MCAT Verbal Reasoning Mastery Book

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Frogmanmike14

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Hey everyone,

I just ordered this book from amazon "MCAT: Verbal Reasoning Mastery" from Amazon. Has anyone heard of it? I know its fairly new. I've been doing passages from Examkrackers, TPR, and Kaplan and am not seeing consistent results so hopefully this book will change that. Well actually I am seeing improvement in Examkrackers but that doesn't transfer over to the others, and I feel that book is too easy.

Anyways the new book claims to raise a 6 to an 11 in verbal. I got a 6 last time I took the MCAT, so if I get verbal that high I'm sitting on 30+ which will make me happy.

And I'll let you know if the book is working for me in about a month, it seems to be a rather lengthy book. I get it on wednesday. :D
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I was desperate and actually bought the book full price in hope that it can offer some good tips. The good thing about this book is that it does offer a new strategy, which depending on your comfort zone, could be interepreted as a good or a bad thing (it does work but requires a ton of practice). The other good thing is the response from those who got 11+ on VR. The responses ranging from people who started out with a low score to those who just started out high. The author pointed out some simple trend and it give people who have low VR (i.e. yours truely) with some hope that VR can be improved with practice. Finally, I like their list of recommended books, reading some of those books really does get me on to improve my VR.

The downside of this book is the intensity of the required practice schedule. The book states that reading everyday should be as important to you as breathing (not a misquote). And newspaper and magazine articles doesn't count. I feel that if you just do that, anyone could do great on VR, but honestly few could afford the time each day to read those types of books.
 
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The book is working for me actually quite well as I'm using it currently (I probably have to take the MCAT again). It's definitely useful and worth the small investment (if you buy from the publisher's website, not Amazon) if you put in the time - but you need a few months to commit to it.

PROS:
really teaches you how to improve comprehension - boost in VR score
gives good reading lists and strategies
has interviews with people who scored really high on VR
enjoyable to read
can save you big bucks on much more expensive MCAT courses

CONS:
you need at least two or three months for it to work

At this point I decided not to spend $2000 on a Kaplan course and just try this book since my only weakness is VR. In care you're wondering I am seeing an improvement in my reading and VR score. Not sure what else to say. To be honest I haven't found a better VR book yet.... hope that helps.

Cheers! :cool:
 
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i'm taking the mcat on july 30th, and definitely can use help in improving my verbal. i'm scoring a pretty solid average of 8 (raised from an initial 6).

i feel as if i might be plateauing with the EK 101 Passages (i've already gone through the BR passages). i can usually get all the easy questions, and most of the mediums. it has become quite clear that the questions i am missing on VR are due to not understanding the passage clearly, or making the logical inferences, etc.

my test is only in 5 weeks-- do you think i would be better off using this book for practice? keeping in mind that i can afford no more than 1.5-2hrs/ day for verbal since i need to keep up practice on the other stuff (and i'm working full time :( )

let me know what you think! any advice would be really appreciated.
 
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dbasalie said:
my test is only in 5 weeks-- do you think i would be better off using this book for practice? keeping in mind that i can afford no more than 1.5-2hrs/ day for verbal since i need to keep up practice on the other stuff (and i'm working full time :( )
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the book does not have practice passages.
 
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do we HAVE to read 2-3 hrs a day ? could it be lower amount of hours ? im sure many of us got million things to do in one day. :confused:
 
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This book has over 200 pages of verbal exercises, which frankly have helped me tremendously. These exercises seem BETTER than doing mock sample passages because they improved my reading speed, memory, and comprehension.

The book is honest about it - it says that you should practice with actual verbal passages from AAMC. I don't see a problem with that. In fact, passages made by other companies (like Kaplan, EK, etc.) are either too easy or too difficult.

Anyway, I'm sure glad this book exists because my verbal scores have gone up. (People should know that even if you have 4 weeks left I think this book can still help a lot because of its many exercises.) :thumbup: That's my 2 cents.
 
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Agreed! :)

My friend practiced with verbal passages made by test prep companies (Kaplan and EK) and she bombed the real MCAT VR section.

When they're easier or harder than the real AAMC passages it messes you up big time on the real test, and no company has made passages to match the real ones in my opinion.

I used AAMC passages and did well enough to get into a top 20 med school!
 
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GalaxySystem said:
Agreed! :)

My friend practiced with verbal passages made by test prep companies (Kaplan and EK) and she bombed the real MCAT VR section.

When they're easier or harder than the real AAMC passages it messes you up big time on the real test, and no company has made passages to match the real ones in my opinion.

I used AAMC passages and did well enough to get into a top 20 med school!
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Why would it mess someone up if they're working with hard passages? It'll be easier for them to do the ones in the MCAT if they are already working on the harder ones ? :/
 
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Reading articles and newspapers DO NOT count as practice? Are you serious? I just made a 1 year subscription of New yorker trying to boost my reading comprehension ; ;
 
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iPodtosis said:
Reading articles and newspapers DO NOT count as practice? Are you serious? I just made a 1 year subscription of New yorker trying to boost my reading comprehension ; ;
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Of course they do. I'm sure you'll boost your comprehension. But you gotta keep up practicing mcat passages as you read other magazines/newspapers.
 
