anyone else frustrated with EK verbal 101?

[javandane]

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took the practice exams from the verbal workbook and test #1 from verbal 101. it seems to me that 1) some of the allegedly correct answers are blatantly wrong, and 2) many of the allegedly correct answers are extremely subjective and imprecise, requiring that you agree with Orsay's reasoning to arrive at the answer. additionally, some of the questions are poorly written and some answer choices poorly or ambiguously worded. i guess i'm hoping that the real deal will be precise and largely unbiased.

 

[DemonDeacon]

Yeah it is the real deal withe the wording and aswer choices, trust me I'm speaking from experience 😉

I got a 5 on my first one today! 🙁

 

[shock827]

EK owns gave me a 5pt increase. Yes, the real deal is like that. Maybe not as bad, but it gives a good idea.

 

[DemonDeacon]

What did you do exactly with the EK Verbal? Did you jsut do the passages, or did you also review your answers? Did you just keep on constanly improving? Thanks a lot and congrats on the improvement!

 

[shock827]

I practiced a lot of my timing using the tests. Your best bet is to do all of them as timed tests. Then after you finish review both right and wrong answers. I think I got a 7 on my first EK. But then 9 and then mostly 10s.
😀 good luck!

 

[silkworm]

I agree that some of the questions require really convoluted logic and the answers can be arguable. This has been giving me a lot of furstrations.

But with that said, EK 101 is probably the best verbal practice material out there. Some of my frustration no doubt is due to the nature of the MCAT verbal section, rather than EK.

Has anyone here consistently scored about 13 on EK101? I ask because I seem to have plateaued around 11 and can't get to the "next level."

 

[javandane]

I agree that some of the questions require really convoluted logic and the answers can be arguable. This has been giving me a lot of furstrations.

But with that said, EK 101 is probably the best verbal practice material out there. Some of my frustration no doubt is due to the nature of the MCAT verbal section, rather than EK.

Has anyone here consistently scored about 13 on EK101? I ask because I seem to have plateaued around 11 and can't get to the "next level."

what types of questions have been giving you the most trouble?

 

[blz]

Hey guys, the EK exams are really good for getting your timing down and gettign familar with the format. They are the best passages I think that are out there besides the AAMC ones. Here's some reassurance for some of you who aren't scoring super high on them.

Here's my EK exam breakdown.
#1 - 7
#2 - 8
#3 - 8
#4 - 9
#5 - 9
#6 - 10
#7 - 9
#8 - 9
#9 - 9
#10 - 10
#11 - didn't take

April 2004 MCAT - 11VR

By the way, you dont just take the exams...make sure you go over them the way the last lecture in the EK verbal book tells you to go over them. It really helps.

 

[dhoonlee]

.

 

[javandane]

Hey guys, the EK exams are really good for getting your timing down and gettign familar with the format. They are the best passages I think that are out there besides the AAMC ones. Here's some reassurance for some of you who aren't scoring super high on them.

Here's my EK exam breakdown.
#1 - 7
#2 - 8
#3 - 8
#4 - 9
#5 - 9
#6 - 10
#7 - 9
#8 - 9
#9 - 9
#10 - 10
#11 - didn't take

April 2004 MCAT - 11VR

By the way, you dont just take the exams...make sure you go over them the way the last lecture in the EK verbal book tells you to go over them. It really helps.

that does inspire some reassurance, as i scored a 9 on the EK 101 passage #1, and i am counting on VR to boost my total score.

 

[UCLAstudent]

My scores progressively increased with each practice set. Like blz, I started with a 7, and was making 10s toward the end. I got a 10 on the real MCAT. I didn't improve by just doing the practice passages, though. After you finish with a passage, go back to it in a few weeks and write down the main idea of the passage in 2-3 sentences. Then, use this main idea (and not the text) to answer the questions again. I really do think this helped me. I did it for probably half of the EK passages. (This isn't my own idea. It's a tip from EK.) It's time-consuming, but it teaches you to search for the theme of a passage. Being a science major (and not taking very many humanities classes) taught me to read for every tiny detail; this totally ruined me at the beginning of my MCAT verbal studying. That's why the above method helped me so much.

 

[stoleyerscrubz]

did anyone using EK verbal make a set of heuristics to keep them from making the same mistakes over and over?

 

[silkworm]

what types of questions have been giving you the most trouble?

Seems like every type, but tend to be the inferences, "would this support the passage or not," questions. I guess I just have to hunker down and keep practicing and hope that somehow my neurons evolve more connections.

It seems everyone had the very low score on the first test. I did too. So don't get too freaked out if you get a unsatisfying score on that one. I think Orsay designed it as a knockout blow to focus your attention from the beginning.

