MCAT Verbal Reasoning Help

[AbhinavV]

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Hey guys i'm a pre med student and I need to start studying for the MCAT. I want to start with Verbal because it is based on your reading comprehension skills only. However, I do not know how good I am in verbal, books with verbal passages just like the real MCAT, or any hard passages to train my comprehension. Please help me as I am new to studying for the MCAT.😕

 

[shaboobly]

Hey guys i'm a pre med student and I need to start studying for the MCAT. I want to start with Verbal because it is based on your reading comprehension skills only. However, I do not know how good I am in verbal, books with verbal passages just like the real MCAT, or any hard passages to train my comprehension. Please help me as I am new to studying for the MCAT.😕

are you new to english too? i cant decipher what you are trying to say; all i get is "you want to start studying for verbal." 😕

if that's all you need to tell us, well then good luck in your efforts!

 

[PanRoasted]

Good books to practice out of are The Princeton Review Verbal Workbook (find it on ebay or amazon, you can only get them new from the princeton review course), and Examkrackers 101 passages in Verbal (ok for practice, not as similar to AAMC tests as the TPRH VR workbook). Examkracker's also has a verbal book to study strategy out of. It's not a bad book, and some people do have success with it. If you just want to train your reading comprehension, a lot of people suggest reading articles from The Economist, New York Times, and other editorial sites with "intellectually stimulating" content.

Also, read the stickied threads at the top of the thread list.

 

[tttgo]

Hey guys i'm a pre med student and I need to start studying for the MCAT. I want to start with Verbal because it is based on your reading comprehension skills only. However, I do not know how good I am in verbal, books with verbal passages just like the real MCAT, or any hard passages to train my comprehension. Please help me as I am new to studying for the MCAT.😕

Translation:
-not sure how good I am in verbal
-heard that mcat verbal is based solely on reading comprehension (which is not true btw)
-looking for mcat-like passages to improve my reading comprehension

What year are you and when do you plan to apply? It's too early to use up mcat material if you're talking about like a year ahead. There are other threads with suggested reading material.

 

[AbhinavV]

I have about 3 years left to go to finish my biology/business administration degree plan. Today I purchase the AAMC #7 and got 40% of the questions correct. I think i'm screwed!!!! Yeah I have the Princeton review verbal book but, those are too easy for me. I'm thinking about just finding some hard literature books and just reading them. I don't know...

 

[Courtjester8]

Buy the EK 101 Verbal Passages book and do 1 a day until test day.

 

[AbhinavV]

Shaboobly your reply was extremely helpful..WOW! I think i'm gonna get a 15 on VR Section after that post. You have such skill in helping me haha

 

[argama]

ah so I guess he's not new to english after all xD

Anyways yeah listen to PanRoasted. And you should read his thread about his VR strategy....I think it's pretty solid. Just requires practice and a lot of it. http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=936176

As everyone has said, EK101 and TPRH is good.

 

[tttgo]

I have about 3 years left to go to finish my biology/business administration degree plan. Today I purchase the AAMC #7 and got 40% of the questions correct. I think i'm screwed!!!! Yeah I have the Princeton review verbal book, but those are too easy for me. I'm thinking about just finding some hard literature books and just reading them. I don't know...

What do you mean it's too easy? Are you getting like 12+ on the passages? Is the 40% just for verbal or overall? Also, why are you wasting aamcs so early if you're not going to apply for the next 3 years?

 

[AbhinavV]

What do you mean it's too easy? Are you getting like 12+ on the passages? Is the 40% just for verbal or overall? Also, why are you wasting aamcs so early if you're not going to apply for the next 3 years?

I'm getting almost perfect on the princeton review. I want to take the MCAT on January of 2014 so, I have 1 year and couple months to prepare. Yes it's just Verbal overall. I still have to take o chem 2, physics 1, and physics 2 for my pre med classes.

 

[tttgo]

That's really weird. English isn't my first language, but I consistently miss 1-2/passage on the 100+ passages I've done in the past 3 months. I scored a 10 on aamc3 (78% raw score verbal) and a 9 in aamc4. I think pr is pretty hard overall. some are easy, but others are hard. Are you sure you have the right book? hyperlearning verbal workbook and not cracking? If you plan ahead, you could know exactly what you'll be using to study in a year (ie hyperlearning set or ek). In the meantime, you could slowly tread through tbr verbal or something. maybe have an mcat book open while finishing those prereqs.

 

[ThePrincetonReview]

Have you considered taking a prep course to prepare you for the whole test or a tutor who specializes in verbal? If you find that self-prep is too difficult or isn't getting the improvement results that you hoped for, maybe look into getting a tutor or joining a study group in your area.

The Princeton Review offers elite tutors that can help you see improvements in your scores. Check out what we can offer you at: http://www.princetonreview.com/medical/mcat-private-tutoring.aspx

Good Luck 🙂
-The Princeton Review

 

[shaboobly]

Shaboobly your reply was extremely helpful..WOW! I think i'm gonna get a 15 on VR Section after that post. You have such skill in helping me haha

lol sorry i couldnt really get the point of the post but i see now. verbal is hard more the majority of people taking the mcat, myself included. i scored a 6 the first time and am now waiting for my new scores to come back.

the only thing, i believe, that can really help you is just read a lot.. and understand what your are reading. practice with a lot of mcat passages and review every question to know what you were thinking. my aamc average for verbal the second time was a 9, with like a 8.5 overall including all the EK 101 passages.

i eventually developed a new strategy for myself: when im reading over the answer choices and i can say "not necessarily" on regards of the answer being true, then it's wrong. the correct answer will always be right from what is stated in the passage, but the hard part is not extrapolating too much from the passage and getting tricked by familiar words in answer choices. the test that im waiting for scores seemed to go a lot better than the previous test. i had about 5 min to start reviewing every answer, and i felt like most of my answers i chose didnt satisfy the not necessarily rule i made up, meaning i think i did relatively well this time around.

the key is practice. nothing is going to help you cram for this section.. it's all on your ability to understand an argument and why the author uses certain examples and how he feels about the topic.