guessing on one passage- focus on the other 6 (VR)
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why would i do that? why not just read all the passages then answer all the questions? you shouldn't intentionally guess on questions because how do you know you pick the hardest passage to eliminate? skimming through all the passages is a waste of time and i can read all the passages and answer all the questions with 1-5 min to spare not to mention, you arent starting at a possibility of a 15 if you guess on 5-7 questions right off the bat.
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I was told this once at the beginning of AAMCs and my score stayed the same (10). When it increased above 10, I always finished all of them. It depends on what kind of things you're missing. A lot of the time, when I finish everything and miss, say, 8 questions, most of them might make sense but I probably wouldn't have put two and two together right off and some flat out don't make sense so taking longer on the passages wouldn't have helped me. If you're missing lots of easssy things, maybe it would help more.
I've tried it and it doesn't work. It especially doesn't work if you aren't doing well already on the other passages. It will be better to use the time you have efficiently to read and answer all questions. Like the poster said above, the passage elimination process is a waste.
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I tried it on AAMC 4 and scored a 9. Got a 10 on AAMC 3 but i felt like with today's test I hadd a better grasp on the passages overall. I'm gonna shoot for getting all the passages done but at this point i just dont have the speed to finish without feeling rushed
it doesnt work.
out of the guesses on the last passage, you may get one or two correct at most.
out of the 6 other passages, you may ace them, get a few incorrect or get many incorrect.
but seeing as how you feel the need to implement such a strategy, im guessing you wont ace them- you will probably get the same number incorrect had you spent less time and finished the final passage
out of the guesses on the last passage, you may get one or two correct at most.
out of the 6 other passages, you may ace them, get a few incorrect or get many incorrect.
but seeing as how you feel the need to implement such a strategy, im guessing you wont ace them- you will probably get the same number incorrect had you spent less time and finished the final passage
I recently found that taking more time on 6 passages has been better for me, personally. Every time I try to finish all 7, I end up not understanding the readings as well because I'm reading them so fast and blazing through questions, so it seems.
I can't understand the passages as well when reading them in <4 minutes and whenever I spend ~5 mins reading the passage, I get most of the questions right for that passage... This is at the cost of having like 1-4 minutes left on the last passage.
I always received 6's and 7's rushing through all 7 passages and recently got 9's and 10's from accurately finishing 6 passages and guessing on the last one.
I can't understand the passages as well when reading them in <4 minutes and whenever I spend ~5 mins reading the passage, I get most of the questions right for that passage... This is at the cost of having like 1-4 minutes left on the last passage.
I always received 6's and 7's rushing through all 7 passages and recently got 9's and 10's from accurately finishing 6 passages and guessing on the last one.
I inadvertently did this on my mcat and I'm really, really nervous about my score now! I felt great about the other 6 passages but I was left with about 2 minutes for the last passage and I had to guess-- it was really dense so eliminating answers was difficult. I had no idea this was a strategy! Gives me a little hope, I guess. I'll let you know what I scored in about a month!
Someone at my school did this by accident and got a 10 in verbal, 34 overall. He spent all his time on the first 6 passages that when the last passage came up, he had less than a minute. I wouldnt recommend it though. Mostly because you dont know which ones are the best passages to spend the most time on. What I'll recommend is this, if you notice that you are spending an inordinate amount of time on a passage, especially early on, make a guess and move on. Worst case you end up doing this method by default because you are in effect, guessing on a passage, but you are now on a "better" passage.
This method seems to work the best if you always do poorly on, say "literature" passages as opposed to science or vice versa. It is weaker if you know you always get a certain question type wrong and there's 1-2 in every question set. In that case, you could be served by just guessing on those questions and moving on. Same idea, just applied differently. So for example, say you know you always miss questions where you apply the author's tone to a new situation, guess, move on, spend more time on the easier-but-time-consuming-"detail"/find-me-in-the-passage type of questions.
For me, when I force myself to read faster, I end up getting the same correct and incorrect anyways and I always miss a certain question type. The questions I am getting wrong are the ones where even if I had more time, I'm picking the wrong answer. The strategy is a good way to deal with timing problems.
I've seen this method offered as a suggestion by TPR for the MCAT. I've also seen them offer the same suggestion on every single other standardized test they provide classes for. It's in all their books, just go to a bookstore and flip through them. It's not tailored for the MCAT but a standard strategy and it probably goes without saying that like with all strategies, your mileage may vary.
This method seems to work the best if you always do poorly on, say "literature" passages as opposed to science or vice versa. It is weaker if you know you always get a certain question type wrong and there's 1-2 in every question set. In that case, you could be served by just guessing on those questions and moving on. Same idea, just applied differently. So for example, say you know you always miss questions where you apply the author's tone to a new situation, guess, move on, spend more time on the easier-but-time-consuming-"detail"/find-me-in-the-passage type of questions.
For me, when I force myself to read faster, I end up getting the same correct and incorrect anyways and I always miss a certain question type. The questions I am getting wrong are the ones where even if I had more time, I'm picking the wrong answer. The strategy is a good way to deal with timing problems.
I've seen this method offered as a suggestion by TPR for the MCAT. I've also seen them offer the same suggestion on every single other standardized test they provide classes for. It's in all their books, just go to a bookstore and flip through them. It's not tailored for the MCAT but a standard strategy and it probably goes without saying that like with all strategies, your mileage may vary.
The way to spot the hard one is to look for the humanities passage that has paragraph long question stems.
When you are surrounded by enemies, it is important to take out the strongest, biggest, and baddest enemy first. The rest will crumble.
When you are surrounded by enemies, it is important to take out the strongest, biggest, and baddest enemy first. The rest will crumble.
I personally wouldn't recommend it unless it really seems to consistently work for you. I've found the EK strategy of relying on the main idea to be generally helpful, though obviously for some questions going back and looking for details is exactly what is required. I think the main skill that needs to be developed is discerning when more reading/time is necessary and when the question can just be answered relatively quickly just from the reading's general impression and overall idea. I think it'd be really difficult to score 12+ if you were to guess on one of the passages, but if your method is working for you and you're fine with the scores you're getting then stick with that.
The best strategy is to work on your timing and ability to quickly grasp the passage. Skipping a passage is something that would only be beneficial if you're scoring extremely low (less than 8) and even then you'd be looking at a max score of 11 on VR. Now I know what some people are thinking, "Dude I'd kill for an 11 on VR!", but keep in mind that's the MAX you could get with such a strategy, ie the only way you could get it is if you got no questions wrong except on the guessed ones. Now if you're the kind of person who can get a perfect score on 6 passages then you wouldn't even be considering this strategy in the first place, so chances are your realistic max score would be less than 11, maybe 9 or 10 at best.
