Improving VR for English Not First Language Premed

[redcabinet]

I've been getting VR scores of 6-7 from my mock tests...it is very depressing considering I've been practicing with TPR VR Review and EK's Verbal Review book for about 3 weeks now..

I came to the US when I was in 4th grade so I'm not really what you would call a ESL student, but nonetheless English has always been not my forte. It feels as though this is the main reason why I'm doing so bad at verbal..

I'm realistically just aiming for 8 or 9. Having been graduated already and scheduled MCAT in Jan allow me to commit a lot of time for this test...so time is not an issue.

I bought TPR hyperlearning verbal workbook and EK101 because I heard they are the best. Is it really wise to just GO THROUGH and ANALYZE mistakes passages after passages? I'm afraid that doing so will just make me waste a good practice material...however, if someone can testify this can improve score I guess I'm willing to do it. I've done 2 FLs of EK101 so far and scored 7 and 6, respectively..

Is there anyone who was in similar situation as me and was able to pull VR score of 8 or higher from the hideously low score of 6? What strategies did you use to improve?

Seriously it feels like this will be the biggest hurdle I would need to overcome before I can apply to medical school... I'm so depressed...sorry guys but I just needed to release my anxiety somewhere...

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[MShopes]

I've been getting VR scores of 6-7 from my mock tests...it is very depressing considering I've been practicing with TPR VR Review and EK's Verbal Review book for about 3 weeks now..

I came to the US when I was in 4th grade so I'm not really what you would call a ESL student, but nonetheless English has always been not my forte. It feels as though this is the main reason why I'm doing so bad at verbal..

I'm realistically just aiming for 8 or 9. Having been graduated already and scheduled MCAT in Jan allow me to commit a lot of time for this test...so time is not an issue.

I bought TPR hyperlearning verbal workbook and EK101 because I heard they are the best. Is it really wise to just GO THROUGH and ANALYZE mistakes passages after passages? I'm afraid that doing so will just make me waste a good practice material...however, if someone can testify this can improve score I guess I'm willing to do it. I've done 2 FLs of EK101 so far and scored 7 and 6, respectively..

Is there anyone who was in similar situation as me and was able to pull VR score of 8 or higher from the hideously low score of 6? What strategies did you use to improve?

Seriously it feels like this will be the biggest hurdle I would need to overcome before I can apply to medical school... I'm so depressed...sorry guys but I just needed to release my anxiety somewhere...

I'm in the same boat. While I came to the US 6 years ago only (9th grade), I found MCAT verbal to be touch for me as well. But that is not an excuse for getting a bad score in verbal. With 8 or 9 however, medical schools might be lenient toward you considering that a 9 is about an average score and considering the fact that you are an ESL. I never took a full length EK verbal 101 yet nor AAMC Fls, but I have been doing two passages a day every other day until my test day comes soon enough and then I will do a full length every two days to get used to timing as well as develop my stamina for long tests.

When I started, I used to focus so much on details thinking that I might be a superman and remember all the details of the passages but that is not the case here. You will never remember a page of details in just a matter of 2 minutes; that just seems impossible. When I used to do this, I usually missed 3 or 4 questions out of 7 and the best score I ever got was 5 out of 7 right. I'm the type of reader who gets distracted by details and can't just ignore any detail which is an issue here as the verbal reasoning test require you to grasp the main idea not the details. So today, I practiced two new passages while putting a goal in my mind to ignore any detail and read quickly for the main idea but still accurately. You won't believe it, out of 7 questions for the first passage, I missed only one question and it was a misreading mistake. In other words, I misread what the passage says. The passage said photons appear to us to have directions while the choice said photons don't appear to use to have directions which should be wrong choice and I picked it because I misread the passage. It wasn't a mistake that required critical thinking. The other passage I missed two question as well only out of 8 questions but one required critical thinking and time did not help me and the other was just silly like on the first passage. On top of that, I was in the living room with the tv open and family talking so I was kind of distracted. I meant to be in this noisy condition to get used to any situation on test day.

So really, focus on the main idea and forget any details and read fast fast fast but accurately. Don't ever reread a sentence because you did not understand what it meant or what did it just say. Put more time for the questions because maybe at one or two questions, you might need to get back to the passage for it. I will keep on this way and see how it works out with me.

Good luck to you and hopefully we will kill this beast!

 

[tellmemore2020]

..

 

[redcabinet]

I'm in the same boat. While I came to the US 6 years ago only (9th grade), I found MCAT verbal to be touch for me as well. But that is not an excuse for getting a bad score in verbal. With 8 or 9 however, medical schools might be lenient toward you considering that a 9 is about an average score and considering the fact that you are an ESL. I never took a full length EK verbal 101 yet nor AAMC Fls, but I have been doing two passages a day every other day until my test day comes soon enough and then I will do a full length every two days to get used to timing as well as develop my stamina for long tests.

