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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.
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.