Just took AAMC FL 1 today and I got 128/125/128/128. CARS has always been my lowest score and I am taking my exam in 10 days. I've been scoring 125-126 on CARS on all my kaplan and nextstep exams. I am aiming for at least 512+. Any tips to improve CARS? The other sections should be fine since I'm just going to keep doing Qpacks and section banks
Low CARS tips? MCAT in 10 days
- Thread starter kme243
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newmemb231
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Make sure to consistently practice CARS passages everyday for the next two weeks. Look at your techniques. Are you rushing to complete the passages before time runs out? Are you skimming and not reading as carefully ? Make sure to take your time and answer correctly rather than rushing to finish every passage. Quality over quantity, and you should start to see an increase in your percentage points. Also take the AAMC FL exams. They will give you a better idea of what you will score on test day.
Gosh, in such a short time. Not much to improve on something that take years to improve.
Only the thing that might work is read it with intensity. Read it like you really mean it. With intensity. No matter how boring it is, or how clueless it reads. Read the whole thing with intensity.
Two, read it in some interesting voice. Read it is in someone else's voice, ie. Borack Obama's smiling, smirking voice. That should get you engaged.
Bottom line, get engaged. If you understand the material, great. If you don't, there is not much you can do. But at least be 100% engaged in reading, with some interesting reading voice, ie Obama.
Good luck.
Only the thing that might work is read it with intensity. Read it like you really mean it. With intensity. No matter how boring it is, or how clueless it reads. Read the whole thing with intensity.
Two, read it in some interesting voice. Read it is in someone else's voice, ie. Borack Obama's smiling, smirking voice. That should get you engaged.
Bottom line, get engaged. If you understand the material, great. If you don't, there is not much you can do. But at least be 100% engaged in reading, with some interesting reading voice, ie Obama.
Good luck.
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I was in your shoes this time last year. I got a private tutor (paid an arm and a leg for 3 sessions) but the tutor taught me a new strateg that worked well for me. I used the Kaplan/Princeton method which was note taking while going through the passage. Instead of rushing through the passage taking notes, do a few practice passages by taking your sweet ass time reading it so you can somewhat consildate all that info. Then, the questions take like 20-30 seconds a pop because you understand it so well. That strategy got my CARS up two points in about 8 days.Don't forget to study for your other sections too though! AAMC material is your best friend here.
Thank you all very much! I'm going to take an AAMC exam tomorrow and one on Tuesday. I've been using the Kaplan method writing down a short sentence or few words for each paragraph. What screws me over is I feel like I read too fast and miss a little detail here and there that ends up being important. Also I struggle with most with passages about humanities, philosophy or just random passages that are really irrelevant in everyday life because I just doze off and re read it over and over. Which forces me to rush through the last passage because I don't have enough time. To be honest I would be happy with a 125. I started out at 123 but that was Kaplan I guess
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Good luck on the AAMC FL and take your time with the passages. You don't have time to completely overhaul your strategy but my advice is to take your time and try to understand the passage. It makes the questions so much easier. Good luck and PM me if you need any more advice, and let me know how you do!
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What seems to help me (at least on the JW passages so far) is to slowly read the passage. I aim for 4min of reading but try not to panic if it takes me 5. This helps me understand the main idea, and also find out the structure of the passage so that I can jump back to relevant paragraphs based on what the Q's are asking me.
Update! Just took my last practice test before the real thing this saturday. Scored a 513 with 129/125/130/129. Not much I can do with CARS the next few days. Just gonna hope I get a few lucky questions here and there. Overall I'm pretty happy with my scores and hopefully I get the same score or better on the real exam
