128+ CARS scorers, how do you approach this section?

[lacrossegirl420]

Know there have been other threads on this but am interested in hearing more opinions. Eg. do you read the questions beforehand or just read the passage in one go? How quickly do you generally finish the first reading of the passage? Also helpful to know if you were "naturally" good at this section or did a ton of practice to get to that score

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[alittleanxietyasatreat]

i scored 128 consistently on practice exams and a 129 on the real thing. i generally read the whole passage in one go first, and did so thoroughly. i try and make sure i think about author's tone throughout and highlight things I think may be relevant to questions (examples that support something that was stated, words that demonstrate an author's tone, etc) then while answering the questions, i sometimes read through it a second time. for me, i find that a thoughtful read through before answering questions helps a lot rather than priming yourself by reading the questions first. this is just what has worked for me. hopefully it helps!

 

[snowcrawler85]

I did a passage everyday for probably three months before my exam. I would read the passage all the way through, wouldn’t highlight and then answered the questions.

 

[GreenDuck12]

High cars score here’s what I did:
Read passage all the way through, highlighted some names (particularly art and history texts).
Highlighted all words that signaled a shift in argument.
Highlighted words that were uncharacteristically strong.
I also wrote a three word summary for each paragraph and would put a star on paragraphs with argument shifts.

I found that doing this work upfront made answering questions a breeze.

 

[sunshinefl]

Know there have been other threads on this but am interested in hearing more opinions. Eg. do you read the questions beforehand or just read the passage in one go? How quickly do you generally finish the first reading of the passage? Also helpful to know if you were "naturally" good at this section or did a ton of practice to get to that score

Got a 128 in CARS. Read the passage first quick-ish but actually read. Didn’t highlight anything but referred back (like to a certain paragraph or skim for keyword, etc) to answer questions if needed. “Naturally” good, and actually found the passages mostly interesting. Like I read them with interest, and actually enjoyed/learned from them. I can still remember some and I took the MCAT 4 years ago.

 

[TragicalDrFaust]

"Naturally good" CARS 128 on the real exam last year up from 127 on a TPR FL after about 20 practices passages. With 30 more passages, my most recent CARS on an AAMC practice FL was 129.

I'm a fast, impressionistic reader. I read the passage for tone and highlight anything I don't understand immediately so I know where to go back to if the questions ask anything I can't answer off the top of my head. I usually finish with about 20-30 mins to spare. I credit my score to my ability to read quickly. I also value cultural knowledge including literature, philosophy, art and religion across history and geography, so I'm typically loosely familiar with topics and arguments made in the passages. However, bringing in my own knowledge can present issues if I don't read carefully for the author's opinion and keep my knowledge of facts and other prevailing opinions out of my thought process.

For someone looking to improve CARS, I would recommend the strategy proposed in some prep books: avoid re-reading the passage as much as possible because it's time-consuming. Read to understand the author's attitude towards the subject, the topic and the arguments they present. Also, practice passages of course.

Edited to add more about my preparation

 

[ThePotatoDoctor]

I scored well on CAR after starting around 125. I had to have a shift in what I was trying to extract from the passage. One good strategy is to try to make your understanding of the passage very "authorcentric" as in -- what did the author want me to understand? What are the author's motives? You may have seen that the majority of questions ask about the author, so that's a good way to nail down a main idea.

 

[Alkaidius]

I did pretty well on CARS and I used a bit of a different strategy than most. I read very slow and tend to get bored and zone out fast, so I decided to break down the passages into chunks. At the end of every paragraph I would close my eyes and try to digest it the best I could with all the usual things you care about (tone, content, purpose, etc of that specific paragraph) for about 5-10 seconds. Just a quick impression and then move on. I believe it took me maybe 4-4.5 minutes to read this way, but I also found that I had to go to the passage less after doing this, so it balanced out.

EDIT: Also I sucked at CARS when I started and hated every second that I did its passages lol. I know of a few people that this method really worked for after I told them about it, but it’s a small sample size.

 

[deleted1063208]

- I read the passage first normally and just try to understand it as well as I can
- no highlighting
- refer to passage as needed when answering questions
I think it is important to do what feels most natural to you. There is no "best" way.

 

[lacrossegirl420]

Thanks for the tips everyone! So I took FL4 today and was thrilled to get a 128 on CARS. However, looking through the questions I missed (9 of them I think), I flat out don't agree with AAMC's logic on like 4 of them (many of these I actually felt really confident about while taking the test...which is concerning...), 3 I have absolutely no idea how I would have come to that conclusion, and 2 were careless mistakes. Did anyone else in this thread feel this way about several of the practice questions, and if so did you try to work through them or just cut your losses / accept there will always be some questions like that?

