11's, nothing lower than that.