MCAT CARS

[lazybutt26]

Hi everyone,

I am hoping to get some insight into what kind of problem I have with my CARS strategies. At this point, I think I have some data that I can show you.

I have done exactly 20 passages untimed and 20 passage timed.
Out of 20 passaged untimed, I managed to get only one problem wrong per each passage. I felt good about it and thought that I had some kind of strategy down.

For 20 timed passages, I barely managed to get the questions right. It was as if all of a sudden, I forgot how to apply my strategies that worked when I did passages untimed!

I know there will be some people who might say, "well, untimed passages do not count anyways, since the MCAT will be timed, and it's really all about learning how to do passages under time constraint", yes, I agree with this comment a hundred percent.

My question is now, then, how to move forward from this? How do I increase the accuracy and the timing at the same time? Because it seems like in order for me to nail at accuracy, my timing would be compromised, and vice versa.

Any tips? And I know some people'd be like, "try to skim through the passages within 3-5 minutes", but really, how do you get the author's tone, main idea, and structure of the passage out of it when your eyes are moving side to side skimming through a long passage within 3 minutes? like, be realistic here.

Please help

Thanks!!

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[freedoctor17]

The thing I found worked great for me is to really read the passage so well the first time that I don't have to go back to it unless it's one of those specific questions that asked for a certain thing from a certain paragraph or line.

While reading I'd keep track of important things in the back of my mind like the tone and theme of the writing and then I'd answer most of the questions without going back and searching through again. Try practicing it this way and see if it works for you.

 

[El Kabong]

How long are the untimed passages taking you? Just looking to gain an idea of how much time you will need to cut down on. Also, how often are you referring back to the passage?

The thing I found worked great for me is to really read the passage so well the first time that I don't have to go back to it unless it's one of those specific questions that asked for a certain thing from a certain paragraph or line.

While reading I'd keep track of important things in the back of my mind like the tone and theme of the writing and then I'd answer most of the questions without going back and searching through again. Try practicing it this way and see if it works for you.

Great advice here. Adding detail to this I would say mentally summarizing after each paragraph is key. Take what you just read in one paragraph and tie it in to the next paragraph and see how new information contributes to, or counters, what you have previously read.

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[thinklikeaproton2019]

Don’t try to read them in 3-5 minutes. Totally agree with the above that it’s better to take your time reading so that you can blow through the questions without needing to refer back. Also my biggest tip is that you don’t need to get every question correct. I read this somewhere before taking my test and got a 131 on CARS: “the question that keeps you out of medical school is not the question you get wrong but the one you spend too much time on.” This is especially true in this section as it’s all a time crunch. I would advise to take your time reading the passage and then go with your first instinct on every question because as soon as you start over-analyzing one question you’ll compromise your timing on other passages in the section which is when you see effects in scoring. Good luck!!

 

[DoctorSnow]

I went from 122 to 125 in CARS (score increase from 500 to 515) and the only thing I did differently was that I started out with untimed passages (around 12-13 minutes) and tried to capture the main idea. Once I was scoring perfect or maybe missing 1 question, I began reading faster and faster until I was doing the passages in ~9 minutes. The trick is repetition and being able to see the logic in each passage.

 

[ChymeofPassion]

I like to look at the first question before I read the passage to guide my reading, read in 2.5 minutes, answer 7 question passages in 11 total, 6 in 10, 5 in 9.
Practice is the most important thing.

 

[boulderbud49]

It sounds like you have great reading comprehension when you are allowing yourself to read naturally, and that understanding is helping you perform really well on the questions. I think it might be wise to time yourself on a few of your untimed passages, then take an average to establish a baseline. Then, I would slowly shave time off from your baseline, striving to continue to answer 100% correct on your questions and making sure you keep the main idea, the author's tone, and the main arguments in your head.

While you do that, I'd continue doing some practice reading at test pace. Although you might feel like you aren't understanding everything, keep at it and it will come. As you work on improving your comprehension on the fast drills and speeding up on the slow drills, your comprehension will improve and you'll become more comfortable with reading more quickly through the passages.

Try it out for a month or so. I did this when I was studying for the MCAT and I noticed a big difference on how I was preforming on CARs. I felt more confident on the passages and it helped me improve my CAR score by 6 points! CARs can make it feel like you're trying to push a boulder up a mountain made of gravel while you are sliding back every other step, but keep at it! Improvements will come as you keep practicing and making small improvements.

 

[lazybutt26]

How long are the untimed passages taking you? Just looking to gain an idea of how much time you will need to cut down on. Also, how often are you referring back to the passage?



Great advice here. Adding detail to this I would say mentally summarizing after each paragraph is key. Take what you just read in one paragraph and tie it in to the next paragraph and see how new information contributes to, or counters, what you have previously read.

Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk

Thanks for your great advice both. When I was doing passages untimed, I typically wrote down each paragraph's idea and tied all of them together to come up with a main idea of the passage, and I believe that this is why I was able to get only one question wrong. However, when I was doing the passages timed, I often found writing down those main ideas of each paragraph a waste of time, since I was so concentrated on reading the passage quickly and then going to the questions to solve them. There is no doubt that I am struggling with timing here. How do you mentally note each paragraph's idea, come up with the main idea, think about the structure of the passage and figure out the author's tone all the while reading the passages within the the constrained time?! is my question, it just doesn't seem possible to obtain. So frustrating!

 

[lazybutt26]

Don’t try to read them in 3-5 minutes. Totally agree with the above that it’s better to take your time reading so that you can blow through the questions without needing to refer back. Also my biggest tip is that you don’t need to get every question correct. I read this somewhere before taking my test and got a 131 on CARS: “the question that keeps you out of medical school is not the question you get wrong but the one you spend too much time on.” This is especially true in this section as it’s all a time crunch. I would advise to take your time reading the passage and then go with your first instinct on every question because as soon as you start over-analyzing one question you’ll compromise your timing on other passages in the section which is when you see effects in scoring. Good luck!!

Thank you so much for your advice!! I will try this!!

 

[lazybutt26]

It sounds like you have great reading comprehension when you are allowing yourself to read naturally, and that understanding is helping you perform really well on the questions. I think it might be wise to time yourself on a few of your untimed passages, then take an average to establish a baseline. Then, I would slowly shave time off from your baseline, striving to continue to answer 100% correct on your questions and making sure you keep the main idea, the author's tone, and the main arguments in your head.

While you do that, I'd continue doing some practice reading at test pace. Although you might feel like you aren't understanding everything, keep at it and it will come. As you work on improving your comprehension on the fast drills and speeding up on the slow drills, your comprehension will improve and you'll become more comfortable with reading more quickly through the passages.

Try it out for a month or so. I did this when I was studying for the MCAT and I noticed a big difference on how I was preforming on CARs. I felt more confident on the passages and it helped me improve my CAR score by 6 points! CARs can make it feel like you're trying to push a boulder up a mountain made of gravel while you are sliding back every other step, but keep at it! Improvements will come as you keep practicing and making small improvements.

Thank you so much for your great advice!! I do try to read Atlantic or Time magazines for at least 30 minutes, but I still definitely read those slow. I will definitely try to practice reading fast. Thanks again!

 

[El Kabong]

Thanks for your great advice both. When I was doing passages untimed, I typically wrote down each paragraph's idea and tied all of them together to come up with a main idea of the passage, and I believe that this is why I was able to get only one question wrong. However, when I was doing the passages timed, I often found writing down those main ideas of each paragraph a waste of time, since I was so concentrated on reading the passage quickly and then going to the questions to solve them. There is no doubt that I am struggling with timing here. How do you mentally note each paragraph's idea, come up with the main idea, think about the structure of the passage and figure out the author's tone all the while reading the passages within the the constrained time?! is my question, it just doesn't seem possible to obtain. So frustrating!

Practice, practice, practice...and practice the way you will do the real thing. Timing aside, start doing passages by mentally taking notes as I described, or by cutting back on your hand written notes. Everyone is a little different in their strategy, but it needs to be scalable for the exam. Do you have a lot of practice problems to use? Do you have the AAMC problem sets?

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[Altius MCAT Practice Test]

I have found great success with my students beginning with untimed practice and then very gradually decreasing the time spent per passage until we reach about four minutes. At the outset, my students are spending 15-20 minutes, or even more, reading and digesting the passage. During each practice drill, we focus intently on six types of information the AAMC authors most frequently ask about: 1) The Main Idea, 2) Tone of the Passage, 3) Arguments (Supported/Unsupported/Weakens/Strengthens), 4) The Author (His/Her opinions, beliefs, propensities, etc.), 5) Contrasting Theories or Points of Emphasis, and 6) Inference & Logic. At first, the student is reading very slowly and thoroughly, making sure that they have a solid and confident mastery of all six of these categories of information--thus the 15-20 minutes at first. They will do 3-4 drills in a row, then try to do the same drill in just 10-15 fewer seconds. Over days and weeks, decreasing by 10-15 seconds per session while intently focusing on gaining all those same pieces of information, they are eventually able to do the same thing in about 4 minutes. Here's a link to an excerpt from our CAR book that explains this drill ("Comprehension Drill") in detail: Dropbox - 2-CAR1-Chapter-LKC-R18-19.pdf

 

[Billius]

Hi everyone,

I am hoping to get some insight into what kind of problem I have with my CARS strategies. At this point, I think I have some data that I can show you.

I have done exactly 20 passages untimed and 20 passage timed.
Out of 20 passaged untimed, I managed to get only one problem wrong per each passage. I felt good about it and thought that I had some kind of strategy down.

For 20 timed passages, I barely managed to get the questions right. It was as if all of a sudden, I forgot how to apply my strategies that worked when I did passages untimed!

I know there will be some people who might say, "well, untimed passages do not count anyways, since the MCAT will be timed, and it's really all about learning how to do passages under time constraint", yes, I agree with this comment a hundred percent.

