Losing those vital VR points as MCAT approaches

[nOchemallday]

My test date is Sept. 12 and after this most recent practice test (AAMC8) I feel defeated in VR.

FL Practice tests:
[Date] Test: Composite - PS/VR/BS
[8.17] AAMC3: 33 - 11/11/11
[8.20] AAMC4: 31 - 10/11/10
[8.24] AAMC5: 34 - 12/10/12
[8.29] AAMC7: 34 - 12/10/12
[8.31] AAMC8: 32 - 11/9/12
[9.04] AAMC9: 36 - 13/9/14

Avg: 33.3 - 11.5/10/11.8

My goal is to get an absolute minimum of 30 on the actual MCAT (preferred 10+ VR, but a 9 won't kill me). I've seen a lot of people say to expect AAMC FL10 &11 to be most predictive, and also to not be surprised if your actual MCAT is 2 (or more ) points lower than the average of your AAMCs. And I may be over-reacting, but I'd rather over-react and improve, than lull myself into a false sense of security.

My concern is that my VR has been consistently slipping, and at this rate I will end up with a 7 or lower by my actual test date.

I should state that this last practice test (AAMC8) I had a LOT of difficulty with the first 2 passages and ended up blowing my first 21 minutes on them. Inevitably I had to rush through the remaining passages to make up for lost time. I was still able to read all of the remaining passages and didn't have to guess on anything, but I only had 20 seconds left to "review" for the section and I admittedly understand that the stress of timing likely influenced my final score. However, timing has never proven to be an issue on any section, VR or otherwise, and the downward trend in my VR scores has only heightened the stress.

A quick analysis of my "passage by content" correctness shows that I consistently answer best on the "Natural Science and Technology" category (avg. ~95% correct across all practice FLs), mediocre on the "Social Sciences" category (~75%), and answer horrendously on the "Humanities" category (~55%). Which also worries me; what if i get 5 humanities passages and only 1 of each of the others on the real thing...I'd be screwed.

I'll be taking the next 2 days to review all 5 practice FLs as well as re-read (for the hundredth time) the 30+ CBT thread, the 10+ Verbal thread, Vishahas [sp?] and Bloody Surgeon's VR techniques threads, and anything else I can to make this review productive before moving on to AAMC9-11.

I'll also note here that I plateaued with EK101 and TPRH Verbal around a 10(+/-2) and 9(+/-1) respectively and didn't use the AAMC Self-Assessment (which I now regret). I can elaborate on these scores if anyone is interested, although they seem irrelevant when compared to actual AAMC scores.

But if anyone's still reading, any ideas on how to tackle the humanities passages in ~2 weeks? or rather, how to tackle that one impossible passage in every test...I'll get 3 passages entirely correct and then only get 2/6 correct on the impossible passage. Or even specific post-game analysis on VR that has worked really well at identifying and correcting trends in consistent poor performance on certain question types (for instance, I haven't gotten a single "Hard" question correct on the last 3 practice FLs)?

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[kmp0410]

Read the first paragraph twice, and then read the whole passage trying to connect the dots with the mood/theme/main idea/etc. This will save you time with having to refer back to the passage.

But past that just continue to practice your timing, don't let yourself get so bogged down by a couple passages. Your still in good shape, I wouldn't worry about your VR trending down, it can be pretty random. Remember not to bring in outside knowledge to an answer.

Also, you can still buy the self assessment Verbal section right? Why not use that as extra practice.

 

[nOchemallday]

Read the first paragraph twice, and then read the whole passage trying to connect the dots with the mood/theme/main idea/etc. This will save you time with having to refer back to the passage.

But past that just continue to practice your timing, don't let yourself get so bogged down by a couple passages. Your still in good shape, I wouldn't worry about your VR trending down, it can be pretty random. Remember not to bring in outside knowledge to an answer.

Also, you can still buy the self assessment Verbal section right? Why not use that as extra practice.

Thanks for the advice! I recently took AAMC9 and used the bolded advice above (I've also updated the practice test list). I managed to get every single one of the "the central theme of the passage is..." questions. Unfortunately I'm still sitting at a 9 in VR.

Again I ran short on time (6:30 left on clock when I started the last passage). Fortunately I was able to race through it pretty quickly and didn't have to randomly guess for any questions. I'm beginning to think that my timing may be my reason for losing VR points. In AAMC 3-7 I had no problems completing the VR section with plenty of time (~5 minutes to review).

I think I'll use the next few days to work on timing. I'll probably just practice timing using a TBR Verbal book I already have. The passages seem substantially longer, but hopefully that will only help. As for not buying the VR self assessment. I hadn't finished TPRH until the day after AAMC 3 and with ~2 weeks left until test date, I honestly just didn't wanna drop the extra $40 for material that I wouldn't be able to finish by my test date.