For those who struggled with Verbal and succeeded at the end

[DanniD]

.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Aerus]

You shouldn't be focusing on highlighting and thinking about important words. Read the passage at a good speed where you're comprehending the flow of the passage and try to understand what the author is arguing. Why is the author writing this piece?

A 3 signifies severe deficiencies in reading comprehension. Are you understanding what the passage is saying at all? Or are you just reading the words and not processing them as a whole picture?

 

[DanniD]

.

 

[Aerus]

I used to do that before, I mean I used to focus on the passage as a whole, and that seemed to work for TPR and EK101, but it backfired when I took the first two AAMC tests because most questions were asking about details that I neededd to refer back to passage

The AAMC's do sometimes ask questions on trivial details but a lot of the detail questions they ask are also important details. You weren't approaching the passage as a whole if you only got a 3. A lot of the questions should have been about whole ideas in the passages, so it seems you got those ones wrong too.

 

[DanniD]

The AAMC's do sometimes ask questions on trivial details but a lot of the detail questions they ask are also important details. You weren't approaching the passage as a whole if you only got a 3. A lot of the questions should have been about whole ideas in the passages, so it seems you got those ones wrong too.

that might be the case but almost all the time I get the main-idea type questions correct, so Im not sure if there is more to understanding the passage.

 

[Aerus]

that might be the case but almost all the time I get the main-idea type questions correct, so Im not sure if there is more to understanding the passage.

A 3 means you literally got barely more than 1/4th of the questions right. That's like 1-2 questions per passage correct. I don't think you're getting all the main idea type questions correct.

 

[DanniD]

.

 

[Afford]

Are you ESL? I would say that the best way to improve verbal is just to spend time reading a lot and try to notice connections. Unfortunately, the timed nature of the MCAT makes highlighting impractical. What I did when I took it is read everything quickly and after every paragraph, write a 2-3 word summary on scratch paper. I didn't actually look at my summary. It just helped keep me focused on the overall picture of the passage.

EDIT: Ah you are ESL. Unfortunately, I found the best verbal test takers to be people who just read a lot. :/

 

[Aerus]

I think that could have been more than 3 if I had time for the last passage, I always skip the last passage because Im an ESL students and takes me time to understand it quickly. Im not trying to make excuses, but other than that, what would you suggest me to do to better understand the passage as a whole, other than the questions that I should be asking myself that you mentioned, is there any strategy that you would recommend me?

Other than reading a lot of advanced material and analyzing it with someone, I have no idea how to advise ESL students in getting better at Verbal. The passages themselves are difficult enough for native English speakers.

 

[toastytoastie]

It may behoove you to pursue private tutoring in verbal (if you can afford it). Because you're ESL, you might be able to find somebody who specializes in helping students like yourself who don't have the working knowledge of English a native speaker has. You may very well need one-on-one attention.

 

[DanniD]

.

 

[Zelda840]

From the way you explain it, it almost seems like you're getting lost in all the details. If you had a full length to burn, I'd suggest a run-through where you clear your mind, read at a brisk pace, and answer based on your gut feeling without going back to the passage. I agree with the poster above. A 3 indicates you are not grasping the main ideas of the passages. You'll have to address this first before you can move on to the more abstract/complex questions.

 

[DanniD]

.

 

[persumas]

I went from sub 10 to a 13/14 consistently on my practice exams. Honestly, my only advice is to read A LOT of passages. Do the problems, and actually review them to make sure you're interpreting the passages and questions correctly. If you have more time, reading in general is the best thing you can do.

 

[g gnome]

I went from sub 10 to a 13/14 consistently on my practice exams. Honestly, my only advice is to read A LOT of passages. Do the problems, and actually review them to make sure you're interpreting the passages and questions correctly. If you have more time, reading in general is the best thing you can do.

I agree with all of this. I started with a 5 on verbal and after several months of passages I eventually got a 10 on my test. I think that there is such thing as over thinking these passages, and in doing so I feel like you might miss the major point of the article, which is most important in deciding on how to answer the questions. I used the EK strategy where finding the main point of the passage was my single most important objective.

