Does anyone attempt to recite the VR passages to improve your performance?

[linuxzhen]

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Due to my wretched VR scores, I almost try every strategy for improving. But...you know, I'm at a loss.
Recently, I've recited about 6 passages from AAMC official practices, wishing to understand the argument better. IS this method effective or counter?

 

[Doctor Hibbert]

It's subjective.
I found it helpful; however, some people may disagree.
Did you find you were reading slower when mouthing/reciting the passage? That is quite possibly the only downfall, but with practice you should be able to increase your speed.

 

[bear2roo]

yes i find it very helpful.

 

[enervate]

No. Memorizing the passage seems like a waste of time to me. However, I have found mouthing the text beneficial.

 

[mehc012]

It's subjective.
I found it helpful; however, some people may disagree.
Did you find you were reading slower when mouthing/reciting the passage? That is quite possibly the only downfall, but with practice you should be able to increase your speed.

That's A HUGE downfall, though. For example, I read ~800-900wpm...even just subvocalization generally anchors people to 300,maybe 400wpm. There's no way that tripling your reading time is only a minor downfall.
It may still be a viable strategy for some people, but don't underestimate the impact of reading speed.

 

[dalamber]

I think slowing down actually helps a lot. I've tried to increase reading speed in hopes it would help my verbal but always found myself going back and forth too much. As a result I could never finish on time. Since I've slowed my reading speed I understand the passages better and answer questions faster. It has made me finish on time and have gone from scores of 8 and 9 to 10 and 11 which isn't the best but verbal is my hardest section

 

[mehc012]

I think slowing down actually helps a lot. I've tried to increase reading speed in hopes it would help my verbal but always found myself going back and forth too much. As a result I could never finish on time. Since I've slowed my reading speed I understand the passages better and answer questions faster. It has made me finish on time and have gone from scores of 8 and 9 to 10 and 11 which isn't the best but verbal is my hardest section

If you had to go back that much, you didn't really increase your reading speed so much as just the speed your eyes moved across the page.

 

[dalamber]

Well for those if us who only read at average speed (300-400wpm) reading faster is counterproductive. Even reading at 500wpm which is a huge jump is not gonna save you much time. 300-400wpm is plenty fast to get through verbal and understanding is way more important

 

[mehc012]

Well for those if us who only read at average speed (300-400wpm) reading faster is counterproductive. Even reading at 500wpm which is a huge jump is not gonna save you much time. 300-400wpm is plenty fast to get through verbal and understanding is way more important

Reading faster should not in any way hinder comprehension...if it does, you're not actually reading faster, which was my main point last time.

I disagree that it's unhelpful...if you go from 300 to 500 wpm you have already saved yourself 5 or 6 min just in passage reading time (nvm reading the answers). It may seem minor, but many people would love an extra 5 min at the end of their test

Again, never said it would be unhelpful for everyone, I just answered the OP...no, I personally would not consider doing it because it would lose me a lot of time (~10% of the total test time), and therefore I don't think the tradeoff would be worthwhile.

 

[dalamber]

Sure if you can read faster while comprehending it would be helpful but most people struggle increasing their reading speed in such a short time span. What I was trying to say is your better off finding our own comfortable pace that maximizes understanding on the first read through. Kudos for your high reading speed though. I sure wish I could read that fast and still understand

 

[gettheleadout]

That's A HUGE downfall, though. For example, I read ~800-900wpm...even just subvocalization generally anchors people to 300,maybe 400wpm. There's no way that tripling your reading time is only a minor downfall.
It may still be a viable strategy for some people, but don't underestimate the impact of reading speed.

You can read a verbal passage in under a minute? If so that's really impressive.

 

[mehc012]

Sure if you can read faster while comprehending it would be helpful but most people struggle increasing their reading speed in such a short time span. What I was trying to say is your better off finding our own comfortable pace that maximizes understanding on the first read through. Kudos for your high reading speed though. I sure wish I could read that fast and still understand

I'll drink to that!

I only read fast because that's all I did as a kid...it's hardly worth kudos, anymore than knowing all the original 151s is. It just happens to be more useful in the long run Still can't keep up with my mom, though...if we're reading the same thing I always miss out on the last 1/4 of a page 😡

 

[Doctor Hibbert]

That's A HUGE downfall, though. For example, I read ~800-900wpm...even just subvocalization generally anchors people to 300,maybe 400wpm. There's no way that tripling your reading time is only a minor downfall.
It may still be a viable strategy for some people, but don't underestimate the impact of reading speed.

Reiterating what's been stated in EK prep; reading speed isn't what's going to save time on verbal and I totally agree!

If mouthing your way through a passage would allow you to answer 6-7 questions with little to no digging through the passage to confirm your answer choice, I say that it's a good investment 👍

 

[mehc012]

You can read a verbal passage in under a minute? If so that's really impressive.

Yeah, pretty much. If you're only asking me discrete questions, definitely under a minute. If I want to parse through all of the nuances of tone and context, add several seconds, but it'd still be pretty close.

