I can't tell if I'm improving or not (just took the mcat 5R). Thoughts?

[mrh125]

I took the MCAT 5R and got a 10/6/9 on it, which is a 25 and I scored a point higher on the MCAT 3R I took without studying like a month ago (I got a 7/10/9, but that test felt way easier and there were more interesting verbal passages). This time I felt like I really understood almost every question in the physical sciences and biological even when I missed them and the ones I did miss were mostly stupid mistakes (minus that were reproduction of cell page in the bio section), but the verbal section was awful. It seemed like a lot of the questions had 2 right answers and that stupid Picasso passage murdered me.

I feel like I improved a bunch, but I'm not really sure and my verbal scores are super random depending on how interested I am in the passages and it always seems like the least interesting passages (picasso) always have multiple right answers. I've studied a lot for the bio sci and physical sciences (neglected the verbal) and have used the princeton review books, berkeley review books, exam crackers, and some kaplan tests and I also make flashcards of stuff I miss and go through them every day, so I really hope I'm improving . I haven't studied much (if at all) for the verbal reasoning because I thought it wouldn't be that bad, but I will now.

Am I improving and do you have any recommendations based off of what I've been doing? Also, how does the mcat 5R's difficulty compare to the real thing?

Also my breakdown for verbal reasoning on 5R is:
Humanities: 29%
Natural sciences and technology: 71%
Social sciences: 75%

I thought that was kind of funny.

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[aesculapian]

Well, it looks like your PS definitely improved, and if you feel like you're understanding things better then that's a good sign. Keep in mind that your performance will also vary a bit due to chance (i.e. you might randomly get a bunch of topics you're really comfortable with and do better).

I think you're right not to neglect verbal any longer. That's a section where it's almost guaranteed that more practice = better performance. If you get your brain used to critically reading passages and articles in the way that the MCAT tests them, and familiarizing yourself with the really dense, hard-to-read passages now instead of later, it'll help you in the end.

Try reading articles every day in The Economist, The Atlantic, etc. in addition to your practice. Look for topics in the humanities, since it seems like that's the area you're least comfortable with.