Good luck!

 

[DanniD]

.

 

[Aerus]

I used to do 6 psgs in one setting and review them the following days, now Ive changed my strategy and will be doing 4 passages a day but do each one separately and review them right after. I realized that reviewing my mistakes right after each passage would force me to not make the same mistakes after taking the next passage, do you think this is effective?

One of the challenges that you brought up was timing. If you do this, you must try to limit yourself to under 7-8 minutes. If you do 7 passages all at once, you can be more strategic in your time allocation.

 

[DanniD]

.

 

[Afford]

that's correct but I thought that I should first try to get as accurate as I can then work on my timing, no? Im taking a full length every week starting from tomorrow hope that helps with my timing and endurance

I would do timing. It's important to be able to pick an answer within 30-45 seconds. I answered a decent amount of questions on the verbal section based on my gut feeling.

 

[Aerus]

that's correct but I thought that I should first try to get as accurate as I can then work on my timing, no? Im taking a full length every week starting from tomorrow hope that helps with my timing and endurance

Timing is just as important as paying attention to the passage. You need to do both. If you really want to be generous with time, I'd say 9 minutes is the maximum you should give yourself per passage. Work it down to below 8 as much as you can.

 

[theA1doctor]

Some more advice on this would be great. I have worked hard for years but was never much into reading. This has turned my world upside down. I have an awesome top tier GPA and have taken the MCAT twice. first try I got a 5 in VR and second try I got a 7 in VR and had 11+ on both science sections on both tests. I am now currently bordering depression.

 

[DanniD]

.

 

[Germanicus89]

Something that appeared to bump my VR score up consistently was reading the questions quickly before I read the passage, maybe because when I read the passage I knew to pay attention to references to the Act of 1871 or what have you.

Can't go wrong reading a mountain of MCAT practice passages under timed conditions, that's for sure.

 

[DanniD]

Something that appeared to bump my VR score up consistently was reading the questions quickly before I read the passage, maybe because when I read the passage I knew to pay attention to references to the Act of 1871 or what have you.

Can't go wrong reading a mountain of MCAT practice passages under timed conditions, that's for sure.

I tried reading questions before jumping to the passage, but I retain absolutely nothing after I finish reading all questions and I end up wasting a minute... I'm probably doing it wrong. but I've heard this strategy has helped a lot of people to improve their score.

 

[Aerus]

I tried reading questions before jumping to the passage, but I retain absolutely nothing after I finish reading all questions and I end up wasting a minute... I'm probably doing it wrong. but I've heard this strategy has helped a lot of people to improve their score.

Reading the questions is a mixed bag. I find it easier to start a passage when I have a vague idea what it's about. Using expectations to mold the idea of what a passage will be like before you start reading can allow you to form pictures of the concepts, which will help you understand it better. Dense passages are more difficult to read because it's hard to picture the concepts in your mind.

 

[DanniD]

Reading the questions is a mixed bag. I find it easier to start a passage when I have a vague idea what it's about. Using expectations to mold the idea of what a passage will be like before you start reading can allow you to form pictures of the concepts, which will help you understand it better. Dense passages are more difficult to read because it's hard to picture the concepts in your mind.

so are you saying you find it helpful to read the questions before starting the passage?
It would probably take me 2min to read through the questions carefully to have expectations of what the passage is going to be

 

[Aerus]

so are you saying you find it helpful to read the questions before starting the passage?
It would probably take me 2min to read through the questions carefully to have expectations of what the passage is going to be

Nope, I'm saying there are pros and cons. It's up to you. Sometimes I read before and sometimes I don't. It really depends. I also never pay too much attention to the choices. I just read to get an idea.

 

[g gnome]

I used to do 6 psgs in one setting and review them the following days, now Ive changed my strategy and will be doing 4 passages a day but do each one separately and review them right after. I realized that reviewing my mistakes right after each passage would force me to not make the same mistakes after taking the next passage, do you think this is effective?

I think that's a step in the right direction. That's already a lot of passages each day. Read something for fun to, this will increase your speed.

 

[DanniD]

.

