CARS Guide Sort of

[chemiosmosis11]

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Okay so like yeah I got my score back and I was pretty happy and will not be retaking. But what I do not want to happen to anyone else is to go through the same experience of retaking it over... and over...and over...it gets to the point where you get angry at innocent people. So much...pain.... I would not wish an MCAT retake for my worst enemy.

Also, sorry in advance if I seem like I know everything. I'm just trying to help as I sympathize with the retakers...hopefully this could aid you in some way. I'm also kinda drinking atm so sorry for any language and ****

Here's my cars progression in the old mcat format. My science scores were pretty consistent so I won't list those (around 11 or 12ish). I'm definitely not the best at cars though.
1st: 6
2nd: 10
3rd: 8
AAMC CARS FL: 87%
4th: 11

So yeah here's my short guide for cars...(no guarantees for anything of course)
1) You need to first establish where the hell you are at and really what you are about to tackle. Try an old aamc test's verbal section timed....you can probably find those somewhere around the web.
2) Okay...now is a good time to learn certain techniques. I suggest the Cambridge verbal videos https://www.youtube.com/user/mcatverbal. I didn't use the kaplan verbal book but I did take a look at it and it seems pretty solid.

I will now go over practice materials in the order I think is most beneficial. I did maybe 7-10 passages a day with 1 break day on sunday over the summer, but again do as many as you think you need depending on what score you want and what score you currently have. I definitely suggest at least going through 3), 4), and 6) though and all the aamc materials.

3) EK101. This is the god of verbal practice. For all practice materials, it's incredibly important that you read over the explanations and answers just as much as you do the actual questions, as it trains your mind to think in an MCAT way. Timing can come later...try for accuracy first.
4) TPRH. It's alright...I guess. The questions always seemed a little too easy for me but the passages are definitely harder to read than EK101, so it helps you train your reading comprehension.
4) Next Step 108 (or 101..I don't remember). Good practice, but really hard. Some of the answers also are kinda debatable, but hey it's more practice. Also, difficult passages help you with reading comprehension.
5) Testing Solutions CARS questions. HARD. SO HARD (I scored like 8 on this consistently). But it's amazing practice as it gets yourself used to harder passages. Would do it again r8 it 8/8 m8
6) AAMC q packs: Of course, these are the best. Really go over why you got something wrong each time, and also keep track of your time.

In terms of FLs and their verbal sections...
1) AAMC FL
2) Next Step (Especially #4.....#4 was incredibly good)
3) TPR
4) EK...weird cause EK101 was so good

GOOOD LUCKKKKKK

 

[Jack Westin]

So in total, how many passages do you think you did and in what time period? How did you go about reviewing each passage? I think answers to these questions will help students tremendously.

Congrats on jumping from a 6 to an 11, that's awesome. It just shows you that if you don't give up and really put in the effort, anything is possible.

 

[chemiosmosis11]

So in total, how many passages do you think you did and in what time period? How did you go about reviewing each passage? I think answers to these questions will help students tremendously.

Congrats on jumping from a 6 to an 11, that's awesome. It just shows you that if you don't give up and really put in the effort, anything is possible.

I reused a lot of verbal material as I retook the MCAT 4 times. Let me see here....let's say for one summer...I did 7 passages 6 days a week....with more kinda at the end...about like 700 according to my calculator. Clearly, I'm pretty poor in verbal if it took me that long to get it.

When I do passages that are not aamc, I mark questions that I'm not sure of being 100% correct. Afterwards, I look at these marked questions and unmarked questions and see if I can decipher myself where I went wrong in my thinking. Regardless if I can or not, I looked at the answer explanations and then made a short note at the side of why I got it wrong...for example, I wrote down MU for misunderstood if I didn't understand the passage well enough (reading comprehension error) or something along the lines of "If one little part is wrong, IT's WRONG".
Of course, as you say in your tutoring service, AAMC passages are the best and should be studied thoroughly, regardless if you got them correct or not. You should be able to cross out every single answer that is incorrect....cars is basically looking for answers that are wrong.