EK VERBAL DIRTY LITTLE LIE, reading speeds are important PT. II

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christian15213

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Ok, if you don't have anything to do with this information and want to argue this post insn't for you.

Like I was saying perviously, I think EK, got it very wrong about their comments on reading speeds. In fact, it isn't like it is just some minor mistake it is a huge error. It left me, a person who is a vocalized reader, thinking or assuming that I wasn't a slow reader because of the contex they used saying VERY slow reader can read 600 words in 3 minutes. My point of the thread was to find other people out there that might have been the same problem with timing and verbal and perhaps a little bit of comprehension because of the latter.

****What I have done is ordered a book on Amazon and will comment on it when I finish it. As well, I have begun to immediatley start practicing reading at much much higher speeds. The way I have been doing is pure practice. to be honest it reminds me like working out again while taking time off... specifically running. You know you can do it... You know you have done it before but you also know that getting to the point you once were before is going to be tough / rough. Nevertheless, one still goes out and keeps shooting for inprovement. This practicing reminds me of just that. The two or three hours I spent today I saw awesome improvement.

***This is what I did... I am using the EK verbal 101 passages just so all of you know. I did the first verbal passgae and answered all 60 questions in about 2 hours and scored and effective 7,,,, HORRIBLE IMO... What I did today was take the hardest passages and started reading them as fact as I could while still maintaining some comprehension. I stuck with the same passage because I wanted to see where my speed could go. IMO I feel I need to achieve the speed first and be used to it so that then I can focus on comprehension.

The improvement was as follows. It was honestly taking me about a good 4 --5 minutes to read a virgin passage thoroughly. When I practiced and practiced I got down to about 3.5 minutes then 3 minutes and then 2.5 minutes.... While still feeling good comprehension. ***It was hard to break the 2.5 minutes... I felt like I needed to float with my eyes on the words. like I had to silence my inner voice and just flow with it. Weird because I was a little amazed by the fact that it was like my inner voice was following, meaning I comprehended what my eyes just read but I was moving at a good clip. I broke the 600 in about 2 minutes. I kept practicing until I got comfortably to about 1.5 minutes for the 600 word passage. I was still amazed how I was following along mentally.

Then I said OK I want to read this whole passage in a minute. I achieved 600 word passage in 1 minute 5 seconds....

****Now, I admit I read the same thing over and over about 20 times. But the point to me is like I said before, I want to see my mind and eyes go there before I move on to virgin passages. when I completed the passage at 1.05 minutes I felt like the comprehennsion was pretty low. Like I was zooming past the words and recognizing them but realing wasn't focusing in on concepts or what have you.

*****With all of that said, I felt it was helping tremendously. I now tried this with a virgin passage and I read it with pretty good comprehension in 3 minutes for a long passage and 2.5 mintues for a normal sized passage. Although I feel I could have slowed it down a little to comprehend things a little better. found myself going back a lot.

Again, I hope this helps and anyone else thinking on these lines please let me know what you have been doing or what has been your main concern. I have done no mcat practice tests this is all EK verbal stuff but perhaps the whopping I am getting now will result in a much better score while taking the verbal.

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I took the kaplan class and got a 6 on the verbal my first time....got EK books off amazon and studied over the summer and jumped 6 points on the august mcat...friggin sweet.
 
I took the kaplan class and got a 6 on the verbal my first time....got EK books off amazon and studied over the summer and jumped 6 points on the august mcat...friggin sweet.

can u elaborate a littlle because ur increase was awedome... which books and what do u think helped ur jump the most?
 
I think there is something to be said for improving your reading speed. If the MCAT were not a timed test, probably most people could do very well on it. What makes it challenging though is that you have to go through it so quickly. I know in my case, I have always been a very fast reader. I think that reading quickly is one of those things that you have to practice over a long period in order to develop the skill. When I was a kid, I read all the time. I continued doing this in high school, college, grad school, etc. Now in med school I do not have as much time to read for pleasure as I would like, but on my breaks, I still enjoy reading both fiction and nonfiction. For those of you who don't enjoy reading, that naturally is to your disadvantage when it comes time to take a timed exam that requires reading like the MCAT.

Let us know how the reading book works out for you, christian. There may be future students who could find it useful as well. And best of luck to you on the MCAT. :)
 
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From what I have heard, VR is a hard section to improve. I didn't study for it at all and got a 10. It should have been much higher, but that is a another story. Anyway, this is the reason why: I grew up reading a novel every night. I started college as an English major and have always loved reading and writing. But, I am HORRIBLE in math and so I have always struggled with gen chem and physics. If I retook the MCAT and studied PS like crazy, I would be lucky to get an 8. It is just not my thing. I swear I think I have a math disorder or something.:smuggrin:

Here is what I think about the situation. One of the best ways you can prepare for the VR section is to read. Read everything and read often. This will increase your comprehension and speed. Beyond that, just practice. If you are really strong in the other sections, then really work on those and do well on them, and that will really help your overall school.:luck:
 
BUT
there is room for improvement IMO. i am not a reader (besided text books), and didn't do great on SAT verbal (though I never studied a wink for SAT). I did however read things alllll summer (like wall street, economoist and American scholar, etc). I really tried to force myself to enjoy anything I could get my hands on. I also did the entire KAPLAN verbal book, without timing myself. I really think pratice reading is key, and there are no real "strategies" I was able to do really well on verbal because I worked hard at it.
 
