Extremely Discouraged

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TheBoneDoctah

TheBoneDoctah

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I absolutely HATE verbal. Verbal is the reason I won't get into medical school. I have been practicing verbal working through the EK 101 book. I score 8-9 on them. I just now took the AAMC 3 verbal and got a 6 WTF. 19/40. I literally will read some of these passages and have absolutely NO IDEA what is going on.
 
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Maybe try stepping out of the MCAT scene for a bit and just reading NY Times articles, or better yet, scientific publications. Don't worry about answering any questions, just try to work on your ability to digest a chunk of info in a short amount of time.
 
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BeachBlondie said:
Maybe try stepping out of the MCAT scene for a bit and just reading NY Times articles, or better yet, scientific publications. Don't worry about answering any questions, just try to work on your ability to digest a chunk of info in a short amount of time.
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I don't have time. My test is April 24. I have gone through almost all of EK 101. I started it getting 8 and ended getting 8. I do all the post game analysis and still my scores don't move. I am not sure how anyone understands the last two passages on AAMC 3. I literally didn't understand ANY of it.
 
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Give me a rundown of what you do -- do you read the passage in one shot? Do you stop and highlight? What is your method?

(I ask because I got a 12 the last time I took that exam; maybe I can help)
 
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BeachBlondie said:
Give me a rundown of what you do -- do you read the passage in one shot? Do you stop and highlight? What is your method?

(I ask because I got a 12 the last time I took that exam; maybe I can help)
Click to expand...

Honestly, I think that my MAIN problem is philosophical passages. I just can't understand it. When a sentence has 8 commas in it it makes it completely unreadable to me. Like I will start reading and Ill read the paragraph and I get to the end of it and it feels like I just read something is another language.
 
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Do you think it's the vocabulary? Or is it just the drawn-out sentence structure?
 
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At this point, I would strongly recommend getting a good tutor that scored well on the MCAT. They can help you understand how to approach a question and come to the appropriate conclusion. Having a outside perspective may help push your score 10+ for verbal.
 
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TheBoneDoctah said:
I don't have time. My test is April 24. I have gone through almost all of EK 101. I started it getting 8 and ended getting 8. I do all the post game analysis and still my scores don't move. I am not sure how anyone understands the last two passages on AAMC 3. I literally didn't understand ANY of it.
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you have more than a month's worth of time. you really need to take a step back and relax.
when you post-game for verbal, really try to understand why your REASONING is incorrect, not just go through the motions.
I used to be really really focused during verbal; like I would focus on every single word, and try to know everything--that proved to be counterproductive. you should try reading each passage like it's any article that you like to read when you're browsing on the internet.
don't give up.
 
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I am no expert, but here's what I read in the EK book. Basically, you have to just read the passage like you read a book/magazine or new article, that's it. And then answer questions. What we "premeds" typically do is get hung up on details and try to memorize what went on, we lose focus and can't concentrate what we are reading. As we try to remember the last paragraph, we lose sight of what we are reading in this paragraph and next thing you know, you are finished and have no idea what happened.

Verbal is tough, but if you relax and just read normally without purposely trying to memorize, you should do fine. Most questions are not detail and if you have a solid understanding of the main idea, you can usually get to the right answer.

Stay positive.
 
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Do you read much in general? If not, that's probably your problem right there. People are always looking for quick fixes on the MCAT verbal, but the truth is, how well you perform on it has less to do with testing ability and more to do with how much you read on a day-to-day basis. If people read more often, then verbal wouldn't even be an issue. The verbal section of the MCAT is just measuring your ability to understand what you're reading, which is a skill that only comes with time invested in actually reading things.

And I'm going to stop before this ends with me yelling something along the lines of, "Kids these days, with their video games and their music and their lack of reading books and news... Get off my lawn..."
 
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BeachBlondie said:
Do you think it's the vocabulary? Or is it just the drawn-out sentence structure?
Click to expand...

A lot of it is vocabulary and sentence structure and flowery language. The author will string together 4-5 words in a row that make absolutely no sense to me.
 
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workethic712 said:
you have more than a month's worth of time. you really need to take a step back and relax.
when you post-game for verbal, really try to understand why your REASONING is incorrect, not just go through the motions.
I used to be really really focused during verbal; like I would focus on every single word, and try to know everything--that proved to be counterproductive. you should try reading each passage like it's any article that you like to read when you're browsing on the internet.
don't give up.
Click to expand...

Thats what I am doing. Trying to focus on every word because if I don't nothing makes sense to me.
 
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That's why I am having trouble with verbal as well. I guess I cant do anything about it as English is my second language.
 
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When I read, I try to find one sentence in each paragraph as I go along that summarizes why the author wrote that particular paragraph. I highlight the key parts in that sentence. If I didn't find some reason why the paragraph was written I stop and think about it for a few seconds, then move on if I can't figure it out. I almost never actually go back to the essay to find answers. The highlighting mainly acts as a task for me to do so that I am actively looking for something while reading.