 

[kraskadva]

I used to be an ESL teacher, so I'll chime in...

1) for supplementary practice materials look up Cambridge Proficiency English Exam (CPE) prep materials. This exam is a high level English language test that covers more than you might need here (such as grammar and vocab), but the CPE passage based questions are the closest I've seen to MCAT passages of anything. There are a lot of free practice materials online, so you could use this to prep instead of burning through AAMC materials.

2) It's not clear from the above whether you're still in school or not. If you are (and maybe even if you aren't) it would be really beneficial to take a college level (300-400 level) course in critical analysis of literature or philosophy. From your writing, I don't think any version of an ESL class you'd get in this country would help you improve. However, a class that has you dive into the implications of the language such as the ones I'm talking about would help you get an idea of how to reason through a passage far better than any MCAT prep course will. This is something I recommend even to native speakers, since most people never learn to read at this level, but that is exactly what the MCAT is testing.

3a) Keep reading. Read everything you can get your hands on, as many hours a day as you can fit in. This is the only way to improve reading speed.
3b) Also learn to scan instead of reading. By this I mean practice picking key words out of a passage and the main idea without reading the whole thing word for word. For example, pick up an Economist article- read the title and think of 3 key words that would tie into the theme. Run your eyes down over the text looking for those words. As you go, read the first sentence of each paragraph and scan the rest. When you find the key words, read those sentences as well. Put the article down and summarise for yourself the main idea and the author's view point (for, against, neutral, etc.) Then read through the article normally and see if you were right. Keep practicing this until you are.

4) As far as test strategies go (though I would first focus on the other suggestions because you need to work on the baseline skills more) I tend to glance at the passage for the topic, then scan through the question stems (not answer choices, only stems) looking for detail questions.
I pick 1 detail question, get a keyword or 2 from the question, then scan the passage for those keywords. When I find them, I read the sentence. If I find something that answers the question, then I check the answer choices. If one matches, I pick it and move on. If that sentence doesn't answer the question, I read the paragraph, and/or scan for another use of the keyword. I predict the answer from the passage, then look for the match. I do not read the answer choices and look for then in the passage, as this is often a waste of time.
I go through the detail questions 1 by 1 this way, then move on to the broader questions and go through them 1 by 1. By doing the detail questions first, I've already read or scanned the passage and can answer most without going back to the text. Or if I do go back to the text, I already have an idea for where to look for supporting evidence.
I never read the whole thing straight through and I never outline or highlight (a huge waste of time in my opinion). Going through like this, I tended to finish the VR with ~20 min to spare and could go back through to double check myself.

Best of luck to you!

 

[DanniD]

.

 

[kraskadva]

Hey there, I really appreciate your in depth explanation, it really means a lot to me!

1) I’m currently using Testing Solution Verbal tests, I’ve read good reviews on them and I actually tried a few and they were pretty close to what AAMC tests. After I’ve exhausted all these tests I will definitely try the CPE materials, are there specific materials that you would recommend or if I just google CPE prep, any material that comes up would be sufficient?

Just google. Cambridge puts out some free prep material on their website, but there are a lot of other good resources online, as ESL teachers tend to trade materials pretty frequently. I would focus on the passage based parts, but some of the grammar and use of language bits might help you as well.

2) I unfortunately graduated and my test is actually in oct so Im really dealing with time constraints. I’ve taken a lot of upper courses in philosophy/sociology/psychology and I’ve done pretty well on all of those, as a matter of fact I was one of the top students in all of those classes, but I never took any english courses that dealt specifically with grammar, and just like you said, Im starting to realize how important grammar is on verbal. To be able to see the relationship of ideas and figuring out what the author means by using contrast words I think is crucial, I believe it’s too late to improve on this aspect of verbal, but Im trying my best to figure it out on my own for now.

