How to deal w/ a passage where you have NO IDEA WHATS GOING ON

[thebillsfan]

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I make my fair share of stupid mistakes, but rarely do I come across a passage where I am at a complete and utter loss. That happened today, back to back, in a Kaplan full length and I honestly was not ready to handle it. It concerns me a little because my test is next friday. I know that there wasnt any knowledge I shouldve known that I didnt for those passages...I just didnt know how to understand the passage. Does anyone have any tips in a situation like this?

 

[214758]

The best tip I can give you if you don't understand it after repeated attemps - guess. Chances are you won't have a section like this, but if you do, it will screw over your timing. More importantly, you need to guess and move on. Do not, ever, let it get to you that there was something somewhere you did not know/understand. The point of the test is comparison, thus a hard question may be a diagnostic one (one they don't count) or one that most takers will get wrong. I can't imagine a whole passage being so difficult, but if it happens - remember that unless you have a particular weakness (say, in philosophy, or art lingo) you are like most takers.

 

[thebillsfan]

ha, chinesegurl, i know you. youre "indian gurl" from this weekend. probably changed names b/c you got kicked off sdn.

 

[ezsanche]

what type of passage was it?

Physics, bio or verbal?

 

[thebillsfan]

it was physics. would that change your strategy depending on subject?

 

[Hemichordate]

ha, chinesegurl, i know you. youre "indian gurl" from this weekend. probably changed names b/c you got kicked off sdn.

But 'indian gurl's' goal mcat was 41.😀

 

[thebillsfan]

But 'indian gurl's' goal mcat was 41.😀

youre right, hemi, she upped her standards to 42. she also hid her practice exam scores bc people were giving her sh** about it. i mean, if i said my goal was a 42, i'd be hiding my practice scores too.

 

[ThirdEye]

I would see if I could make educated guesses without the passage and if not guess straight through and come back to it if time permits.

 

[kwarrior]

PHYSICS: just write down and try to understand any graphs or equations. if you see numbers, remember where they are in case a question asks about them.

VERBAL:if you read it once through and have no idea, just read the first and last sentences of each paragraph and see if you can't come to some conclusion.

 

[sv3]

sciences: never seen a passage where you needed it for all questions. I haven't done AAMCs and only working on TPR but only 50% of the questions really need the passage. Sometimes a little more, sometimes alot less. So hit the questions, whatever you do dont re read science passages cause you don't need them for every question. As contrary as this will sound, i ignore passages i don't understand. I find that sometimes the info presented is a "decoy" only to confuse you from what you already know. I don't endorse this strategy but its what i do.

verbal - just from my exp, when i spend more time on tough passages, i do no better than if i keep it to 8 min. So if its super tough and i spend 12 min on it, i don't even get one more correct. So for me, spending more time screws me huge cause A) it doesn't help increase my score on that passage and B) it decreases my scores on other passages that i have less time for. so skip the passage and come back, or just answr best u can