MCAT Verbal, have a hard time breaking 6, need help!

[redsun2]

---

Members do not see this ad.

Hi, I am retaking mcat next week, but still, my verbal score haven't been improved despite of my practice.

Last year, I got a 4 on the real thing, and my aamc verbal is avg around 6-7.

After practicing with EK, PR, I am still getting an average of about 6-7.

However, now I can finish most EK passage on time. (Before I couldn't).
But my score is still about the same.
Which means, before, I finish 6 passage, get a 6 vs Now, finish 7 passages, still get a 6.

Most of the mistakes that I got wrong the first time, I still got wrong the second time I redo the passages--due to not knowing vocabs, not understanding passages, thus the main idea, and not knowing what actually the question is asking, and picking up the BEST ans.

And now on the aamc verbal, I still score about the same.
There are passages that I couldn't get most of the questions right even if I do it without timing. ( AAMC 3, passage 7, about religious) I totally couldn't understand the passage even reading three times, due to a lot of vocabs, and the writing style.

I am freaking out. I am afraid that what happen last time will happen again.
If I encounter some passage like that in the real test, in the middle or beginning of the test, I think I will be so stressed, not knowing try to finish it, or skip it, and come back latter.... I remember that last time, there are 2 passages that got me, that I couldn't understand them at all, and spent a lot of time on them.

What should I do when I face such situation?
(In EK 101, I never really blank out like this, I usually be able to read through all the passages, and I follow EK strategy of doing all passages in order, and give full attention to each passage, skip question if taking too long) But it seems like if I do this, I will got stuck in some hard passages in the beginning or middle of the test, just trying to read and get the main idea of it.

Also, another problem I have, is that it seems aamc or real mcat verbal require more refer to passage type of questions than EK101. And the real mcat verbal passages are usually longer.
Sometimes I just spend quite a lot of time referring back to passage, to look for words, sentences, and spent a lot of time. (EK101 doesn't really have that type of questions compare to AAMC and the real one).

Please, any suggestions???
(ps: everyone seems to say that AAMC 3 Verbal is easy, but I find it kind of hard...got a 6 this time, same as last time...does that have to do with me being ESL?)

 

[FightinUruKai]

It seems like it's mostly an ESL problem. I would suggest picking up some vocab/advanced english books and studying those. Maybe pick up an SAT vocab book? Also, try practice reading comprehension on news articles - time your readings and look up any words you don't understand. Good luck!

 

[johnisles2011]

It sounds to me like you're just not a reader who is experienced with dense material. The best way to deal with that is of course practicing with more MCAT passages (also try LSAT ones) and also reading dense, tough stuff to read. There are tons of recommendations for that on the forum.

The problem is, though, that your test is next week. Have you considered postponing this date about a month? I don't know where you want to apply, but if you want to go US MD, you really need to get higher than a 6 or a 7 on the Verbal, and taking the test a second time and getting a 6 is just going to put you in a worse situation. Then you would have to consider taking it a third time. YOu might want to consider postponing your test date until you are able to reach a more competitive score.

Sorry to give negative advice ;-), but I wish you luck!

 

[tonesofheresy]

Hello,
I don't know if this will help as English is quite honestly a tricky language from the perspective of an ESL student, but I did reasonably well on the Verbal (it was my lowest score of the 3 but I got an 11) and thought I'd share my "tactics." English is my first and only language, so take this with a grain of salt. First off, depending on the preparatory materials you're using, you may be advised not to use the highlight tool, as this just causes you to reread a sentence and "waste time." I wholly disagree. How long does it take to highlight a piece of text? The loss of time is marginal and not a concern, in my opinion. However, highlighting too much is a common problem, and I'd advise using it sparingly and only to highlight nouns (persons, places, things) that may help you find a particular piece of information when answering the questions.
Some of the trickier questions involve describe the authors opinion about something in a single word, and the words are very close in meaning. One thing I did was defined the word in my head or formulated a sentence in which it would be appropriate and asked myself, "does the author really have this strong (or weak) a feeling about the topic?" It's easy to distinguish words like "love" and "hate," but difficult to distinguish words like "loathe" and "disdain." The MCAT is more likely to throw nearly-synonymous words at you and not antonymous words, though you'll occasionally come across words that you can rule out immediately.
Another somewhat obvious suggestion is to scroll to the bottom of the passage and see what information the citation gives you. Sometimes knowing in which journal an article was published or from what source it was pulled can give an idea about its content.
Finally, I noticed when taking the test that the passages alternated between a humanities/arts passage and a science passage. I contend that the test writers do this intentionally to force you to switch your thinking back and forth so you never really "get in the groove" of reading and answering questions. Remember, you do not have to take the test linearly and some people (myself being one of them) find it easier to do all science passages first or vice versa. I hope this helps and best of luck!

