cars help!

[yxyxyx]

I am planning to test on 1/24/18, and right now one of my biggest concerns is CARS.

I have used UWORLD, AAMC practice passages, but no improvement is seen. Just wondering if someone can help me to figure out a more effective way of studying?

Also which one is recommended? Testing Solutions or the EK 101 book? I can't figure out which one to use as there are so many opposing opinions. I am planning to save the AAMC passages and revisit them towards the end.

Also I am thinking of either getting a tutor that helps me with strategy, (message if interested), or the JW course. Would appreciate if someone gives opinion on which one is better.

Thanks!

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[wild_relationship]

First, I am ESL, so my situation may be different from you. I took the MCAT twice. For my first MCAT, I did NS 108, TS, Ek 101 and AAMC passages. I thought the more I do, the better my score would be. It turned out I scored below 123. Doing practise alone wasn’t helping me.

For my second MCAT, I knew doing more passages won’t yield a higher score. I was in your position, debating between JW course or a small private tutoring community suggested by my school’s pre-med club called Twain Reasoning. I chose the latter, so I can’t really say much about JW. I completed their class, which included a foundational reading skills course and a MCAT strategy course. I read a lot during the program. I read at least 50 articles a week, to expand my knowledge base, as well as practicing the comprehension skills I was being taught. I also postponed my MCAT to work on CARS. Ultimately, I attribute my improved score (128), to this intense training with Twain Reasoning.

My experience as ESL may be different from you. I know people had done well on CARS using EK101, NS, TS or just AAMC passages alone. There are some naturally good readers, that only need a few practice passages and test prep books. In my case, I needed someone to teach me how to comprehend a passage at a deeper level, as well as motivating me to challenge myself in reading harder and harder materials. I am only sharing my limited experience. I hope this helps.

 

[philthyj]

I am planning to test on 1/24/18, and right now one of my biggest concerns is CARS.

I have used UWORLD, AAMC practice passages, but no improvement is seen. Just wondering if someone can help me to figure out a more effective way of studying?

Also which one is recommended? Testing Solutions or the EK 101 book? I can't figure out which one to use as there are so many opposing opinions. I am planning to save the AAMC passages and revisit them towards the end.

Also I am thinking of either getting a tutor that helps me with strategy, (message if interested), or the JW course. Would appreciate if someone gives opinion on which one is better.

Thanks!

I agree. CARS is super difficult. I prepped for the MCAT through Altius, but I found that my CARS scores, despite their strategies, stayed relatively low. I've talked to a lot of people and heard a lot of opinions, and what I think is you just need to read more. I'd honestly recommend getting a newspaper subscription and reading the paper every single day. I think that style of writing is good to be able to read and think about. Other than that, just keep working on solid strategies. The people I know who've done the best studied up on argumentative writing styles and focused on simplifying what they read and just focusing on the big picture. Anyway, I wish I had a better answer but this is what I have!

 

[Fennel608]

I am planning to test on 1/24/18, and right now one of my biggest concerns is CARS.

I have used UWORLD, AAMC practice passages, but no improvement is seen. Just wondering if someone can help me to figure out a more effective way of studying?

Also which one is recommended? Testing Solutions or the EK 101 book? I can't figure out which one to use as there are so many opposing opinions. I am planning to save the AAMC passages and revisit them towards the end.

Also I am thinking of either getting a tutor that helps me with strategy, (message if interested), or the JW course. Would appreciate if someone gives opinion on which one is better.

Thanks!

I think everyone has given great suggestions so far. I would add that, for me, hearing other people work through passages helped me the most. I used a podcast for that or there are probably YouTube videos on it as well. The tips that REALLY helped me were as follows:

1. When asked which fact/sentence is most supportive of the argument, pick the one that, if reversed, would be the most destructive. This works well for the reverse too. It seems like common sense, but sometime it makes the answer more obvious.

2. Take organized but very quick notes for each paragraph on names and important words. You can use them to reference if you need to find something.

3. Learn to scan for words/names quickly and accurately. Reading comprehension is the most important, but I found that the MCAT was often a lot of scanning and fact checking to rule out answers rather than go deep into content.

This all being said, I have always loved reading and am a high level reader. The rest of the MCAT was what I struggled with and cars was easier for me. Im sorry if any of the tips I have seem stupid too. They are just what I noticed helped me most.

 

[tulsajoe94]

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[TestingSolutions]

@yxyxyx - I think CARS is by far the hardest section for most MCATers so hopefully, you can take a little solace in the fact that you're not alone in this. I think your best bet, considering your test date, is to start your preparations with maximum effort now. You still have time to slowly stair-step up your practice, starting with 2 or 3 passages a day for a week, then once you master your timing step it up to 4, so on and so forth. The CARS is not a section you master quickly. It's a gradual process for the majority of students.

My recommendations would be to focus on:

1) Perfecting your timing
2) Learning to Read Critically i.e. Learn to pick out the main point/claim of each paragraph
3) Doing as many passages as you can. My recommendation is that until you're finishing the CARS section on time consistently without rushing, you should focus more on doing more passages and less on reviewing. Reviewing is great because it helps you develop and practice your CARS strategies and tactics, but if you're consistently running out of time on the last 3+ passages, all the strategies and tactics in the world will do you no good, because you won't have time to actually use them.

I put together an SDN post reviewing of all the CARS resources out there and how I rank them in terms of usefulness and quality. Hopefully, that's helpful! Wishing you the very best on your CARS and please let me know if there's anything I can do to help!

Warmest,
Nick