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Did anyone buy this book from Ivypublishinghall??? It sent me an e-mail confirming that I bought it but it hasn't sent anything saying they sent it and its been over 3 days they don't answer their phone calls. What gives??
 
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Ahmed786 said:
Did anyone buy this book from Ivypublishinghall??? It sent me an e-mail confirming that I bought it but it hasn't sent anything saying they sent it and its been over 3 days they don't answer their phone calls. What gives??
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This book wasn't amazing. I'd rather have EK 101, TPR verbal workbook, and diligence. The idea on visual reading is the only thing I took from it, yet adapted it.

No practice passages in it really.

Unless you're mechanically poor, and can't finish passages in 3:30 min then I guess it would be ok. If you have High School reading speed with college vocab then this book isn't for you.
 
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CHOPSTIX said:
I just received the book two days ago and read the neuro-visual programming part. It seems impossible to do something like that with the short amount of time we have on the verbal reasoning part. Anyone feel like this?
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I agree. I was optimistic when I began reading it. However, after a few pages of NVP it started to sound a bit bogus (visual arena, lol). The book does have soom good points. It is more detailed about question stems than examkracker (it contains a lot of filler though). It basically says everything that examkracker says plus more. It does give great tips and strategies to improve your reading mechanics and comprehension (sentence recall, paragraph summary, force reading, etc). The question stem quiz is amazing! However, the NVP sounds like something I could easily waste months trying to learn and still be unsuccessful. But don't take my word for it, I suck at verbal, which is why I bought the book. Overall, I think the book is worth what i paid for it. I'm just not sure if I believe that NVP works the way they want you to use it. I think to some extent we all do this when we read (develope images). However, when I'm trying to think about rather I want to menatally draw a "vertical line" or a "horizontal line" or paint this door "red" or "blue".....Does this idea go in a "box????" "Wait what street am I on?" Does this thought go in my "back yard" my "front yard" my "garage" or my "bathroom?" I find that when I try doing this I stray away from my overall objective, which is to figure out what the hell the auther is trying to tell me. The book does stress the importance of the main idea, much like EK. Like I said, it has some good points. However, before I devote months to NVP I would like to see that someone has successfully applied it on the "REAL MCAT" and scored 11 or better. I mean, someone besides the authors who claims that he used it on the AAMC practice tests and made over 11 each time. If I here of someone doing this sucessully (under pressure) I will devote the time to learn NVP. Otherwise I'm just going to read war novels (not the interesting kind) political science and golf magazine for 2-3 hours a day. I will continue to practice sentence recall, paragraph summary, and force reading; this has proven to enhance my mechanics and recall dramtically. Basically, I'm just going to read that which I hate reading.
 
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The book teaches several methods actually, not just one. I applaud the book for presenting a new technique to reading verbal passages - Neurovisual Programming. But it seems like it works for some people and not for others.

The nice thing is that it teaches more than one technique to help you. If NVP isn't your thing, there's sentence recall, pacing, etc.

I think no matter who you are you'll find something to improve on, and this book does a pretty solid job. I still recommend it if you are serious about improving your VR score. It's been helping me out.
 
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I got this book a few months back because it seemed like a comprehensive review program and my verbal could use some work. I was really disappointed when I got it and started working through it though.

It's 90% filler, with a few sample passages for practicing some very basic reading skills (summarizing paragraphs). The only novel thing in the book is a description of 'neurovisual programming' - a way of cataloging all details from passages so you have a near photographic memory of all facts. By the author's own account, reading like this will slow you down at first, and will take months of practice (for hours daily) before it starts paying off with improved recall. Seems like a gamble and a waste of time since there aren't too many 'find the fact' questions on real MCAT passages.

My advice: save yourself $65 and spend your time practicing the skills that the MCAT VR really tests.
 
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I bought this book several months ago with high hopes and this book has surpassed my expectations.

Do all the exercises (some 200 pages of them). Follow the monthly training program. You'll see results. My old measly 7 is now consistent 10s and 11s.

BTW, its only $49 new.

Lazy people will hate this book (it kicks your butt into gear). Serious students will be thankful for this book. The person who said this book is filler is kinda whack - it has interviews with top students, reading comprehension techniques, verbal question analysis, logic, the list goes on. That's my $0.02.... be prepared to read 1 hr a day (which I don't mind since I spend 4 hrs on sciences a day)
 
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Frogmanmike14 said:
Hey everyone,

I just ordered this book from amazon "MCAT: Verbal Reasoning Mastery" from Amazon. Has anyone heard of it? I know its fairly new. I've been doing passages from Examkrackers, TPR, and Kaplan and am not seeing consistent results so hopefully this book will change that. Well actually I am seeing improvement in Examkrackers but that doesn't transfer over to the others, and I feel that book is too easy.

Anyways the new book claims to raise a 6 to an 11 in verbal. I got a 6 last time I took the MCAT, so if I get verbal that high I'm sitting on 30+ which will make me happy.