 

[Spikedsoymilk]

Growing up in a non-English speaking household, I've definitely struggled with reading comprehension-related assessments in the past. It wasn't until later in undergrad that comprehending challenging passages became more natural for me. I agree with what everyone has said so far - practice, practice, practice.

One strategy that has helped me was to take notes while reading the passages. It's terribly inefficient, but was good enough to get me a 10 on the VR the first time I took it, which was with minimal practice.

Another strategy is to keep track of the types of passages that you are struggling with. If you are getting around a 6, then it sounds like you have a decent grasp of at least some of the passages. For the ones that aren't working out well for you, then I would go to the library and check out some books that are written in a similar style. If you have any additional details on the types of passages that are tripping you up, I'm sure we could recommend some books for you!

You can do it!

 

[Spikedsoymilk]

You also might find Vihsada's recommendations helpful if you have not come across them yet: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showpost.php?p=6022602&postcount=96

 

[redsun2]

Thank you for all your replies!!

I think I should try the highline strategy a little bit more starting from now...

I know it is hard to improve significantly from now on till test day.

Maybe I will void my test depend on how I feel. (Or should I just not show? Which is better?)

Besides strategy on reading and comprehending the passage, how can I be more focus and stay calm when I encounter passages that I couldn't understand?

During the test, once I find out I might run out of time to finish, I will get nervous, and start to lose my focus, even on some science passage! I felt rushed, and even I keep reading, I couldn't sink in what the passage is talking about at all...But i couldn't help this...And once I force myself to stay calm, and read the passage in a pace that I can understand, then I will find out that I will take a much longer time to finish just reading it. This really stress me out.

Should I spend a lot of time in reading the passage (around 5-7 min per passage), then answer the questions in around 4 min? This way I can at least finish 6 passage (meaning read through them and understand them as much as possible). And randomly guess on the last passage? My goal is to get an 8 in verbal....Is it possible?

 

[thelullaby99]

Can you maybe move the test date until you're absolutely ready? I'm an ESL too, and Verbal is my weakest section.

 

[tonesofheresy]

Should I spend a lot of time in reading the passage (around 5-7 min per passage), then answer the questions in around 4 min? This way I can at least finish 6 passage (meaning read through them and understand them as much as possible). And randomly guess on the last passage? My goal is to get an 8 in verbal....Is it possible?

ExamKrackers explains that actually reading the passage doesn't take that long and that more focus should go to the questions. I agree to the extent that if you don't have time for the questions, it doesn't matter how well you read the passage; however, "reading comprehension" is slightly misleading. You are not being tested on whether or not you can digest all the information presented in a short time. You're being tested on a few things (and these are just my opinions, so anyone feel free to disagree or add something) that I honestly think are poorly emphasized in school. Some people say that science students are just not as well-versed in reading/writing as other disciplines, but the truth is that almost everyone I've ever met would score a low to average score on the MCAT verbal. A strong vocabulary is sure to help, but this isn't the SAT or ACT. They don't care [that much] if you know a lot of big words. They are trying to examine your critical thinking skills, one of which is removing yourself from the situation and looking in objectively. One pitfall for a lot of students, myself included, is that they become part of the "story" or narrative and inevitably bring in their own thoughts. This is exactly what you SHOULDN'T do, even though writing classes tend to steer you toward it. The passages on the MCAT are carefully chosen, and I'm all-but-certain that they are chosen to either be very uninteresting so you get distracted out of boredom, or they are particularly engaging, in the sense that the reader starts to relate to the situation and brings in personal bias. Once you've read the passage, maybe jot down what you think is the author's reason for writing it. Is he/she being critical? Informative? Indifferent? If so, pay careful attention to the what. Also, if you come across a question and think, "oh! I read almost that exact thing. It's right here. This has got to be the answer," you're probably wrong. The questions I tended to miss the most were the ones that seemed obvious. Read the question very carefully and ask yourself, "did the passage really say this or strongly imply it, or am I adding that from my own beliefs?" I'm a musician and aspiring artist and really love learning/reading about art/music history, and I remember a passage from one of my practice tests on this very topic. Guess what. I missed almost every question! My own feelings came into play and I straight up bombed it. There are also times when an answer is "technically" correct, but that the information in the answer is beyond the scope of the passage, making it wrong with respect to the passage. Be careful of that as well. I don't know how long you have, but I might recommend looking into basic logical analysis of arguments. They can give pretty good insight into when a conclusion is not actually supported by the premises even though your intuition or gut-feeling makes you feel that flow of ideas is logical.

