Having trouble completing verbal section!

[MedicineForLife 777]

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From your experiences, is it better to go through the verbal section slower and have higher accuracy OR speed through to finish and have less accuracy? 😕

 

[ADeadLois]

From your experiences, is it better to go through the verbal section slower and have higher accuracy OR speed through to finish and have less accuracy? 😕

That's a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" question. If you're having problems finishing, you're very likely spending way too much time going back to the passage.

 

[aa4]

I would try reading the passages with the mind frame of not being able to go back to them. pretend like you can read it, and it will be taken away. this may help you be more alert when reading, and therefore you won't have to go back as much

 

[tik-tik-clock]

I would try reading the passages with the mind frame of not being able to go back to them. pretend like you can read it, and it will be taken away. this may help you be more alert when reading, and therefore you won't have to go back as much

So then basically you are also trying to memorize the concepts or the ideas presented in the passage?

If you look at the first passage in the 4r, I really dont know how anyone can deal with even understanding that crap..Are passages usually like the first passage on the 4r on the real MCAT?

 

[Rocket3004]

I tend to do really good (or really bad) on the passages that I feel I don't need to go back and look at them at all, and can confidently answer the questions.

BUT, a friend of mine, who is scoring almost excatly the same as I (more or less) says he does best when he can refer to it and pick out his answers.

We both finish at about the same time (I am just a tad quicker).

If it helps at all, I was doing decent, scoring 7's consistently, then one day, doing nothing (conciously) different, I got a 9 or a 10, and have been there (btw 9-11) since. Mind you though, these are on EK (average difficutly) Princeton (more convoluted and difficult, on average, IMO) and Kaplan (which I think are easier, on average) tests, so take that for what it's worth.

Good luck! Hopefully you will "understand" verbal... it will just come to you, like it did for me.

 

[xylem29]

So then basically you are also trying to memorize the concepts or the ideas presented in the passage?

If you look at the first passage in the 4r, I really dont know how anyone can deal with even understanding that crap..Are passages usually like the first passage on the 4r on the real MCAT?

what? the first passage was about human rights and how it is universal etc...I've noticed several trends with verbal - there is always a politics/economics passage, there is always one or two science passages (one of which is science, the other is more theoretical/philosophy), there is always one about art (i think), and for sure there is ALWAYS one passage that deals with ancient history that uses A LOT of foreign names and that is very hard to read and follow, due to the weird names - but i find that despite all this, even when it seems confusing, if you get the gist of it, sometimes the questions are a lot easier than the passage itself. follow the EK method ppl - it's starting to work for me too, and I started off with 7's. 👍 Thanks goes to ADeadLois by the way for the good verbal advice.

 

[aa4]

I would try reading the passages with the mind frame of not being able to go back to them. pretend like you can read it, and it will be taken away. this may help you be more alert when reading, and therefore you won't have to go back as much

sorry for the duplicate...

 

[AWhitehair]

I would try reading the passages with the mind frame of not being able to go back to them. pretend like you can read it, and it will be taken away. this may help you be more alert when reading, and therefore you won't have to go back as much

sorry for the duplicate...

yes, this is what I try to do. A very very good strategy. 👍

 

[MedicineForLife 777]

Thanks for the tips guys! I tried not going back to the passage, and it seems to be helping! 😀

Keep those tips comin!

 

[Moses MD]

Thanks for the tips guys! I tried not going back to the passage, and it seems to be helping! 😀

Keep those tips comin!

Don't worry about speed reading through the passages, because ultimately if won't increase your time by more than a few minutes. Instead, take your time with the passages, understand them, read thoroughly. You should be able to thoroughly read a passage in about 3-4 minutes. Time roughly 11 passages means you lose about 33-44 minutes. Leaving plenty of time for questions.

 

[jmurphy2005]

what? the first passage was about human rights and how it is universal etc...I've noticed several trends with verbal - there is always a politics/economics passage, there is always one or two science passages (one of which is science, the other is more theoretical/philosophy), there is always one about art (i think), and for sure there is ALWAYS one passage that deals with ancient history that uses A LOT of foreign names and that is very hard to read and follow, due to the weird names - but i find that despite all this, even when it seems confusing, if you get the gist of it, sometimes the questions are a lot easier than the passage itself. follow the EK method ppl - it's starting to work for me too, and I started off with 7's. 👍 Thanks goes to ADeadLois by the way for the good verbal advice.

for weird names, just cross them out and call them x and y or bob and sally or whatever. when I taught verbal sat I made all my students do it, and it cuts down on the confusion considerably. i like putting in celebrity names. there's nothing like thinking of beyonce and her ancient greek philosophies...

 

[MedicineForLife 777]

for weird names, just cross them out and call them x and y or bob and sally or whatever. when I taught verbal sat I made all my students do it, and it cuts down on the confusion considerably. i like putting in celebrity names. there's nothing like thinking of beyonce and her ancient greek philosophies...

hahaha...that's pretty funny. If I start cracking up for no reason during the MCAT doing this, that would totally suck.