EK's Verbal explanations are BS

[bullishMD]

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Does anyone else think EK's verbal is extremely hard? I think their explanantions are BS too. on some of them i can see the exact spot in the passage where i got the answer yet for some reason it is wrong. It is really starting to anger me. I get 10's on both Kaplan's and TPR's verbal tests and 6's on EK's. I am starting aamc tests tomorrow so hopefully those verbal scores more correspond with Kaplan and TPR.

 

[IckeyShuffle]

Does anyone else think EK's verbal is extremely hard? I think their explanantions are BS too. on some of them i can see the exact spot in the passage where i got the answer yet for some reason it is wrong. It is really starting to anger me. I get 10's on both Kaplan's and TPR's verbal tests and 6's on EK's. I am starting aamc tests tomorrow so hopefully those verbal scores more correspond with Kaplan and TPR.

yeah i completely agree. I bought their book and stopped doing them because I was so frustrated. I have gotten two 10's on kaplans practice and then i would do theirs and miss almost all of them in a passage. It was killing my confidence so i stopped. I too am doing an AAMC tommorow.

 

[ADeadLois]

From experience, EK exams are very representative of the latter AAMC exams (7-9), and the explanations are just as frustrating. Kaplan's are not very well representative. Also, I felt that the questions on my actual MCAT form were very similar in style, frequency, and language to the EK exams I had taken. Kaplan's exams are very detail-oriented, and thus their answer explanations a lot simpler and less-frustrating.

Unfortunately, the nature of the VR section is that the answers are debatable. Typically, the correct answer is the "least wrong" one as opposed to the "most correct." This is what makes VR the most frustrating, and arguably most difficult section of the MCAT. An essential component to doing well on verbal is understanding what makes the answers correct. Eschewing the answer explanations as "BS", you lose this essential practice

EDIT: AAMC exams typically have 1-2 passages with ten questions. EK generally only has 6-7. This is something to look out for.

 

[doublehh03]

i think EKs are better than kaplans.

but i do agree that on several questions, i can knock it down to 2 answers and their explanation for the correct is very "ambiguous".

i have been getting consistently 9s on their verbal (43/60) and i see that im just 2-3 questions from a 10.

but i haven't looked back at the answers and what i missed yet so we'll see.

what really helped me is
1) read te passage thoroughly but not like word for word. some parts are easy and u can skim but read thoroughly
2) read the questions thoroughly.
3) always knock it down to at least 2 and choose the one that flows well w/ the passage even if u don't know what the main thesis is

 

[BXP]

Yes, Agreed, but just go with it anyways 😎

 

[ssh18]

it seems to me that there is such a difference between the kaplan verbal psg and TPR. Kaplan answers do seem to often exist in the psg more than the other passages. This is pretty confusing. Do others feel that way as well? though I'm thinking that EK is the best representation out there of the actual test?

Thanks!

 

[DrBowtie]

Verbal explanations are a joke. I had one from 6r that said This statement is true and listed XX, YY pages, However, this isn't the :insert vague reasoning: best answer.

 

[deleted106503]

Verbal explanations are a joke. I had one from 6r that said This statement is true and listed XX, YY pages, However, this isn't the :insert vague reasoning: best answer.

I'm beginning to think they draw the VR scores of each student from a hat. I will have better luck winning the Powerball on Saturday. My State doesn't even have Powerball loctions. So you see the odds are even better at 0.

 

[DiscoDoc]

EDIT: AAMC exams typically have 1-2 passages with ten questions. EK generally only has 6-7. This is something to look out for.

Damn, I just realized this. I've been exclusively using EK's 101 VR stuff, and after doing a couple of AAMC tests, I've seen a couple of those passages. I'm going through the questions, scroll to the next page, and theres another 4 questions or so! [And they generally seem to be on the ridiculously hard art passages] Definitely throws you off if you're not used to it.

 

[ADeadLois]

Damn, I just realized this. I've been exclusively using EK's 101 VR stuff, and after doing a couple of AAMC tests, I've seen a couple of those passages. I'm going through the questions, scroll to the next page, and theres another 4 questions or so! [And they generally seem to be on the ridiculously hard art passages] Definitely throws you off if you're not used to it.

Yeah, you need to rethink your timing strategy. There's almost a guarantee you'll see 2 10 question passages.

 

[tik-tik-clock]

So, if there are two 10 question passages, will there still be 9 passages?

 

[DrBowtie]

So, if there are two 10 question passages, will there still be 9 passages?

I think so. There are a few with 5-6 qiestions.

 

[ADeadLois]

So, if there are two 10 question passages, will there still be 9 passages?

Yes, they "make up" for it by having a few passages with five passages.

 

[FLMD2B]

Does anyone else think EK's verbal is extremely hard? I think their explanantions are BS too. on some of them i can see the exact spot in the passage where i got the answer yet for some reason it is wrong. It is really starting to anger me. I get 10's on both Kaplan's and TPR's verbal tests and 6's on EK's. I am starting aamc tests tomorrow so hopefully those verbal scores more correspond with Kaplan and TPR.

OMG I thought it was just me! I took a Kaplan Practice Verbal and made a 10 but on the EK I made a 6! I was so depressed over that score I almost cried.

 

[geno2568]

it doesnt matter how bs theyr explanations are....you dont need them.

the only reason you even need to take practice verbal sections is to work on your pace/timing. your ability will never go up...if yur score goes up its only cuz u can pace yourself better.

so dont stress over the verbal.....just know that the real mcat's verbal will have answers that make sense

 

[STIG]

I never really look at those explanations, but it's justifiable. I like EK VR much better than TPR or Kaplan. The only problem i have is I did the whole book at I am still stuck at 8. lol. But I started out with 3 on the first one, so that was some improvement.

 

[kdburton]

Yeah, you need to rethink your timing strategy. There's almost a guarantee you'll see 2 10 question passages.

There will still be the same number of questions and passages on the VR section as a whole tho, so you won't have to work any faster to finish VR on the real deal if you're finishing EK practice exams.

 

[ADeadLois]

There will still be the same number of questions and passages on the VR section as a whole tho, so you won't have to work any faster to finish VR on the real deal if you're finishing EK practice exams.

Yes, but it's easy to get held up on the 10 question passages (like I did in practicing AAMC 7-8). I was able to finish the EK full-lengths in time, but the 10 question passage really threw off my timing initially.