I would strongly recommend against taking the test in October. While you can make some improvements between now and then, it will take you much longer to get to a competitive point. And anything less than ~8 in VR will not be competitive, even if you're doing spectacularly on the other sections. You might get a tiny bit of leeway by being a non-native English speaker, but this won't be worth more than a point or two.
And there's nothing stopping you from taking another class, is there? If one of the ones you had was something that focused on deconstructing and hyper-analyzing texts (along the lines of defining what the meaning of "is" is), then I would take a look back at what you did in that class and try to go with those methods. If the courses were more broad scope analysis, then I would really look into taking another class. A lot of this hinges on understanding the grammar and implications of words, so if you are not seeing the nuances or don't understand how a tense or grammatical construction can affect the meaning then you really need someone to help you through it.

3) I actually started to find it helpful to highlight those key words that point out the main idea, specially the key words on the first and last paragraphs. Are you suggesting this technique when I do the outside reading only or would it also be beneficial to just scan the verbal passages first and focus on the key words then reread the whole passage with normal speed as well?

On one hand, if highlighting helps you, then it helps you.
But on the other hand, is it really helping?
Most often I see people with a highlighter in hand tend to highlight too much, or the wrong things, and then those choices distract them from the rest of what's there. Not to say I've never used a highlighter myself, but it's rare for me. In the actual test, I did occasionally highlight a word to mark my place while I looked back at the question, but I always erased it before moving on to the next question. It just distracts my eye too much.
3b- I would practice with outside reading until you get the hang of it, but the goal is to never have to read through the whole thing at 'normal speed' in the actual test, just be able to accurately identify the pertinent bits. Reading through in practice (when you're not timed) just lets you confirm that you've done the exercise correctly, or identify what you missed.

4) This is great technique… I find myself get lost in the details sometimes, details that I will not even come up on the questions.. when you read the passage first, do you highlight names/phrases/key words, or you just glance or the passage as quickly as you can then go through the questions and find those details questions? Because I find it difficult to find the corresponding sentence or paragraph without highlighting. Another thing that you brought up was that you scan the sentence and THEN go through the answer choices and PICK the correct answer, this is what I do when the question is asking about direct information from the passage, but in cases that the you are dealing with implication type questions that you can’t directly find the answer from the passage, do you read the corresponding sentence then read each answer choice one by one or do you go through the answer choices then read the sentence?

Yep, that's why all those extra details are there. To weed out the distractible people
I only glance at the passage initially before moving on the questions. And as I said, I don't read the answer choices initially either, only scan through stems for detail questions. I scan the passage for the corresponding info (which is why you need to practice scanning effectively) and read the sentence or paragraph it's in.
For the implication/broad scope questions, the answer is always in the passage. Doing the detail questions first allows me to have seen the passage once already, so when I'm going back for the broad questions, I already have an idea where to look for supporting evidence. I look at the question stem, look at the passage, formulate an answer, then look at the answer choices. I cross off things that are wrong. I might look back at the passage to confirm between 2 answer choices, but I'm still picking an answer based on my conclusions from the passage. And keep in mind, that if there's nothing that supports it, or if it's only half right, then it's a wrong answer.

 

[DanniD]

.

 

[kraskadva]

hey Kraskadva, thanks again for all the useful tips and recommendations!

Sure

1)I'm already registered for that date, I'm going to try my best to raise my score as much as I can, if I can't score in the range I'd like to then I will definitely void it and register for another date probably in Jan.

I would say if you aren't finishing the whole section and scoring ~10 on your practice tests by then, then you should probably cancel. People tend to get a few points lower than their practice tests scores under the actual conditions, and you really need ~8 to prove that English won't be an issue for you down the road.

2) do you think hiring a verbal tutor would be beneficial instead of registering in a course? I've been trying to find a tutor but it seems like a difficult task, because most tutor won't have the ability to see through the students weaknesses rather they state what helped THEM to improve.

IF you can get a good tutor, it might be helpful. The issue I would see with this is actually finding a good tutor who 1) knows their English/critical analysis on this level and 2) is familiar with this style of testing. They're kinda few and far between. And you're right, most are not able to address student weaknesses that they didn't have themselves.
I would still recommend a class, but if a tutor is what you'd prefer to do though, I would suggest going to your local university, getting an appointment with the chair of English or Philosophy, explain your situation to them, and ask if they know any students who would be capable and willing to help you. And perhaps screen potential tutors by having them take the VR and see how they do. That way, you at least know they've seen the format of the VR and can answer most questions correctly.