 

[wabisabidos]

Thanks for the tips everyone! So I took FL4 today and was thrilled to get a 128 on CARS. However, looking through the questions I missed (9 of them I think), I flat out don't agree with AAMC's logic on like 4 of them (many of these I actually felt really confident about while taking the test...which is concerning...), 3 I have absolutely no idea how I would have come to that conclusion, and 2 were careless mistakes. Did anyone else in this thread feel this way about several of the practice questions, and if so did you try to work through them or just cut your losses / accept there will always be some questions like that?

What did you do differently to improve CARS?

 

[jamaica jan sun princess]

Thanks for the tips everyone! So I took FL4 today and was thrilled to get a 128 on CARS. However, looking through the questions I missed (9 of them I think), I flat out don't agree with AAMC's logic on like 4 of them (many of these I actually felt really confident about while taking the test...which is concerning...), 3 I have absolutely no idea how I would have come to that conclusion, and 2 were careless mistakes. Did anyone else in this thread feel this way about several of the practice questions, and if so did you try to work through them or just cut your losses / accept there will always be some questions like that?

Google "FL4 CARS question number" and you'll find good explanations here and on Reddit.

 

[lacrossegirl420]

@yl36583 : I tried a bunch of different approaches and found reading faster / not highlighting ultimately suited me the best

 

[deleted1043308]

I advocate for the "slow and steady wins the race method." I scored a 132 on CARS on my practice and 129 on the actual.
Do a whole CARS section so slow that it hurts (and i mean REALLY hurts... it should take 4 hours to do the whole section), but focus on accuracy. Once you can do it slow, speed it up. It's the same strategy as playing a fast song on an instrument!

 

[mikemars]

CARS is boring. So to make it interesting, I rapidly imagined it was some crazy courtroom procedural. I would characterize the author and have him/her read the passage aloud in my mind, and the judge would ask the question on the right.

I was the jury, and had to play a "Whodunnit" Sherlock style process of deduction quickly crossing out the answer choices on the right, based purely on evidence. This helped incredibly with eliminating my own bias - which seems, alongside boredom, to be the biggest killer in CARS....

 

[Blueprint Med School]

CARS is boring. So to make it interesting, I rapidly imagined it was some crazy courtroom procedural. I would characterize the author and have him/her read the passage aloud in my mind, and the judge would ask the question on the right.

I was the jury, and had to play a "Whodunnit" Sherlock style process of deduction quickly crossing out the answer choices on the right, based purely on evidence. This helped incredibly with eliminating my own bias - which seems, alongside boredom, to be the biggest killer in CARS....

I actually like this... alot!

And I got a 11 (128 for you young whippersnappers) and it seems that CARS is bimodal. Some just start off high and get higher, some like myself had to work very hard to get a constant 9s, 10s and 11s to ensure I didn't fall off a cliff on test day.

The most important thing to do is keep doing it and have someone keep you accountable. I did 3 passages a day 5 days a week and once a week met up with two other friends to do a full length for then 60 minutes and review each question between the three of us for another then 60, then we munched and hung out for a little after. Wholesome, collaborative, accountable.

David D, MD - USMLE and MCAT Tutor
Med School Tutors

 

[comet2sixty]

I got a 129. There are 3 issues people have with CARS. Either its a timing problem, an endurance problem, or an accuracy problem.

Timing and endurance can be addressed in one study method. I think the idea of progressive overload is best. Personally, I think reading the passage first without looking at the questions is the best way to go. Actively read the passage, make a map as you go that summarizes each paragraph in one sentence, write down the main idea. Then move on to the questions. I think that with the new format, its good to practice so that you can do this one passage in 7.5-8 minutes. Then move on to doing 2 passages in each sitting with the same accuracy. Once you mastered 2, move on to 3 passages in one sitting. Keep doing this until you can do 9-10 passages like this with solid accuracy and you have mastered timing.

In terms of improving that accuracy if you are really struggling, I think reviewing the test is incredibly important. I made an excel spread sheet that identified each individual question type, and why each individual answer choice was wrong ( meaning was this particular answer choice the opposite of the right one, did it distort what the author's point was, was it out of scope). When I say every wrong answer I mean every single answer choice. You have to know exactly how the test makers think and exactly why they think answers are wrong. Most prep books will give you a guide for this kind of review. Once you can identify with a spread sheet what individual question type you struggle most with, you can look at strategies and develop skills specific to that type and watch your score go up.

Hope this helps.