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I have heard a few of you complain about graps and diagrams. It's sad because that's the kind of stuff I was good at, it's the easy stuff that always got the best of me. 
Anyway, I have a little scheme i would do before starting any BS or PS passage.
1. If there is a graph or a chart, first thing you gotta do is check it out. ALWAYS check out the Y and X axis first. See what's on there. So if you see, GLUCOSE and ADH concentrations, you gotta think: osmolarity!! KIDNEYS! Where does ADH act? What does it do? This should take like 5 seconds, to scan the X and Y axis and make yourself predict what you're going to see in the passage. The MCAT is really about being able to PREDICT what they are going to ask and narrow down on it.
Then, look at the shape of the graph. You know what X and Y axis are, try and quickly learn what the shape is showing. Positive slopes mean direct feed-forward relationship. Negative slopes mean negative feedback.
Know what slopes look like for rate reactions. first rate, second rate etc. Those are easy to remember and show up a lot on the MCAT.
2. Now, don't go to the passage. Just look at the questions. See if there are any sly discrete questions they have put in there, where you don't have to look at the passage. Circle those answers. I can not stress this enough...almost EVERY passage has a couple of discrete quetsions in it. I HAVE HAD PASSAGES WHERE I NEVER HAD TO EVEN READ THE DAMN THING, JUST USED MY PRIOR KNOWLEDGE AND SCORED HIGH ON THE PASSAGE. LOOK FOR DISCRETES WITHIN EACH PASSAGE!!!!
3. Now, quicky skim over questions and try and familiarize yourself with the KIND of questions they are. IF you see that a lot of questions are asking for answers straight out of the passage, run to the passage. If you see an inference question or two in there, you HAVE to read the entire passage.
4. As you read the passage, actively look for answers to the questions you had skimmed. Again, narrow down. . . look at big picture. . . .don't get bogged down my details. IF the passage read something like this. . . . .
"30 patients and 30 controls were given 325 mg of Glucose at Time 1 and 325 mg of ABCDEFG at Time 2......"
YOUR active reading should really be like this:
X patients and X controls given blah Glucose and BLAH ABCDEFG....
See how little you get bogged down and really focus in on the experiment?
Again, when doing BS and PS, now that you have wayyyy more quetsions than Verbal and you only have so much time. Here's how to attack the BS and PS (worked for me, may not work for you):
1. When time begins, RUN to the discretes. there are ususally 2 sets. One in the middle, one in the end. Do the discretes. ALL the discrets should take you NO LONGER than 20 mins NO MATTER HOW MANY THEY GIVE!!! An MCAT will NEVER have more than X amt of discretes (because they are so easy!), so you have to get your points. it's all about getting the points ASAP! Now, if you run across a hard discrete, and you can't seem to think how to answer it, SKIP IT. You can always come back to it later, after most other discretes are done.
2. Once that is done, what's left is really up to you. I used to run to do the easiest Gen Chem passage first (I like Gen Chem more than Physics), then go to harder Gen Chem. Then I would do the easy Physics first, and then the Harder Physics passages.
3. All the while, you HAVE to look for easy questions, and get your answers! GET YOUR POINTS. You have to learn how to triage very quickly with a glance and see what you're gonna be good at and run to solve it first. GET YOUR POINTS!!
4. Try and check your timing each time. I would check my watch every 2 or 3 passages, and make sure that every 3 passages, I was at the 30 minute mark. IN other words, every 3 passages should take no more than 30 mins. Even 30 mins is really a lot, it should be done in 25.
5. Remember: PS and especially BS don't require a lot of reading passages. Search for the sly discretes, solve those first within each passage. then read the passage to solve any other questions that are left. If a part of the passage is not read, but all your questions are answered, SCREW IT. Let it be.
4. If you are pressed for time at the last minute and you have a passage or two left--DO NOT run to read and finish fast. Instead, pick the easier passage, do the sly discretes and MOVE ON to the next. Again, do the sly discretes within the next pasasge. When time allows you, try and answer questions that would be solved quickly where the answer is straight from the passage.
POP QUIZ:
you have one passage left and 2 minutes remaining. What do you do?
1. Again, LOOK FOR SLY DISCRETES. These are easiest.
2. Then look for questions that are qualitative, where you have to use your previous knowledge to pick the right answer. Those are almost like discretes!
3. Then look for questions where a quick read from your passage would give you the answer ASAP.
4. If time allows, do your inference questions. Those usually take long.
Ok, so. .these are the tools I used in my PS and BS and usually helped get over a 10 or so on sciences. I liked double digits, so I was happy. Some of these are my own tools, some I blatantly stole from Kaplan. Choose whichever one you like. Just thought I'd share.
