Help with Verbal?? I'm lost!

[ChrisC]

Hi guys,
Well, I am lost. I need your help.
I appreciate your advice. ThanX Chris.

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[frostynorthwind]

Hey, ChrisC. I'm in a similar position (as a biochemistry major/philosophy minor who seems to be struggling with the VR section), and the only advice I can offer is to look at your practice tests and see if you are consistently missing the same types of questions (but I'm sure you've heard this before). I'm enrolled in the TPR class now, and frankly, the verbal reasoning strategies (i.e. ranking passages, reading questions first, mapping as you read the entire passage, and answering the questions of 8 out of 9 passages...) have not helped me improve my score. I've tried the TPR method, but never finishing more than 8 passages, I have not scored above an 8 in VR on practice exams. Personally, I think my issues are reading "critically" quickly and getting bogged down in detail while reading the passage such that i miss the main ideas or opinions of the author. After speaking with veteran MCAT friends who have scored a 12 or higher in the VR section, I'm realizing that success in this section is contingent upon finishing all the passages and understanding the stance/purpose of the author of each passage.

Sorry that I don't have any truly helpful advice. It's a relief to know that I'm not the only one who struggles with VR. Good luck with your prep and on April 16th!

 

[ChrisC]

Thanks for the reply Frosty.
Well-trust me you are not the only one who is struggling with the VR section. A lot of people are in your shoes, including me. But hey everyone has their weaknesses. It is just a matter of making that weakness a strength. Keep up the hard work, it will pay off in due time. & good luck.

 

[synapse]

hahaha... what frostynorthwind said is so true. im taking tpr right now, and we're done with the verbal class. i'm still getting 7-8s so im very sad. i feel helpess. anyways, i dont think taking the class will help you. also, i dont think upperdivision classes will help you either. i think you just need to practice more. i need to practice more too good luck!!!

 

[stoleyerscrubz]

with all the time you spend mapping the passage do you generally finish the whole exam?

If you are not finishing the last passage on a regualr basis you are easily losing out on a couple of points that could bump your score up into the 9-10 level.

 

[dilated]

It's really hard to give advice on VR because the people who get 13+ usually use methods that are completely different and won't work for other people. I skim the passage in about 20 seconds, then look at the questions and rule answers out one by one until I'm left with the one that's both right and the only one left. But that method doesn't work for a lot of people.

A few tips that might be useful:
-I had to readjust my "verbal test taking" for the MCAT. Other tests like the LSAT and even the SAT seem to require much more logical extrapolation, whereas the VR passages seem to be much more "grounded in the text". The best example of this I can think of is the marijuana legalization passage on 3R where there's one question that's like "What best supports the argument". There's an answer that makes the most sense logically and an answer that best fits things literally mentioned in the passage, and the right answer is the latter. More often than not, you can rule out answers just by skimming for literal occurences of the phrase in the passage.

-Don't get bogged down on one question. If you're shooting for 13+ you're probably finishing the entire VR section with like 15+ minutes to spare, in which case you can come back to the ones that were hard for you, and if you're not, you can afford to best guess a few if it lets you get all the easy ones. Give it an appropriate amount of time, then go with your best guess and put an asterisk by it, then come back at the end and review all asterisked questions.

-Don't waste time laboriously reading every paragraph. This one may be a little controversial, but more often than not there are a few paragraphs that are completely extraneous and are never even referred to in the questions. Especially if you're a slow reader, these will kill you.

-Learn to skim. I can skim a passage in about 3 seconds looking for a specific word or phrase. This lets me find where answer choices occur in the passage, decide if it's right, and rule out incorrect answers very rapidly. At the very worst this can help you narrow it down to 2 choices.

-When you have it ruled down to 2 choices or so, reason your way to your final choice. Build a mini-argument in favor of each - what makes you think D? What makes you think C? If you can elucidate what the strengths of each answer are it'll usually lead you right to the answer.