And I'll let you know if the book is working for me in about a month, it seems to be a rather lengthy book. I get it on wednesday. :D
Click to expand...

SO ITS been a month..

whats your verdict?
 
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LaSabre said:
I bought this book several months ago with high hopes and this book has surpassed my expectations.

Do all the exercises (some 200 pages of them). Follow the monthly training program. You'll see results. My old measly 7 is now consistent 10s and 11s.

BTW, its only $49 new.

Lazy people will hate this book (it kicks your butt into gear). Serious students will be thankful for this book. The person who said this book is filler is kinda whack - it has interviews with top students, reading comprehension techniques, verbal question analysis, logic, the list goes on. That's my $0.02.... be prepared to read 1 hr a day (which I don't mind since I spend 4 hrs on sciences a day)
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This is a silly analysis.

It is like with working out. People want to find some magical new program, the more weird new exercises the more they get excited. Go look at any magazine cover and you will see "NEW method" etc.

Basic fundamentals will overcome some new fancy verbal program that involves 40 hoops to jump through. This book overall wasn't very good and I'm sure that many who agree will work harder than those who get all excited about the NEW approach to verbal. The NVP in the book is absolute silliness. Many people with 40+ scores didn't use this book. Go read Vishidas post on verbal and save 60$.

This book lacks passages, yet you are supposed to improve at the MCAT verbal. lol.
 
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I really wish there was some way to find out if the posters of all the excellent and perfect reviews on Amazon were coming from the same person/group of people...

Same goes for some of the meticulously worded praise on this thread...

I have the book sitting with me from a friend and I would just like to objectively know if it is decent or not.

I am not making any accusations of IvyHallReview marketing their product here on SDN, but as you all know, it obviously happens a lot (cough...MCAT Acheiver...cough). It really pisses me off when companies try to promote their stuff here (or anywhere) through false word of mouth. Erroneous opinions of the material only hurt the students; companies who are truly interested in sustaining themselves need to have their number one priority be focused on genuinely helping students with good material. No matter how much false feedback a company might produce on places like SDN, a company can only go so far in marketing a crappy product this way, and (sooner or later) students are going to know what the book is really like. Companies should really focus on just viewing genuine opinions and IMPROVING their product based on the real feedback. I cannot stress this enough.

Well...that's my rant haha.
 
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benderlee said:
I really wish there was some way to find out if the posters of all the excellent and perfect reviews on Amazon were coming from the same person/group of people...

Same goes for some of the meticulously worded praise on this thread...

I have the book sitting with me from a friend and I would just like to objectively know if it is decent or not.

I am not making any accusations of IvyHallReview marketing their product here on SDN, but as you all know, it obviously happens a lot (cough...MCAT Acheiver...cough). It really pisses me off when companies try to promote their stuff here (or anywhere) through false word of mouth. Erroneous opinions of the material only hurt the students; companies who are truly interested in sustaining themselves need to have their number one priority be focused on genuinely helping students with good material. No matter how much false feedback a company might produce on places like SDN, a company can only go so far in marketing a crappy product this way, and (sooner or later) students are going to know what the book is really like. Companies should really focus on just viewing genuine opinions and IMPROVING their product based on the real feedback. I cannot stress this enough.

Well...that's my rant haha.
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This book is average at best. Maybe good for those who can't read at all (not able to get even a 7 consistently).
 
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I'm a pre-med student. It's my humble opinion that this book is better than the other verbal books I have. That's all I'm saying.

1. The book is all about fundamentals - there are NO shortcuts (unlike what other groups out there teach). Hello?? That's why the program takes a few months. The other verbal books I have are 10% teaching. This book is like 70%.

2. My friend is from Taiwan and she speaks English as a second language and she said the reading program in this book has helped her verbal performance, so that has to say something.

3. Like I said before, lazy people will hate the book because it's not about quick strategies - verbal reasoning is about reading well which is hard to change and takes months. Serious people like myself appreciate the training this book provides for once.

(Maybe you guys are marketing people cause none of you have something positive to say about it)
 
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How can you let what someone says about this book influence whether or not you get a good enough VR score and become a doctor?

What I mean is this:
If you are a fool, you'll let people on a blog influence you.
If you are smart, you'll buy the resources you need.

I had a low verbal score and bought IvyHall's book, Kaplan stuff, and Princeton books and I used ALL of them, and I'm glad I did. They all helped me tremendously in different ways. This book teaches the art of visual memory which was a tremendous help, and I still use it today for my med school studies. So stop reading this blog and go equip yourself with every resource available to you! This is the way of a true physician - be your own judge - don't take other people's word. Good luck! :thumbup:
 
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We are marketing people because we call a crapy book a crapy book?

OK.

Like I said, if you can't read at a high school level this is a great book.

The GREAT part of the book that you keep referring to, "setting up a program", I can do that on my own with a little bit of discipline and a pinch of creativity.

Like I said before, the advice on this website is TEN times better than that book, and it is free. If a source is good we will say it is good, but this source is average.

HOW do you get better at MCAT verbal? #1 know how to read. #2 do practice passages.

This book lacks practice passages. If you have ever in your life got 6 or 7 out of 7 questions correct on a passage then you know how to read.
 