3) I agree on the fact that highlighting distracts me from focusing on the main point, and I'm trying to do it minimally but there are times that I still get stressed and highlight a lot of words and end up spending 6min just reading the passage, I guess it just takes practice..

yes, practice letting go of that highlighter

4) I absolutely LOVE your technique on reading the "detailed" questions rather than every single questions, I find that reading the implication type questions are basically pointless, because the question stem is stating a scenario that can't be directly found from the passage.
How do you recognize a detailed question? so far I've found that questions that ask for EXPLICIT informations could be categorized as detailed questions such as a) question asking about the meaning of a phrase b) question asking about the comparison of two phenomenon c) questions that ask "according to passage assertion"

a, b, and c I would call detail questions as well. Also the ones that ask for a reverse of the situation- like "suppose the author was in this this situation that is not in the passage. Would he agree with a, b, c, or d?" because there's something specific in the text that either confirms or contradicts the answer.
The broad scope questions would be more the ones asking about author bias or opinion. These often come down to a few adjectives or a grammatical construction that is the 'evidence' for the right answer, and these may be the things you're not picking up on in the passage.

 

[rodain]

Sure

I would say if you aren't finishing the whole section and scoring ~10 on your practice tests by then, then you should probably cancel. People tend to get a few points lower than their practice tests scores under the actual conditions, and you really need ~8 to prove that English won't be an issue for you down the road.
IF you can get a good tutor, it might be helpful. The issue I would see with this is actually finding a good tutor who 1) knows their English/critical analysis on this level and 2) is familiar with this style of testing. They're kinda few and far between. And you're right, most are not able to address student weaknesses that they didn't have themselves.
I would still recommend a class, but if a tutor is what you'd prefer to do though, I would suggest going to your local university, getting an appointment with the chair of English or Philosophy, explain your situation to them, and ask if they know any students who would be capable and willing to help you. And perhaps screen potential tutors by having them take the VR and see how they do. That way, you at least know they've seen the format of the VR and can answer most questions correctly.
yes, practice letting go of that highlighter
a, b, and c I would call detail questions as well. Also the ones that ask for a reverse of the situation- like "suppose the author was in this this situation that is not in the passage. Would he agree with a, b, c, or d?" because there's something specific in the text that either confirms or contradicts the answer.
The broad scope questions would be more the ones asking about author bias or opinion. These often come down to a few adjectives or a grammatical construction that is the 'evidence' for the right answer, and these may be the things you're not picking up on in the passage.

 

[rodain]

Sorry for the post above, stupid mistake.

I think your current method is fine in terms of trying to assess your weak areas and trying to improve your score.
Focusing on the first paragraph and finding the main is idea is a really good strategy, and personally I found that to be the most useful.
But honestly on the actual MCAT, really all you can do, all you have time for really is:
1). read and try to be invested
2). understand the main idea
3). POE (I guarantee you that for every answer there is at least one really s***ty answer) and go with your gut instinct
in terms of choosing between the remaining two or three answers.

I took the MCAT twice, scoring 10 and 13 respectively.
The first time I took the MCAT, I realized that there is really no effing time for any fancy
system of problem solving like taking notes or looking for conceptual relationships. Your sole goal becomes finishing the test before the timer runs out.

For the reading part, for me it helped to read the little blurb at the bottom that tells you the source of the material before reading the actual passage.
It helps to get into the general tone of the passage. The MCAT verbal overall is just some guy that has an opinion of something that no sane person would bother
to have an opinion about, and your divining how this guy would answer the questions given on the exam. So understanding the source material really helps.

As for highlighting, I would use that sparsely... Personally what I highlighted on my own never came to be of much help
in answering the questions. What I came to do is just a two second scan of the questions for any names/ key words, and would just
highlight those words in the passage and read the areas around it more carefully.

