Anyone do "external" reading and improved in VR? Recommendations?

[Dreams01]

---

Members don't see this ad.

I simply want YOUR personal experience in how you improved your VR score by including external reading in your schedule and which sources did you use? I just ran by another thread where there is endless amount of suggestions of books. Obviously there's no time in the world to read all that, let alone just for MCAT, but I want to pick up a few external sources in my spare time and read for a hobby and "exercise" my reading muscle and hopefully helps in VR as byproduct.
Right now I am looking to write August 21 or 27. I recently wrote my first MCAT last week, and realized that, though the passages were easy read, they were longer and did not suite my preferred slower method of reading while mind mapping.

So I am just asking if you included external reading in your schedule, if it improved, and how many times and when? What sources helped you whether it be books or articles? Did you have a strategy to make sure you are improving and using the time to good use like timing yourself or just read through in a given amount of time?

Any tip would be helpful! I am doing passages etc. but I am not finding proper ways to improve! I am doing similar mistakes and not finishing as fast as I need every time!

Thank you

 

[Dreams01]

bump

 

[havocgene]

many people forget the reasoning portion of the exam...maybe you should just do practice problems and find the pattern in the answer choices that lead to correct answers

 

[aich]

I honestly don't think doing external reading helps much. I've been a long time subscriber to the Economist (which many people on here tout, don't know why). If you decide to read external sources, read something that you enjoy. I'm not a humanities person but I personally think poetry can be very high yield because it really makes you think a lot (too bad I don't like it).

I think three major things hold people back on that section: not reading efficiently / fast enough, not understanding the main point / author's position, and not always understanding the wording of the questions / answer choices. My problem is mainly the last one.

Where do you struggle?

My current strategy is to just do all the AAMC FL's, EK 101's, and TPRHL Verbal. My first practice tests were 8's with both TPRHL and EK101. I can't give you more scores because I've just started. I found that I learned the most by really trying to understand the reasoning behind the answer key of the questions I got wrong. When that fails, I usually go to my girlfriend (creative writer) and I've even been thinking about going to the English tutors that my school has in the library (it'll give them something to do).

 

[Dreams01]

Very good advice here! That's what I've been thinking myself for the Economist and such. That's why I just want to include reading for fun instead of using my breaks to social media or distract myself from media.

Is there anything in particular I should be doing when I am doing my VR passages in the realm of review and post game?
I am having trouble post analyzing my passages so I can avoid making same mistakes. My big area of mistakes are mostly around timing. I tend to read to slow at times to better understand and map the passage in my head. But what holds me up is sometimes I take too long to answer. I hate not knowing the answer and I end up trying go back into the passage and make sure I answered properly. This is where it got me on the MCAT where passages felt a little longer, and questions were more vague. I want to pick up the speed with practice just a tiny bit, but also practice recognizing how to answer questions so I dont waste time, and effective post gaming will help, just not sure what is the best way. I feel like I am just doing passages and doing same mistakes everyday.

@aich

 

[Leah4sci]

Way back when...
My scored a 5 in verbal on my diagnostic (English not my first language)
I found that as a college student I was so busy studying I didn't have time to read anything non-science related.
I started reading what I call 'boring' information, namely the New York Times and random news articles online (they bore me to tears)
The endurance from reading this information helped me keep my sanity and pay attention.
I also did the Examkrackers 101 passages for practice
I scored a 9 on my real MCAT (again, english not my first language)
Hope this helps

 

[aich]

Very good advice here! That's what I've been thinking myself for the Economist and such. That's why I just want to include reading for fun instead of using my breaks to social media or distract myself from media.

Is there anything in particular I should be doing when I am doing my VR passages in the realm of review and post game?
I am having trouble post analyzing my passages so I can avoid making same mistakes. My big area of mistakes are mostly around timing. I tend to read to slow at times to better understand and map the passage in my head. But what holds me up is sometimes I take too long to answer. I hate not knowing the answer and I end up trying go back into the passage and make sure I answered properly. This is where it got me on the MCAT where passages felt a little longer, and questions were more vague. I want to pick up the speed with practice just a tiny bit, but also practice recognizing how to answer questions so I dont waste time, and effective post gaming will help, just not sure what is the best way. I feel like I am just doing passages and doing same mistakes everyday.

@aich

I guess you'll just have to practice a lot in order to get faster. I notice that some people get hung up on really remembering the details when that's not important. Understanding the overall point is what's important. If the answer is something that's explicitly asked, then you should go back and look for it in the passage. Doing that should speed up your reading. If you search around, you can find in depth threads about passage mapping, but I honestly don't like them. I think they distract from the main point.

It is also crucial that you really understand why you got an answer wrong, that's the only way you can prevent making the same kind of mistake again. Don't just skip it.