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Here is the point I am making:

This book is mediocre and discipline and work ethic will prevail regardless of owning this book or not.
 
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GalaxySystem said:
How can you let what someone says about this book influence whether or not you get a good enough VR score and become a doctor?

What I mean is this:
If you are a fool, you'll let people on a blog influence you.
If you are smart, you'll buy the resources you need.

I had a low verbal score and bought IvyHall's book, Kaplan stuff, and Princeton books and I used ALL of them, and I'm glad I did. They all helped me tremendously in different ways. This book teaches the art of visual memory which was a tremendous help, and I still use it today for my med school studies. So stop reading this blog and go equip yourself with every resource available to you! This is the way of a true physician - be your own judge - don't take other people's word. Good luck! :thumbup:
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This guy didn't invent visual memory tools, any good learning book in the last 20 years has talking about visual learning methods.

This guy claims to have invented Neural Visual Programming which is really just putting a name on memory experts techniques combined with reading short passages. Nothing new, just a new name.

Good reminder though I guess.
 
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Hey all,

I actually went through a good chunk of the book the whole day today (about 90%...Labor day weekend :cool:).

Honest verdict:

It is a good text for anyone who has the time to study MCAT verbal.

I have over a year to study for it and one of the things I wanted to make sure I solidified early on was the verbal section, as there isn't any content review for this.

I can see where both sides of the argument are coming from, but my bottom line thought is this:

If you have the time to truly go through what this book is saying, I don't really see how your verbal score can't increase. As people have said before, it requires you to read (with a list of suggestions on what to read) 2-3 hrs a day for 6-8 months. Yes you can argue that it's common sense that reading more of this type of material will increase your comprehension skills/MCAT score either way, but it is a great program for people that want a structured way of doing this (relevant to the MCAT).

Blanco keeps saying this is only a good book "for people that don't know how to read." First of all, this is obviously a disrespectful comment...but we're not going to go into that. I would just like to say that I respectfully disagree. It is a structured (and time-consuming) program that is built to boost comprehension and MCAT Verbal skills. You need to "know how to read" BEFORE you buy this book :)

Again, I really think this is an ideal book for anyone that has a lot of time until their MCAT. Also, it would be good for any pre-med to read this early on in their college career, hands down.
 
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benderlee said:
Hey all,

I actually went through a good chunk of the book the whole day today (about 90%...Labor day weekend :cool:).

Honest verdict:

It is a good text for anyone who has the time to study MCAT verbal.

I have over a year to study for it and one of the things I wanted to make sure I solidified early on was the verbal section, as there isn't any content review for this.

I can see where both sides of the argument are coming from, but my bottom line thought is this:

If you have the time to truly go through what this book is saying, I don't really see how your verbal score can't increase. As people have said before, it requires you to read (with a list of suggestions on what to read) 2-3 hrs a day for 6-8 months. Yes you can argue that it's common sense that reading more of this type of material will increase your comprehension skills/MCAT score either way, but it is a great program for people that want a structured way of doing this (relevant to the MCAT).

Blanco keeps saying this is only a good book "for people that don't know how to read." First of all, this is obviously a disrespectful comment...but we're not going to go into that. I would just like to say that I respectfully disagree. It is a structured (and time-consuming) program that is built to boost comprehension and MCAT Verbal skills. You need to "know how to read" BEFORE you buy this book :)

Again, I really think this is an ideal book for anyone that has a lot of time until their MCAT. Also, it would be good for any pre-med to read this early on in their college career, hands down.
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Actually, Blanco is differentiating between:
1. spending large amounts of time practicing a skill (program and disciplined effort)
2. A book with banal advice and a fancy system that isn't applicable (neural visual programing)

Just because the book advocates large amounts of practice DOESN'T mean the book is good.

For those who want to skip the book and get all the benefits:

1. Practice reading 8 months, 3 hours a day. Read difficult materials like graduate level humanities texts/history/high level science article. (you can find dozens of sources and ideas by searching this website in 30 minutes). Focus on main idea and make sure you are absorbing all the material.

2. Get EK/TPR verbal passages and practice them daily once you are a few months out. Do heavy post game analysis

3. Go give the $65 you saved to a good charity in my name

I put a guarantee that my above program will work as well as the program in the book. My program only lacks weird names and clever marketing. Your score will actually be better if you use this method, as it involves practice passages.

People need new and fancy devices to practice. The simple plan backed with hard work looks to mundane to effective.

Oh, and my saying people who can't read isn't a travesty. Lets face it, some people are great at reading and others aren't. So what, life goes on. No need to cry because some can't read very well.

I am a guy, and we talk differently. For example, when a new quarterback comes in to an NFL and isn't very good, guys say, "Man, Johnson can't play QB."

This doesn't mean that he can't actually play QB, just that he is very good at it.
 