I guess another quick thing you could do is to take a mental note of how the paragraphs transition in terms of main idea/ tone/ structure.
(main idea --> developing the main idea, statement --> litany of boring details to prove that statement, etc.)

For POE (after eliminating the one or two obviously wrong answers) there really is no "wrong" answer left. You just have to choose the one
that best fits the overall idea.

My personal two cents on the advice to "read more" to improve on the verbal is eh. Honestly just take a lot of practice MCAT exams, and in timed conditions as
much as possible. The MCAT verbal reading is its own distinct style of reading what is often horrendously boring material under pressure,
and as such, only reading MCAT passages would help as opposed to just generalized, leisurely reading of various materials.

This is all I can come with at the moment. Sorry if this is all over the place.

 

[D.O.O.M]

Hi DannyD, ESL here chiming in. I learned English in 2004 (Portuguese is my native tongue).

Don't make the mistake of taking the MCAT unprepared to save a few hundred bucks. It won't be worth it. Better to take your time preparing and reschedule the MCAT for January.

I got a 10 on my verbal section. During practice I was getting a nine or so and what really helped me prepare was reading a lot (The Hobbit, Eragon, The Screwtape Letters, articles in newspapers, whatever) and then taking my schools' MCAT prep course.

Now, I don't recall exactly what tips the MCAT course gave me, but the lady who taught us said we should always trust our gut. Changing the answers later is both unproductive and usually results in changing from a correct choice to an incorrect choice or fro a wrong choice to another. So, trust your initial response and move on.

The quicker you read the more you understand. Think about that: as a child you probably had to look at each letter individually to be able to read the word. If you read a sentence that way you probably would have a hard time knowing what it was about. The same happens with reading long texts. If you have to focus on the individual words you will miss out on the overall pattern of the paragraph.

Therefore, I would (if in your situation):

1 reschedule the MCAT to January
2 work on your reading speed
3 read A LOT about a variety of topics
4 enroll in an MCAT course/verbal tutor
5 practice time management skills for the verbal section

Good luck, you can definitely do it! Your posts indicate that writing in English is not too hard for you, so you know the language. It's just a matter of practicing, practicing, and practicing!

 

[user12]

, I realized that there is really no effing time for any fancy
system of problem solving like taking notes or looking for conceptual relationships. Your sole goal becomes finishing the test before the timer runs out.



As for highlighting, I would use that sparsely... Personally what I highlighted on my own never came to be of much help
in answering the questions. What I came to do is just a two second scan of the questions for any names/ key words, and would just
highlight those words in the passage and read the areas around it more carefully.


.

I agree with this guy. especially about the taking notes part. Kaplan should be thrown out of business for promoting such a *****ic idea as "passage mapping." if you're doing that, stop it right the hell now and your score will go up 3 points

 

[DanniD]

Sure

I would say if you aren't finishing the whole section and scoring ~10 on your practice tests by then, then you should probably cancel. People tend to get a few points lower than their practice tests scores under the actual conditions, and you really need ~8 to prove that English won't be an issue for you down the road.
IF you can get a good tutor, it might be helpful. The issue I would see with this is actually finding a good tutor who 1) knows their English/critical analysis on this level and 2) is familiar with this style of testing. They're kinda few and far between. And you're right, most are not able to address student weaknesses that they didn't have themselves.
I would still recommend a class, but if a tutor is what you'd prefer to do though, I would suggest going to your local university, getting an appointment with the chair of English or Philosophy, explain your situation to them, and ask if they know any students who would be capable and willing to help you. And perhaps screen potential tutors by having them take the VR and see how they do. That way, you at least know they've seen the format of the VR and can answer most questions correctly.
yes, practice letting go of that highlighter
a, b, and c I would call detail questions as well. Also the ones that ask for a reverse of the situation- like "suppose the author was in this this situation that is not in the passage. Would he agree with a, b, c, or d?" because there's something specific in the text that either confirms or contradicts the answer.
The broad scope questions would be more the ones asking about author bias or opinion. These often come down to a few adjectives or a grammatical construction that is the 'evidence' for the right answer, and these may be the things you're not picking up on in the passage.