Anyway, that's my 2 cents from someone whose strongest section is VR

 

[MollyMalone]

dilated's method is almost exactly what I use, with the minor exception that, instead of building arguments towards the answer choices, I tend to build arguments against . The wrong answer pathologies from Kaplan are quite helpful in this regard. Generally I find the single most helpful question I can ask myself when trying to decide between two answers is "Which one is too extreme?" Granted, it doesn't work every time but it winds up giving me the correct answer a lot. Then again, maybe those are just the wrong answers I tend to find most tempting.

Thanks for writing that up, dilated. I have been meaning to try writing something similar but I was having difficulty articulating exactly what I've been doing.

 

[ChrisC]

Thanks for the advice guys I really appreciate it.

 

[dilated]

dilated's method is almost exactly what I use, with the minor exception that, instead of building arguments towards the answer choices, I tend to build arguments against

That's a good point and one I meant to imply. I use both arguments for and against. It's kind of two sides of the same coin, but some people may have an easier time thinking in terms of which one is the worse of the two in some regard.

do you think upper div English classes would help at this point or as Synapse mentioned their no good?

No. If you were going to take anything, philosophy would be the best, but even that is questionable. Arguably a logic class will help you recognize common logical arguments in a way that could help, but even that is a stretch because the MCAT doesn't require much inductive or deductive logic, just reading comp

how do you guys answer general questions about the passage, i.e main ideas or what you think the author means.. when you have only skimmed the passage

Here I'm going to cheat.

I can get the main idea out of the passage from my initial run through because that's the way I always read - it's impossible for me to slow down my reading to a "normal" speed, if I want to make absolutely sure I understand each sentence of something completely I just have to reread it repeatedly.

Obviously that's not a lot of help for people who don't read that way. My advice regarding skimming was primarily for questions where you have to figure out specific ideas, not the general meaning of the passage. A possible idea might be to try and skim each paragraph and figure out what it's talking about, then do that for all the paragraphs and the composite will usually point you in the right direction. Usually 2 of the "what is the main idea" answers are absurd (i.e. they mention some minor detail/example that's only in 1 para) and then maybe you can focus on proving/disproving the other two. That's just my idea, give it a try if you want. Honestly I always found those questions to be the easiest because they're so unambiguous - rarely is there a case where there are two answers that are both semi-right, depending on your perspective (unlike the stupid I, II and III questions).

 

[MollyMalone]

I'm not sure how much upper-division English classes would help you at this point. If you wanted to get good at close reading, then yes, but this is really a different skill, IMHO. Then again, I doubt it would be harmful, and upper-division English classes are fun! (ok, I'm an English major and just a little biased )

This is a little more detailed look at how I approach a passage (dilated really got me thinking about it):

A. Very quick skim of passage to get general idea. During this I...
1. Underline anything that looks really important (topic of paragraph, major argument)
2. Circle names, dates and figures.
3. Put an asterisk by lists of evidence for or against a position.
I know that sounds like I'm spending a lot of time on it but I don't at all. No wasting time second guessing or making sure that I get every bit of evidence... it's just what occurs to me as I'm speeding through. Speed >>> accuracy is I guess what I'm trying to say. Just out of curiosity I timed myself on a long passage from the Kaplan review book and it took roughly 1 minute. I do this markup less to have something to refer back to and more because it fixes ideas into my head... just the way my brain works.

B. Read question stem
C. Read answers and eliminate any obviously wrong ones (usually at least one). I draw a line through any answer I've eliminated
D. Select correct answer if obvious
E. If answer not obvious, skim passage for key words from question stem or answers (depends on the question)... most of the time it will be something I've already marked. Usually this provides the right answer. The exact phrase pops up with high frequency, as dilated said
F. Distinguish remaining answer choices, usually, as I said before, by looking at why they would be wrong
G. If at first I don't succeed, I move on quickly. Sometimes by the time I've finished answering the other questions from the passage, the answer will be clear and I can go back right away. Otherwise, I make my best guess and mark it down before I go to the next passage. I circle the question so that I can come back to it at the end.
H. At the end of the section I go back and look at the questions I've circled. Sometimes a fresh eye makes all the difference. Usually there are one or two questions that I really have to deliberate on. The bonus side of this is that I usually have at least 15-20 minutes at the end to do this. I generally then have enough time to read through all the passages again. I usually do because it's better than staring at the ceiling and once in a while I do run across something I missed and I change an answer.

