How to do well on CARS section of MCAT

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Richanesthesiologist

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I'm thinking of studying for the MCAT this summer and taking it early 2019. I'm just extremely worried about the test. I did 99 percentile on both SAT and ACT, but the only thing that prevented me from getting a perfect score on both tests was the reading section. For the SAT, I got a 600 after 4 tries (800 on everything else) and for the ACT, I got a 33 (35s and 36 on everything else). I found the SAT extremely difficult, and I got all the vocabulary questions right, so in reality, I only got maybe 60% of the reading questions correct to get my score.

I'm just worried cause the MCAT CARS is much more difficult compared to the SAT, there is no vocabulary section to buffer my score, and I haven't taken any literature classes in college cause they don't fulfill my majors or minors and I don't have room for them in my schedule. Basically, I haven't read a single book / work of literature since senior year high school. And given that I only studied reading after getting 800s on both math and grammar on my second attempt at the SAT, I don't know if I can even break a 125.

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I would literally just read a lot between now and your retake. Read at least 2 books a month. Pick up some older lit (1920s and before) and read those kinds of things especially - anything where the phrasing isn't what you're used to and the language seems a little cumbersome will be good exercise for your brain.

I'm an avid reader and the CARS section was my strongest section. For what it's worth, I found test prep companies' advice useless and unhelpful for CARS for the most part, so I'd say don't waste your time with those.
 
Just practice, I would recommend the Berkeley review critical reading book. English is my second language, and with TBR practice, I scored in 95%.
 
CARS is a verbal reasoning and IQ test, which means the secret is be intelligent.

Some say certain practice techniques work, but really it comes down to ability and perseverance. It’s similar in some ways to the SAT but really it’s a completely different game.

You can break 125; you’re being dramatic. Just do practice questions, and if you’re the type of person who wants to try and find a regimented system to analyze the questions instead of just reading them and thinking about it, you can buy any of a dozen books about those techniques.
 
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CARS is a verbal reasoning and IQ test, which means the secret is be intelligent.

Some say certain practice techniques work, but really it comes down to ability and perseverance. It’s similar in some ways to the SAT but really it’s a completely different game.

You can break 125; you’re being dramatic. Just do practice questions, and if you’re the type of person who wants to try and find a regimented system to analyze the questions instead of just reading them and thinking about it, you can buy any of a dozen books about those techniques.

Intelligence just means you have less preparing to do. CARS is definitely learnable. If you learn how to outline and practice seeing what different lines in the passages are doing, you can get a very good score even if you are not very smart. You’ll just have to work harder.
 
My recommendation would be to just do as many passages as possible. Having a really fast reading speed isn't really necessary in my opinion. Get both examkrackers 101 passages books and examkrackers reasoning skills book. I read Kaplan's cars book which was awful and found EK's to be way more relevant.
I probably did about 400 passages total on cars. Got a 128-130 on it, but was still my worst section.
 
BTW don't worry too much about correlating ACT/SAT to MCAT. I had a 27 ACT with somewhere around a 25 reading and got 520+ on MCAT. I also know people that killed the ACT/SAT and bombed the MCAT and people whose MCAT score was reflective of their ACT/SAT score.
 
BTW don't worry too much about correlating ACT/SAT to MCAT. I had a 27 ACT with somewhere around a 25 reading and got 520+ on MCAT. I also know people that killed the ACT/SAT and bombed the MCAT and people whose MCAT score was reflective of their ACT/SAT score.
This is irrelevant but am I reading your signature thing correctly? I assume 120 primaries means schools? Is this a joke?
 
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