Kaplan Verbal Reasoning Sections

[fullset]

Is anyone else doing the kaplan verbal reasoning sections? Not the verbal sections from the FLs, but just individual VR sections (I think there are 13, most are 60 questions)? I personally find them very challenging, and I was wondering if they are real representations of actual MCAT (I haven't taken AAMC FLs yet). I also have EK 101 passages, but I haven't looked at them yet. I was wondering what you guys think about the content and difficulty? Should I give up on VR if I'm getting ~60% of the questions right on them, or is there some light at the end of the tunnel?

I forgot to mention that the VR sections don't have conversion charts. But I get about 50-60% of the questions right.

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[SN2ed]

Why is Kaplan's verbal bad?

Kaplan is bad in verbal because it doesn't stress the same things as the actual MCAT. For the MCAT, the main idea and author's point of view/opinion are the keys to success. Conversely, Kaplan focuses more on the detail oriented questions which are easy to teach; the kind of questions which make you go back over the passage to find the minute detail being tested. On the MCAT, going back to the passages will kill your timing. Furthermore, you rarely receive such questions and when you do get them, they can typically be answered with the main idea or author's opinion.

 

[PhilIvey]

Why is Kaplan's verbal bad?

Kaplan is bad in verbal because it doesn't stress the same things as the actual MCAT. For the MCAT, the main idea and author's point of view/opinion are the keys to success. Conversely, Kaplan focuses more on the detail oriented questions which are easy to teach; the kind of questions which make you go back over the passage to find the minute detail being tested. On the MCAT, going back to the passages will kill your timing. Furthermore, you rarely receive such questions and when you do get them, they can typically be answered with the main idea or author's opinion.

SN2ED I will disagree with you on this one. The verbal from Kaplan's test suck. However, the Verbal practice tests from their sectionals are really good. Q and Lorelai state the following in these two posts:
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showpost.php?p=2797817&postcount=60

and http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=206944&page=2&highlight=verbal

OP. The verbal sectionals are excellent practice. It's beyond me how they made those and also made the horrible ones found in their practice exams.

 

[SN2ed]

Those posts are from 2005 and both posters took the MCAT before their posts so they used sources from before 2005. Examkrackers wasn't well known at the time. They only started expanding nationwide in 2004. TPRH has also improved dramatically since then. What I'm getting at is that there weren't any good sources during that time. There was Kaplan and TPR. I don't think TPR had even introduced its Hyperlearning series. I believe TPR became TPRH in 2006. Currently, Kaplan is horrible in verbal.

 

[fullset]

The kaplan VR sections that I have are in pdf format. It has a 2004 copyright on it.

 

[fullset]

I've been getting variable scores the last couple of days. I've started doing one passage at a time. I review right away so that I'm not wasting precious practice passages. I think what I've definitely found is that a little longer time to understand the passage results in drastically reduced time to answer questions. Although it might seem obvious, I've been making a conscious effort to slow down while reading passages. I know it goes against all advice, but sometimes, I do re-read a sentence just to be sure. I think one thing that has helped me the most is that I pretend to be the author and explaining the passage to an audience. Still, one some passages, I hit a brick wall, and when I review the answers, I'm like WTF??? Hopefully, it will all be better with practice, and I'll kick ass by June 17.

 

[Ceasar]

I'm doing EK and Kaplan and the styles are very different. Kaplan is so detail oriented and I find myself running out of time much more on Kaplan than on EK or AAMC. I am always going back to the passage for Kaplan. Plus, I don't think Kaplan is leading students down the right path with the passage mapping, especially with their VR sections. There is absolutely no time for that! I can't believe they tell people to stop, take hand off mouse, pick up pen, jot down some stuff, replace hand on mouse, etc. . . it just doesn't/hasn't worked for me. I like mental mapping and I like EK!

 

[dbeast]

OK now that I've been warned about Kaplan's verbal sections, if you approach them the right way, it's actually still pretty helpful. Even on the detail questions (which they definitely include way too often), if you pick the answer that matches up with the main idea of the passage without even going back to the passage, you still generally get it right. Used this approach on the last Kaplan test and got a pretty dominant score.

Yes, their strategy is crap, but if you apply EK's strategy to Kaplan's verbal sections, then they still are useful. Not the best, obviously, but not worthless either as some people are saying.

 

[libraryismyhome]

i agree with dbeeast. Try not to go back to passage too much. Then Kaplan will help you to read faster and memorize(mind mapping) better