Advice with verbal reasoning section

[yoyohomieg5432]

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I'm getting like 8-9 in this area which is hurting my scores. I'm consistently running out of time and I will only make it through 6 out of 7 passages before time runs out, so I'm just randomly guessing the entire last passage and hoping to get something right.

Any advice on taking this section? I.e. do you read the entire article first and then go to the questions? Or do you glance at the questions first and then begin reading? Any other advice would be great

 

[TopTomato]

I'm getting like 8-9 in this area which is hurting my scores. I'm consistently running out of time and I will only make it through 6 out of 7 passages before time runs out, so I'm just randomly guessing the entire last passage and hoping to get something right.

Any advice on taking this section? I.e. do you read the entire article first and then go to the questions? Or do you glance at the questions first and then begin reading? Any other advice would be great

In the princeton review class they preach only going for 6 out of the 7 passages, and on the last passage going all A's or B's or whatever you pick. Generally find that "killer" passage that will eat up most of your time or you don't understand all that well and use that one for all of the same answer.

 

[yoyohomieg5432]

In the princeton review class they preach only going for 6 out of the 7 passages, and on the last passage going all A's or B's or whatever you pick. Generally find that "killer" passage that will eat up most of your time or you don't understand all that well and use that one for all of the same answer.

define killer passage? most of them seem to be about the same length? seems like it would be wasting time if you scan through all of them before you pick the one to ignore

 

[CF84]

Its been a few years since I took the MCAT but I had the same problem and I EK 101 passages really helped.

 

[brood910]

Its been a few years since I took the MCAT but I had the same problem and I EK 101 passages really helped.

I disagree.
EK 101 sucks.
The passages are way too easy compared with the AAMC ones.

 

[DNA]

I disagree.
EK 101 sucks.
The passages are way too easy compared with the AAMC ones.

You must be making 15's like there's no tomorrow eh?

 

[leric90]

I'm getting like 8-9 in this area which is hurting my scores. I'm consistently running out of time and I will only make it through 6 out of 7 passages before time runs out, so I'm just randomly guessing the entire last passage and hoping to get something right.

Any advice on taking this section? I.e. do you read the entire article first and then go to the questions? Or do you glance at the questions first and then begin reading? Any other advice would be great

A lot of it is not panicking and getting the timing down, the other big thing is trying to think like the author - also you must practice practice practice! TPRH Verbal is the way to go, than ek101

I did all of them

 

[yoyohomieg5432]

A lot of it is not panicking and getting the timing down, the other big thing is trying to think like the author - also you must practice practice practice! TPRH Verbal is the way to go, than ek101

I did all of them

i just obtained the book. how did you approach this? One method i was thinking is like doing 3 passages/day and trying to get the timing to be about 24 minutes. Another approach is doing 7 passages for the hour time but i think i would burn through passages fast and it's a time consuming approach.

 

[brood910]

You must be making 15's like there's no tomorrow eh?

No. I constantly get 11-12 on EK passages while I get only 7-9 on TPRH and AAMC ones.
When did I ever say I get 15's on EK anyway? Learn to read. I think I can already see your problems.

 

[CF84]

I disagree.
EK 101 sucks.
The passages are way too easy compared with the AAMC ones.

I guess for everyone its different but I did horrible on my first MCAT because of the VR. After using EK 101 I retook the MCAT twice and scored above a 10 each time

 

[brood910]

I guess for everyone its different but I did horrible on my first MCAT because of the VR. After using EK 101 I retook the MCAT twice and scored above a 10 each time

Im pretty sure ppl whose native language is not English will agree with me.
The way passages are worded is much more complicated on TPRH and AAMC.

 

[LaughingMan]

I used EK101 - Was scoring 6-7s. Dropped it cause I didn't like it.
Used TPRH-L Verbal Woorkbook. Again was scoring 7s---felt it wasn't good.

Took AAMC3 - Got a 10
Took AAMC 4 - Got a 9

 

[DNA]

No. I constantly get 11-12 on EK passages while I get only 7-9 on TPRH and AAMC ones.
When did I ever say I get 15's on EK anyway? Learn to read. I think I can already see your problems.

Um... way to over-react.

 

[Mornhavon]

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[bea524]

As others have said, either EK 101 or TPRH Verbal Workbook. I personally did much worse on the EK 101 tests (7's and 8's) compared to the TPRH Verbal Workbook (10's and 11's) because of the tricky question types presented in EK 101. TPRH Verbal Workbook has some good dense/dry subjects for their passages that apparently reflect AAMCs.

My only problem with the do 6 out of 7 passages approach and save the killer one for last is that often times the difficulty of the passage's content itself is not correlated to the difficulty of the questions. I noticed this in TPRH Verbal Workbook where sometimes (not always) I'd come across a passage and did not have the slightest clue what the hell I was reading, only to find out I had scored 6/7 on that passage just by going back to appropriate parts of the passage when answering the questions. There were also fairly straightforward and short passages where I was appalled to find out that I missed 3-4 of the questions.

 

[yoyohomieg5432]

7 passages x 8 minutes per passage = 56 minutes

Train yourself to read the passage in 4 minutes, answer the questions in 4 minutes.

I would write down on my scrap paper *52*, *44*, *36*, so I would know when to move on.

Just keep practicing.


Tips:
Highlight stuff that is 100% going to come up in the questions, so you can find it really quickly

Think about what the authors opinion is as you read- they always ask about that! - This will also get you thinking about what the passage is actually talking about, so it isn't just your eyes rushing across the page. This is probably what has helped me the most in getting better at verbal.

what guidelines ar eyou using for highlighting? i find myself trying to highlight key words but i end up highlighting so much it makes highlighting pointless

 

[yoyohomieg5432]

As others have said, either EK 101 or TPRH Verbal Workbook. I personally did much worse on the EK 101 tests (7's and 8's) compared to the TPRH Verbal Workbook (10's and 11's) because of the tricky question types presented in EK 101. TPRH Verbal Workbook has some good dense/dry subjects for their passages that apparently reflect AAMCs.

My only problem with the do 6 out of 7 passages approach and save the killer one for last is that often times the difficulty of the passage's content itself is not correlated to the difficulty of the questions. I noticed this in TPRH Verbal Workbook where sometimes (not always) I'd come across a passage and did not have the slightest clue what the hell I was reading, only to find out I had scored 6/7 on that passage just by going back to appropriate parts of the passage when answering the questions. There were also fairly straightforward and short passages where I was appalled to find out that I missed 3-4 of the questions.

one more question..: how are you guys getting scores from the TPRH book? i see they have the answer key, but i don't see where the conversion key is to go from raw score to score/15?
are you guys talking about just the 4 practice tests or the practice passages as well?

 

[bea524]

one more question..: how are you guys getting scores from the TPRH book? i see they have the answer key, but i don't see where the conversion key is to go from raw score to score/15?
are you guys talking about just the 4 practice tests or the practice passages as well?

TPRH verbal workbook doesn't have its own scale. I think most people just compare their scores to the AAMC FLs. I'm talking about the practice tests in the TPRH verbal workbook.

 

[Yankees24]

What's a decent score on the AAMC verbal when you're first starting out?

 

[Mornhavon]

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