MCAT - CARS 'weird/complex' passages

[yokiguz]

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Hey all, I will be writing my MCAT 1+ years from now and want to improve my two weakest sections, CARS (128) and P/S (128).

I noticed that often I would get destroyed by those weird philosophy passages that are near impossible to understand. Since I have lots of time to study for my MCAT, I don't mind taking a MOOC or something that would help with reading comprehension. Any ideas? I've been reading and critically analyzing NYT opinion pieces nearly daily but I need more 'philosophy' type passages with some type of explanation after to see if I got the main point.

Any suggestions would be helpful!

 

[deleted947265]

When I get to the bull**** art/philosophy passage I always answer the questions without reading the passage and flag every one to revisit them at the end. This helps me avoid spending a lot of time and avoid getting tilted. Which in my opinion are bigger risks than getting them wrong.

With philosophy it's generally written in a very logical way. So try and identify the premises and break them down in your head in discrete mathematical/logical terms. Every passage is meant to setup a key premise and walk you through to a conclusion. You might want to look into some basic propositional logic and then try applying that type of analysis to these passages and see if that helps. Hypothetical/Disjunctive syllogisms and Modus Tollens/Ponens specifically.

 

[yokiguz]

When I get to the bull**** art/philosophy passage I always answer the questions without reading the passage and flag every one to revisit them at the end. This helps me avoid spending a lot of time and avoid getting tilted. Which in my opinion are bigger risks than getting them wrong.

With philosophy it's generally written in a very logical way. So try and identify the premises and break them down in your head in discrete mathematical/logical terms. Every passage is meant to setup a key premise and walk you through to a conclusion. You might want to look into some basic propositional logic and then try applying that type of analysis to these passages and see if that helps. Hypothetical/Disjunctive syllogisms and Modus Tollens/Ponens specifically.

Thanks for the advice. Will def look into basic propositional logic!

It’s usually hard to get me tilted 🙂


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