I just took another EK VR (#2) and got yet another 7. I've been getting 7's and 8's and it seems like no matter how I try, I'm stuck with getting this score. I got an 8 on 3r and 4r and a 7 on 7R. I also never finish on time with AAMC's or EK. Kaplan's are a different story though, but I know that Kaplan is not really indicative of the VR on the MCAT. I've been getting 9's and 10's on Kaplan. Is it still possible to improve my VR in these final days? I've been really really frustrated these past few days (almost to the point of crying) because I can't seem to understand what's wrong with my VR abilities. I would appreciate some advise.
My verbal performance is making my life miserable
- Thread starter jv00927
- Start date
- Joined
- Aug 9, 2005
- Messages
- 1,006
- Reaction score
- 2
jv00927 said:
Verbal is really sensitive to your state of mind. There are no discretes and no easy calculations to help you get back on track. The worst thing you can do is get frustrated with yourself. Realize that you've scored a 10 on Kaplan, so you have some aptitude for this, but just haven't picked up on the AAMC style yet. My suggestion would be to go back over your old AAMC verbal exams, and read the answer explanation to every question. Don't worry about the questions that don't make any sense. There will be some questions where you made a mistake but can clearly understand why the correct answer is right and the answer you chose is wrong. Try to categorize the types of question you have missed in the past, but understand after reading through again. If you can figure out what type of question you've missed before but now understand, you'll be able to watch for them and get extra points. When you see them in your next practice test and on test day, they will be the extra points that give you a higher score. Plug into that feeling. Look at these previously difficult questions and realize that you now understand them and each one you see is a higher raw score. You have plenty of time to get this strategy to work for you.
Good luck.
- Joined
- Apr 17, 2004
- Messages
- 3,300
- Reaction score
- 1
jv00927 said:
Yeah I hear ya. This is one of the reasons why I decided to defer 'til January 'cause I was actually improving on the sciences, but I seem to be doing worse on the verbal.
I didn't want to go into the test knowing that my VR could go 50-50 for or against me. Ah well. 
to you.
- Joined
- Aug 7, 2006
- Messages
- 178
- Reaction score
- 0
osjx-82 said:
i agree completely.
- Joined
- Aug 8, 2006
- Messages
- 17
- Reaction score
- 0
I'm doing relatively poorly on verbal as well, nice to know I'm not alone. I've been getting 8's consistently on Kaplan wherein my PS and BS sections are both ~11-12.
Just keep trying and don't give up!
Just keep trying and don't give up!
- Joined
- Apr 21, 2006
- Messages
- 1,183
- Reaction score
- 4
I'm also fluctuating, although I have seen a pretty big improvement. I got a 10 on 3r, but it sometimes drops to a 9 and even an 8 (AAMC 8) Oh well, I guess we just have to keep practicing and never give up
to everybody here!
Oh well, I guess we just have to keep practicing and never give up to everybody here!- Joined
- Jul 29, 2006
- Messages
- 107
- Reaction score
- 0
jv00927 said:
i feel your pain..trust me. it seems that a lot of other people are in the same boat, too. i am not sure why, but VR always is my best score. i have always been an avid reader, and had to do a considerable amount of reading in upper level bio. courses (science journals like Nature, etc.)
one thing that i have found that has helped me is to be very critical in reading the passages. i try to get in the mindset of someone is who evaluating an essay and that i will eventually assign it a grade. ask yourself the questions: what are they trying to tell me and more importantly how are they constructing their argument? remember, there is a reason a person sat down and wrote this passage. if you can get a feel for their bias, then that is half the battle. this is not always so easy, since this is sophisticated writing and most of the stuff we are looking for is very subtle. pay close attention to key words and phrases (as a result, furthermore, although) see if you can figure out where the author is going with these words.
most of all, be an active reader, rather than just passively trying to absorb words. one of the biggest mistakes i have made, is that i find myself passively just reading, rather than focusing on what the author is trying to convey and how they are going about it.
one last thing...don't get frustrated with passages that are very saturated with details. i remember reading one practce AAMC passage about some play with an enormous amount of random details, punctuation marks, (all of that is trying to throw you off) one glance at that passage and i knew that there was no way that i was going to be held responsible for all of those random details. i quickly scanned the passage, got a jist of what it was talking about and went straight to the questions. i got like 5 out 7 questions right.
this is long and rambling, but i hope some of it helps. don't give up!
- Joined
- Aug 3, 2006
- Messages
- 87
- Reaction score
- 0
jv00927 said:
i completely feel ya... my verbal as been fluctuating between 2-10... (mostly around 7. i tried everything and now i just feel like my verbal scores are going down... and i dont' even end up finishing 2 of the passages... i also feel like i've run out of materials to use! i already did most of ek101.. do u think i shoudl do the 11 kaplan verbal tests? or do you know of any other tests that might be better than teh kaplan one?
and do you think i can increase my verbal by at least 3 points in 2 weeks?
thx
- Joined
- Jul 16, 2003
- Messages
- 629
- Reaction score
- 3
solitude said:
Word to that. I've taken almost every test in that thing (just #11 to go), and getting a nine on almost everyone of them. Just took #10 and got a 7. A 7! My AAMC scores have been 8,9,10, and 11 so far, so I know that I am capable of a 10+. To get a seven at this stage in the game is demoralizing. I thought, where the hell did I go wrong? I felt confident amoutn my asnwers. The answer descriptions I thought were very poor justification for the correct answers. I'm taking a TPR FL tommorrow, so I'll see how I do on that.
- Joined
- Jun 11, 2008
- Messages
- 44
- Reaction score
- 1
Keep your mind extremely focused while you read the passages! Normally, when I will read a book for recreation, my mind wanders and I basically start to daydream even as I keep reading until I realize, oh I'm reading from this book. It wasn't until I resisted this wandering that I was able to improve my verbal scores. You want to make sure as you read these 5 paragraphs or so from these passage that you don't lose any concentration. Stay focused, make sure you read aloud in your mind, and then the questions will make more sense and you won't find yourself searching through the passage as much to find the relevant information.
Most important of all, keep practicing. Verbal was by far the hardest section as I found consistently that I only had 5 minutes left for review after finishing the whole section. Good luck!
Most important of all, keep practicing. Verbal was by far the hardest section as I found consistently that I only had 5 minutes left for review after finishing the whole section. Good luck!
- Joined
- Nov 20, 2006
- Messages
- 3,288
- Reaction score
- 42
Please do not ressurect threads from two years ago unless you have good reason to. I would normally just wait and let this thread die out, but since someone could be confused and continue giving advise to people who are not here I am going to close it.
- Status