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indy787 said:
I used this book briefly and gave up on it but I did go from a 7 to a 10 on verbal. Although many people hate the kaplan verbal sections, I thought they prepared me incredibly for the January 2009 exam. They are long and wordy and though many of the questions ask for specific details, they force you to read the passage intensely. I really recommend doing all 15 of their verbal section tests for good practice.
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I'm on number 8 + 6 FLs, and not where I need or want to be yet, so should keep going with the Kaplan way or change up? It just seems to get more frustrating, with minimal gains...
 
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DrDeejay said:
I'm on number 8 + 6 FLs, and not where I need or want to be yet, so should keep going with the Kaplan way or change up? It just seems to get more frustrating, with minimal gains...
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Kaplan has pretty much a consensus as being the worst verbal prep.

#1 EK
#2 TPR hyperlearning
#3 move to FL

Then read challenging material pulling out main ideas as much as you see fit (1 hr a day or maybe more)
 
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OldNeuroDoc said:
I got this book a few months back because it seemed like a comprehensive review program and my verbal could use some work. I was really disappointed when I got it and started working through it though.

It's 90% filler, with a few sample passages for practicing some very basic reading skills (summarizing paragraphs). The only novel thing in the book is a description of 'neurovisual programming' - a way of cataloging all details from passages so you have a near photographic memory of all facts. By the author's own account, reading like this will slow you down at first, and will take months of practice (for hours daily) before it starts paying off with improved recall. Seems like a gamble and a waste of time since there aren't too many 'find the fact' questions on real MCAT passages.

My advice: save yourself $65 and spend your time practicing the skills that the MCAT VR really tests.
Click to expand...

I am really going crazy with all the praise for the average book. I don't want people to buy and be disappointed. Here is an outline of the book. It really is 90% filler.

Ch 1. The MCAT explained (22 pages on the MCAT, nothing about verbal)

Ch 2. Why focus on verbal (why verbal scores are important)

Ch 3. Brief overview of verbal (still haven't got into doing better on verbal)
____________________________________________
The first 33 pages are worthless.

Ch. 4 Verbal Reasoning Passage Types and Strategies (this one of two chapters that actually focus on the VR section of the MCAT)
Problems:

  • This section tells you there are different types of questions and different passages. GUESS WHO else does this? AAMC on their website or in their MCAT guide book. Hmm, should I get the types of Qs from this guy or AAMC?
  • EK already did this much better than this book. But again, AAMC takes the cake.
Ch. 5 The questions identified

  • Same thing as the last question, teaching you how to navigate a problem. Every VR book I have ever used has these same strategies (TPR/Kaplan/EK, and even in their books you can look at the bookstore)
  • What does he advocate? using the main idea to answer a question (sound familiar?), using direct reference in the passage), inference question, etc.
  • STILL, not one single new idea presented
______________________________________________
90 pages in and using the AAMC website and 15 minutes on SDN is more beneficial...

Ch 6 Essentials of reading comprehension (i will break down this chapter because this is probably what everyone is raving about)

  • Identify topic, setting, main idea
    • Advice: figure out the authors main point
  • Reading training
    • Advice: Read multiple hours per day
  • 3 levels of comprehension
    • Basically differentiates reading. Like if you read "the cat ran into the building" Low level readers just understand the fact, higher level readers think why did the cat run it, what does he want, what is his goal, etc.
  • building focus
    • Advice: By practing reading and staying focused. Seriously that is it. He says to STOP reading for a moment and refocus, like restarting a car. That is it. Nothing more.
  • anticipating material
    • Critically think about what may happen next (again, read any good advice about VR on this website, I can't imagine one time someone hasn't said this)
  • anticipating questions
    • This is basically telling you to think about what the author believes and why. Hmmm. Similar to getting the main idea from the author.

That is all for this chapter. Nothing new that EK or TPR haven't mentioned. He then advocates reading paragraph by paragraph or sentence by sentence and repeating the ideas. This isn't a bad idea, I just didn't need to read 90% junk to get to one comprehension boosting idea.

Ch 7 Do you have these reading Symptons

  • Do you read the same thing over and over
    • Advice to overcome: Stop reading for a moment when you catch yourself, increase your curiosity and go again.
    • Seriously, that is the entirety of the advcie.
  • do you forget what you just have read
    • Here he advocates the sentence recall and paragraph recall. Read a sentence, look away and repeat the idea. Read a paragraph, look away and repeat the main idea. Look back to see if you missed anything
  • do your eyes move slow
    • He tries to talk about reading mechanics and how many words the eye catches at each stop, any speed reading book talks about this better. ARCO had a speed reading book about this. Obviously if you read one word at a time it will be slow. Instead of bunching words in groups of 3 or 4.
  • do you daydream
    • Again, just tells you to stop and then re-engage
  • do you lose interest in the material
    • well, then up your curiosity buddy!
Readers who need improvement may get excited at this section, but after reading what the advice is it isn't so exciting. Have trouble focusing? then refocus. Are you reading things over and over? Stop.

Seriously, If I got a group of people who had never practiced any verbal in their life and asked then ideas on how to work on these problems, I would have got the same exact advice.

