mapping passages

[doc4you]

does anyone actually use this strategy and write out notes on scratch paper?....or do you just read, keep a mental outline of the passage, and answer the questions???...just curious, since writing out notes (even brief ones) for each paragraph seems to be too time consuming...

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[Chargers]

I stopped doing it after my first diagnostic test. It's very time-consuming, and you still have to flip back and forth to answer the detailed questions. That's just my 2cents

 

[Swiperfox]

It seemed to help me at first, which I think was really because it forced me to keep everything organized. However, as I felt I was getting better it seemed to hold me back for the reasons you mentioned - too little time. Now, I highlight a few keywords to help me locate specific things in paragraphs, but map completely mentally. This reduced my reading + summarizing Topic/Scope/Purpose time from ~7 minutes to 4 and my score has only been improving.

 

[poppytart]

I used the mapping strategy, but found that during the actual CBT is what more useful to use the highlighting tool they have available. It does save a lot of time and makes things really easy to find.

 

[HristosKaran]

Yeah, I've learned to map each paragraph with only 3-5 words and highlight..I noticed if I spend any more time mapping it is a major time waster which I need to go through and analyze the questions. I still map though and try to get the main idea of each paragraph that I read.

 

[Symphony101]

if you have trouble getting through the passage, then map. and after sufficient practice, you kind of just internalize the process and will no longer need to write things down. you map automatically.

 

[Green Pirate]

mapping sounds like a complete waste of time. there should be no need to map a MCAT-sized passage. there's no shame in going back into the passage to answer the questions either--it'll save you time (and points) over mapping anyway.

 

[kerplunk112]

ok mapping is complete bull****. the paragraphs on the real thing are way shorter than the kaplan ones. even with verbal, i would simply practice extensively which should allow you to sufficiently remember what you've read ; enough so to answer the questions.

 

[badasshairday]

No point in mapping physical or biological sciences. Map verbal passages in your head. The whole point of mapping is really to take a step back for a second and analyze what you just read. It forces you to understand those crappy verbal passages.