CARS MCAT Prep strategy

[aspiringphysician19999321]

Hello all,
I need advice on prepping for the cars section of the mcat. I have about a year or two before I take the MCAT. I know it's too early to prepare for the test which is why I am not focusing on content heavy sections such as biology, chemistry, physics, organic chemistry and psychology/sociology. I want to use 1-2 years to prepare my critical thinking and reading comprehension skills. Coming from someone that did poorly on the reading section of the SAT couple years ago(about 600 lol), I think using my final year of undergrad to immerse myself with my university's debate organization + reading nonfiction literature could be useful. Any advice on this?

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[FiletFrenzy]

Hello all,
I need advice on prepping for the cars section of the mcat. I have about a year or two before I take the MCAT. I know it's too early to prepare for the test which is why I am not focusing on content heavy sections such as biology, chemistry, physics, organic chemistry and psychology/sociology. I want to use 1-2 years to prepare my critical thinking and reading comprehension skills. Coming from someone that did poorly on the reading section of the SAT couple years ago(about 600 lol), I think using my final year of undergrad to immerse myself with my university's debate organization + reading nonfiction literature could be useful. Any advice on this?

Over the years I've noticed that there are so many different strategies to approaching CARS. Some people say to highlight like crazy, some say to read the questions beforehand. I found that for me, personally, I performed best when I took time to actually read and digest the passage, only highlighting the main point in each paragraph, then approach the questions. I went from making 123 & 124s on full-length practice tests (FLs) to making a 128 on the real deal.

I would suggest taking note of various strategies you think may help you--there are plenty out there. Next, practice is crucial. The MCAT speaks a very specific language that you need to learn to understand. The key to CARS is to take everything very literal, whereas that may not be the case for the other sections. Use the JackWestin daily CARS passages as practice while you find what works for you. Then, once you find a strategy that works best, utilize the AAMC CARS question banks if you have the financial means to do so. However, I would wait to use the question banks until closer to your actual MCAT date.

I say all of this only as a pre-med student who has taken the MCAT twice, so feel free to take all I have said with a grain of salt. Feel free to PM me if you want to discuss more, as I am an avid CARS hater.

 

[aspiringphysician19999321]

@FiletFrenzy thanks for replying! Solid advice and I don't intend on using the actual AAMC test banks until closer to the test date. However, JackWestin, Kaplan and others are fair game to supplement my studying. I only ask because I have roughly two years to prepare and since most people can not realistically improve their reading comprehension skills in a few months time, I figured working on that ahead of time would help. I definitely do not want to overstudy and burn myself out but I also think I can make better use of my time if that makes sense.

 

[aspiringphysician19999321]

@FiletFrenzy That's essentially where I am at rn, why not work on CARS and P/S section self-studying right now and then attack the sciences closer to the exam two years later, that way I will have already mastered half the material seemingly.

 

[BerkReviewTeach]

Starting CARS early is a good idea, because it's a mindset you're developing, as opposed to information you are hoping to learn and maintain. So it can be worked on over time.

You mentioned JW as a good resource, which based of the many years of positive feedback here at SDN seems like a good plan for CARS. A company called Testing Solutions were really helpful over the years here at SDN, so give them a look as well. The link for Testing Solutions leads to an Amazon Kindle book for only $4.99, so that seems like money well spent.

Because you'l have so much time on your hands and are likely to run out of CARS materials, you might also consider EK 101 CARS Passages and the Hyperlearning workbook (a PR product).

Most important of everything is that you do ALL of the AAMC material at least two times. Nothing for CARS is as good as AAMC materials, so learn the style of the CARS test from those.

Good luck!

 

[aspiringphysician19999321]

Starting CARS early is a good idea, because it's a mindset you're developing, as opposed to information you are hoping to learn and maintain. So it can be worked on over time.

You mentioned JW as a good resource, which based of the many years of positive feedback here at SDN seems like a good plan for CARS. A company called Testing Solutions were really helpful over the years here at SDN, so give them a look as well. The link for Testing Solutions leads to an Amazon Kindle book for only $4.99, so that seems like money well spent.

Because you'l have so much time on your hands and are likely to run out of CARS materials, you might also consider EK 101 CARS Passages and the Hyperlearning workbook (a PR product).

Most important of everything is that you do ALL of the AAMC material at least two times. Nothing for CARS is as good as AAMC materials, so learn the style of the CARS test from those.

Good luck!

Thank you! I recently put together a study group and we are all focusing on CARS early on. I think that if we go over the same passages and then review everyone's perspective, we can understand the reading and material much better over time. I am worried about running out of material though, which is why I am leaving the AAMC material closer to the test date. But all the third party books and EK 101 CARS Passages seem like a good idea. Thank you all for the feedback, hopefully this goes well haha.

 

[VaultArmitage]

I scored pretty high on CARS and my best advice is to get as many reps in as you can. Just try to do as many passages as possible (saving the AMCAS ones until closer to test day) and figure out a strategy that works for you. You'll hear 100 different ways to attack a CARS passage and I legitimately think that all are valid!

