A simple, efficient, yet difficult way to fix your VR score!

[AmishExpressWay]

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Hello.

If you are anything like I was, you'd struggle in VR, sometimes missing as much as 4-5 questions per passage! I come to you now with a simple and efficient way to fix your VR score. Alas, it will be difficult to put into action.

Here's the plan:

1) Every day, read a difficult book, journal, or newspaper for at least an hour. While reading, you should force your mind to focus on the reading, and try to understand every nuance of the text you are reading. You may take your time reading, if you need to. If you feel like you read something and didn't understand it, re-read it until you do. Read difficult to understand philosophy by philosophers such as Kant and Sartre FOR BONUS POINTS!

2) Every day, do 3 VR passages. Aim to time yourself under 7 minutes per passage, and try to take in as much detail from the passage as possible. Trying to read faster without practice will leave you understanding nothing, and wasting time.

3) As an aside, work on some sort of concentration related activity. Meditation, extremely heavy weightlifting, contact sports, READING, etc., will all train you to focus on the task at hand. If you find that your mind wanders while doing VR, this aspect is EXTREMELY IMPORTANT.

The first few weeks of doing this will be difficult, and you will face mind numbing headaches like never before, but it will pay off when you rock your VR section.

All the best.

 

[thatfeelwhen79]

uh w.euh w.e

 

[AmishExpressWay]

or adderall

Taking shortcuts hardly ever pays off.

 

[Thoroughbred_Med]

or adderall

#efficient

 

[Sed8&Intub8]

or adderall

Adderall really?

 

[shh-pthway]

... as someone who was diagnosed w ADHD in middle school (perhaps erroneously so.... either way, I believe I have "outgrown" it) and has taken adderall/ ritallin (legally), I would like to point out that my test performance suffered dramatically when I was on the stimulants. Sure it may reduce some careless mistakes, but one can easily become over-fixated/ interested in a given question and end up wasting time. Moreover, in my personal experience, critical/creative thinking was compromised with the stimulants. I made my parents take me off the stimulants.

Sure this is anecdotal and perhaps contrary to the experiences of others. However, for those who are considering taking a stimulant for the test, this is something to consider in addition to the moral component of seeking an advantage.

 

[AmishExpressWay]

... as someone who was diagnosed w ADHD in middle school (perhaps erroneously so.... either way, I believe I have "outgrown" it) and has taken adderall/ ritallin (legally), I would like to point out that my test performance suffered dramatically when I was on the stimulants. Sure it may reduce some careless mistakes, but one can easily become over-fixated/ interested in a given question and end up wasting time. Moreover, in my personal experience, critical/creative thinking was compromised with the stimulants. I made my parents take me off the stimulants.

Sure this is anecdotal and perhaps contrary to the experiences of others. However, for those who are considering taking a stimulant for the test, this is something to consider in addition to the moral component of seeking an advantage.

I'm glad someone with experience is around to clear up the whole adderall ordeal.

Moral dilemma is just silly detail. What really matters it that when one chooses to use the "easy way out" it represents a character deficiency. Lazy thinking leads to lazy methods which leads to undisciplined character. An undisciplined person in the medicinal field constitutes the ****tiest type of doctor imaginable. It's the whole "magic pill" without hard work thinking that makes people lose ambition and drive in life.

 

[Sed8&Intub8]

I have taken Adderall for years, yes, legally. And, it's not a miracle drug that will make you get perfect scores. I took my MCAT yesterday, and I started reading journals and the economist and bloomberg and I read books on eastern and western philosophy and such just to try to improve my verbal ability. I started doing that in late January, then I spent the last three months studying for the MCAT along with doing verbal passages every day. I did a total of almost 250 passages. I was able to bring my average up from a 7 to about a 10, maybe 11. If Adderall worked that why, why did I have to put so much effort in, and even with that effort, why did I only come up to a 10?

 

[thatfeelwhen79]

uh w.euh w.euh w.e

 

[Sed8&Intub8]

guaranteed your score will go down ~2 points and your timing will be off without the adderall

adderall isn't a miracle drug. but adderall + beta meditation = focus like none other


think of d-amps as steroids that bodybuilders take. you still have to work hard but your gains will be WAY faster

Nah, I have tried with and without, its the same. Without adderall I can't focus as well, but I'm not anxious which makes me think clearer. With adderall, I focus better, but I can't think because I'm anxious and foggy.

 

[thatfeelwhen79]

uh w.euh w.e

 

[Gauss44]

Hello.

If you are anything like I was, you'd struggle in VR, sometimes missing as much as 4-5 questions per passage! I come to you now with a simple and efficient way to fix your VR score. Alas, it will be difficult to put into action.

Here's the plan:

1) Every day, read a difficult book, journal, or newspaper for at least an hour. While reading, you should force your mind to focus on the reading, and try to understand every nuance of the text you are reading. You may take your time reading, if you need to. If you feel like you read something and didn't understand it, re-read it until you do. Read difficult to understand philosophy by philosophers such as Kant and Sartre FOR BONUS POINTS!

2) Every day, do 3 VR passages. Aim to time yourself under 7 minutes per passage, and try to take in as much detail from the passage as possible. Trying to read faster without practice will leave you understanding nothing, and wasting time.

