CARS suggestions

[ambitiousMED]

Hi everyone,

I am doing really bad on CARS Kaplan practice passages (missing around 26 questions)!!!!
I was wondering if you all can give some tips and suggestions to reduce that number to 17 or 20 missing questions. I usually run out of time by the last passage, so any tips in approach such as: do you read the whole passage? Do you triage? Do you go in order? What works for you? I am 5 weeks away from test date! Any suggestions help!

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[Dandine]

What other test materials have you used? I thought that Kaplan had good passages but Examkrackers had better/more practical strategies.

I'd say allocate a chunk of time to CARS practice, assuming this is your weakest MCAT section. If I had to give any tips, though, one thing that helped me a lot more time-wise was "cold reading" the questions and answers and getting a general idea of the passage plus eliminating answers even if I hadn't read it yet. It may not work for everyone, but it did help me answer certain questions faster so I could try to figure out ones that relied more heavily on the passage.

 

[kiwifriend]

I always found it helpful to make a note of the key arguments that support the author's point of view. It's also really helpful to note any paragraphs where the author is addressing alternative arguments that go against their main thesis. These can be really helpful for those annoying "Which of these viewpoints would the author most likely agree/disagree with" questions.

Also, don't let yourself spend too much time on any one question, just make sure you keep yourself to 90 seconds or so per question to keep moving if you get bogged down.

Good luck!!

 

[freak7]

What other test materials have you used? I thought that Kaplan had good passages but Examkrackers had better/more practical strategies.

+1 for EK

 

[Terror Billy]

Get the 1001 passages by EK, you can find it on amazon really cheap.

I thought Kaplan's passages were not very representative of AAMC-like questions. Additionally go back and buy the AAMC Q-packs, I believe there are about 240 Verbal questions which are exactly like CAR available through there

 

[aalamruad]

+1 for EK

+ another 1 for EK

 

[CHoge25]

Would EK 101 Edition 1 still be a good resource?

 

[freak7]

+ another 1 for EK

Got me a 129 CARS and I'm a terribly slow reader.

 

[ambitiousMED]

What other test materials have you used? I thought that Kaplan had good passages but Examkrackers had better/more practical strategies.

I'd say allocate a chunk of time to CARS practice, assuming this is your weakest MCAT section. If I had to give any tips, though, one thing that helped me a lot more time-wise was "cold reading" the questions and answers and getting a general idea of the passage plus eliminating answers even if I hadn't read it yet. It may not work for everyone, but it did help me answer certain questions faster so I could try to figure out ones that relied more heavily on the passage.

I have only used Kaplan and I am now beginning to work through AAMC CARS Question packs but I find their question style a lot more different. Which is more representative (AAMC CARS packs or Kaplan CARS)? I heard that AAMC CARS questions were from the old MCAT practice FLs before the change...

 

[mellie0]

Which is more representative (AAMC CARS packs or Kaplan CARS)?

What do you think? Obviously AAMC. They make the test. And the old Verbal is very similar to the new CARS, except now it's entirely humanities/social sciences-based rather than also having scientific passages. It wouldn't surprise me if they were still using some of the Verbal passages that were humanities/social sciences in the new exam.

 

[medbunny56]

Does anyone recommend the TPR hyper learning 2012 workbook for cars?

 

[PugsAndHugs]

Start reading books on a regular basis (on the train/bus, 20 minutes before you go to sleep). I wishhhhhhh I would have picked this up earlier.

 

[IlyaR]

I found EK's logic absolutely ridiculous towards the second half of the book. I recommend TPRH, but more importantly, start reading books as often as you can. Just read anything you find interesting


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[kanda1o]

Read read read read read MORE! And make sure you're reading online things. Where you're staring at a computer screen! I found such a stark difference when I did practice CARS sections on paper and online.

 

[21Rush12]

CARS is a weird section, I didn't practice at all but having taken both old VR and new CARS I think just reading a lot and summarizing could be some help. Also practice tests should help with the fast pace of the test which will sneak up on you.


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[deleted407021]

I honestly think that CARS success is built over a lifetime of reading and writing, but I can definitely recommend ExamKrackers. No gimmicks and very straightforward.

 

[freak7]

I honestly think that CARS success is built over a lifetime of reading and writing, but I can definitely recommend ExamKrackers. No gimmicks and very straightforward.

Things that worked for me from EK (iirc):
1) Stereotype the author
2) Do not read the questions first since it seems like they deliberately put buzzwords in the q's to fool you.
3) Do not stop reading the passage, all one go, no highlighting etc. (Gotta go fast)
3a) When the passage is finished, take 5-10 seconds to ask yourself "what was the main idea?/what was the point?"
4) Try to go back to the passage only when necessary to save yourself time

 

[MD89]

I took the old MCAT but here's my experience as someone who scored a ridiculous high percentile in the old verbal.

I really, really disliked Kaplan but really liked the TPR hyperlearning workbook. The way I studied was I really just did a few passages each night for about 2 months before I went to bed and I then reviewed every answer - regardless of whether I got it correct or not. I also took all the full lengths from the AAMC and reviewed each and every answer there along with the explanations - so that I could understand the way the test writers were thinking.

That's it. (Well, I do also love to read and have read constantly since I was a child - but, I am not in the habit of reading scholarly/science/philosophical materials generally and that's what most of the passages were based upon).

I think the absolute most important thing is understanding the AAMC style. TPR hyperlearning is pretty close. Kaplan is eons away - don't be discouraged if you're not doing well with their questions, when I attempted their questions, I got a bunch wrong too. Kaplan also has a ridiculous strategy with the whole mapping thing - waste of precious time and not all that helpful.