Never highlight or read through dense details. I seriously will skip multiple sentences if they contain facts, because for some reason if I start to read them I can't stop myself from thinking about them.

A lot of the time the author will state what people normally believe and then say the counterargument he or she believes and spend the rest of the paragraph citing examples to defend it. For this I usually highlight the main part of the counterargument sentence, because it is what the author believes and therefore almost always is the focus of the questions.

I always stay under 4 minutes for reading the passage and give myself 4 minutes to do the questions. Sometimes I finish early, but I do not go back and check my answers or waste more time on that passage. I always know if I need to speed up.
 
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This is a good video for verbal:

And so is this:

These were recently posted on the forum and I found them helpful.
 
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As my latin professor says, subject, verb, direct object. Get this down first. This will give you an idea of what is going on in the passage then you can focus on feel after that. You've got to figure out what he or she is arguing before you can determine if it is supported strongly etc. So focus on the "bones" of the passage first. You can do it ! I started with a 7 and finished with a 12 on the real thing. Just keep at it and take some breaks to let your brain reboot every now and then. Don't give up , you got this !

TheBoneDoctah said:
I absolutely HATE verbal. Verbal is the reason I won't get into medical school. I have been practicing verbal working through the EK 101 book. I score 8-9 on them. I just now took the AAMC 3 verbal and got a 6 WTF. 19/40. I literally will read some of these passages and have absolutely NO IDEA what is going on.
Click to expand...
 
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Willy38 said:
As my latin professor says, subject, verb, direct object. Get this down first. This will give you an idea of what is going on in the passage then you can focus on feel after that. You've got to figure out what he or she is arguing before you can determine if it is supported strongly etc. So focus on the "bones" of the passage first. You can do it ! I started with a 7 and finished with a 12 on the real thing. Just keep at it and take some breaks to let your brain reboot every now and then. Don't give up , you got this !
Click to expand...
I have my test on April 24. Do you think that's enough time? I told my boss I'm gonna go on leave till my exam so I will have more time.
 
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workethic712 said:
you have more than a month's worth of time. you really need to take a step back and relax.
when you post-game for verbal, really try to understand why your REASONING is incorrect, not just go through the motions.
I used to be really really focused during verbal; like I would focus on every single word, and try to know everything--that proved to be counterproductive. you should try reading each passage like it's any article that you like to read when you're browsing on the internet.
don't give up.
Click to expand...
I feel as though i can't reason because I don't understand the passage.
 
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Absolutely. It may take a week or so to get used to but you can do it. You have to know who or what the author is talking about and what they are saying. Try going through the passages with no time limit first. Spend 30 mins per passage or more if you have to. I would approach it like you are having coffee with someone. You are just sitting there listening to them try to convince you of something. Read it comfortably like this and see if it helps. If you don't understand something then see if you can use context clues to figure out the gist of what they're saying. Also I thought the real verbal was noticeably easier than EK or TPRH so there is hope. But those are def the best resources for prep. Best of luck !
TheBoneDoctah said:
I have my test on April 24. Do you think that's enough time? I told my boss I'm gonna go on leave till my exam so I will have more time.
Click to expand...
 
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Willy38 said:
Absolutely. It may take a week or so to get used to but you can do it. You have to know who or what the author is talking about and what they are saying. Try going through the passages with no time limit first. Spend 30 mins per passage or more if you have to. I would approach it like you are having coffee with someone. You are just sitting there listening to them try to convince you of something. Read it comfortably like this and see if it helps. If you don't understand something then see if you can use context clues to figure out the gist of what they're saying. Also I thought the real verbal was noticeably easier than EK or TPRH so there is hope. But those are def the best resources for prep. Best of luck !
Click to expand...
Thank you so much.
 
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Mad Jack said:
Do you read much in general? If not, that's probably your problem right there. People are always looking for quick fixes on the MCAT verbal, but the truth is, how well you perform on it has less to do with testing ability and more to do with how much you read on a day-to-day basis. If people read more often, then verbal wouldn't even be an issue. The verbal section of the MCAT is just measuring your ability to understand what you're reading, which is a skill that only comes with time invested in actually reading things.

And I'm going to stop before this ends with me yelling something along the lines of, "Kids these days, with their video games and their music and their lack of reading books and news... Get off my lawn..."
Click to expand...
Concur 150%. I'm in the camp that believes VR skills are learned long-term via reading stuff that are not textbooks. If I didn't take as many history and American studies classes as I did, my VR would've sucked. But it didn't. This doesn't add to this convo at all, though, so best of luck...

OP – Just know that if you can't get the score up in a short amount of time, it's not because you're studying anything wrong. It may very well be just the nature of VR that rewards long-term skills over those that can be learned very quickly for an exam.
 
