Increasing Verbal

[4EvrMirin]

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Hey guys,

I have been studying for the MCAT for the past year on and off and recently have been fully engaged in studying it for 3 months. I have been taking practice test in anticipation for my July 2nd exam date but have been completely destroyed in verbal reasoning to a point where I am averaging between 6-8 on verbal while getting 9-10 on biological and physical sciences. I have taken 4 AAMC practice test and 4 Kaplan practice test and my verbal scores are always low. I have a couple AAMC practice test left and I have recently just moved my test date to August 2nd 🙁 . I feel that I will be able to have my verbal up by August 2nd but I don't know what to do. I am going to sign up for TPR Verbal Accelerator class and use it as a guide to help me increase my verbal strategies and skills. I know that if i can get on average just 6-8 more questions correct in the verbal section I will be able to increase my score into the double digits of 10 as I am hoping for.

Is there any advice people can give me towards what I should do to increase my verbal score as well as what other people recommend. I really want to take the MCAT when I feel my verbal is up to par. I know that my sciences are doing well but its the Verbal that has been dragging me down.

On top of this I won't be able to celebrate my birthday on July 6th or go out with my girlfriend (probably soon to be ex since I have no time for her 🙁 ), or my family. It has literary put in me a depressing mood. I know that my future rides on this exam and I know all of my family is behind me and that they are always there for me to keep it real and tell me that nothing matters right now but me doing well on this exam. I am going to go M.I.A. and give my phone battery to my brother soon so I don't lose concentration and focus and sway from my main objective. Sorry if this last paragraph seems like a venting session but I would just like some advice on what to do for improving my verbal skills.

Thank you for your time in reading this.

 

[guspilgrim]

Hey guys,

I have been studying for the MCAT for the past year on and off and recently have been fully engaged in studying it for 3 months. I have been taking practice test in anticipation for my July 2nd exam date but have been completely destroyed in verbal reasoning to a point where I am averaging between 6-8 on verbal while getting 9-10 on biological and physical sciences. I have taken 4 AAMC practice test and 4 Kaplan practice test and my verbal scores are always low. I have a couple AAMC practice test left and I have recently just moved my test date to August 2nd 🙁 . I feel that I will be able to have my verbal up by August 2nd but I don't know what to do. I am going to sign up for TPR Verbal Accelerator class and use it as a guide to help me increase my verbal strategies and skills. I know that if i can get on average just 6-8 more questions correct in the verbal section I will be able to increase my score into the double digits of 10 as I am hoping for.

Is there any advice people can give me towards what I should do to increase my verbal score as well as what other people recommend. I really want to take the MCAT when I feel my verbal is up to par. I know that my sciences are doing well but its the Verbal that has been dragging me down.

On top of this I won't be able to celebrate my birthday on July 6th or go out with my girlfriend (probably soon to be ex since I have no time for her 🙁 ), or my family. It has literary put in me a depressing mood. I know that my future rides on this exam and I know all of my family is behind me and that they are always there for me to keep it real and tell me that nothing matters right now but me doing well on this exam. I am going to go M.I.A. and give my phone battery to my brother soon so I don't lose concentration and focus and sway from my main objective. Sorry if this last paragraph seems like a venting session but I would just like some advice on what to do for improving my verbal skills.

Thank you for your time in reading this.

I followed EK very closely for verbal and thought it was very good. I mostly scored 12-14 on practice tests and a 12 on the real thing. I recommend you look into it.

Also, with respect to the other stuff I recommend that you spend time doing other things as well. If you have been studying for a year on/off and 3 months dedicated then it might be a good idea to try additional / different materials as well.

Just some thoughts. Good luck.

 

[4EvrMirin]

guspilgrim, what do you mean by try additional/different materials. Which EK books do you recommend and thank you for your input.

 

[guspilgrim]

guspilgrim, what do you mean by try additional/different materials. Which EK books do you recommend and thank you for your input.

