calling all TPR students!!

[NilamPatel]

have any of you done the verbal practice tests in the back of the verbal wookbook? there are 4 of them and i did them today and got about 45/60 right on all of them. that comes out to about 9/10, do you guys think they are easy because i never get more than 40-42 right on verbal?

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[el.harpo]

have any of you done the verbal practice tests in the back of the verbal wookbook? there are 4 of them and i did them today and got about 45/60 right on all of them. that comes out to about 9/10, do you guys think they are easy because i never get more than 40-42 right on verbal?

I'll agree with GujuDoc about EK 101 and add what she normally would: "AAMC exams are the best predictors and 9 out of 10 people will usually fall +- 1 point of their practice tests" .

As for me, I found the In Class Compendiums to be ridiculous. There was a passage in there from AAMC 7 pretty much word for word except the questions and answer choices in the In Class Compendium's passage were ridiculously long and hard to comprehend compared to the passage from AAMC 7 (it was about the book the Decline and the Fall of something--last passage on AAMC 7 I believe). It felt like the TPR passages (even some of the first 36 practice passages) were based more on complex words more than they needed to...and their explanations for their choices weren't so great. So I just moved on to EK 101. So far, up to test 6 on EK 101, my AAMC scores have been very close to what I've been getting on EK 101.


So... I guess if you're out of AAMC exams to track your progress then you should try EK 101 rather than TPR.

 

[Mister Pie]

I personally find the TPR passages more difficult because they require a LOT of going back to the text to answer the question. If your weakness is slow reading (like me) then you might find TPR passages more difficult as well.

 

[hippocampus]

yeah i thought TPR is harder... a lot of answers are in the passage, but i dont have time to go and look back. i understood the overall meaning of the passage but still did worse than EK. i took EK verbal a while ago.. so i dont remember how to take verbal anymore :*( not that i did well in EK, but it was still better than TPR .. ooh no............

 

[SensesFail]

I completed these this week and found them to be more on the detail-side as others have said. I do like how some of the passages are extremely difficult to read (at least for me), since reading EK's passages are a breeze and not like AAMC tests. That being said, I've scored about the same on these 4 tests and the EK101 Tests (40-45/60, for 9's approximately). The 13 Kaplan Section tests are the hardest Verbal tests I've done though. Complex vocabulary, difficult abstract humanities passages (sometimes 6 or 7 out of the 9 passages), AND a ton of difficult application/new situation questions on those tests. I usually score 33-37/60 on them. The Kaplan VR tests on their Full-Lenghts aren't that bad though, probably comparable to TPR.

 

[challie2385]

I just took the first TPR Verbal Section test from the Workbook, and I agree with everyone - they are quite meticulous in their questions. I hardly came across any main idea questions, which was quite a change from the EK Verbal 101 passages. Surprisingly, I didn't do as badly as I thought I would, though. This first test did definitely have two passages that tripped me up pretty bad (on one of them, what I thought was the main idea was in fact the complete opposite of the actual main idea, leading me to miss a good 5 questions out of 6 ). I also finished two minutes early (no idea how that happened), so maybe if I hadn't rushed I would have gotten a better understanding of those passages.

blah...verbal is so unpredictable with me! How are some people able to understand everything they read the first time they read it??

 

[Mister Pie]

This first test did definitely have two passages that tripped me up pretty bad (on one of them, what I thought was the main idea was in fact the complete opposite of the actual main idea, leading me to miss a good 5 questions out of 6 ).

I hate when that happens, which unfortunately, is all the time. I'll be like "I'm king" cause for the first 5 passages I've only gotten 2 wrong and then for the last 4 I'm missing like 3-4 questions per passage.

 

[NilamPatel]

i think im ognna tackle atleast one of the princeton review A-d tests...ohhhh wish me luck

 

[STIG]

I think TPR verbal do not represent AAMC's real verbal questions at all and i am quite upset about it.

I noticed that on my last AAMC 7R test and i found that i could not find any "extreme" answers on the AAMC's answer choices but there are a bunch of those extreme types answers on TPRs.

 

[CanadianPre-Med]

What's TPR WS strategy?

 

[SensesFail]

What's TPR WS strategy?

They call it the "TAS" strategy. Thesis, Antithesis, and Synthesis.

The thesis should explain what the prompt means and not just reiterate it. Give an example to add depth and relate it to the prompt.

The antithesis asks you to give a specific example or circumstance where the prompt DOES NOT apply and explain why it wouldn't.

The synthesis asks you to determine the criteria or factors involved in choosing when the prompt applies to certain situations and when it doesn't. Tie in both examples that you used in the previous sections and state why each is applicable.


That's pretty much it. Each of the 3 sections should be about a paragraph long. Even if you're a terrible writer (like me), if you follow the 3 directions you should at least get a 4/6. Other things to remember: don't give an emotional judgemental opinion on any issue that you personally have a strong stance on; they want you to present both sides of an issue. Aim for clarity rather than big words. Avoid cliché phrases. And don't use fragments. Like I'm doing right now.