Personally, I would read each question before I read the actual passage and highlight the part of the question that I needed to "look for" whilst reading. Once I finished reading and highlighting each question I read the passage, only highlighting the parts that I thought were directly applicable to a question. Then I would answer each question which generally was fairly fast because I had usually already identified the answer. If I needed to reference the passage again I would only look at the part I had highlighted that was relevant to that question.

 

[aspiringphysician19999321]

I scored pretty high on CARS and my best advice is to get as many reps in as you can. Just try to do as many passages as possible (saving the AMCAS ones until closer to test day) and figure out a strategy that works for you. You'll hear 100 different ways to attack a CARS passage and I legitimately think that all are valid!

Personally, I would read each question before I read the actual passage and highlight the part of the question that I needed to "look for" whilst reading. Once I finished reading and highlighting each question I read the passage, only highlighting the parts that I thought were directly applicable to a question. Then I would answer each question which generally was fairly fast because I had usually already identified the answer. If I needed to reference the passage again I would only look at the part I had highlighted that was relevant to that question.

Thank you, would you say just hit as many passages from the third party books and then leave AMCAS material closer to the material date. I only fear running out of material as I have a year time, which is why I am hesitant.

 

[VaultArmitage]

AMCAS should be saved until youre doing AMCAS full lengths and the other AMCAS qbanks in my opinion. Honestly, if you're worried about running out of material you may be prepping a little too early. you don't want to run out and be redoing material 1 month before you test.

 

[aspiringphysician19999321]

AMCAS should be saved until youre doing AMCAS full lengths and the other AMCAS qbanks in my opinion. Honestly, if you're worried about running out of material you may be prepping a little too early. you don't want to run out and be redoing material 1 month before you test.

Thank you, that's very true. I would like to thank everyone for giving me feedback on my CARS approach. I'll definitely refer back to this thread for further questions. Cheers.

 

[DOCOC15]

Since you're still in school and have a year, I'd recommend taking a writing intensive literature class or two.

 

[aspiringphysician19999321]

Since you're still in school and have a year, I'd recommend taking a writing intensive literature class or two.

I actually am! Hopefully it helps

 

[aspiringphysician19999321]

Hi everyone,
I wanted to check in on this thread and reevaluate my strategy with CARS. I have been working slowly with jack Westin passages and diagnostic passages but I can't help but be bothered about how unconcrete a given strategy when talking about CARS. I am always scoring 3/6 or 4/6 or sometimes even 2/6s but I don't understand nor see a general pattern of where I am going wrong. Is there a general outline that breaks down how each question type is designed or how to interpret a passage better? It's frustrating to just get the reps in and go in blind with no progress.

 

[PlsLetMeIn21]

Get used to that feeling. I bombed CARS my first try, mostly because I went through the motions and made the mistake of thinking that by simply practicing passages, I would improve. My second sitting went better. The single biggest thing I did differently was thoroughly go through everything AAMC released. Nothing out there is as good as AAMC, so it's better to do those a second and third time than any other materials. It's been a while, but if I had to recommend anything, I'd say NS, EK, JW, and UWorld were what helped the most as far as non-AAMC materials go.

 

[gooberdude]

Just get in the habit of reading complex passages very quickly. When finished reading each passage, take 15 seconds to synthesize a main idea. Do this on at least 3 passages a day. It helped a ton for me. 130 on cars

 

[JAK2-STAT3]

I got a 130 on CARS. I think this was largely due to my being quite comfortable with languages and the humanities, but I did struggle with bombing practice CARS passages and letting them screw with my mind. I think the advice on this thread is good, but I'll add some thoughts.

CARS (really the whole MCAT) is a mind game. When you open a CARS passage does your brain go "fjkadkdjfskalsdjf THIS IS SOOO HARD AND I'M SCARED?" If so, you gotta break that thought pattern. You have to stop the emotional fear response and turn on the thinking side of your brian. My phrase I repeated to myself was "think with a cool head." When you read a passage you can (and should) be careful, cautious, and defensive, but you cannot be afraid. You should also be confident and find just a little edge of cockiness of "I am smarter than this passage."

Another strategy I found helpful was to read passages with a focus on the perspective each character has. Most CARS passages boil down to what six art historians think of a sculpture. If you have a basic understanding that historian A thinks the sculpture represents the downfall of communism, historian B thinks the sculpture is garbage, historian C thinks about the sculpture from the neoclassical perspective which means xyz, historian D thinks the sculpture represents the artist's futile quest for love, and so on, you will be able to easily answer most of the questions, even the obnoxious "which of the following, if true, would most likely contradict historian C" types of questions.

And finally, ABSOLUTELY take humanities classes that will make you read dense texts and write 25 page papers. These classes are difficult but can be incredibly rewarding and enriching. Let yourself fall in love with a certain type of history, anthropology, international relations, whatever. If you are able to read and write well, it will be the gift that keeps on giving for the entirety of your academic career and beyond.

 

[SahilMehtaMD]

I would practice reading regularly and improving reading speed.