When I started, I used to focus so much on details thinking that I might be a superman and remember all the details of the passages but that is not the case here. You will never remember a page of details in just a matter of 2 minutes; that just seems impossible. When I used to do this, I usually missed 3 or 4 questions out of 7 and the best score I ever got was 5 out of 7 right. I'm the type of reader who gets distracted by details and can't just ignore any detail which is an issue here as the verbal reasoning test require you to grasp the main idea not the details. So today, I practiced two new passages while putting a goal in my mind to ignore any detail and read quickly for the main idea but still accurately. You won't believe it, out of 7 questions for the first passage, I missed only one question and it was a misreading mistake. In other words, I misread what the passage says. The passage said photons appear to us to have directions while the choice said photons don't appear to use to have directions which should be wrong choice and I picked it because I misread the passage. It wasn't a mistake that required critical thinking. The other passage I missed two question as well only out of 8 questions but one required critical thinking and time did not help me and the other was just silly like on the first passage. On top of that, I was in the living room with the tv open and family talking so I was kind of distracted. I meant to be in this noisy condition to get used to any situation on test day.

So really, focus on the main idea and forget any details and read fast fast fast but accurately. Don't ever reread a sentence because you did not understand what it meant or what did it just say. Put more time for the questions because maybe at one or two questions, you might need to get back to the passage for it. I will keep on this way and see how it works out with me.

Good luck to you and hopefully we will kill this beast!

Right. Attacking the questions with main idea in mind seems to work the best...problem lies in the fact that I can't read fast enough to get at least 70% of what they are saying sometimes...

I run out of time and I have guess couple questions on the last passage...

 

[redcabinet]

I came to the US in 5th grade and had a somewhat similar problem...although, to be honest, I don't think we have much of an excuse given that we came here in elementary school

My first score was a 7, but I managed to get it up to a consistent 11, with a 12 and a 10 thrown in. I am not what you would call an avid reader, but did very well on my verbal SAT, so definitely not a slanted math/science person and expected the imrovement.

How are you with timing so far?

Right, I don't consider myself as an ESL student either..and really no excuse..

I didn't do that well on my verbal SAT either..the max I got on the real test was 670 I think..avg around 620 if I remember correctly..

how did you manage to get it up there? did you just do practice after practice?

 

[Flamen04]

I came to the US in 5th grade and had a somewhat similar problem...although, to be honest, I don't think we have much of an excuse given that we came here in elementary school

So? Everyone is different. Some people never fully learn the language even if they've been here since 5th grade.

 

[salim271]

I've found for EK101, the main idea concept works for usually 5 or 6 out of the 7 passage questions, then they throw in the one or two 'tough' questions that have two very 'good' answers. The only way I've been able to deal with those is going back to the passage and look for support from there, because the passage is how EK defends what they consider the right answer. I can't memorize an entire passage either, but I summarize each paragraph in a very basic sense in my head so i know where everything is and I can look back at it quickly if needed.

 

[tellmemore2020]

So? Everyone is different. Some people never fully learn the language even if they've been here since 5th grade.

Some people score in the 10th percentile and are native speakers; that's not my point. Just wanted to encourage him given that I did poorly at first and was able to do better.

 

[tellmemore2020]

Right, I don't consider myself as an ESL student either..and really no excuse..

I didn't do that well on my verbal SAT either..the max I got on the real test was 670 I think..avg around 620 if I remember correctly..

how did you manage to get it up there? did you just do practice after practice?

Well, you're clearly capable! 670 must be at least 85% percentile.

I practiced some, but not nearly as much as for the other subjects. You have to understand where you are falling through the cracks. Here's what I did -

1. Not get fixated on things I didn't understand in the passage. What if there's no question on it?
2. Tried to read as quickly as I could without getting completely lost.
3. Heavy timing; ideally, I would have 7 minutes left on the last passage (I don't read particularly fast so this was a big deal). That means that I need to keep other passages to 8-9 minutes.
4. Make sure that I understand the question. At least some of my mistakes were because I skimmed the question.
5. NEVER rely on memory for the detail questions. If I couldn't bet $100 on my answer, I would go back to the text. This is very tempting, but the answer choices will include words from the passage that are out of context, and you will fall for it.
6. In fact, going back to the passage was the best thing I trained myself to do. If a part of a passage was referred to in the question stem, I would go back to it before reading the questions. The questions are meant to trick you and you need to have a good understanding of what the author meant before you tackle them.
7. On the least passage, I tried doing the retrieval questions first as they are easiest.
8. Don't blow off easy passages because they are easy and don't get stuck on hard passages because they are hard. All questions are worth the same, so being extra careful on the easy passages pays for itself in correct answers.

I also found the princeton review book helpful for reading as it listed various question traps.