Tweetie
Anyway, I have a little scheme i would do before starting any BS or PS passage.
1. If there is a graph or a chart, first thing you gotta do is check it out. ALWAYS check out the Y and X axis first. See what's on there. So if you see, GLUCOSE and ADH concentrations, you gotta think: osmolarity!! KIDNEYS! Where does ADH act? What does it do? This should take like 5 seconds, to scan the X and Y axis and make yourself predict what you're going to see in the passage. The MCAT is really about being able to PREDICT what they are going to ask and narrow down on it.
Then, look at the shape of the graph. You know what X and Y axis are, try and quickly learn what the shape is showing. Positive slopes mean direct feed-forward relationship. Negative slopes mean negative feedback.
Know what slopes look like for rate reactions. first rate, second rate etc. Those are easy to remember and show up a lot on the MCAT.
2. Now, don't go to the passage. Just look at the questions. See if there are any sly discrete questions they have put in there, where you don't have to look at the passage. Circle those answers. I can not stress this enough...almost EVERY passage has a couple of discrete quetsions in it. I HAVE HAD PASSAGES WHERE I NEVER HAD TO EVEN READ THE DAMN THING, JUST USED MY PRIOR KNOWLEDGE AND SCORED HIGH ON THE PASSAGE. LOOK FOR DISCRETES WITHIN EACH PASSAGE!!!!
3. Now, quicky skim over questions and try and familiarize yourself with the KIND of questions they are. IF you see that a lot of questions are asking for answers straight out of the passage, run to the passage. If you see an inference question or two in there, you HAVE to read the entire passage.
4. As you read the passage, actively look for answers to the questions you had skimmed. Again, narrow down. . . look at big picture. . . .don't get bogged down my details. IF the passage read something like this. . . . .
"30 patients and 30 controls were given 325 mg of Glucose at Time 1 and 325 mg of ABCDEFG at Time 2......"
YOUR active reading should really be like this:
X patients and X controls given blah Glucose and BLAH ABCDEFG....
See how little you get bogged down and really focus in on the experiment?
Again, when doing BS and PS, now that you have wayyyy more quetsions than Verbal and you only have so much time. Here's how to attack the BS and PS (worked for me, may not work for you):
1. When time begins, RUN to the discretes. there are ususally 2 sets. One in the middle, one in the end. Do the discretes. ALL the discrets should take you NO LONGER than 20 mins NO MATTER HOW MANY THEY GIVE!!! An MCAT will NEVER have more than X amt of discretes (because they are so easy!), so you have to get your points. it's all about getting the points ASAP! Now, if you run across a hard discrete, and you can't seem to think how to answer it, SKIP IT. You can always come back to it later, after most other discretes are done.
2. Once that is done, what's left is really up to you. I used to run to do the easiest Gen Chem passage first (I like Gen Chem more than Physics), then go to harder Gen Chem. Then I would do the easy Physics first, and then the Harder Physics passages.
3. All the while, you HAVE to look for easy questions, and get your answers! GET YOUR POINTS. You have to learn how to triage very quickly with a glance and see what you're gonna be good at and run to solve it first. GET YOUR POINTS!!
4. Try and check your timing each time. I would check my watch every 2 or 3 passages, and make sure that every 3 passages, I was at the 30 minute mark. IN other words, every 3 passages should take no more than 30 mins. Even 30 mins is really a lot, it should be done in 25.
5. Remember: PS and especially BS don't require a lot of reading passages. Search for the sly discretes, solve those first within each passage. then read the passage to solve any other questions that are left. If a part of the passage is not read, but all your questions are answered, SCREW IT. Let it be.
4. If you are pressed for time at the last minute and you have a passage or two left--DO NOT run to read and finish fast. Instead, pick the easier passage, do the sly discretes and MOVE ON to the next. Again, do the sly discretes within the next pasasge. When time allows you, try and answer questions that would be solved quickly where the answer is straight from the passage.
POP QUIZ:
you have one passage left and 2 minutes remaining. What do you do?
1. Again, LOOK FOR SLY DISCRETES. These are easiest.
2. Then look for questions that are qualitative, where you have to use your previous knowledge to pick the right answer. Those are almost like discretes!
3. Then look for questions where a quick read from your passage would give you the answer ASAP.
4. If time allows, do your inference questions. Those usually take long.
Ok, so. .these are the tools I used in my PS and BS and usually helped get over a 10 or so on sciences. I liked double digits, so I was happy. Some of these are my own tools, some I blatantly stole from Kaplan. Choose whichever one you like. Just thought I'd share.
Tweetie