Sure, I will start taking AAMC practice tests and see how much I've improved.

you're suggestion sounds wonderful I actually thought about speaking with my English professor as well! hopefully she knows of someone.

I'm still practicing extracting those detailed questions, eventhough I spend 30-40 seconds reading those questions keys I feel like it pays off at the end by saving time not looking for where those asserssions were discussed.

 

[DanniD]

.

 

[mehc012]

Figured I'd throw in my two cents...I jumped up 3-4pts once I started approaching things this way.

I do NOT read the questions first...honestly, a lot of the time they word the question so that it mimics the wording of one sentence while the actual answer comes from an overall understanding of the passage, and differs slightly. After I found that I was scoring lower than I wanted to, I started trying all sorts of different methods to 'catch' the answer, to have actual evidence I could cite for each correct answer...and my score actually dropped. A lot. What had happened? Well, by freaking out and trying to prove each answer, I actually led myself to fall into a lot of the traps the passage had set up to differentiate 'understands the overall passage' from 'can skim for details'.

So here was my final strategy, which worked well for me and pulled my score up past my initial starting score by 3-4 points: go with your gut, and then prove WRONG, not right.
It is very difficult to prove something right (beyond a purely discrete question, which are few and far between in verbal). It may feel as if you have succeeded after you find a sentence which jives with that answer, but you aren't done yet. In order to prove that the author truly stands behind that sentence, you really have to go through the passage and make sure the author never goes against that idea, and nobody has time for that (nor the persistence). So, instead, I used my gut to pick the most 'right' feeling answer, and then if I was not confident and felt the need to confirm, I went through and found evidence that each of the other answers was wrong. That requires far less evidence.

If for some reason I could not find evidence against one of the other answers, I'd try to prove my initial answer wrong and reevaluate. If I still could not choose between the two, I would just pick one, but try to come back later and reevaluate...sometimes a few minutes of space opens up your perspective!

MCAT VR makes it hard to prove something right, but it's a multiple choice exam...so why not just prove things wrong instead?

 

[Gauss44]

Figured I'd throw in my two cents...I jumped up 3-4pts once I started approaching things this way.

I do NOT read the questions first...honestly, a lot of the time they word the question so that it mimics the wording of one sentence while the actual answer comes from an overall understanding of the passage, and differs slightly. After I found that I was scoring lower than I wanted to, I started trying all sorts of different methods to 'catch' the answer, to have actual evidence I could cite for each correct answer...and my score actually dropped. A lot. What had happened? Well, by freaking out and trying to prove each answer, I actually led myself to fall into a lot of the traps the passage had set up to differentiate 'understands the overall passage' from 'can skim for details'.

So here was my final strategy, which worked well for me and pulled my score up past my initial starting score by 3-4 points: go with your gut, and then prove WRONG, not right.
It is very difficult to prove something right (beyond a purely discrete question, which are few and far between in verbal). It may feel as if you have succeeded after you find a sentence which jives with that answer, but you aren't done yet. In order to prove that the author truly stands behind that sentence, you really have to go through the passage and make sure the author never goes against that idea, and nobody has time for that (nor the persistence). So, instead, I used my gut to pick the most 'right' feeling answer, and then if I was not confident and felt the need to confirm, I went through and found evidence that each of the other answers was wrong. That requires far less evidence.

If for some reason I could not find evidence against one of the other answers, I'd try to prove my initial answer wrong and reevaluate. If I still could not choose between the two, I would just pick one, but try to come back later and reevaluate...sometimes a few minutes of space opens up your perspective!

MCAT VR makes it hard to prove something right, but it's a multiple choice exam...so why not just prove things wrong instead?

This is a good AAMC strategy. Be aware that some non-AAMC test prep companies don't follow all of these patterns. For example, you will find verbatim answers in GS and EK, but practically never in AAMC. AAMC makes you think more. That difference trips people up.

 

[mehc012]

This is a good AAMC strategy. Be aware that some non-AAMC test prep companies don't follow all of these patterns. For example, you will find verbatim answers in GS and EK, but practically never in AAMC. AAMC makes you think more. That difference trips people up.

