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- Thread starter MansionMD
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I'm a very fast reader, so I didn't have a time crunch. However, some passages take over 10 minutes and some take under 5 minutes. Don't get caught up in spending a specified amount of time on each passage. If you don't over-analyze the easy questions you should have time for the hard ones.
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one thing i was thinking about is that unlike bio or phys where i can kinda skim the figures to see what is up and triage the section, i find it more difficult to triage verbal. i've been just going in order. and i feel like what if i run into a difficult one early on? then i'll be wasting time...hopefully the luck of the draw will put that difficult one late.
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somebody else posted a study plan not too long ago, and he indicated that for the EK101 passages (that's what you're talking about right?), you should be doing 4-5 passages a day. Each time you should work towards 6-7 minutes per passage. 6 minutes is dastardly difficult but 7 is manageable for most.
I agree with you in that notice. I just started doing them now and I saw that i'd get much more time per passage than I would ACTUALLy get on the real MCAT. Most people don't notice this and think that they get good scores on the EK101 without considering that they'll actually have much less time on the MCAT... like 8 minutes per passage at most.
I agree with you in that notice. I just started doing them now and I saw that i'd get much more time per passage than I would ACTUALLy get on the real MCAT. Most people don't notice this and think that they get good scores on the EK101 without considering that they'll actually have much less time on the MCAT... like 8 minutes per passage at most.
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Verbal was the section that gave me the most trouble on my MCAT. AAMC #3 I scored a 7 VR.
On the real thing, I scored an 11 VR. Here's how I did it (copied from my 30+ MCAT post on page 9):
1. Find a quiet place to work. I cannot emphasize this enough, especially with the VR. You may be good at reading quickly in a bustling cafe, but in a quiet room with nothing but your thoughts, it's easy to get sidetracked and distracted by yourself.
2. Buy the EK 101 passages book. My entire practice centered around this one book, and it helped me immensely.
3. Do 2 passages per day under TIMED CONDITIONS. EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. I cannot emphasize it enough. Or maybe I can. EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. I started off averaging around 7 on my VR. You can see that it paid off. Limit yourself to 8 minutes a passage. If you don't know, GUESS AND MOVE ON. Review the passage either the same day or next day, and understand the explanations as to WHY you got a question wrong.
4. While reading the passages, my strategy was to read a paragraph, and once I finished reading it, I would write a word or 2 next to the paragraph about the main idea of the paragraph or something important. I never actually went back and used the words, I just thought it was helpful to keep myself on track.
So basically what I did was just trained myself for about 2 months beforehand to do passages in 8 minutes FLAT. I know it sucks to guess and move on, but it will help you get through all of the passages and eventually make it to the end with 12 minutes left for the last passage. You can use the 4 minutes to go back to a passage that gave you problems if you want to, but I never used it.
On the real thing, I scored an 11 VR. Here's how I did it (copied from my 30+ MCAT post on page 9):
1. Find a quiet place to work. I cannot emphasize this enough, especially with the VR. You may be good at reading quickly in a bustling cafe, but in a quiet room with nothing but your thoughts, it's easy to get sidetracked and distracted by yourself.
2. Buy the EK 101 passages book. My entire practice centered around this one book, and it helped me immensely.
3. Do 2 passages per day under TIMED CONDITIONS. EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. I cannot emphasize it enough. Or maybe I can. EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. I started off averaging around 7 on my VR. You can see that it paid off. Limit yourself to 8 minutes a passage. If you don't know, GUESS AND MOVE ON. Review the passage either the same day or next day, and understand the explanations as to WHY you got a question wrong.
4. While reading the passages, my strategy was to read a paragraph, and once I finished reading it, I would write a word or 2 next to the paragraph about the main idea of the paragraph or something important. I never actually went back and used the words, I just thought it was helpful to keep myself on track.
So basically what I did was just trained myself for about 2 months beforehand to do passages in 8 minutes FLAT. I know it sucks to guess and move on, but it will help you get through all of the passages and eventually make it to the end with 12 minutes left for the last passage. You can use the 4 minutes to go back to a passage that gave you problems if you want to, but I never used it.