EK 101 Verbal Passages book

[LoneCoyote]

So I know there has been talk on this board about EK science materials being harder than the real test and I was wondering if anyone had an opinion about EK Verbal stuff? I got the 101 Passages book to complement my Princeton Review material and am finding the passages to be harder than any of the PR stuff I have done. I find that unless I spend upwards of 15 minutes on a passage in the EK book I have trouble doing well on the questions. This surprised me because verbal is by far my strength and I have scored 11-12 on the prior PR exams I have taken. Anyone else out there have any input on this? Thanks!

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[RavnShield]

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[BobbyDylanFan]

As for EK 101, from looking at posts from other students on their website their book is about as close as you can get to the real thing including performance. I'm interested to know what princeton stuff were you referring to? I have used the PR Verbal workbook and found it to be more challenging than anything else i've used (kaplan and EK 101). I found EKs end of class exams for their verbal manual tough but I think there 101 hits it right on the spot.

However, only judge yourself on the good AAMC exams (3,4,5,6). This is supposedly the best predictor of actual score.

good luck and let me know whats up

peace,

BDF

 

[bottomfeeder]

i am currently using EK101 verbal and am not doing well on it at all. I am not finishing on time. I get 8 passages done in the 85 minutes. Not only that went i go over and review the answers to questions that i get wrong, i do often disagree with some of their correct answer choice, i'm not sure why one answer is more correct than another, and feel that the correct answer wasn't fully supported in the passage.

The sad thing is that EK doesn't answer individual questions you have on their test, which is important to me b/c i want to know where and if i am going wrong in my logic. i would love to take the test with 3 or 4 people and see if we tend to get the same wrong answers from some questions.

I still continue to use their material, for a figure any pactice is better than none.

btw.. on their site they mention not to go by their score to gauge how you'll do on the mcat


where can i purchase pr verbal book? verbal is my weak area and i do need tons of practice
bf

 

[dph201]

Bottomfeeder
Hey go to there website www.examkrackers.com They have a bulletin board there where you can type in questions about their material and they will answer you right away. When you get to the bulletin board go the one titled "Studying with Examkrackers" They are pretty good I've gone there several time and they have clarified things. And what's nice is its the authors of the book actually answering.

 

[bottomfeeder]

thank dp..i am familiar with their site..if u read their earlier post ing under studying EK101 verbal regarding answering questions from the verbal ek101, they wrote that they do not. the posts were made on nov 9 2002 and jan 19 2003
honestly i wish if they would..
thank for your speedly response

 

[efex101]

The EK 101 verbal is much more MCAT style than TPR. I took my first EK verbal and scored an 8 with plenty of time left over. I took the first TPR diag and scored a whopping 6 on it, the questions were way to detailed on TPR. From taking various AAMC verbal sections it seems that EK is much closer to that style. Just my 0.2

 

[BobbyDylanFan]

Originally posted by efex101
The EK 101 verbal is much more MCAT style than TPR. I took my first EK verbal and scored an 8 with plenty of time left over. I took the first TPR diag and scored a whopping 6 on it, the questions were way to detailed on TPR. From taking various AAMC verbal sections it seems that EK is much closer to that style. Just my 0.2

Thanks efex101, we are on the same page! Keep me updated and I will do the same....pvt me if you wish

 

[dph201]

Bottomfeeder there is no need for thanks. We are all in this together. Just helping each other out and trying to accomplish the same goals.

 

[woolie]

I am wondering just how much time to devote to this Verbal section; I scored a 10 on Kaplan's Diag test but the EK passages are busting my butt and I get really steamed when I just don't seem to "get" what they mean.

So far I have been working on Bio and Phys/Chem because people have advised me to focus on things I can actually improve quantitatively and that the Verbal is just too dang 'squishy' and hard to pin down.

What do other people think? I'm a former Liberal Arts person and big time reader (you get the idea ... ) so I feel really frustrated when even tho I finish with time left over I still get questions wrong and I'm not really sure why. Some of the answers seem really whimsical and strange. I don't seem to see how to break thru the invisible "technique" barrier even tho I am trying all kinds of things including doing alot of passages.

I'm just afraid that there's no way to really improve (?) and am I wasting time away from really constructive styudying ... anyone else thinking like this?!

 

[BobbyDylanFan]

I feel your frustrations...verbal improvement takes more time than the sciences.

 

[bottomfeeder]

how about trying to help each other by posting questions we have on the passages?

 

[LoneCoyote]

wow, it's cool this got a good discussion going and it's also good to hear I am not the only one finding discrepancies between the review materials. I do find that the PR material has a lot more detail and pick the answer right out of the passage questions, and the EK book tends to have more obscurely worded questions. I too was frustrated in checking answers and disagreeing with what they said was correct. On some of them I felt like the question was so ambiguous that none of the answers fit. Then again I know the book claims to catpure the ambiguity of the real MCAT. The PR stuff seems more straight forward to me.

bottomfeeder, the PR Verbal workbook is a book you get when you sign up to take the class. I think it is good as it has a lot of passages. You can probably find it from someone on here who is selling their PR stuff or maybe on Ebay or half.com. As far as I know you cannot buy this one in a store, you must take the class. and I would totally be willing to discuss verbal questions from the EK book that we have on here. I will probably be doing 1-2 passages a day from it to keep the verbal fresh each day.