True. I personally don't really advocate any non AAMC practice materials. They're all crap. FLs, MCAT guide, and VR SA all the way!

 

[user12]

id say Princeton is the best non-aamc verbal out there. i think they're really really good.

 

[mehc012]

id say Princeton is the best non-aamc verbal out there. i think they're really really good.

They're the best, but they're not good. Nothing is like AAMC materials except AAMC material.

 

[mfata27]

First time I took the MCAT I scored a 6 on Verbal. On my retake I brought it up to a 10 by doing the following...

1) Do not highlight or take notes, ever. You'll never use what you highlighted or wrote down when you go to answer the questions because they rarely ask you to find something from the passage verbatim.
2) Do not get stuck on the first paragraph of each passage and reread it a bunch of times. You may not know what the point of the passage is until you get to the second paragraph or so.
3) Pay attention to the author's opinion on the topic he is writing about, e.g. does he agree with it, disagree with it, etc. You should also look to catch on the author's tone while reading.
4) Do not pay attention to detail. If the author gives a bunch of examples, take a mental note of what the examples are there to support but do not get caught up trying to memorize them as you read.
5) When you finish each paragraph, try to summarize the paragraph in a sentence or a couple words. This will make it easier to know what you're reading as you go along.
6) When answering the questions, do not overthink them. More often than not, the correct answer will be the one that your gut is telling you to pick.
7) Do not skip a passage under any circumstances. On my MCAT, I skipped a passage because it seemed too obscure, only to find out, with <5 minutes left that the questions that followed were incredibly straight forward.
8) On the CBT's I found that it helped if I would keep the line of text that I am reading right at the top of the window and then right after I finish that line, I scroll down just enough to have the next line at the top of the window. This was so I did not get caught up reading the same line over and over again, getting caught up in the details of the passage, as I found myself doing. With the workbooks, this can be accomplished with a piece of paper that you would move down the passage as you read it.
9) PRACTICE!!! You absolutely must practice verbal, timed, every day until you take the MCAT. This is the most important part. Buy TPRH Verbal Workbook and EK101 and alternate between those books doing 2-3 passages per day while timing yourself 7 minutes per passage. The point of always timing yourself is so you can become better at accurately guessing the correct answer. For verbal, you will not be able to answer most of the questions while being 100% certain that your answer is correct.

Take my word for it, anybody can get through the verbal section. I don't read much and I brought my score up from a 6 to a 10. In the end, my strategies may not work for you but that is why it is imperative to practice. With enough practice, you will generate strategies of your own that tend to work for you. Try to remain positive during this process. Studying for Verbal will certainly get you down at times, but just remember to keep at it. If you are having one of those days where you just aren't getting the answers correct, don't keep going at other passages, everyone has an off-day from time to time. Good luck!!!

 

[DanniD]

.

 

[DanniD]

Thank you everyone for all these helpful advises, I really wouldn't be able to go through this without you guys!
you guys rock!

 

[G_Marker]

You've written a very coherent topic post, so I really don't think it makes sense that you're getting a '3' (isn't that lower than the guessing score?).

Do you have a learning disability? Are you having trouble finishing the test? What do you get if you don't use the timer (or use 1.5x or 2x accommodations)? Someone once told me that it's a big indicator of a learning disability if, when given some extra time, you do significantly better than with normal time (like going from 3-4 to 8-10). There are a lot of reading/cognitive fluency LDs that can affect your ability to complete the VR section. These aren't necessarily huge disabilities for a physician (because, really, when will we need to read English literature in a timed setting?), and I really don't think you should feel guilty about looking into getting testing for accommodations.

A strategy that helped me, since I am a slow reader, is that I didn't do all the passages 100%. I quickly looked through them, did the easiest ones first (with a set amount of time for each of them), and then left a last one to half-guess at if I don't have time at the end (usually something really dense, like poetry or English literature). I went from getting 6-7 to getting 10-13 using this and other Kaplan strategies, many of which are mentioned above.

I am rooting for you! Keep us updated on your improvement.

 

[DanniD]

.