 

[javandane]

Seems like every type, but tend to be the inferences, "would this support the passage or not," questions. I guess I just have to hunker down and keep practicing and hope that somehow my neurons evolve more connections.

It seems everyone had the very low score on the first test. I did too. So don't get too freaked out if you get a unsatisfying score on that one. I think Orsay designed it as a knockout blow to focus your attention from the beginning.

its exactly these types of questions (inferences) that i think are the most difficult with EK because the questions and answers are imprecise and largely biased. meaning i've encountered several that arguably have multiple correct answers, and to arrive at their correct answer means you've got to think like and agree with Orsay. which i why i'm hoping the actual MCAT will be written better (i have to believe it will be). i think part of my problem is that I took the LSAT, where every question was explicitly and precisely worded so that there would only be a single correct answer, rather than a single "best" answer. see the difference? i've got to retrain my brain to think MCAT rather than LSAT.

 

[txguy]

What did you do exactly with the EK Verbal? Did you jsut do the passages, or did you also review your answers? Did you just keep on constanly improving? Thanks a lot and congrats on the improvement!

You MUST go over your tests after you do them. That is when you make your improvements and learn the most! Otherwise, you'll make the same mistakes over and over again. Ask yourself why every answer choice is wrong and right--you need to get a feel for a good "MCAT" answer. Its painful and time consuming, but it really helps. I especialy liked writing main ideas after-the-fact and comparing the right answer to the main idea. If you have EK's Verbal/Math strategy book, review Chapter 4 (the chapter which lays out a Verbal study gameplan) and follow it as much as you can.

-tx

 

[IndyZX]

I was getting 9s, 10s, and 11s on EK 101, and I got an 11 on the real thing.

I think an accurate predictor of your MCAT verbal performance would be to take the average of about five of your highest EK 101 scores and add 1-1.5pts to it.

 

[RayhanS1282]

I bought the book and tried the first exam in that book. I got a 9 but WTF? That passage about Pataki and healthcare and the one with Athena and judicial system was hard. I would have gotten the same score if I bubbled in D's the for all the answers in those passages.

Also, are the passages an accurate reflection of the MCAT? In the intro, they start by bashing other commercial preps. (take that TPR and Kaplan). But the passages barely have any science-related stuff...I remember always having a passage on science.

 

[UCLAstudent]

I bought the book and tried the first exam in that book. I got a 9 but WTF? That passage about Pataki and healthcare and the one with Athena and judicial system was hard. I would have gotten the same score if I bubbled in D's the for all the answers in those passages.

Also, are the passages an accurate reflection of the MCAT? In the intro, they start by bashing other commercial preps. (take that TPR and Kaplan). But the passages barely have any science-related stuff...I remember always having a passage on science.

The passages are very accurate. Just keep practicing! There may or may not be a science passage on your real MCAT verbal section ... there wasn't one on mine.

 

[blz]

I bought the book and tried the first exam in that book. I got a 9 but WTF? That passage about Pataki and healthcare and the one with Athena and judicial system was hard. I would have gotten the same score if I bubbled in D's the for all the answers in those passages.

Also, are the passages an accurate reflection of the MCAT? In the intro, they start by bashing other commercial preps. (take that TPR and Kaplan). But the passages barely have any science-related stuff...I remember always having a passage on science.

more science type verbal passages will come up. by the end of that book, you'll be a master in the world of wood-making

 

[nafas]

more science type verbal passages will come up. by the end of that book, you'll be a master in the world of wood-making

and Chinese Dynasty and Judicial Systems

 

[RayhanS1282]

I took the verbal II exam last night (yes it was a Friday night....that shows how exciting my social life is 🙄 ). My raw score went up by 2 questions, 43/60 but the scaled score stayed the same at a 9. I went over the answers and almost lost my shoe in the process of kicking myself for getting the easy ones wrong. My question is, how do they determine the scaled score for the actual MCAT? It seems to me that 41-44 gets you a 9. Is that how it works, like you gotta get ~4 questions right to get a point?

 

[UCLAstudent]

I took the verbal II exam last night (yes it was a Friday night....that shows how exciting my social life is 🙄 ). My raw score went up by 2 questions, 43/60 but the scaled score stayed the same at a 9. I went over the answers and almost lost my shoe in the process of kicking myself for getting the easy ones wrong. My question is, how do they determine the scaled score for the actual MCAT? It seems to me that 41-44 gets you a 9. Is that how it works, like you gotta get ~4 questions right to get a point?

Kind of ... the curve is very strict for verbal. For the higher scores, the four-question assumption is incorrect. If you were to miss only one question, your score would go down to a 14. If you were to miss 2-3, that's a 13.