MCAT Passages and Cars

[Dochopeful13]

Hi All,

I just started doing cars passages. I have been mainly doing Jack Westin Cars questions. I have been doing alright and the majority of the questions I get wrong are ones I overthink beyond the passages. It seems you really have to have blinders on and ONLY use info in the passage? My question is for the other sections can you read the passage and use the theme of the passage to basically answer the questions? I am trying to get my passage strategy down. Thank you.

@TestingSolutions I am going to buy your 30 day guide. Will your techniques work on the other sections as well?

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[Examkrackers]

Hi Dochopeful13,

Yes, you should definitely be "turning on the blinders" and only using information from the passages for the CARS section. Unlike the other sections, where your content knowledge should help inform your knowledge of the passages, the CARS section does not want you to do this. Instead, you are to reason within the passage and make inferences based on the writing style, tone, and content.

One quick strategy that might help orient you to what a CARS passage will be generally about is to quickly glance down at the bottom of the passage where the citation information is. This information will give you a clue on who the author was (for example, were they a historical figure? An artist? A historian? A philosopher?), what time period they wrote the piece during, and what context the work was in (i.e. was it a standalone piece, part of a larger book, etc.).

It's generally a good strategy not to only use one third party's CARS questions (or any questions for that matter) without also using the AAMC's. The AAMC's questions are generally considered the most accurate (as they write the actual test!)

 

[TestingSolutions]

Howdy!

While our CARS resources are specific to the CARS, I think the critical reasoning skills we teach you will help you on the other sections. With that said, as EK said above, the "turning on your blinders" is critical on the CARS. When I was studying for the MCAT back in the day, I had a passage on one of the AAMC's practice tests on a book that I had just read in a philosophy class a couple of weeks ago. I knew the book very well and yet did terrible on that particular passage, because I used outside knowledge. I can't tell you avoid that enough. Besides taking a nap, using outside knowledge is the quickest way to destroy your CARS score.

Best of luck on the MCAT and let us know if there's anything we can do to help!