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moop said:
Concur 150%. I'm in the camp that believes VR skills are learned long-term via reading stuff that are not textbooks. If I didn't take as many history and American studies classes as I did, my VR would've sucked. But it didn't. This doesn't add to this convo at all, though, so best of luck...

OP – Just know that if you can't get the score up in a short amount of time, it's not because you're studying anything wrong. It may very well be just the nature of VR that rewards long-term skills over those that can be learned very quickly for an exam.
Click to expand...
So you don't think I can go from a 7-8 to a 10 in a month?
 
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I don't know how your scoring will be affected, but you can definitely just generally improve your analytical skills in that time.

I can't really offer any study tips because I'm scoring 12s in VR with essentially 0 practice (though I suppose history and philosophy classes served as my practice). Just read the sections and try not to get overwhelmed with the wordiness. While reading, highlight facts that you think will be important, and try to cut out overly wordy appositives and modifiers since more often than not they just confuse you.

There's a common saying "How do you eat an elephant? One piece at a time" -- that applies here, and for that matter, it applies to PS and BS too.
 
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TheBoneDoctah said:
So you don't think I can go from a 7-8 to a 10 in a month?
Click to expand...
People have done it, but it's not that common judging by SDN. Therefore, my theory is that the strategy is not something that really works. Rather, it's the person's background that makes or breaks.
 
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terra330 said:
I don't know how your scoring will be affected, but you can definitely just generally improve your analytical skills in that time.

I can't really offer any study tips because I'm scoring 12s in VR with essentially 0 practice (though I suppose history and philosophy classes served as my practice). Just read the sections and try not to get overwhelmed with the wordiness. While reading, highlight facts that you think will be important, and try to cut out overly wordy appositives and modifiers since more often than not they just confuse you.

There's a common saying "How do you eat an elephant? One piece at a time" -- that applies here, and for that matter, it applies to PS and BS too.
Click to expand...
Same here. Started with a 12, ended with a 12. Even reading finance journals for class helped comprehension by a lot (after getting through the complicated economic model and BS to see what's really being argued and what the findings mean).
 
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TheBoneDoctah said:
So you don't think I can go from a 7-8 to a 10 in a month?
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I don't think you can go from an average comprehension level of difficult linguistic concepts to a high level of verbal comprehension in a month. You basically have to rewire your brain to handle complex writing, which isn't really something one can do in less than a third of a semester. There is a reason VR is the most difficult score to improve. I never studied for VR and ended up with a 12 because I read regularly, there was no magic to it.
 
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Mad Jack said:
I don't think you can go from an average comprehension level of difficult linguistic concepts to a high level of verbal comprehension in a month. You basically have to rewire your brain to handle complex writing, which isn't really something one can do in less than a third of a semester. There is a reason VR is the most difficult score to improve. I never studied for VR and ended up with a 12 because I read regularly, there was no magic to it.
Click to expand...
From a 8 to 10 is only getting about one more question right per passage.
 
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TheBoneDoctah said:
From a 8 to 10 is only getting about one more question right per passage.
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There's 7 passages; that's 7 questions out of 40. You shouldn't think it's an impossible thing to do, but don't downplay the difficulty. Generations of SDNers before you have faced the same exact problem.
 
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UPDATE:

So one of my friends that took the MCAT and scored a 12 on it agreed to tutor me. He spent three hours going over 5-6 passages with me. After every passage we would share answers and he would go through every question and I would explain why I picked what I did. He gave me a few points and I have been using them in TPR.

Since then, I have completed 39 TPR questions and scored 32/39 which is about a 10.

I REALLY hope that this persists!
 
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That's great news! I started off scoring 7-9 in verbal as well and just had no idea what to do.
It really really helps to go through each and every question and reason exactly why the answer is correct, just as you're doing. I remember literally arguing with myself to understand why the answer was what it was. Once you get that flow, you'll do much better. I ended up with a 12 on the real thing!
 
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Harpsx said:
That's great news! I started off scoring 7-9 in verbal as well and just had no idea what to do.
It really really helps to go through each and every question and reason exactly why the answer is correct, just as you're doing. I remember literally arguing with myself to understand why the answer was what it was. Once you get that flow, you'll do much better. I ended up with a 12 on the real thing!
Click to expand...
What did you use for prep?
 
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TheBoneDoctah said:
What did you use for prep?
Click to expand...

I did all the questions in EK101 VR first. But to be honest, I didn't really like their questions/explanations of answers. I didn't feel like they were very representative of the MCAT (though SDN may think differently).

So I ended up just thoroughly going over all my answers in the AAMC practice tests because I felt those would be most representative.
 
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Harpsx said:
I did all the questions in EK101 VR first. But to be honest, I didn't really like their questions/explanations of answers. I didn't feel like they were very representative of the MCAT (though SDN may think differently).

So I ended up just thoroughly going over all my answers in the AAMC practice tests because I felt those would be most representative.
Click to expand...
So never used TPR?
 
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