The correct answer will ALWAYS be able to be fully supported by something in the passage. I found that when I got questions wrong, it was because I was making assumptions that were not stated in the passage. So as I got more practice, I found that I could pretty much eliminate all the wrong ones simply by thinking about whether the passage supported those choices or not. I think a comment above stated not to refer back to the passage - I disagree. I constantly referred back for the exact wording so that I could verify that my answer was fully supported.

Hope this helps!

 

[Dandine]

Oh, I forgot to add this, although this is mostly for people who haven't already started prepping and need a way to practice reading via computer for long periods of time.

When I got PDF readings in classes I would tend to use the highlighter/underline tools for general notetaking, forcing myself to underline only snippets rather than whole chunks of article. It would be much faster to understand stuff the second time round reading.

Ironically I think this practice helped with the science and social sci sections more than CARS (because the bulk of CARS relied on comparing both answers and passage together), but it did help me with passage comprehension.

 

[freak7]

The correct answer will ALWAYS be able to be fully supported by something in the passage. I found that when I got questions wrong, it was because I was making assumptions that were not stated in the passage.

+1 for being stupidly literal. This isn't English lit, this is the MCAT.

 

[ambitiousMED]

Thank you everyone for your suggestions. I will keep practicing and reading more until Test Day!

 

[owlegrad]

Let me move this to the right forum for you and good luck!

 

[salemstein]

I read passage all in one go, but will highlight strong words used by author. Usually things like "never" or "surprisingly", etc. Just one word at a time tho

 

[TestingSolutions]

Hi everyone,

I am doing really bad on CARS Kaplan practice passages (missing around 26 questions)!!!!
I was wondering if you all can give some tips and suggestions to reduce that number to 17 or 20 missing questions. I usually run out of time by the last passage, so any tips in approach such as: do you read the whole passage? Do you triage? Do you go in order? What works for you? I am 5 weeks away from test date! Any suggestions help!

Hi!

I don't think Kaplan's resources are all that good for the CARS. I took all their available verbal content when I was studying for the MCAT, and while it probably helped some, there are just too many better resources for you to use (EK101, TPR, obviously all the AAMC stuff, etc.). I'd try moving on to one of these more reputable resources.

• You say that you usually run out of time by the last passage. I cannot recommend this enough, you have to get your timing down to do well on the CARS. I'd try to do more passages and spend less time (if any time at all at this point) reviewing the test. You're hovering at around 50% correct. I bet you're having to rush through the last two or three passages which is having a major impact on your score. Instead of spending two hours reviewing three or four CARS passages, you'd be much better off taking 12 more CARS passages.
• You've got to read the whole passage. Don't skim. Read slowly and for detail. The problem is not that you're spending too much time reading the passage, rather you're going back to the passage a ton when you're answering the questions. Until you have your timing down, I recommend you read the passage once and then FORCE yourself NOT to look back at the passage. Your timing problems will resolve themselves nearly instantly and while your score might initially go down slightly, you can slowly allow yourself little peaks back to the passage, titrating the amount of times you allow yourself to go back with making sure you finish on time.
• Don't triage. If you want a decent score on the CARS, you've got to do all of the passages. Do them in order. Don't waste time trying to figure out "is this a hard passage or an easy one." Often hard passages will have easy questions and easy passages will have hard questions. It's impossible to know by just skimming the passage. You'll waste time asking yourself "now or later" and won't be able to focus on what you're reading.

My recommendations would be to work on your timing and keep doing a lot of passages. I think you can probably expect to see a 8 to 10 question bump in your score once you get your timing down. Then you can focus on implementing a few new techniques.

Best of luck!

 

[ambitiousMED]

Hi!

I don't think Kaplan's resources are all that good for the CARS. I took all their available verbal content when I was studying for the MCAT, and while it probably helped some, there just too many better resources for you to use (EK101, TPR, obviously all the AAMC stuff, etc.). I'd try moving on to one of these more reputable resources.

• You say that you usually run out of time by the last passage. I cannot recommend this enough, you have to get your timing down to do well on the CARS. I'd try to do more passages and spend less time (if any time at all at this point) reviewing the test. You're hovering at around 50% correct. I bet you're having to rush through the last two or three passages which is having a major impact on your score. Instead of spending two hours reviewing three or four CARS passages, you'd be much better off taking 12 more CARS passages.
• You've got to read the whole passage. Don't skim. Read slowly and for detail. The problem is not that you're spending too much time reading the passage, rather you're going back to the passage a ton when you're answering the questions. Until you have your timing down, I recommend you read the passage once and then FORCE yourself NOT to look back at the passage. Your timing problems will resolve themselves nearly instantly and while your score might initially go down slightly, you can slowly allow yourself little peaks back to the passage, titrating the amount of times you allow yourself to go back with making sure you finish on time.
• Don't triage. If you want a decent score on the CARS, you've got to do all of the passages. Do them in order. Don't waste time trying to figure out "is this a hard passage or an easy one." Often hard passages will have easy questions and easy passages will have hard questions. It's impossible to know by just skimming the passage. You'll waste time asking yourself "now or later" and won't be able to focus on what you're reading.

My recommendations would be to work on your timing and keep doing a lot of passages. I think you can probably expect to see a 8 to 10 question bump in your score once you get your timing down. Then you can focus on implementing a few new techniques.

Best of luck!

Thank you very much! I took the AAMC Sample test and scored a 70% on the CARS, which is a lot better compared to what I scored on Kaplan CARS. I will try to work on my timing. You are completely right about me losing time by referring back to the passage.