Ch 8 Why do you miss questions

  • Basically this section asks you if you Misread the passage, question stem or answer choices
  • Then asks if you misinterpreted the passage or question
  • And the last question is did you lose focus
Read Vishidas Verbal strategy and if you don't understand what Post Game Analysis is, then you haven't even spent 1 hour reading on how to improve verbal on this website. Again, valuable advice YES but when every person on this site says "make sure you do post game analysis after each verbal set" and is referring to all of these points, I don't take anything from this chapter.

Ch 9 Neuro Visual Programming

  • Basically he tells you to set up a neighborhood mentally, then to start picturing weird objects in your drive way or backyard that represent the ideas in the passage. Except it gets way too involved. Notice how NONE of the advocates of the book say they used this strategy on the verbal exam because it takes too long
  • Think I'm making this up, check out this sentence from the book:
    • "It is still the modern problem of the Ego knowing the object"
    • Here is his advice on how to construct this ONE sentence: Let a person represent the Ego in your mind, off to the side of the garage door and driveway, you can place a person standing dressed in modern clothes. On this person's shirt, you can place the word 'EGO'. This person represents Ego in a modern setting. you can have this person holding some object in his hand and looking at it with confusion, not knowing what he is looking at. In this way, you can represent the modern problem of the Ego knowing the object.
    • ........... AHHHHHHHH. What about the other 80 sentences I read per passage, or the other 500 sentences I will read. Do I make a cool mental arena for each of those too? This is ridiculous.
    • BUT, using visual memory is good for verbal. Just don't create such an elaborate scheme as he advises, visualize main ideas and points instead.
This chapter overall is horrible, but if you are creative you can realize that using visual memory is a good idea and you can adapt your own method of visualizing each paragraph.






I've outlined the 172 pages of 202 pages of advice. After that the last section is on test taking tips for the day of the exam, like sleeping and eating before the test.





I think the thing that everyone is so excited about is that the guy then sets up a reading program telling you to read 2-3 hrs a day, practicing paragraph recall and sentence recall and then getting the main idea from the reading material. Hmmm. I've heard similar advice on every good post I've read on SDN, excluding the paragraph/sentence recall which are new ideas I guess. Some people have advocated making sure you get the argument structure by knowing each paragraph already on SDN, so maybe the idea isn't so novel.

Seriously guys, that is the whole book with every good idea laid out. Not worth $65.
 
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As a premed student, I am frankly puzzled by the all-out attack on what I think is an excellent book.
I’ve taken the MCAT once already, with a VR of 7. I’ve had the book nearly two month, and, quite frankly, as I continue with it, I can already see changes in my reading, especially in looking for the author’s voice and learning to look for inferred meaning.
So, why is this guy so critical?
I like the book. So, for me, there seems to be an ulterior motive at work here. Why does it “drive him crazy” to hear about how good this book is?
Why would he spend this much time and effort in trashing it?
And finally, why would anyone want to take his word for it and lessen their chances of becoming a Dr.! Why would anyone believe this guy who disses us with saying too bad, some people cannot read. Don’t even try. Bad advice.
 
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Rachell said:
As a premed student, I am frankly puzzled by the all-out attack on what I think is an excellent book.
Click to expand...

lol, because it was average at best. Please read OldNeuroDoc's post again, as I agree 100% with him/her. Let me address each point you raised:

I've taken the MCAT once already, with a VR of 7. I've had the book nearly two month, and, quite frankly, as I continue with it, I can already see changes in my reading, especially in looking for the author's voice and learning to look for inferred meaning.
Click to expand...
Again, as I pointed out the idea of looking for inferred meaning is not new or unique. In fact if you spend 30 minutes reading posts like these you will have a better approach to verbal. Is the idea BAD? no. Is it new or worth $65, HECK no.

Also please come back after you have taken the exam with your new score. Also, improvement is likely to be attributed to practice of VR skills which I actually am advocating.

So, why is this guy so critical?
I like the book. So, for me, there seems to be an ulterior motive at work here. Why does it "drive him crazy" to hear about how good this book is?
Why would he spend this much time and effort in trashing it?
Click to expand...
I am actually spending time and effort "trashing" or critically analyzing the book because I feel bad that I spent $65 and don't want others to go through what I did. Some of us desperately want to improve at verbal and have tried many approaches. Although you think I'm gaining something by examining this book, all I'm really doing is trying to help those actually thinking of purchasing it. I have no ties to any publishing companies, nor could I benefit from people not buying this book.

I know you just figure I'm fulfilling my selfish desires by spending time on this, but I'm really looking out for those trying to get better at verbal

And finally, why would anyone want to take his word for it and lessen their chances of becoming a Dr.! Why would anyone believe this guy who disses us with saying too bad, some people cannot read. Don't even try. Bad advice.
Click to expand...
If anything, I'm not lessening anyone's chances. I'm recommending they spend time doing things that actually improve their verbal score rather than wasting time.

Dissing people who can't read. Lol. sensitivity check. I actually was pretty bad at reading, which is why I've purchased so many verbal resources. Me saying someone can't read is referring to mechanics problems. WHICH if you can score above a 7 or 8 on sciences you likely can read. If you are scoring below a 7 on all 3 sections, you likely can't read very well (or as I say, "can't read"). So what? I don't like politically correct lingo. I call things how I see them.