My question is now, then, how to move forward from this? How do I increase the accuracy and the timing at the same time? Because it seems like in order for me to nail at accuracy, my timing would be compromised, and vice versa.

Any tips? And I know some people'd be like, "try to skim through the passages within 3-5 minutes", but really, how do you get the author's tone, main idea, and structure of the passage out of it when your eyes are moving side to side skimming through a long passage within 3 minutes? like, be realistic here.

Please help

Thanks!!

A big part of CARS is being able to read quickly. That being said, I sincerely feel that it is 100% reasonable to read every single passage and answer every question without skimming or skipping passages. It just takes a lot of reading practice.

I practiced writing down the main point of each paragraph whenever I was doing a passage. Eventually, it became second nature and I didn't even have to write anymore. I was just contantly thinking of the main idea after each paragraph.

Every person/test prep agency will give you a magic formula, but it really comes down to reading, practice, and gettin a feel with official AAMC material.

Good luck!

 

[TestingSolutions]

Hi everyone,

I am hoping to get some insight into what kind of problem I have with my CARS strategies. At this point, I think I have some data that I can show you.

I have done exactly 20 passages untimed and 20 passage timed.
Out of 20 passaged untimed, I managed to get only one problem wrong per each passage. I felt good about it and thought that I had some kind of strategy down.

For 20 timed passages, I barely managed to get the questions right. It was as if all of a sudden, I forgot how to apply my strategies that worked when I did passages untimed!

I know there will be some people who might say, "well, untimed passages do not count anyways, since the MCAT will be timed, and it's really all about learning how to do passages under time constraint", yes, I agree with this comment a hundred percent.

My question is now, then, how to move forward from this? How do I increase the accuracy and the timing at the same time? Because it seems like in order for me to nail at accuracy, my timing would be compromised, and vice versa.

Any tips? And I know some people'd be like, "try to skim through the passages within 3-5 minutes", but really, how do you get the author's tone, main idea, and structure of the passage out of it when your eyes are moving side to side skimming through a long passage within 3 minutes? like, be realistic here.

Please help

Thanks!!

@lazybutt26 - Great questions! I have to agree with the folks who say taking passages untimed is a bad idea. I think this approach actually ends up hurting people.
There are a few reasons I say this. The first, and most important, is that the majority of MCAT test takers already possess the ability to do well on the CARS…if they don’t have to worry about time. Your results show this pretty well. Time is the #1 issue for most MCATers. They end up having to rush through the last few passages or run out of time outright and just aren’t able to crack 125. But taking passages untimed does not allow you to work on this problem.

The second reason I think this myth is such a bad idea is that the CARS is essentially a test of habits. If over a large number of passages, you’ve built good habits regarding how you methodically read passages and answer questions, you will get a strong CARS score. Building good habits is the reason we practice. When you do passages untimed, you not only are giving yourself a false sense of security, but you are actually hurting yourself because all of the skills you are practicing are being learned outside of the time pressure that will largely define your CARS score. When you start to take passages timed, you will have to unlearn all of your old, bad habits, and then learn new ones. You won’t be starting from 0, you’ll be starting from -100. Taking passages untimed actually makes it HARDER to do well on the CARS.

Do not skim through the passage! This is very bad advice. My recommendation for your situation is two-fold

1) Always take timed passages under correct timing conditions. This means:

For a passage with 5 questions | 9 Minutes
For a passage with 6 questions | 10.5 Minutes
For a passage with 7 questions | 12 Minutes​

My recommendation is to set two times. One for the overall passage (i.e. 9, 10.5 or 12 mintues depending on how many questions there are) and the second for timing how long you allow yourself to read the passage. You should only give yourself 4 to 5 minutes. I'd recommend at the beginning setting the second timer for 5 minutes. When it goes off, it's time to move on to the questions. Until you are no longer rushing with your timing, don't allow yourself to go back to the passage. This may initially cause you to miss a few more questions, but in the context of 9 passages, if you're no longer rushing on the last 3 or 4, net total of questions you get right will increase. Also, after a few passages, the pain of having to move on will make you less likely to mindlessly read through the passage, but instead you'll be more focused because you don't want to have to move on to the questions without having a full grasp of the passage again.

2) I recommend taking a look at how we recommend you review passages. Essentially, I think it can be very useful to practice summarizing paragraphs and passages AFTER you've completed them while you're reviewing. Critical reading is a skill that you develop via practice. Forcing yourself to summarize what you've just read develops this skill, but it's not really a good thing to practice while you're taking the CARS, at least in it's most rigorous form because you're worried about time. If you do it after, while reviewing, this gives you as much time as you want to summarize and try out different ideas. Try and find a company that provides CARS passages that come with paragraph by paragraph summaries (like ours do!). This will allow you to double check your summaries. I go over how to best review CARS passages here: Day 26 – How to Review a CARS Passage

Wishing you the best of luck with CARS!

Warmest,
Nick