CARS: I get down to 50/50 between 2 answers and always pick the wrong one.

[maydaymalone]

Anyone else experience this and have some sort of solution which would sky rocket my score. Retaker for 123 in CARS from August and I am doing 3 passages per day with an average score of 50% correct 🙁

Any advice would be appreciated.

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[Necr0sis713]

What i'm starting to notice is usually the choice that has specific, exact words from the passage is the wrong one. If you look closely, it's a trick because you get fooled into thinking that its the right answer based on the fact that it uses the same words; the words are used incorrectly though. Try that see if it helps.

The point of CARS is to test your reasoning and logic skills, so they're gonna want you to be able to use reasoning to get the best answer. Compare the last two of the 50/50 and use the one that sounds more like you had to reason with the authors opinion to get that answer, and the one with the exact words is gonna fool you. HOWEVER, be careful to never select answers that use outside, common thoughts and ideas. These one's are the worse.

 

[Necr0sis713]

If what you say is true, choose your answer then switch it to the one you thought was wrong...

Sounds like russian roulette, but I heard this is the "golden rule" of CARS. Someone who got a perfect score mentioned it, and it's been mentioned other places.

 

[Jack Westin]

Sounds like russian roulette, but I heard this is the "golden rule" of CARS. Someone who got a perfect score mentioned it, and it's been mentioned other places.

I don't think that's a good idea but I understand where you are coming from. The MCAT may seem evil for leaving you with two pretty good answer choices but keep in mind that your job is to pick the best answer for the question. The MCAT specifically mentions this in the directions paragraph no one reads right before pressing "next" to start the CARS section.

 

[AsianPersuasion]

Anyone else experience this and have some sort of solution which would sky rocket my score. Retaker for 123 in CARS from August and I am doing 3 passages per day with an average score of 50% correct 🙁

Any advice would be appreciated.

What materials are you using?

English is my second language and I am ridiculously awful in CARS but what worked for me is using TPR hyperlearning verbal book. CARS literally did not change, it got longer I'm sure you've noticed.

What I do is read the questions before the passage and make mental note along the way when I'm reading.

Go to your school's database, if you still have access, and find review articles where the author is arguing just about anything. The more boring the better. This helped me tremendously on CARS.

 

[maydaymalone]

I am using TPRH Verbal right now, then I will probably go through EK 101, and then do question packs. I am doing 3 verbal a day and keeping an excel spreadsheet on how many I get correct. I have been averaging 50%, however, I recently took a Kaplan FL and got 18 wrong in the section for a 125 (2 wrong per passage) and that was 35/53 which was 66%.

If Mr. Westin or anyone else has thoughts on this on the best way (Detailed) to go over each CARS section. I have been keeping a notebook where I fully write out the explanation for the correct and incorrect answers and why they are and where the answers are referred to in the passage. Is that a waste of time, or is there a better way to approach CARS corrections?

Thanks!

 

[theonlytycrane]

I am also practicing CARS, but have found that often times I am asking myself "which answer choice is less supported or not mentioned in the passage = wrong, instead of which answer choice does my inference tell me is correct".

After every CARS session I end by telling myself, "stick to the passage...."

 

[betterfuture]

I have the same problem. Sometimes there will be times I either don't understand the passage and end up getting almost every questions from that passage wrong or I understand the passage YET still answering almost every single question wrong. There seems to be no happy medium. Like, I don't even follow a certain pattern. It's more like the Richter Scale.

 

[Formation]

Oh my god, me too. It's so frustrating. I don't know what the solution is though. 🙁

 

[KoalaT]

Anyone else experience this and have some sort of solution which would sky rocket my score. Retaker for 123 in CARS from August and I am doing 3 passages per day with an average score of 50% correct 🙁

Any advice would be appreciated.

Use the "Golden Rule". The golden rule is to mark out the first 2 incorrect questions (which you stated you're already doing) BUT THEN pick the less wrong answer. Don't pick the answer that sounds more right, pick the less wrong answer. What this means is pick the one that IN NO WAY contradicts anything in the passage. What writers do is create 2 good answers. They usually make the one sound really really good but will add a small contradicting detail or something out of place. The other good answer may not sound as good as the other, but it won't contain any wrong details.

Wrong details in an answer choice makes it 100% WRONG
Correct details in an answer choice do NOT make it 100% correct.

Mark out 2 and pick the less wrong answer.

Get it? Search my name and check out my verbal improvement threat that goes into this in-depth.