 

[macsta]

1. Not get fixated on things I didn't understand in the passage. What if there's no question on it?
2. Tried to read as quickly as I could without getting completely lost.
3. Heavy timing; ideally, I would have 7 minutes left on the last passage (I don't read particularly fast so this was a big deal). That means that I need to keep other passages to 8-9 minutes.
4. Make sure that I understand the question. At least some of my mistakes were because I skimmed the question.
5. NEVER rely on memory for the detail questions. If I couldn't bet $100 on my answer, I would go back to the text. This is very tempting, but the answer choices will include words from the passage that are out of context, and you will fall for it.
6. In fact, going back to the passage was the best thing I trained myself to do. If a part of a passage was referred to in the question stem, I would go back to it before reading the questions. The questions are meant to trick you and you need to have a good understanding of what the author meant before you tackle them.
7. On the least passage, I tried doing the retrieval questions first as they are easiest.
8. Don't blow off easy passages because they are easy and don't get stuck on hard passages because they are hard. All questions are worth the same, so being extra careful on the easy passages pays for itself in correct answers.

This. And stop comparing when you arrived in the US. Nobody cares. Suck it up and study your ass off and you will improve. (This is coming from a kid who is a 2nd generation immigrant and who knows many 1st generation immigrants).

 

[tellmemore2020]

One more tip: highlighting technique. I highlighted things because I wanted to go back to them, not because I wanted to take some time to reflect on the beauty of the argument. A good rule of thumb is to highlight things to keep track of structure of the passage.

Here he's talking about the benefits of this program (highlight a representative phrase in the beginning of the argument) and here he's backing up his claim with a quote (highlight the name of the quoted person). But here he starts saying that the program isn't that great (highlight the spot) and gives the example of when it failed (highlight the date).

 

[redcabinet]

This. And stop comparing when you arrived in the US. Nobody cares. Suck it up and study your ass off and you will improve. (This is coming from a kid who is a 2nd generation immigrant and who knows many 1st generation immigrants).

Humm I think you haven't read all my replies...I never said I would like ANYONE to sympathize my low verbal because of my history...

I just stated that in order to find more tailored and efficient way to IMPROVE my score because brute-force passage after passage tactic didn't seem to help a lot of ESL-ers...

I merely wanted some advice from the people of similar background...that's it

 

[redcabinet]

Well, you're clearly capable! 670 must be at least 85% percentile.

I practiced some, but not nearly as much as for the other subjects. You have to understand where you are falling through the cracks. Here's what I did -

1. Not get fixated on things I didn't understand in the passage. What if there's no question on it?
2. Tried to read as quickly as I could without getting completely lost.
3. Heavy timing; ideally, I would have 7 minutes left on the last passage (I don't read particularly fast so this was a big deal). That means that I need to keep other passages to 8-9 minutes.
4. Make sure that I understand the question. At least some of my mistakes were because I skimmed the question.
5. NEVER rely on memory for the detail questions. If I couldn't bet $100 on my answer, I would go back to the text. This is very tempting, but the answer choices will include words from the passage that are out of context, and you will fall for it.
6. In fact, going back to the passage was the best thing I trained myself to do. If a part of a passage was referred to in the question stem, I would go back to it before reading the questions. The questions are meant to trick you and you need to have a good understanding of what the author meant before you tackle them.
7. On the least passage, I tried doing the retrieval questions first as they are easiest.
8. Don't blow off easy passages because they are easy and don't get stuck on hard passages because they are hard. All questions are worth the same, so being extra careful on the easy passages pays for itself in correct answers.

I also found the princeton review book helpful for reading as it listed various question traps.

Thank you~ a testimony like that gives me hope

One question...is that princeton VR&Writing review book or princeton verbal workbook?

 

[tellmemore2020]

Thank you~ a testimony like that gives me hope

One question...is that princeton VR&Writing review book or princeton verbal workbook?

VR&Writing review book

Good luck! Let me know if you have any more Q's.

 

[Twink]

If you do highlight don't start highlighting wall-texts. Just highlight a word or two. Highlighting is only there to help you look up key words. Also, don't re-read. I made the mistake of trying to fully understand the passages and got burnt pretty bad. If you don't understand something, move on. If the entire passage is nonsense to you, keep reading and don't re-read. Chances are if the sentence is too hard to understand it wont be a part of the main idea or part of the questions. If the entire passage is very difficult to understand, the questions are probably simple or very easy to get the right answer. The VR is not there to see if you can understand "advance" English but to see if you can comprehend what you are reading.

 

[TieuBachHo]

Humm I think you haven't read all my replies...I never said I would like ANYONE to sympathize my low verbal because of my history...

I just stated that in order to find more tailored and efficient way to IMPROVE my score because brute-force passage after passage tactic didn't seem to help a lot of ESL-ers...

I merely wanted some advice from the people of similar background...that's it

What strategies could there possibly be for ESL-ers to tackle VR passages? Your predicate of not being a native speaker followed by doing poorly on the test prompts others to think that as an excuse. If you want advices from ppl with similar backgrounds, then you have to be clear 'bout your intension. Honestly, there is none except read, read, read, and practice, practice, practice until you get better. Not to be a sympathizer but no-one gives a rat-ass about when and how one gets here. If you want to be a doc. then by all means work for it.