Getting worst at verbal

I don't even know what to tell you. Are you taking a class?

 

How big of a difference do you mean when you say you are getting worse? Were you consistently scoring MUCH better before? If so, go back and assess what you were doing then that you are not doing anymore. Did you change your strategy?

If your scores were never that great to begin with, you need to do better analysis of your incorrect answers even from the beginning. Try to notice a pattern in what you are having difficulty with. Is it a particular type of question you are always getting wrong? Is it a particular type of passage? Are you running out of time? There is no formula to getting a 15 on Verbal, so you have to find what works best for you. Don't go easy on yourself by letting incorrect answers go. Dissect it, because you got it wrong for a reason.

If you don't understand many of the basic words in the passages, I would recommend postponing the exam and working on improving your English first. If it's with more uncommon, complicated words then don't worry, you just need to learn how to use context clues from the sentences better and not get intimidated by convoluted language. English is my first language, but I still don't understand some of the complex vocabulary, and it hasn't affected my scores because I can still gather main ideas, and understand words/phrases like "however", "yet", "it seems as though", etc. which are often the most important. Overall, my biggest advice to you is to practice, practice, practice and do heavy analogy while doing so. Good luck.

 

pick a strategy, stick to it, and practice verbal until you run out of materials.

 

If your vocabulary is so poor that you don't understand every third word in every paragraph, then I have to ask wtf you did in college.

 

Is the problem that you genuinely don't understand the words? Or is it that you just don't understand them in the context of the passage? The best thing you can do for yourself is just read passages and annotate them. Don't even attempt answering the questions yet since it will frustrate you. Improve on your analytic reading skills and try to break passages down to their bare bones. Don't bother timing yourself. Just do that until you feel comfortable with the passages. After that, move onto the questions.

Reading comprehension is fundamental to the entire test, not just VR. I highly recommend taking a course or getting someone to coach you. If you aren't comfortable with your reading level, something is amiss and we here on SDN can't necessarily diagnose and correct the problem for you. I really hope you can get over this hurdle, good luck!

 

I've been studying verbal for over month, I started out with 5 and have brought it up to a 10-11 average. The first thing I would suggest is making some sort of log for each passage that you do poorly on, write or type why your choice was wrong, why the right answer was correct, etc. This really helped me see a pattern in the types of questions and answers in the VR section.

I'm also not very good with fancy vocab, but almost all of the verbal I've seen have been main idea oriented so when I see a word I don't know I skip over it. If it comes up in a question, I can go back and try to figure it out, but trying to find its meaning while reading will take time and probably ruin your concentration or the rest of the passage. Just focus on the main ideas and see how it goes. Good luck!

 

Your going to have one hell of a time in medical school. A proper undergrad education forces you to read the fancy stuff at least a little bit and understand it. If your having trouble even when English is your first language, your not trying hard enough. The TPRH verbal does not contain many difficult words in the context of the rest of my undergrad education.

Im getting worst at understanding what your doing in college.

 

Not to be a douchebag or anything but the title of your thread should be "Getting WORSE at verbal" not "Getting WORST at verbal". Worst implies a comparison while worse implies a state of change.

 

you're

Didn't they teach you that in college?

 

Haha you got me. However, in my defense I let go of my grammar as soon as I typed "worst."

 

Disregard the haters. Just keep trying and it will get better. Don't let the scores really affect you too much. Try to determine if you are understanding the passages better. There is a lot of variability when it comes to the scores since often times you have to choose between two seemingly correct answers.

Keep doing passages, and thoroughly review your passages. I think its kind of bad to read the book's explanations for the correct answer because they often just say "see paragraph x". This does no good to help us learn since nobody answers the questions by referring back to each paragraph. So instead, try to just review your answers without looking at the key and try to justify each wrong and right answer. If you got a question wrong, don't mark what the correct answer is, but instead go through the question again and try to get it right. Hopefully you will do better since 1 answer is a for sure wrong answer.

Just keep practicing. Its really hard to see improvements in verbal, but you need to remember most people devote hours everyday to improve in the sciences, but only devote a fraction of the time to the verbal sections. Try not to get discouraged and put in as much work as you can.

I've been doing passages consistently and I am finally getting best at verbal.

