How do YOU study with EK 101/TPR Workbook

[Silverfalcon]

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What the title says.

I'm just curious how everyone studies with EK Verbal 101 and/or Hyperlearning Verbal Workbook. These are definitely great books, and I was wondering what else is to beyond taking the tests and reviewing them. And any particular thing that you do while you review?

I currently review each problem, type up the major point that EK authors indicate, and understand the reason. My problem now is that for the "most" passages, I do pretty well... And then there are 1-2 passages that I bomb, meaning I get like 2/7 or 1/6. This brings my score from say 10-11 to 7. Just trying to see if there's any way to learn VR better.

 

[suitup]

Do you see a pattern in the passages you get wrong on (i.e. topic or the passage's placement in relation to the other passages(beginning, middle, or end))?


I'm also curious to know others thoughts on how they utilize these two resources because I am struggling with them as well.

 

[e46]

Ironically I was just reading through my EK verbal section. The first 30 minute practice exam.

I am basically doing what you are doing; rereading the passage and going through the answer choices and figuring out why the answers were wrong/right. I write the main idea in a short summary of about one full sentence and take a breather before I go through the questions.

The advice they offer seems short and to the point. From what I understand with the verbal section its more "practice makes perfect" with a combination of developing a technique that works for you rather than analyzing advice. I hope this helps.


I got a question for you OP. Did you read the passage from the first 30 min practice exam about st. Augustine? I only got two questions right out of seven (I know ... horrible), I thought this passage was way more about details than main idea. How did you do and do you feel that this passage was basically super hard and major B.S.

 

[Silverfalcon]

Ironically I was just reading through my EK verbal section. The first 30 minute practice exam.

I am basically doing what you are doing; rereading the passage and going through the answer choices and figuring out why the answers were wrong/right. I write the main idea in a short summary of about one full sentence and take a breather before I go through the questions.

The advice they offer seems short and to the point. From what I understand with the verbal section its more "practice makes perfect" with a combination of developing a technique that works for you rather than analyzing advice. I hope this helps.


I got a question for you OP. Did you read the passage from the first 30 min practice exam about st. Augustine? I only got two questions right out of seven (I know ... horrible), I thought this passage was way more about details than main idea. How did you do and do you feel that this passage was basically super hard and major B.S.

Does what I bolded really help you? I find that if I try to write or reconcile my thoughts by taking a break, I forget what I read.

I didn't actually do any 30-min practice exams yet. And I just read EK VR strategy again. It asks to rewrite the summary of the main idea AFTER you have taken the test and go over the choices and questions to predict what the answers should be. But, my reasoning is - sometimes, the best answer is not necessarily going to be the one that you think (instead, other three will be just kinda bad).

Eh...

 

[e46]

Does what I bolded really help you? I find that if I try to write or reconcile my thoughts by taking a break, I forget what I read.

I didn't actually do any 30-min practice exams yet. And I just read EK VR strategy again. It asks to rewrite the summary of the main idea AFTER you have taken the test and go over the choices and questions to predict what the answers should be. But, my reasoning is - sometimes, the best answer is not necessarily going to be the one that you think (instead, other three will be just kinda bad).

Eh...

Normally I will finish the passage in 3 minutes (fast reader, understanding a majority of what I have read) but after going through some question that are not main idea I will began to get the main scope of the passage twisted with in the answer choices or the questions. Taking about 30 to 20 seconds to jot down some key words/thoughts, seems to help me regain focus on the passage when I lose my train of thought.

I know EK tells you not to waste time doing this but I always finish all questions regardless. I guess it depends on the test taker, this might help you. 😕

Regardless your strategy if you do not understand the main idea of the passage you will not get many questions right. Sadly I am not the best critical reader which hurts me on this section.

 

[Assmosis]

I have taken two AAMC tests so far and 4 EK verbal tests and my score hasn't budged, it stays at 6 sadly enough. I feel that I have been reading actively and comprehending more, the more I practice but it doesn't reflect in the scores which is very frustrating. If someone could give me helpful additional advice, I would appreciate it and please don't say to read more articles, I don't have 5,000 years before I take the MCAT. When I take a timed test I just read through, highlight some of the passage and answer the questions, use POE and don't write anything on scratch paper. During my review I reread the passages and time how long it takes to read (I'm averaging 4 minutes). Then I stop the timer and write the main idea in two sentences. I then formulate 2-3 points from my main idea. I restart the timer and then answer the questions. After I answered the questions, I rewrite the question stems and answer choices into simpler terms, if I can do this (sometimes doing this on science based passages is difficult). I then read in sequence without knowing the correct answer before why each answer is wrong and which one is right. If I got the question wrong, I make a note explicitly stating why I feel I missed the question and move on. I try to eliminate at least 2 answer choice before I answer, and then check to see if this reasoning was correct. This is a time consuming process and I feel that it is helping even though it doesn't show. I have used this for only the past 2 or 3 verbal tests, NOT all 6. I haven't tried EK's method of focusing more on the question stems and do a couple tests without reading the passage. I think this would help also because many of the answer choices can be eliminated by just reasoning from what the question stem says. Other than that, I'm not sure what else to do besides keeping on it.

 

[Silverfalcon]

I have taken two AAMC tests so far and 4 EK verbal tests and my score hasn't budged, it stays at 6 sadly enough. I feel that I have been reading actively and comprehending more, the more I practice but it doesn't reflect in the scores which is very frustrating. If someone could give me helpful additional advice, I would appreciate it and please don't say to read more articles, I don't have 5,000 years before I take the MCAT. When I take a timed test I just read through, highlight some of the passage and answer the questions, use POE and don't write anything on scratch paper. During my review I reread the passages and time how long it takes to read (I'm averaging 4 minutes). Then I stop the timer and write the main idea in two sentences. I then formulate 2-3 points from my main idea. I restart the timer and then answer the questions. After I answered the questions, I rewrite the question stems and answer choices into simpler terms, if I can do this (sometimes doing this on science based passages is difficult). I then read in sequence without knowing the correct answer before why each answer is wrong and which one is right. If I got the question wrong, I make a note explicitly stating why I feel I missed the question and move on. I try to eliminate at least 2 answer choice before I answer, and then check to see if this reasoning was correct. This is a time consuming process and I feel that it is helping even though it doesn't show. I have used this for only the past 2 or 3 verbal tests, NOT all 6. I haven't tried EK's method of focusing more on the question stems and do a couple tests without reading the passage. I think this would help also because many of the answer choices can be eliminated by just reasoning from what the question stem says. Other than that, I'm not sure what else to do besides keeping on it.

See, I don't know if spending more time on reading and understanding passages really help with scores. I took the second EK 101 test last night, which I thought was significantly harder than the first test, and got the same score - 7. But there was a big difference - I spent substantially more time reading and understanding the passage. I still finished the test early though ~4 min.