6 FLs later and no CARS improvement

[Walia14]

I can't seem to improve in CARS no matter what I do. I've done almost all of EK 101, TPRH verbal and about 50% of NS 108 verbal. I've tried note taking/highlighting strategies and they just simply don't work for me. I score the highest when I take about 4 min to read the passage and 6 min to answer questions, with no highlighting and just trying to stay interested and engaged.

It seems like I can't break 60% based on my performance on NS verbal 108 practice sections and the last 4 FLs I've written. My scores in B/S, C/P and P/S are strong but I know that CARS is just going to bring down my overall significantly (p < 0.001). Does anyone have any advice that they could offer me

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[Dr. Trenb]

Verbal needs daily practice, 1-4 hours (depending on your comprehension skills). In addition, always think of the main idea when reading, and pay attention to the question and what it is exactly asking. The MCAT tends to include choices that are derived from the passage to trick you into thinking "Ah, I remember something about that" when you should only focus on what the question is asking, not what you remember reading.

 

[Walia14]

Verbal needs daily practice, 1-4 hours (depending on your comprehension skills). In addition, always think of the main idea when reading, and pay attention to the question and what it is exactly asking. The MCAT tends to include choices that are derived from the passage to trick you into thinking "Ah, I remember something about that" when you should only focus on what the question is asking, not what you remember reading.

I started off doing 3 passages/day for about 20 days, and have been doing 1 FL section every other day. I review passages the day after I worked on them and it takes me about 20-25 min on average per passage. I find it difficult to think of what the main idea is while I'm reading, so I typically summarize each paragraph in my mind immediately after reading it and then connect it to the previous paragraphs I have read before I move on to the next.

 

[mcatjelly]

I really really recommend you do some AAMC passages to gauge your CARS performance. I did poorly on EK CARS passages (~70%), much better on AAMC CARS (~85-97%), then needed up scoring 97th percentile.