3) As an aside, work on some sort of concentration related activity. Meditation, extremely heavy weightlifting, contact sports, READING, etc., will all train you to focus on the task at hand. If you find that your mind wanders while doing VR, this aspect is EXTREMELY IMPORTANT.

The first few weeks of doing this will be difficult, and you will face mind numbing headaches like never before, but it will pay off when you rock your VR section.

All the best.

While I appreciate the intention, I know people who have tried this, and sometimes it works and other times it doesn't work.

The most helpful thing you can do for those struggling with VR is to reply to their question on both this forum and the Q&A forum.

 

[Thoroughbred_Med]

Nah, I have tried with and without, its the same. Without adderall I can't focus as well, but I'm not anxious which makes me think clearer. With adderall, I focus better, but I can't think because I'm anxious and foggy.

Same. I'm prescribed as well.

I had my doc switch me over to Vyvance though. Adderall made me too anxious and foggy.

Seeing how Vyvance is pretty much an enantiomer of Addy, it is amazing how profound the difference is!

 

[Sed8&Intub8]

Same. I'm prescribed as well.

I had my doc switch me over to Vyvance though. Adderall made me too anxious and foggy.

Seeing how Vyvance is pretty much an enantiomer of Addy, it is amazing how profound the difference is!

I started with Vyvanse. Complete opposite effect, it was terrible. All it did was shoot my heart rate up to like 150 for an entire week before doctor told me to stop taking it.

 

[Thoroughbred_Med]

I started with Vyvanse. Complete opposite effect, it was terrible. All it did was shoot my heart rate up to like 150 for an entire week before doctor told me to stop taking it.

Ahhh. Just goes to show how much variation there is in the biochemistry from person to person 😉

 

[AmishExpressWay]

While I appreciate the intention, I know people who have tried this, and sometimes it works and other times it doesn't work.

The most helpful thing you can do for those struggling with VR is to reply to their question on both this forum and the Q&A forum.

Are you sure they did it correctly? If you focus on increasing your reading comprehension (which includes concentration and mental integrity), you will undoubtedly increase your VR score. Just reading WON'T HELP, you have to practice by ACTIVELY reading convoluted text with 100% understanding. Understand every little thing you read. Furthermore, you have to do this for several weeks or several months to see great improvement. There are no shortcuts to VR because VR tests the ability to ingest, digest, and regurgitate information in a very short period of time. The only way you will get better is by practicing it correctly, and constantly.

What are the alternatives to having great reading and comprehension abilities? Passage mapping? If you stay focused, the map is already passaged in your head in great detail. Your brain will subconsciously know where to look in the passage to find what it was you need to reread. And this ability improves with reading ability.

Here is my personal improvement:
4 weeks ago: 1-5 wrong per passage. 8-11 minutes per passage.
Past week: 0-1 (rarely 2)wrong per passage. 6-7 minutes per passage.

And I just keep improving every day. Literally, every day, I am getting better. But this is not a magic pill. This requires pure dedication, motivation and will power. The more you put in, the more you will get out!

 

[oxelhs]

One thing worth a shot that people may not have tried is highlighting. As you read, you will get a feel for what words/sentences should be highlighted. This will literally force you to focus on the passage and read ACTIVELY. Give it a try! And regarding addys/vyvanse/concerta I wouldn't recommend it. Especially not for a long exam as MCAT. You will need to urinate frequently and your concentration may become razor sharp but that is not always ideal for MCAT passages. Take at your own risk.

 

[csx]

Are you sure they did it correctly? If you focus on increasing your reading comprehension (which includes concentration and mental integrity), you will undoubtedly increase your VR score. Just reading WON'T HELP, you have to practice by ACTIVELY reading convoluted text with 100% understanding. Understand every little thing you read. Furthermore, you have to do this for several weeks or several months to see great improvement. There are no shortcuts to VR because VR tests the ability to ingest, digest, and regurgitate information in a very short period of time. The only way you will get better is by practicing it correctly, and constantly.

What are the alternatives to having great reading and comprehension abilities? Passage mapping? If you stay focused, the map is already passaged in your head in great detail. Your brain will subconsciously know where to look in the passage to find what it was you need to reread. And this ability improves with reading ability.

Here is my personal improvement:
4 weeks ago: 1-5 wrong per passage. 8-11 minutes per passage.
Past week: 0-1 (rarely 2)wrong per passage. 6-7 minutes per passage.

And I just keep improving every day. Literally, every day, I am getting better. But this is not a magic pill. This requires pure dedication, motivation and will power. The more you put in, the more you will get out!

What verbal books are you using?

 

[AmishExpressWay]

What verbal books are you using?

A mixture of ek101 and TPRH

 

[thatfeelwhen79]

ITT: meth addicts

 

[oxelhs]

Keep editing all your posts bruh^

 

[csx]

A mixture of ek101 and TPRH

me too! How many passages do you do a day?

 

[AmishExpressWay]

me too! How many passages do you do a day?

I do 3 passages a day, every day. Currently I am working through ek101, but I like to switch back and forth between the two books.