This is why I don't think that "reading speed isn't what's going to save time on Verbal" is a good blanket statement. It definitely CAN, it's just very hard to bump up artificially, so it's not a good use of resources to try and improve that aspect. Perhaps a better phrasing would be "you aren't going to improve your reading speed enough to save time on Verbal", rather than implying that reading speed doesn't save time, which is nonsensical.🙄

 

[Gauss44]

Due to my wretched VR scores, I almost try every strategy for improving. But...you know, I'm at a loss.
Recently, I've recited about 6 passages from AAMC official practices, wishing to understand the argument better. IS this method effective or counter?

Either:

1. Do it quickly

or

2. Save it for post-game analysis.

 

[wellcutcookies]

it's not all about reading speed ... i mean i read like 330 wpm, but i avg 11's on aamc and TBR prac exams

but if you're mouthing the words and you're spending >4 min reading on each passage, then that might put u in a time crunch

 

[Heday]

So typically I read at a slow pace (300 wpm max, probably around 250-275). I think it hurts because I will usually have only 5-8 minutes left for the last passage (but there are times where I've had 16). I tend to sub-vocalize while reading, which I think helps me better understand what's going on. I also constantly refer to the passage to check answers (whether I feel they're relatively easy or not). On my AAMC practice tests, I got all 11s on my VR (except for a 9 and a 10).

 

[487806]

Yeah, pretty much. If you're only asking me discrete questions, definitely under a minute. If I want to parse through all of the nuances of tone and context, add several seconds, but it'd still be pretty close.

This is why I don't think that "reading speed isn't what's going to save time on Verbal" is a good blanket statement. It definitely CAN, it's just very hard to bump up artificially, so it's not a good use of resources to try and improve that aspect. Perhaps a better phrasing would be "you aren't going to improve your reading speed enough to save time on Verbal", rather than implying that reading speed doesn't save time, which is nonsensical.🙄

It isn't hard to read a verbal passage within less than 1 minute. But comprehending the passage is where the problem usually is.

 

[mehc012]

It isn't hard to read a verbal passage within less than 1 minute. But comprehending the passage is where the problem usually is.

As I said before, I don't really count it as having 'read' it if you don't comprehend it. That qualifies as having 'looked at it' at best.

Now, I will go ahead and disclaimer here that I've only done a handful of questions from TPRH and EK101, to get an idea of the exam style (it's too soon for hardcore MCAT study/practice for me). However, for those I've done, in about a minute, I can read the passage thoroughly enough to answer basic questions and develop a gut instinct about the more complex interpretation questions. I then take the time on each Q to verify to myself what the supporting passage evidence is for my answer, which leaves another minute or so for the 'tricky' questions...if I get really stuck (which doesn't happen often), I can even re-read the entire passage specifically with that question in mind, looking for evidence either way (let's be real, assuming all of the answers are not in the last sentence, there's probably enough time for me to do that for EVERY question if I wanted to). For the passages I've done so far, that has me finishing each passage in ~5-6min. Granted, I've only done a handful of practice ones, so I'm missing questions here and there, but timing doesn't seem to be my issue

I'm sorry guys, I really really didn't mean to derail; I was just trying to point out that reading aloud will almost guarantee that you take several minutes to read the passage, and that if you are reading quickly, it may not be the best strategy to attempt.

 

[FeinMS]

As I said before, I don't really count it as having 'read' it if you don't comprehend it. That qualifies as having 'looked at it' at best.

Now, I will go ahead and disclaimer here that I've only done a handful of questions from TPRH and EK101, to get an idea of the exam style (it's too soon for hardcore MCAT study/practice for me). However, for those I've done, in about a minute, I can read the passage thoroughly enough to answer basic questions and develop a gut instinct about the more complex interpretation questions. I then take the time on each Q to verify to myself what the supporting passage evidence is for my answer, which leaves another minute or so for the 'tricky' questions...if I get really stuck (which doesn't happen often), I can even re-read the entire passage specifically with that question in mind, looking for evidence either way (let's be real, assuming all of the answers are not in the last sentence, there's probably enough time for me to do that for EVERY question if I wanted to). For the passages I've done so far, that has me finishing each passage in ~5-6min. Granted, I've only done a handful of practice ones, so I'm missing questions here and there, but timing doesn't seem to be my issue

I'm sorry guys, I really really didn't mean to derail; I was just trying to point out that reading aloud will almost guarantee that you take several minutes to read the passage, and that if you are reading quickly, it may not be the best strategy to attempt.

But from what I've seen in Q&A subforum, it seemed like you're already getting 40+ on AAMC stuff lol😱

 

[mehc012]

But from what I've seen in Q&A subforum, it seemed like you're already getting 40+ on AAMC stuff lol😱

I think you've got me confused with someone, haha! I haven't taken a single practice exam yet, so I certainly haven't posted scores! In fact, I still have a physics class to take (and a refresher on Chem as I haven't taken any GenChem since HS). I'm actually starting that class right now, so hopefully I will be posting scores in a few months (and I'll keep my fingers crossed for that 40+ 😀)

 

[FeinMS]

haha I meant you seemed like you already knew your stuff well from what I've seen from your posts answering other people's question. There's no way I can confuse you with someone else because of your avatar. Yea good luck.