Better ways to build VR skills:

1. Bloody Surgeon's guide
2. Collaboration by Q of Q on verbal skills
3. Vishidas guide to verbal
4. EK 101 verbal
5. TPR hyper learning verbal workbook
6. Reading sources like: Economist, New Yorker, Atlantic, Harpers, Nature
7. Humanities old texts (one of which I got for $6)
8. Searching the forums for other strategies

All of these sources are better than this book. Seriously, not one idea that anyone has mentioned from this book is not accessible from the above threads.

I hope this helps. I guess people who are lazy or want something in a hard copy will just go buy a book (or if they have parent's money to burn). It's unlikely anyone praising this book actually worked for the money they spent buying it. When you pay your own way you expect more from things (in general).
 
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Ok.... I have to admit that the MCAT is probably the most important exam of ones life.. ! i mean it decides whether our dreams of becoming doctors is gonna come true. ... I ORDERED THE BOOK ... it seems like a great way for someone like me who is great at science, but scored a 570 on my SAT verbal back in 02 . I also have 9 months before the exam !

POINT NUMBER 1 : 65 DOLLARS < BECOMING A DOC.. you cant put a price on your education, any resource that will help you is considered to be well worth the 65 bucks.

Most of us will spend 65 dollar doing other things, such as partying which will be over in one night. Atleast with the book its well worth the money.. i was hoping to get some feed back from some people.... i have started to study for the MCAT i have a july test date.

MY STUDY PLAN:
1.) ExamKrackers - Bio -1001 questions , Orgo - 1001, Physics -1001,
gen chem - 1001.. EK 101 passages and EK verbal book with math techniques

2.) Examkrackers AUDIO OSMOSIS
3.) now this VERBAL REASONING MASTERY book

PROGRESS:
1.) study for about 3 hours everyday and am covering 1 section from bio and gen chem on a daily basis.
2.) taking physics and orgo chem as we speak in college.

QUESTION TO ALL OF YOU ?
1.) AM I ON THE RIGHT TRACK?
Can anyone tell me how well i might do if i prepare to the extent that i am preparing right now.

Also plan on taking Prep course Kaplan.
 
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futuredoc786 said:
Ok.... I have to admit that the MCAT is probably the most important exam of ones life.. ! i mean it decides whether our dreams of becoming doctors is gonna come true. ... I ORDERED THE BOOK ... it seems like a great way for someone like me who is great at science, but scored a 570 on my SAT verbal back in 02 . I also have 9 months before the exam !

MY STUDY PLAN:
1.) ExamKrackers - Bio -1001 questions , Orgo - 1001, Physics -1001,
gen chem - 1001.. EK 101 passages and EK verbal book with math techniques

2.) Examkrackers AUDIO OSMOSIS
3.) now this VERBAL REASONING MASTERY book

PROGRESS:
1.) study for about 3 hours everyday and am covering 1 section from bio and gen chem on a daily basis.
2.) taking physics and orgo chem as we speak in college.

QUESTION TO ALL OF YOU ?
1.) AM I ON THE RIGHT TRACK?
Can anyone tell me how well i might do if i prepare to the extent that i am preparing right now.

Also plan on taking Prep course Kaplan.
Click to expand...

You ask if you're on the right track. I hate answering this way, because I know people are different, but NO, you're not on the right path. Like so many people here recommend, you should mix up your books differently so you get the best materials for each section.

What amazes me at SDN is the amount of great resources. It made a big difference for me, and I seriously believe that had I not followed the general advice, I wouldn't have scored as well. There are some posters here who put their heart and soul into their posts and really try to help. Since I've been here, there have been about five to ten posters who took the time to put out some great posts that summarized everything they did and what materials and programs worked. These are people who pulled great scores, so you should follow their suggestions. Here is the consensus opinion:

  • Biology review text: Examkrackers because it's to the point.
    Biology review passages and questions: Princeton Review and/or Berkeley Review because they are realistic and have good explanations.

    Orgo review text: Examkrackers if you are really strong in organic or Berkeley Review if you need a more in depth review.
    Orgo review passages and questions: Princeton Review and/or Berkeley Review because they are realistic and have good explanations.

    General chem review text: Berkeley Review because it 's thorough, explains things well, and covers exactly what the MCAT tests.
    General chem review passages and questions: Berkeley Review because they are realistic and have good explanations and as everyone who has used multiple sources will say, "they are the best by far."

    Physics review text: Berkeley Review or Nova both give a solid review and have good sample questions.
    Physics review passages and questions: Berkeley Review because they have several passages that are really good and have good explanations.

    Verbal reasoning review text: Examkrackers gives a solid strategy.
    Verbal reasoning review passages and questions: Everything you can get because no one has great passages and the more you can see from different writing styles, the better you'll be ready for a test of multiple styles.

    Extras: Princeton Review's science workbook is very good and Berkeley Review's class notes have about 200 passages and a lot of short cuts and tricks.

Follow the list and you should do well.
 