 

You guys should lay off him. Hes preparing for the biggest day since the inception of his existence and he is stressing out. I'm taking the test on Sep 2 so I know how you feel. Verbal is one of my more steady subject. I'm scoring between 9-11 on my tests. After I take a practice verbal section and grade it, I usually go back to reread the passage and summarize each paragraph in one sentence. Then I attack the questions and look at every question and answer choices carefully. I eliminate answer choices that are not consistent with the summery sentences I wrote and leave the ones I cant eliminate. From the ones I cant eliminate I usually notice the answer almost immediately.

Sometimes I miss all but 2 or 3 on a passage and sometimes I get them all right. (Kind of demoralizing when you completely miss the point of the passage but all the answer you choose are consistent with what you thought the passage was trying to say.)

I also recently bought subscriptions to The Economist, The New Yorker, and Daily Dose of Medical Knowledge for my Kindle. The articles are convoluted, long and sometimes boring. JUST LIKE A LOT OF THE VERBAL PASSAGES.

This maybe overlooked by you, but I find it helps me in verbal. When I read a book or something leisurely I never really read the passage to my self (in my head) I usually just glance at the words and my brain processes it with out me needing to read it aloud in my head. But for the verbal section I find it helps me if I actually read the passage alout to myself in my head and ask myself "Why is the author so passionate about this boring topic that he felt compelled to write this long and boring read."

I hope this helped you... Good luck. See you on the other side.

 

I don't want to be mean, and I don't mean this as an insult. But reading your first post I could count several grammatical or word-choice errors. If you truly got A's in both semesters of English your professors didn't do their job.

It is possible to get over the hump you are staring at but you have a long road. I wish you the best.

 

With the advent of spelling and grammar check its very easy to get A's in college level English classes without being proficient in grammar.

 

Are you serious? You consider the mcat the "biggest day since the inception of [your] existence"?


As far as the op is concerned. Keep doing practice verbal tests your scores will improve. It worked for me. I went from an 8 on my mcat diagnostic to a 11 on my AAMC practice exams.

 

Yeah I actually do consider it one of the biggest days in MY life. In my opinion everyone who wants to be a doctor should. No single 6 hour period has accounted for almost 1/3 or more of what is important to med schools. This 6 hour period will either admit me into a medical school or reject me from medical school. Then again I have not really had many important days considering I'm not married and I don't have kids.

 

I don't know why many people are acting like that. The guy isn't here to be insulted. What makes you think he sucks at English and grammar? What if he just didn't put in mind the fact that he has to make it perfect since he is only in SDN and not writing English essay? Seriously, with attitudes like that, you are no where near being a successful doctor even if you make it. Be helpful or silent !

Since English is my second language, verbal isn't my best section either and I'm not doing too great to give you a helpful advice. I hope some people who are wise enough like Codeblu, NickNaylor, Paul411, SN2ed can give an insight and a helpful advice.

 

If you have some time to read through, the best VR advice can be found in this thread ( http://mobile.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=803769) and the links contained therein. The thread contains VR strategies from those who did really well on the MCAT VR.

 

Hey OP. Why in the world are you taking advice from premeds. As you can see, ego and insulting others plays a large roll in their self-confidence. Screw the grammar mistakes and what premeds say on these threads. Keep working hard and never let another premed tell you you are stupid or have no shot at the MCAT because of your grammar. Worst, worse, who gives a SH**. When any of you guys are doctors, see how the response is when you correct a patient's grammar asking them, " did you go to college. Well mannn your dumb." Get over the egotistical premed mentality losers.

 

Honest advice is to read more and analyze. Make sure you analyze what you read. And for the practice verbal in TPRH, just read the passages you have already done and analyze them. Forget about the questions. Understand the viewpoint of the author. Discuss the passages or other articles you read in Economist, The New Yorker, etc. with friends, family, and others. Analyze social implications for all the various viewpoints you are reading about.

So if I read a passage where the author is hinting at drug legalization, or about animal rights, or whatever, I will already have a feel for what opinions the author holds.

Im not sure if the real MCAT has topics similar to the TPRH verbals, but this is my strategy thus far.

And start out by reading slowly but thoroughly. As you get better, your reading speed will increase with little effect on your comprehension.

 

this