This method is probably not for everyone and it might not be for you, Chris, although it sure couldn't hurt to practice it a few times and see how you do with it. The one thing I can think of that is probably the most helpful to me in verbal is that I am a very fast reader, always have been. I've never taken a speed-reading course so I can't recommend from experience, but it seems to me as if that might be the most useful thing one could do to improve. At the very least, reading the passages more quickly would give more time to think about the questions.

OK, back to my very exciting Friday night of writing a philosophy paper

 

[laya533]

Ok. This is the part that I dont get: while skimming the passage do you guys understand anything even the topic or not? do you just circle words and names?

 

[MollyMalone]

Ok. This is the part that I dont get: while skimming the passage do you guys understand anything even the topic or not? do you just circle words and names?

Oh, I definitely get the main topic and usually supporting information as well. Just not every little detail. For example, at least for me, I would know that the passage was about the poetry of person X who lived in such and such time period, was a part of the blah-blah school of poetry, and was generally liked or disliked by this group of critics to the delight/dismay of the author of the passage.

I would probably have to go back to the passage to answer questions about how the poet related to the Y tradition or exactly what features of her poetry critics liked or disliked. But I would have a real good idea of where to look for that information.



P.S. Can someone do this same sort of thing for PS??? My scores are pretty lopsided

 

[synapse]

hmm.. read this thread. took aamc 7 today.. and did worse than ever!! har har. not because of this thread though. i felt like there was no time to do those strategies (the ones u suggested). there were hardly any I, II, either.. i think? it was a blur. you guys must have photographic memory

 

[ChrisC]

Thanks for the posts especially Darkside and Dialated, I know it took you a little while to write out your responces and I really appreciate your help. I'll give it a shot and hope it works!

 

[HistoRocks]

Hi guys,
Well, I am lost. I need your help. You see I took the MCAT last April and did fine in the sciences and writing (10, 11) but bombed the verbal (7). I am not the greatest test taker thats for sure but I really want to improve on this section. I practiced all the 101 verbal tests from EK, did the berkely verbal review etc.. for about 2 1/2 months but my score does not seem to change much 7-8 range. Do you have any suggestions-I am all ears and would appreciate any help. I am a science major (physiology UCLA) and took my english classes at a city college and.. well did not get much out of them. A few of my friends that killed the exam said his extra philosophy and english (critical & analytical writing) classes really helped. Would any of you suggest this? i.e should I go back and take a few upper division english classes? Also what about the Princeton Verbal Review Class, (I guess its 12 sessions that specifically review the verbal section) Have any of you taken this? Ahh I really do not know what to do. I went on a few interviews this year but was rejected from a number of schools because "we can't justify giving you an interview based on your verbal score" their admissions committee said. I'll do anything to improve my score! I just don't know what that is.
I appreciate your advice. ThanX Chris.

Hey guys,

Verbal is my strongest section. I wanna say its "easy", but I know someone else will say the same thing about PS or BS, and I'd have to hit them on the head. So all things being relative, let me just point out what I do when I take the test:

(I) Read the entire passage. The paragraphs build upon each other. By the time you're done reading all of them, you should have a general idea what the heck the guy is talking about.

(II) Don't let your bias intefere as you interpret/analyze.

(III) Sometimes I underline, sometimes I don't. Its hard to know exactly what to underline, but things u shouldn't underline are: (I) dates, (II) names, & (III) places. So when do you underline? Look out for the word "but." "But" implies an exception to a point made by the author, an exception which stands a very good chance of popping up in the questions. Words that are used in a similar manner to "but" are "however" and "yet." When you see these words, which I 100% guarantee you will see, read the statement(s)following them very, very carefully.

(IV) I know this sounds weird, but try to agree with what the author is trying to say. Like if the passage was about Nixon's achievements, and you utterly despise Nixon, put aside your personal bias... pretend Nixon was the greatest guy to have walked the Earth, and you're simply thrilled to be reading about his college days. It WILL pay off. You'll remember more by the time you're done reading the passage.