 

[NilamPatel]

i think that hte WS stratgey is pretty good, i like formulas and thinking systematically so its a good structure to follow.

 

[jon0013]

TPR WS is good...i think MCAT WS is all mechanical...just do the TAS posted above...come up with 2 good bull**** examples and dont sweat it...got an S on writing...

basically from what i remember is, take a stance on the prompt in the first sentence...

take another side of it in second paragraph....

in the last paragraph, make the 2 examples come together and give concluding thoughts...

thats from what i remember...i'll go back and look at the TPR book later this wk to review...

 

[CanadianPre-Med]

Thanks!

From what I hear, the Princeton WS strategy is one of the best to adopt.

 

[CanadianPre-Med]

So long as I complete the 3 tasks, what kind of score am I looking at? I know 4/6...but what does that correlate to? P?

Canadian schools make a big deal out of the WS. One school had required a Q last year.

What kind of length are you guys maintaining for your essays? Approx. words/sentences?

 

[NilamPatel]

So long as I complete the 3 tasks, what kind of score am I looking at? I know 4/6...but what does that correlate to? P?

Canadian schools make a big deal out of the WS. One school had required a Q last year.

What kind of length are you guys maintaining for your essays? Approx. words/sentences?

its a P and my essays are usually 2-2.5 pages, nothing tooo long or wordy, because my hand starts to hurt. sometimes i think the writing section is there just to kill 60 minutes and to wear us down before BS

 

[SensesFail]

So long as I complete the 3 tasks, what kind of score am I looking at? I know 4/6...but what does that correlate to? P?

Canadian schools make a big deal out of the WS. One school had required a Q last year.

What kind of length are you guys maintaining for your essays? Approx. words/sentences?

Yeah, I hate how University of Western Ontario has that Q requirement. Or is it Queen's? I think most other places have N or O. Arrrgh Canada!

 

[CanadianPre-Med]

Yeah, I hate how University of Western Ontario has that Q requirement. Or is it Queen's? I think most other places have N or O. Arrrgh Canada!

Yeah, it was either Queen's or Western that had the Q last year. This year it's pretty high as well...a P.

I guess it can be attributed to the fact that Queen's has a low GPA requirement and Western does the 2 best years thing.

 

[CanadianPre-Med]

Well, the cut-offs are based on the number of people that applied during that particular cycle, in order to cut the number of people being interviewed. You needed a Q to interview + a 33 overall MCAT score (University of Western Ontario) including a 10 in VR and a GPA of 3.70 (best 2 years).

Did it specifically say that it was a Requirement to get a Q??? Or was it an Average score of the applicants???????? I'm a bit confused.

 

[medstu2006]

Sorry to change topics here, but could someone please check the following for me? I just finished Practice Test 3 from the Princeton Review Verbal Workbook. This book was published in 2002, so it had 65 questions. Could someone please verify that the passages in the current PR book were the same? The first passage was on why it is hard to treat cancer, 2nd begins with an art teacher, there was a passage on Shakers and the final passage was on life of workers before 1900. I got a 53/65. Some of my wrong ans. were stupid mistakes as always. However, I found them easier to read and eliminating ans. choices was quite easier than in AAMC or Kaplan tests. But in every passage, I got a better grasp of the passages that I have in the past. Hopefully, it's the second part that helped me do better.

 

[adiddas125]

Sorry to change topics here, but could someone please check the following for me? I just finished Practice Test 3 from the Princeton Review Verbal Workbook. This book was published in 2002, so it had 65 questions. Could someone please verify that the passages in the current PR book were the same? The first passage was on why it is hard to treat cancer, 2nd begins with an art teacher, there was a passage on Shakers and the final passage was on life of workers before 1900. I got a 53/65. Some of my wrong ans. were stupid mistakes as always. However, I found them easier to read and eliminating ans. choices was quite easier than in AAMC or Kaplan tests. But in every passage, I got a better grasp of the passages that I have in the past. Hopefully, it's the second part that helped me do better.

My friend gave me his un-used 2005 edition... It only has 60 problems. I dont know about the 2002 edition, but at that time verbal still had 65 questions.

 

[medstu2006]

My friend gave me his un-used 2005 edition... It only has 60 problems. I dont know about the 2002 edition, but at that time verbal still had 65 questions.

And the passages? Are they the same as described in my above post? The only reason I am asking this, is because I felt that they were a lot easier. I want to make sure I am practicing the right kind of materials.

 

[RayhanS1282]

have any of you done the verbal practice tests in the back of the verbal wookbook? there are 4 of them and i did them today and got about 45/60 right on all of them. that comes out to about 9/10, do you guys think they are easy because i never get more than 40-42 right on verbal?

The verbal workbook was okay but not very representative of the actual thing. It was way too detail-oriented and required going back to the passage to pluck out the details. But it's still practice.