I just meant taking a look at additional materials to see if anything else presented the material in a better way for you. I only used EK but I know there are many different study sources available - maybe search for the different types / sources and get a sense of what people think offers the best guide to each section, especially verbal.

I recommend specifically the EK 101 verbal passages and also the EK book on verbal strategy (both on Amazon).

 

[tennisguitar]

Exam Krackers verbal is taught really well--you're basically taught to just complete the verbal section start to finish without triaging, read the passages start to finish, and answer the questions based on your intuition--nothing fancy. Kaplan's passage mapping is alright for some, but for others it can definitely be a reason behind lower verbal scores.

 

[Radon XP]

It's sad how schools nowadays neglect verbal reasoning, humanities, etc

 

[Harpsx]

When I first started doing practice tests for the MCAT I was constantly scoring 7-9 on verbal and it was insanely frustrating. I changed my approach to the verbal section afterwards and ended up scoring 12 on the real thing. Different approaches work for different people but this was what worked for me.

First, I stopped trying to speed read through the passage and instead focused on reading through it once very carefully and at a good pace. That helped me understand/remember the passage better and I didn't have to go back to it multiple times. You'll find that you should have plenty of time to read through it and still have time to answer questions because you'll be able to answer the questions faster.

Second, when you look complete a practice test, go back and carefully analyze each question you did. Look at every answer possible and ask yourself why that was the right answer and why the other options are wrong. Write down the reason why you got your answer wrong. Doing this should help put you in the right mindset for verbal. I literally talked myself through why my answer was wrong and why AAMC/EK's answer was right until I could clearly understand why my answer was incorrect.

 

[ReptarBar]

listen to me here:

1) do as many practice questions as you can. when you go to score, try to see whether you got a question right/wrong WITHOUT looking at the correct answer. i know this is impossible for some test prep materials, but it will force you to reevaluate your answer and to find the correct one if you can do it.

2) read everything. read the newspaper. read difficult magazines. read scientific articles. read for the sake of reading simply to minimize your reading time during the test and to maximize retention. i especially encourage reading something abstract about art or read something like shakespeare that requires you to think deeply as you look at it. also books like crime and punishment will test your ability to decipher difficult text.

3) as a general tip, just quickly note in your head the main idea of each paragraph and the whole passage as you do sections. it helps to keep you organized.

4) never make any assumptions in the verbal section. every answer should be fully supported by passage materials. for every answer you pick, there should be a line in the passage that clearly agrees with what you selected.

5) again, just READ. it's the only thing you can really do besides taking on passage after passage. i know it's boring as hell, but if you get used to reading dense novels, then a bunch of passages will be nothing.

 

[jdfamily]

Below I share with you my advice, as verbal was also my hardest area. After applying the following I was able to keep y score above 10.

1) I took a KAPLIN course which uses lots of mapping for verbal, which I particularly didn't like. Although, I did like some things they taught, like parts of the highlighting and paying attention to recognizing the scope, topic, etc. I just didn't feel I needed to rewrite things that we already on the computer screen. So I personalized it and would highlight things that I felt would help serve as my "map" to guide me through passage as needed. For example, I highlighted names and dates were something I always did because it helped me on questions that referenced a specific person mentioned, I knew EXACTLY where to reference back.

2) I also read through and listened to the EXAM CRACKERS method and it was helpful. I took things from this as well.

When I tried to FULLY take in either method I noticed my practice scores on verbal suffered. Instead I worked to personalize my own method that worked the best for me. I did this by identifying where my weaknesses were. These varied from 1) Pacing 2) Voc 3) specifically difficult topics 4) Pausing after reading the passage or paragraph to see if I really got what the author was trying to get across.

I would say first identify what you think is keeping yourself from achieving a higher score, and work to improve that particular area. This is probably best done by analyzing questions that you missed and why.

If you want some more specific help on SDN I would reccommend sharing the reasons you are missing most of your questions and asking advice on how to improve. I guarantee you will get better results and more personalized, applicable, responses.

These are just my thoughts though.