(V) Read quickly, but not too quickly. The ideal rate of reading is one that allows you to sufficiently absorb info, to the extent that having read the paragraph, you could give a brief description of it.

(VI) When you're going through the answer choices, there will always be one or two ridiculous answer choices. Put a slash through these. Simply narrowing down your answer choices will quicken the time spent choosing an answer. A very common situation is one in which you've eliminated all but exactly two answer choices. You may have to spend a minute or two on this question. Imagine a question where you have to state whether the author who wrote the passage about say a painter was an art critic or an investigative reporter. I actually got this question wrong, because the passage went into so many details about the guy's life/beliefs, such as how he despised intellectuals, and what he liked to do besides paint. Looking at the passage later on, though, I realized there was way more info regarding the painter's art style - such as how it seemed spontaneous, but wasn't, the era of painting of which he was a part, etc. - than there was info about his actual life apart from art. So, going merely by proportion, there was more evidence to suggest the author was an art critic than an investigative reporter.

(VII) Don't get confused by the formal nature of the author's writing style. In my opinion, the best way to not get confused is to be able to write at a similar level. In other words, it does help if you can write formal jargon such as "inevitably, Nixon's consequent downfall caused a sensation in political circles." You'll be able to read the sentence once and totally absorb the full meaning. Assuming the sentence looks Chinese. Well, look at the key words: "inevitably, sensation" and "downfall." Something had to happen to cause the "sensation." What was it? The "downfall." What about the downfall? It had to cause a sensation. If you're still confused, you might want to practice with writing formal stuff. Ppl are always saying to read scientific journals and magazines like the "Wall Street Journal", but in my opinion, language is most powerful when you know to use it (whether speaking or writing), in different context after different context. Of course, you should still read scientific journals, because science writing tends to be a bit different from the stuff we're normally used to reading. Plus it helps in the BS & PS sections, when you're interpreting the results of an experiment.

Well, I'm gonna end it right here... but if you guys want more advice, do PM me, or else I'll get back to u in this thread. Best wishes for ur MCAT!

 

[ChrisC]

Thanks Historocks-thats a really good point about the transition words like "but", "however" etc. that's probably when the author will make transitions in thought and I am sure the questions will see if the reader did too. Anyway-thanks again, I appreciate your help.

 

[HistoRocks]

I've also noticed the natural sciences passage is the one I do best on. Out of all the passages, there are maybe three or four which are really easy that you should do first. Easy means you can read them quickly and hardly have to refer back to the passage. Another point is that memory does help. So basically, do all the easy passages first - a.k.a natural sciences plus the other three or four easy ones - and then go for the hard passages.

 

[MDTDO]

Practice. While you're not doing well it sucks, but then once you get good at it, it actually becomes kind of fun, and honestly, verbal is a great place to gain a couple points. Anyway, it must take very different amounts of time for everyone (i.e. I either get something or I dont and learning it seems to all happen at once) but I was stuck at 8-9 with the occasional 7 during most of the four or so months I've been preparing.. Within 2 weeks of really practicing and looking into it, I was scoring consistent 12-14's. (practice tests of course; I guess we'll see next sat.) But, this is how I have basically learned everything in undergrad up to this point. If I did poorly, I would miss a lot of details or misconstrue the main point (regardless of subject).

My big thing was finding out what I did wrong, looking at the explanations given why i was getting questions wrong. It allowed me to know what not to look for, and how to avoid confusion.. And what specifically to look for. But you know how your mind works, you just have to work with it a little.

Getting better w/ verbal also helps in the science sections, at least to me..

Basically this was a long-winded way of saying keep practicing, keep your mind open, and find your flaws. Try new things, dont be uncomfortable trying new stuff since the old way isn't getting you anywhere. You could benefit by reading backwards or something, who knows, ya just have to figure it out.

my a ttempt at help-
mt

 

[SilvrGrey330]

You could benefit by reading backwards or something, who knows, ya just have to figure it out.

