How to read the economist

[aegistitan]

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So I did a search on this and most of the responses were along the lines of "Do verbal passages to increase verbal score"

I'm planning to take the MCAT in two years time so I don't want to exhaust any of the available verbal materials yet, and although I did start reading the economist to improve MCAT verbal, I have grown to like the magazine itself as it keeps me informed on what's happening outside of my college bubble.

Anyway, I was wondering if there was anything I should concentrate on while reading MCAT articles - such as tone. Is there anything you recommend me focussing on while reading the economist to tailor it more towards MCAT prep?

Right now I circle the words I am unfamiliar with and look them up later just so I become somewhat familiar with the words, as the economist tends to use a certain vocabulary (ex. treble is british triple). Is this helpful, or not really?

I've also been reading it for a couple of weeks now and I still read it somewhat slow. It takes around 7-8 hours for me to read the economist cover to cover while being able to comprehend most of it (without glazing over words). Should I also look to improve my reading speed, do you have any recommendations as to how to do this, or is it not really relevant towards the MCAT because those passages are not necessarily as long as the economist anyway. On a side note, what's the longest MCAT passage you've seen (how many paragraphs/words approx)?

 

[ldiaz29]

For the economist, it is best to scroll past (or cover if you are using the paper copies) the subtitle. The subtitle has the main point to the article. Cover the subtitle, read the article, and write what you think the main point is. Once you find yourself getting the main idea 90-100% of the time, you don't have to write the main idea out anymore. I believe 3-5 articles (the more boring the better) per day should be sufficient.

I got this info from a local prep instructor.