 

[redsun2]

Thanks for tonesofheresy's detail reply!

I know, most of the question that I got wrong are from analyzing questions and answers. However, after I review them, I find out that if I have more time to read through the passage, to understand more of what the author is trying to say, and the tone he is using, then analyze what exactly the question is asking, I will get it right sometime (well, using POE, 50:50 chance). But this process take me long, I can't do all this in 8-9 min per passage. I will take maybe 12-14.

I remember last year when I was taking the real MCAT verbal, I was stuck in a passage mentioning about some scientific study/ research. The question is asking something kind of detail, like you have to understand mostly from the beginning to the end, what the idea behind the research is about, and how it is performed, and then if they modify the method, how will the outcome be or how will it apply to new situation. This requires understanding the passage well, and well enough to refer back to some specific paragraph to see what the question is asking (about modifying XX to YY).
Just trying to memorizing these things require a lot of time.
Unlike what EK says that real MCAT doesn't require line to line referencing.

For me, the real MCAT require both main idea, and detail referencing, and understanding the passage.
And in fact, it is less abstract then most of the passages in EK101. However, real MCAT passages are much Longer, require more detail recalling then 101.

I just hope that I can get at least a 6, which I think is about 20-22/40.
I am aiming for DO, so I hope that with a score of 10-6-10, will be good enough?

PS: Now my strategy is try to focus on getting most question right on 4-5 passages, then quickly do the rest, if running out of time I will be guessing on the last one.
How does it sound?

 

[garrettni]

I've been in the US for roughly 8.5 years now. I took my first MCAT in 2010 and scored a 19 (P8/V5/B6), since that day I spent a whole year studying for the MCAT and retook it in 2011. This time I had a much better result with a MCAT score of 30 but my sub-scores were P13/V6/B11. As you can see, I've spent the same amount of time practicing all sections, but verbal showed the least improvement (I read the economist, bloombergs, WSJ, NY times as reading supplements). What can you do? while ESL students have an edge by being bilingual and culturally diverse, we also get crippled by standardizing tests such as the MCAT which expect ESL students to perform above the national average on the VR section. All I can suggest if you really can't get your VR up is to do absolutely stellar in your other sections and make sure to address your low verbal score in your personal statement or other supplementary applications. Last cycle I was told by most SDN folks that I wouldn't receive any interview whatsoever with a 6 on the verbal, however, I still ended up receiving interview invitations from 2 different US MD schools. Get a strong personal statement, many outstanding ECs and do well on the MCAT sciences and you will receive an interview.

 

[garrettni]

I had a tutor for the VR section and I was told to do 4-5 passages and simply glance and do the other 2-3. Mathematically it totally makes sense because you would have a lot more time to do those 4-5 passages which often guarantees higher accuracy. You only need 25< to get an 8 on the VR and 4-5 passages definitely have more than 25Qs. Therefore, if you do less passages, but with higher accuracy, you might just score higher on the VR.

 

[arfandada]

I am in the same exact boat as you. I averge around a 6. I think for weak people like us the best bet is to skip a passage... and take our time on the rest 😎

 

[lcck]

x