And Woolie, I have the same questions you do. I am a big reader, liberal arts major, did well on the SAT Verbal w/o prepping, etc., type of person and I also wonder if doing all these passages will really lead to improvement or if I should focus on the sciences where I know I need to bring up the numbers. I guess my strategy so far has been to do the homework for my PR class, without using their method which I find doesn't do much for me, and just to try to become familiar with the structures of the questions and getting the timing down. Other than that I am not really sure how else to prepare for this part of the MCAT. Hopefully, if I do all the EK 101 passages, and all the PR passages that will be enough.

Well, I'm off to do physics now, my least favorite section. Let's keep posting and keep each other updated on how it is going

Peace.

 

[Sonya]

I don't have a lot of suggestions in terms of verbal material... i've never seen exam kracker books, but heard they're worth it. (however, there method of never reffering to the pasg sounds ludicrous, and gave me score of 4).

but, I can comment on how to focus. as long as you have at least a ten, I would focus on the sciences. I am NOT saying or implying in any way that verbal is unimportant, or has less weight (I think the importance is BS, then PS, then VR, but they are all important). What I am saying is that if you know effort will improve you in science, then spend time there. Once you are no lo nger improving in science, return the VR.

I myself got PS secure w ith a 11-13 (now, i'll just practice, and it 'll stablilize). but, neither VR nor BS will go above 9-10. and, i don't exactly now what different stuff to try for VR...

sonya

 

[BobbyDylanFan]

There method doesn't involve never returning to the passage, they just say don't do it all the time and use it as only one of your tools to answering the questions. The reason for this is that going back to the passage and rereading eats up time unless you know exactly what you are looking for.

 

[LoneCoyote]

BobbyDylanFan,

Just curious about the EK tools... are those in the EK Verbal Reasoning book and not 101 Passages? I am finding that the Princeton Review strategy does nothing for me. I do better not going back to the passage and not annotating, etc. Do you find their tools to be helpful?

 

[BobbyDylanFan]

Originally posted by azpremed
BobbyDylanFan,

Just curious about the EK tools... are those in the EK Verbal Reasoning book and not 101 Passages? I am finding that the Princeton Review strategy does nothing for me. I do better not going back to the passage and not annotating, etc. Do you find their tools to be helpful?

Yes, the EK verbal method is in their verbal resoning and math book...the only thing EK 101 is is 101 Verbal passages (11 full lengh exams). I think their strategy is good but it isn't like you just start using it right away and see immediate results. I think it takes time to fully develop their method...but when it happens, I think the results will be good.

"The roots of education are bitter, but the fruits are sweet"
- Aristotle

Now the thing I am having trouble with the verbal is the pacing. Even when practicing in the new format (60 questions) I am finding that if I start rushing towards the end, I start losing my focus on understanding the passages and start missing more questions. This is the part of verbal I am most frustrated with at the moment and if anyone has any ideas I'd be glad to hear them out.

 

[woolie]

Hey all, I am following the EK method as prescribed on their website which I actually read through. I even posted on it. But the thing that has helped me the most is where Jonathan says: just do on full test a week, and no more. Study the answers thru the week and then do the next full test. Also, as corney as it sounds I sit up straight like they say on the CDs, I take the 20 second main idea break, and then I try and follow their cues on the questions.

I got a high 9 on test 2!

I also found that the discrepancies between the quick answer key and the written out answers gave me the extra 4 points.

My tendancy is to just want to 'burn through' as many passages as possible but having a plan and sticking to it, and really working on retraining my mind is helping (fingers crossed). I am trying to be 'teachable' as my zen friends like to say ... and to open my mind to new ways of learning.

 

[deleted9493]

I've been practicing with berkeley review verbal passages and have been using examkracker's method. I plan to begin on the verbal 101 shortly. I've found that in order to do well on the questions associated with a particular passage...I need to have at least somewhat of an understanding of what the author is trying to convey. What helps me do this is taking a few seconds after reading each paragraph to summarize what the significance of that paragraph was and how it developed the author's view. I think readers who can easily distinguish correct answer choices amongst myriad of ambiguous answer choices are the exceptions...for the rest of us, an acute or at least semi-acute understanding of the passage is imperative and this is what I've found to help me.
One more thing, in my opinion, if it is necessary to re-read a sentence or two in the beginning of a verbal passage--in order to realize what the author is trying to say--I would do it. A better understanding of the passage will increase the speed with which you are able to answer questions. Don't get hung up on one question...and don't continuously go back to the passage unless you remember reading something about the question but simply can't remember the specific detail asked for.

 

[Amit1]

Personally I think EKVR101 rocks.

Buuuuuuuuut . . .
It scares the hell out of me sometimes. on exam 3 I scored a 12. On exam 2 I scored a 7. I don't know why my score fluxuates so much. Is it me or the tests?

TPR verbal is very un-MCAT like. Too long and detail based. I scored a 4 on the first TPR test I took. So obviously I have an easier time with the EK stuff.

This is a good discussion. Let me know what you think of my results.


Here is my progression of my verbal score (from oldest results to most recent)

1. EK 101 #1 8
2. EK 101 #2 7
3. EK 101 #3 12
4. TPR 4911? 4
5. AAMC 3 10

Maybe if more people posted their scores in order we could pick up some trends.


ps - I think that anyone who seriously goes though the whole EK101 will be aptly prepared to abuse the real MCAT verbal.

 

[phatty925]

hey all,
i used the EK 101 passages book to study for the august 2002 mcat and although i found that a lot of the passages in that book were a bit different from AAMC passages (more difficult), i thought that they were the closest you could get to AAMC material.

however, oddly enough, my august verbal score reflected the average score i had been scoring on the EK 101 verbal passages book tests, so i would say it's a pretty accurate reflection of how you'll do.

at least that was the case for me....