Does Verbal score improve much with study?

[surftheiop]

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Im a sophmore engineering student considering med school and I was bored today so I decided to see what the MCAT is like, so I took the verbal section of the free posted test on AAMC website.

I gave myself an hour and took the verbal section and scored an 11 (33/40) but when I look back that the ones I got wrong I don't really see how practice/study could have helped me get them right.

So do people's verbal scores improve much with study or do you tend to end up getting about the same as you would w/o study? (seems like this would be a tough thing to study for besides maybe learning to read faster or something).

 

[SN2ed]

The trick to improving verbal is to hone one's technique and get inside the author's head. Both of these skills require practice and a heavy post-game analysis. So to answer the question, yes, you can improve your verbal. However, verbal is the hardest section to do so. Also, reading faster probably won't help you. The key is to answering the questions quickly. That said, considering that you're starting out with an 11, I wouldn't worry too much.

 

[HawkeyePostOp]

YES! I love how easy all the answers on the mcat forum are.

33/40 is also an impressive first verbal for an engineer. I'm guessing you're Ivy.

 

[surftheiop]

thanks for the responces guys.

Another quick question, when would be a reasonable time for me to start studying for MCAT?

Im a sophmore now, will be taking Bio 1 and 2 this summer, and will take Orgo 1 and 2 junior year. (Chemical engineers take physical chem sophmore year so i take orgo a year later than most people). I would probaly be taking the MCAT in June after my junior year.

I guess it would make sense to start next christmas break or something so I would be done with Bio 1/2 and Orgo 1.

Is there a website that has free physical science practice problems I could look at a couple times a month until then to keep myself sharp? (took chem and physics all freshman year).

 

[creativekat]

i'm subscribed to the mcatquestionaday.com questions. they're PS and BS questions...no verbal.

i think they're pretty good.

 

[JPanda]

It depends on the person but from what i have seen if you score around 10-11 you will generally not get a higher score on the real thing. 10-11 seems to be an equilibrium point for most people.

 

[surftheiop]

I did the exact same thing today! I was curious how I would do in verbal although I haven't been preparing for the MCAT since I don't plan on taking for a while so I took the verbal section (although I did the AAMC 3R, I don't think that's the exact same setup as the CBT) and got a 13. Just like you said, the ones I got wrong, I really do not see how I could have gotten them right even if I had practiced extensively. Some of the answer explanations were really ridiculous - I recall getting one answer correct hinged on being able to identify Isac Aasimov's science fiction books as 'popular' (when did sci-fi books become popular 😕) and others were a matter of mincing words in a confusing manner. I'm also hoping I can improve my score, is this reasonable, or unlikely?

from what ive seen in my two weeks of lurking here a 13 is about the best anyone can hope to get consistently so its probaly not worth the effort to try to do better.

 

[surftheiop]

The trick to improving verbal is to hone one's technique and get inside the author's head. Both of these skills require practice and a heavy post-game analysis. So to answer the question, yes, you can improve your verbal. However, verbal is the hardest section to do so. Also, reading faster probably won't help you. The key is to answering the questions quickly. That said, considering that you're starting out with an 11, I wouldn't worry too much.

The getting inside the author's head was great advice!

I bought MCAT 4 and took it yesterday, during the verbal i constantly asked myself "What is this guy's point and why is (s)he writing this?".

I managed to make a 14 (39/40) on the section!