Bombing certain passages

[YellowDiamond]

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Hi all,

Just completed AAMC 5 and scored a 30 (12/8/10). Physical went fine besides a couple of silly mistakes. On verbal, I got through the first four passages missing 1 question. On the next passage, I managed to miss every single question. 😕 I might add that this was not a timing issue, but I did feel fairly uncomfortable while answering the questions. Continuing to bio, the majority of questions missed stem from 3 passages (subject areas where I do not have much experience and feel like these passages exploited this). I know it is foolish to judge just parts of the test, but I was wondering if anyone has similar experiences of a couple passages really hurting composite sccores? And if so, how you were able to recover on future practice tests as well as the real MCAT?

 

[IRE]

I wouldn't worry about it. My aamc average verbal was 12 - 14 and ~37 overall. Now and again I still hit a passage so convoluted I question whether the author could answer questions about. Just remember the most difficult passages tend to have the easiest questions. Ridiculous PS passages generally ask a mix of semi-discrete questions and questions involving a simple application of some formula (almost no reading necessary). I took the the MCAT last week and hit a couple where I finished with no clue. Just answer quickly with appropriate quessing so you can make up for it on the rest. Answering a question you are clueless on in 2 seconds is a lot better than staring at it for 2 minutes and then doing the same.

 

[drpharMD]

I often find myself in the same position. All I can say is that you must continue to take practice tests and cover as much material/presentations of passages as you can. I agree with the previous poster -- the harder passages normally have questions that are simple. However, on the real MCAT, there was a passage that had a hard setup AND hard questions (check the knockout mice Bio passage in the 5/1/09 MCAT thread). You have to realize that you must glean points where you can on those passages by attacking the formula based questions and semi-discretes first WITHOUT using the passage. This will probably give you a little more confidence when tackling the rest of them. I come from the school of never say die -- there has to be SOMETHING that can help solve a problem (background knowledge, passage info, other question in passage OR in the whole section). Don't guess/give up unless you HAVE to.