 

[Anicetus]

Hey guys,

I have been studying for the MCAT for the past year on and off and recently have been fully engaged in studying it for 3 months. I have been taking practice test in anticipation for my July 2nd exam date but have been completely destroyed in verbal reasoning to a point where I am averaging between 6-8 on verbal while getting 9-10 on biological and physical sciences. I have taken 4 AAMC practice test and 4 Kaplan practice test and my verbal scores are always low. I have a couple AAMC practice test left and I have recently just moved my test date to August 2nd 🙁 . I feel that I will be able to have my verbal up by August 2nd but I don't know what to do. I am going to sign up for TPR Verbal Accelerator class and use it as a guide to help me increase my verbal strategies and skills. I know that if i can get on average just 6-8 more questions correct in the verbal section I will be able to increase my score into the double digits of 10 as I am hoping for.

Is there any advice people can give me towards what I should do to increase my verbal score as well as what other people recommend. I really want to take the MCAT when I feel my verbal is up to par. I know that my sciences are doing well but its the Verbal that has been dragging me down.

On top of this I won't be able to celebrate my birthday on July 6th or go out with my girlfriend (probably soon to be ex since I have no time for her 🙁 ), or my family. It has literary put in me a depressing mood. I know that my future rides on this exam and I know all of my family is behind me and that they are always there for me to keep it real and tell me that nothing matters right now but me doing well on this exam. I am going to go M.I.A. and give my phone battery to my brother soon so I don't lose concentration and focus and sway from my main objective. Sorry if this last paragraph seems like a venting session but I would just like some advice on what to do for improving my verbal skills.

Thank you for your time in reading this.

The only advice I can give on this post is to keep the girlfriend if she is worth it

 

[4EvrMirin]

Thanks guys. I will be working towards improving my understanding of each passage as it goes along. It seems that whenever I don't understand the passage as a whole I make the most mistakes. I am going to try and aim to read and have a good detailed written response about each passage as to what the purpose was for the writing the passage; basically what the author wanted me to get out of the passage.

I am going to work on this part by practicing in getting this part of reading the passage down to 4 minutes. Any advice on what else I could do to improve upon the reading of the passage and looking for the main reason behind writing the passage from the authors point of view?

 

[Pacna]

What helped me a lot (went from a 9 to 11) was the same method as the other sections.

The Princeton Review (and probably the other prep course companies) has a feature where you can read, not only the right answer, but how they got the right answer. On the Verbal section, this comes as a 1-2 paragraph explanation. Go through the Verbal section once without help, then go back the next day and read each question, then read how they got the answer. Understanding the logic behind the right answer is the whole exam, really.

 

[4EvrMirin]

TPR has this in their books? I just ordered 101 Verbal Passages from EK.

 

[xmasisfun]

To be honest, I didn't see much of the difference between Kaplan versus EK method.
Kaplan tells you to "map" the passage, which is essentially a necessary step in order to gain the "main idea" of the passage. Instead of writing down, I mapped the passage inside my head, which I thought was what EK was trying to get you to do.

I also found that doing just about all possible existing test materials helped me to gain more speed with VR on the test.

Good luck on your exam 🙂

 

[4EvrMirin]

To be honest, I didn't see much of the difference between Kaplan versus EK method.
Kaplan tells you to "map" the passage, which is essentially a necessary step in order to gain the "main idea" of the passage. Instead of writing down, I mapped the passage inside my head, which I thought was what EK was trying to get you to do.

I also found that doing just about all possible existing test materials helped me to gain more speed with VR on the test.

Good luck on your exam 🙂

Thanks =) Appreciate it.

 

[Pacna]

TPR has this in their books? I just ordered 101 Verbal Passages from EK.

No. I should clarify. They have it in the online portion of their course. I don't know if you can buy access to that software without actually taking a course.

 

[4EvrMirin]

No. I should clarify. They have it in the online portion of their course. I don't know if you can buy access to that software without actually taking a course.

Ohh, alright; I don't know if I should pay for the class though.