Last edited:
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hello,

ok seems like your advice about berekeley sounds good. let me ask you something. so are the ek physics books and gen chem books useless? i looked into berkeley and i dont mind buying those books as well... but did u choose those books cuz someone told you or u had a bad experience with the ek books. also if u dont mind me asking how well did u do on the mcat and how long did u prepare before the exam ?
 
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Malayna said:
You ask if you're on the right track. I hate answering this way, because I know people are different, but NO, you're not on the right path. Like so many people here recommend, you should mix up your books differently so you get the best materials for each section.

What amazes me at SDN is the amount of great resources. It made a big difference for me, and I seriously believe that had I not followed the general advice, I wouldn't have scored as well. There are some posters here who put their heart and soul into their posts and really try to help. Since I've been here, there have been about five to ten posters who took the time to put out some great posts that summarized everything they did and what materials and programs worked. These are people who pulled great scores, so you should follow their suggestions. Here is the consensus opinion:
  • Biology review text: Examkrackers because it's to the point.
    Biology review passages and questions: Princeton Review and/or Berkeley Review because they are realistic and have good explanations.

    Orgo review text: Examkrackers if you are really strong in organic or Berkeley Review if you need a more in depth review.
    Orgo review passages and questions: Princeton Review and/or Berkeley Review because they are realistic and have good explanations.

    General chem review text: Berkeley Review because it 's thorough, explains things well, and covers exactly what the MCAT tests.
    General chem review passages and questions: Berkeley Review because they are realistic and have good explanations and as everyone who has used multiple sources will say, "they are the best by far."

    Physics review text: Berkeley Review or Nova both give a solid review and have good sample questions.
    Physics review passages and questions: Berkeley Review because they have several passages that are really good and have good explanations.

    Verbal reasoning review text: Examkrackers gives a solid strategy.
    Verbal reasoning review passages and questions: Everything you can get because no one has great passages and the more you can see from different writing styles, the better you'll be ready for a test of multiple styles.

    Extras: Princeton Review's science workbook is very good and Berkeley Review's class notes have about 200 passages and a lot of short cuts and tricks.

Follow the list and you should do well.
Click to expand...

This list is actually good consensus. I bought EK entire package, Hyperlearning entire package, and BR physics/chem/ochem.

I use:

TPR bio
BR physics/ochem/chem

That is it. EK bio I don't like.

BUT... I will use passages from all the following: Hyperlearning science workbook / EK 1001 all books / EK 101 / TPR verbal /

10 GS FL
4 TPR FL
4 Kaplan FL
7 TBR FL
8 AAMC (7 or 8, I forget)

Obviously I will only do as many FLs as time permits with heavy post gaming.

The books listed above are the best.
 
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So I am looking for new new verbal material as a retaker and came across this thread. I retake in 4 months and to be honest, I am not really buying in to the idea of the original book so I am not interested in it.

However, I noticed that the publisher now has a passages book... http://www.amazon.com/IvyHall-MCAT-...=sr_1_8?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1285797309&sr=1-8 (cheaper on the publisher's website)

I know one of the complaints of the original book is that it lacked passages...but now they have them.

I am wondering, has anyone used the passages from this company?

To be honest, I am extremely skeptical...especially after reading the single review on amazon (from a person who only has one other review....the original book!) And if you scroll down you see "editorial reviews" which seem extremely fake to me as well....

Just wanted to let everyone know about this new book and see who else has some thoughts!! Whether bad or good...
 
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i bought the verbal mastery book from sdn and i'll say that aside from the first couple passages that talk about why the mcat is important, i felt the rest of the book was important. The downside is that it's not for the lazy. I tried to do the reading program but i worked nights, had school, had a wierd sleep schedule and i just sucked at reading. i did do my best to do just the morning readings, for about 3 weeks and i did notice a difference in my verbal practice scores. i understood things a lot more better and i used one of his method to not wander when i read the passage. Really helped with time management. This time since i don't have full time school and all i'm doing beside working full time and volunteering is research at the NIH, my plan is to follow this reading schedule. i purchased the kindle to give me a boost. I just took a look at the passages book at amazon. So far it looks good. For verbal, practice passages are good so it woldn't hurt to get it.
Peace.
 
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how did people score after reading the books ?
are they useful because iam doing terrible in the verbal
please answer
thanks
 
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139871 said:
I have been reading through the book and it's nothing too great so far. Its some pretty basic stuff that can easily be discovered in the EK verbal book and through some practice. Not sure if it was worth the $65....
Click to expand...

I like the book. It really targets your reading skills, which helped improve my scores on the exam. What's interesting is there are many passages divided into 7 distinct sections, which you are expected to finish under a certain amount of time. The questions test your overall comprehension and application of the text. The questions are multiple choices and there are answers along with explanations included in the last half of the book. I like the explanations because it clearly states why a certain answer is the best among the rest. The book is really organized in terms of its presentation and formatting. It’s easy on the eyes for following all of the information. There is also a summary table containing all of the test sections with the time.
 
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i dont know why you guyz like this book! personally, I really hate reading books. I'm only reading the content review becasue I must review. I'm sure practicing passages will be same as following this book. by practicing, u'll figure things out on ur own... like what to look at and what not to.
 
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