CARS Advice

[Min:))]

So I'm in the beginning of my MCAT studying and I've been keeping a log of how I'm doing on CARS. I'm not focusing on getting my timing down as of now since I'm just starting, but I'm still kind of worried. If I take around 13 minutes to do a passage, I usually get only half the questions right. However, if I take more time (over 20 min which is BAD), I can score perfectly or only miss a question.

What advice do y'all have for me?

By the way, I'm using the Princeton CARS Workbook. I'm also doing the harder passages if that helps.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[thinklikeaproton2019]

My advice would depend on why you score higher with the extra 7 minutes. Are you using that extra time to read the passage more slowly or using that time to analyze the questions and the answer options more deeply? Do you find that when you use more time you're changing answers from wrong to right? Or you just spend more time on each individual question?

 

[Min:))]

My advice would depend on why you score higher with the extra 7 minutes. Are you using that extra time to read the passage more slowly or using that time to analyze the questions and the answer options more deeply? Do you find that when you use more time you're changing answers from wrong to right? Or you just spend more time on each individual question?

Definitely reading the passage slower and thinking about the main point of each paragraph. I rarely change answers.

 

[chemdoctor]

Probably practice, practice and practice!!

As you read more, you’ll be able to process a lot faster

 

[thinklikeaproton2019]

Definitely reading the passage slower and thinking about the main point of each paragraph. I rarely change answers.

If that's the case, I think what you're doing right now is the right way to be practicing! Given you just started, I think it's more important to understand what CARS is getting at, rather than worrying about time. I think you can even do them untimed for now and once you feel like you have a firm grasp of how to analyze passages and questions, then you can start working on doing it faster, which will honestly just come with practice. Not sure everyone would agree with this advice or if it will work for you, but I actually found it helpful not to think too much as I was reading the passages! I liked to pretend like I was reading a novel and would just try to enjoy the information that I was reading and it made it much easier to read the passages faster, as I wasn't focusing on every minute detail.

It also depends on what type of CARS tester you are. Some people like to read the passages quickly and spend more time on the answers versus taking their time with the passage and going through the answers quickly. I was more of the latter and sounds like you are too. My advice for this which is the best advice I ever read is "The question that will keep you out of medical school is not the one you get wrong, it’s the question you spend too much time on." Get to a question, go with your gut, and move on and don't think again. I like to say that you either know the answer, have a gut feeling, or don't know the answer and spending more time won't really change that fact but it WILL affect the rest of your timing!

So for now keep practicing! If you're able to get all the questions right untimed you clearly have good reading comprehension, now you just need to practice getting faster!

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

Definitely reading the passage slower and thinking about the main point of each paragraph. I rarely change answers.

Agree with the others. It will come with time. Just do a lot of passages, and you will get faster. Reading outside of passages helps too if you have time.

 

[JStar_95]

I highly recommend using Testing Solutions for CARS tips and practice. It helped me out immensely with timing and question strategies. Follow their 30 day Guide to CARS (which is free) and definitely consider purchasing their Bootcamp (it's cheap and has TONS of practice passages with detailed solution explanations). I won't go into too much detail because they will tell you more but always do your passages timed, even at the start. You might not finish at first but it gets you practicing right from the beginning -- you won't even think about the clock once you've done it for a while. TS suggests 4 mins to read the passage, 9 min total for a 5Q passage, 10.5 min total for a 6Q passage and 12 min total for a 7Q passage.

Hope that helps, best of luck !!

 

[suomi24]

I scored a 131 on CARS and my strategy was to do minimum 30 minutes maximum 1 hour of passages per day everyday of studying (including review) for about 4 months. The important thing for me was consistency, doing a little bit everyday. In the beginning my scores and timing were close to yours but by the end I could easily work a passage in 8-10 minutes missing 0-1 questions per passage.

I used Princeton, then moved on to the Nextstep CARS book with 10 full lengths worth of CARS and ultimately found the Nextstep more helpful, but really the key for me was to just do a boat load of practice and review each passage to see WHY I missed a certain question. Also of course you should work through all the AAMC material. By the end you will get really good at understanding the sort of tricks AAMC will include to try to make you choose a wrong answer.

Another thing that helped me was a post someone made called something like "the golden rule of CARS". You can probably find it by searching, but the main idea is that after reading two answers will obviously be wrong, then there will be one correct answer and one that seems correctly but is slightly less correct or contains some details that contradicts the passage. Thinking about it this way helped me narrow down answers and not get confused.

 

[northwestmedic]

people always suggest practice material and strategy as per CARs.

but i would say widen the plan and think about spending a little time learning about speed reading. seems like you need to read/absorb more quickly

i recently took the exam. i found some of the Q's impossible. there's nothing that will happen that will give me the answer. so don't stress it and move on

 

[northwestmedic]

this is not what you want to hear, but i think the most painful passages were in P/S when i took the test recently

 

[deleted952648]

You should be very encouraged that you're able to do so well when you take your time. That's a great sign, because it shows that you are already able to reason out the correct answers. Taking the time to thoroughly go over every single question and to comb out the correct reasoning is the real key to mastering CARS.

So you definitely want to continue doing what you are doing, as the more you practice your ability to reason out the answers, the easier it will come to you. However, I would suggest one change. Give yourself only 10 minutes to attempt the passage, THEN review thoroughly and see what you did correctly/incorrectly. This way, you are honing your timing and getting practice at reasoning quickly, while the thorough review afterwards ensures that you are practicing reasoning correctly.

Good luck, keep practicing!

 

[hcummins]

When is your test date? I agree with everyone else, it just takes time to get fast. If you do 3-5 hours of CAR per week, it will come!

There are also some awesome prep books that come with 100's of CAR passages. I would also recommend the AAMC CAR practice.

 

[TestingSolutions]

I'd really encourage you to take CARS passages under MCAT like timed conditions.

5q passage = 9 min
6q passage = 10.5 min
7q passage = 12 min

If you practice with unrealistic time constraints, you'll just build up bad habits that you'll later have to completely unlearn/break to actually improve your score. I'd really encourage you to always practice under realistic time constraints as the CARS is largely a test of time management as much as it is everything else as most people can do reasonably well if they don't have to worry about time.

I go into this in greater detail here on SDN in a post I wrote about timing on the CARS.

Best of luck!