...just wanted to say, i thought that quote was funnny...im practicing my verbal too...and well its coming...im not at 10 yet, but its coming.

 

[Fups]

I must do this... THANK YOU for your verbal help!

So, before I read this thread, I was SERIOUSLY plateauing on Verbal and Physical (unable to get above a 8-9). Then, I read this thread late last week, and decided that I should read faster and SKIM! what a concept!
so, I tried it... not only did it help me on verbal, but it helped me FINISH physical, which has NEVER happened before.

I went from getting 27-28s (about P:8 V:9 B:10) on 3R-5R, to getting a 35 (P:12 V:12 B:11) on 6R after trying the skimming method!

a 35!!!
i have never even gotten above a 30, let alone a 35!!!!

Talk about a confidence booster! and ever since, I have been on the "up swing."

THANK YOU!

 

[HistoRocks]

I must do this... THANK YOU for your verbal help!

So, before I read this thread, I was SERIOUSLY plateauing on Verbal and Physical (unable to get above a 8-9). Then, I read this thread late last week, and decided that I should read faster and SKIM! what a concept!
so, I tried it... not only did it help me on verbal, but it helped me FINISH physical, which has NEVER happened before.

I went from getting 27-28s (about P:8 V:9 B:10) on 3R-5R, to getting a 35 (P:12 V:12 B:11) on 6R after trying the skimming method!

a 35!!!
i have never even gotten above a 30, let alone a 35!!!!

Talk about a confidence booster! and ever since, I have been on the "up swing."

THANK YOU!

Wait a minute..... u skimmed through verbal, and got a 12? Ur saying u never read an entire passage?

 

[jon0013]

for all you skimmers: when you try to answer questions do you always go back to the passage and make sure there is concrete proof?

 

[medworm]

I don't think you need more English classes or read the WSJ. Unless you want to appreciate literature, you'll just get bogged down by too much assigned literati reading.

I personally was negligent with English for the first 20 years of my life, then gradually started reading for fun. Soft news, New Yorker and even listening to NPR helped me see through the formula of good writing (style, diction, where the hook comes in, and so forth). IMHO, I don't feel that hard news helps your critical analysis skills as much, b/c that info is laid out "headline style" in the order of importance.

As offbeat as this may seem and not that I'm suggesting it would work for everyone, but my verbal skills improved after dealing with LSAT test prep books. Sure, MCAT verbal isn't as critical, but the test taking strategy is similar.

Anyhoo, my LSAT strategies that also worked for me on MCAT practice verbal:

Always scan the questions before reading the passage to get a sense of what to look for. It'll only take seconds, but will help you focus. If there aren't any questions asking specifically about the author's attitude or what weakens the argument, then you don't have to read for underlying meanings.

If questions reference specific lines, flag them before you read them. That prepares you to analyze them in the context of the passage.

I also agree that you should proceed with a critical eye that eliminates wrong (insufficient) choices. Instead of thinking that every answer kinda fits, eliminate those that are not fully supported.

About skimming, it really depends on the passage. If the passage covers a familiar topic w/a predictable thesis, sure. If obscure, you should slow down and note turning points in the passage (demarcated by however, etc).

Remember, some passages are dense and others are pointlessly poetic. Your goal is not to retain the info in the passage but to sum up the arguments in a few bullet points.

Good

 

[Fups]

what has been working for me on verbal, since i read this thread is:

i would skim q's first, trying to get a sense of what i should pay more attention to when i skim the passage... if there are specific word references or line references, i will bracket [], or circle them now...

then,i skim the entire passage paying more attention to the circles/brackets, or words/ subjects that appeared in the question... and create a "map" of annotations that would allow me quick reference when i approach the questions... sometimes, i answer those "specific" questions now...

i would then go to the questions, locate the area in the passage that is being asked about, and eliminate choices based on what the passage says verbatim...

that is pretty much all i do. skimming allows me to answer ALL of verbal, and feel more active in searching for the answer... b/c frankly, all i care about is the answer. who cares about truely understanding/ gaining deeper insight form it... i just want to get correct answers, quickly!