Advice on Verbal Reasoning?

[lamborghiniMD]

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Hey guys, My test is 2 months away. I am showing great improvement in the sciences, but for verbal I'm seeing a plateau of anywhere from a 7-9. My biggest concern is not timing or mapping, but the questions themselves.

I've noticed that my top 3 mistakes are:
1. I missed key wording in either the passage or question stem/answer choice
2. I don't follow my intuition/ i force myself to pick an answer that I don't like simply because
I'm not satisfied with the other answer choices
3. I purposely don't choose the obvious answer because I feel like it's a trap (meaning, in most cases, the obvious answer IS the correct answer, but I didn't pick it because I thought it was a trap)

Any advice on how to calm my paranoia? I know I should always follow my intuition and TPR and TBR always stress intuition but I let pressure get the best of me. I choose answers and then within the LAST few seconds I switch them....then get it ALL wrong (with my first guess being correct, had I left it alone). -_______-

I know the simple solution is "WELL JUST DON'T SWITCH IT" but it's more complicated than that when I'm under pressure. When I double check my answers, I look at parts of the passage that causes me to rethink my first choice....sometimes I made a mistake, but most of the time I was correct the first time. Idk how else to explain it. It just seems that when I double check my answer, I always find one sneaky word that makes me question my choices.

I am typically getting 24-27 questions correct out of 40, but would like to see those 30s.

My practice material for verbal:
TPR hyperlearning
EK 101 passages
the AAMC self-assessment guide for Verbal
and of course the AAMC practice tests (4 - 11)


Thanks in advance!

 

[giants25]

Sorry to break it to you, but you basically summed up exactly what you need to fix.
focus on key words, always trust your gut, don't switch your answers,and, in your case, trap=correct answer.

If your not having trouble timing, mapping, or understanding the passage, there's really nothing else to help you with. All I would suggest is to try an experiment taking a practice section and forcing yourself to choose an answer and then NOT look back on it again. Then at the end of the test see if your score increased.

 

[235788]

just keep practicing....


I did 3 passages a day for 3 months and by the end of it I was >10. Started with 6's. You need to learn what works for you. I found that I needed to read slower to improve my score.

 

[baylorgirl]

have you tried using the EK verbal book? its a weird strategy but it works, went from a 8 to a 13

 

[tide11189]

Keep practicing and do thorough review. Understanding why answers are right and wrong is the most important part of learning verbal. Good luck.


Sent from my iPhone using SDN Mobile app

 

[BrianK0220]

I've been doing one verbal passage a day for two months now. My first verbal test was a 6, second was an eight, now I've gotten a few 10's in a row. I suggest one per day because:

1) It's important to focus on how to do a passage.
2) It's important to remember how to do a passage.

The EK strategy is solid. Read each passage like you would a novel. Don't try to remember everything, just comprehend it. Then, focus on ruling out wrong answers, they're easier to spot than right answers. Most of the time I don't even know what the right answer is (or read it) I just know which ones are wrong, circle what's left and move on.

 

[Courtjester8]

The secret to VR is this: As you read, become the person that wrote the passage. The questions work themselves out after that.

-cj8