BUT
there is room for improvement IMO. i am not a reader (besided text books), and didn't do great on SAT verbal (though I never studied a wink for SAT). I did however read things alllll summer (like wall street, economoist and American scholar, etc). I really tried to force myself to enjoy anything I could get my hands on. I also did the entire KAPLAN verbal book, without timing myself. I really think pratice reading is key, and there are no real "strategies" I was able to do really well on verbal because I worked hard at it.

Absolutely! I also agree there is always room for improvement. :thumbup:
 
As I said in the other thread, take an untimed verbal section, then take a timed verbal. This will show you how much faster you need to read, how fast you'll have to think etc. It will also show you how hard the questions are on their own without the time factor.

The key IMO is setting up the strategy to X minutes per passage with +/- a couple minutes based upon passage length and # of questions. By holding myself to that time limit, it made sure I finished.
 
I dont think speed has anything to do with getting a good score. Ek verbal in my opinion is harder than other prep tests.
EK test; 5
Kaplan tests;8,9,12
TPR tests; 9,10
Mcat -prep cbt test G-1; 8
 
I agree for the most part but I am taking this reading things at a higher speed seriously!!!

I feel I am at a comfortable 2.5-3 minutes per 600 words and want to actually get it to 1.5 - 2 minutes per passage with very very good comprehension. reading faster means nothing if your not comprehending what it is you're reading.

I will keep updated on my pregress.
 
I dont think speed has anything to do with getting a good score. Ek verbal in my opinion is harder than other prep tests.
EK test; 5
Kaplan tests;8,9,12
TPR tests; 9,10
Mcat prep cbt test; 8

I agree and hope EK verbal is harder but in all honesty it has to be good practice...

Check this out for perspective.

IN all honestly it is pretty easy to get a 7 on the MCAT's... you could miss a ton and still get a 7... However, averaging 3 misses per passage is about a 7 - 8 Averaging 2 misses per passage (and that is kinda good to me if you asked me) and that will get you a 9... Average one wrong per passage and that will get you an 11. and less than one wrong per passage will bet you above that.

One wrong per passage??? OMG that is not a joke. Now, yes, I am aware that the actual MCAT might have easier passages but they will have a difficult one. And, if you have your reading speed up to par, you won't be waisting your life away frustrated and PEAVED because you came across a mini-monster of a passage while taking the exam. See my point of why time is something to improve on and have a handle on? again, JMO
 
I dont think speed has anything to do with getting a good score. Ek verbal in my opinion is harder than other prep tests.
EK test; 5
Kaplan tests;8,9,12
TPR tests; 9,10
Mcat prep cbt test; 8

I think the thing with Verbal for me was not reading fast but retaining what the passage said after reading it or reading comprehensively fast. Reading fast and reading comprehensively fast are two different things

The first is the actual act of reading something. The second is the act of being able to have formed the main idea and themes in your head and have comprehended the authors arguments quickly enough that you don't need to go back to the passage.

That is the first problematic issue with verbal. The second issue is with the questions itself. Some people can read fast but when they get to the questions they get tied up in knots because they can off the bat eliminate 2 answer choices but then they have a harder time getting through the remaining 2 questions. What TPR, EK, and Kaplan are trying to say is that if you can do 75% of the questions more accurately by going slower but guess for the remaining you are more likely to get a higher score then by rushing through the test the whole way and missing more questions.
 
I think the thing with Verbal for me was not reading fast but retaining what the passage said after reading it or reading comprehensively fast. Reading fast and reading comprehensively fast are two different things

The first is the actual act of reading something. The second is the act of being able to have formed the main idea and themes in your head and have comprehended the authors arguments quickly enough that you don't need to go back to the passage.

That is the first problematic issue with verbal. The second issue is with the questions itself. Some people can read fast but when they get to the questions they get tied up in knots because they can off the bat eliminate 2 answer choices but then they have a harder time getting through the remaining 2 questions. What TPR, EK, and Kaplan are trying to say is that if you can do 75% of the questions more accurately by going slower but guess for the remaining you are more likely to get a higher score then by rushing through the test the whole way and missing more questions.

I completely agree gugu;) I think that I spend about 3-4 minutes reading the pasage and the other 4-4.5 minutes answering questions and it has worked so far:thumbup: I know that I am not getting great scores but I am being consistent and I will improve as I take more practice tests. I beliee that even if somebody spends 5 minutes just reading and with enough practice you will get the "feeling" of the right answer or at least the last 2 choices out of 4. The rest is just luck:idea:
 
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