Incoming Freshman Wondering About Verbal Section

[akademiks1989]

Hey, should an incoming freshman, like myself, going into college start studying for the verbal section now? And when did everyone start and any ideas on how I could do so? Do I just go read books and be an active reader, or should I just use old MCAT tests?

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[seadizzle]

If you want to retain your sanity: I suggest being an active reader.

If your only goal is to maximize your verbal score, you can work through every MCAT [aamc, kaplan, princton review, examkrakers] and LSAT reading comprehension (they are very similar) passage.

Remember though, there is a lot more to being a doctor than getting a good MCAT score. Reading some interesting books would be more beneficial in the long run in my opinion.

 

[akademiks1989]

If you want to retain your sanity: I suggest being an active reader.

If your only goal is to maximize your verbal score, you can work through every MCAT [aamc, kaplan, princton review, examkrakers] and LSAT reading comprehension (they are very similar) passage.

Remember though, there is a lot more to being a doctor than getting a good MCAT score. Reading some interesting books would be more beneficial in the long run in my opinion.

Thanks...but getting into medical school has a lot to do with that mother****er named MCAT...I read (out of fear), but are there specific genres of books to read?

 

[metastasis]

If your university offers some easy philosophy course take them. And if there are Arts History or Arts Science course take them as well, provided your GPA doesn't suffer. The reason for this is, in philosophy you often read very dry, convoluted, but scholarlary written articles, just like you will on the MCAT. So, its a good practice to start getting use to how philosophers argue. Usually most people struggle with philosophy. Having taken a philosohpy course will help you on philosophy passages.

However, if you decide not to take any of the courses, with sufficient practice you should be able to do well.

If you want to read a lot, subscribe to a magazine like Atlantic (I recommend that because on the previous MCATs two articles were used from it), Economics, Wall Street, Harpers (used 1 article from there), or New Yorker. But you have to seriously ask yourself whether you will read the articles. If you pay for it, you will most likley read it. Try to read about one article or two a day, and then increase from there.

In the VR thread in MCAT Questions, there are some good books, and websites that have good articles. Check them out as well.