I was that student that never knew why I was failing the CARS section when I would always walk out of the test feeling like I aced that section. I was that student that always thought CARS is something you cannot study for. I was also that student that took the test twice and got a 123 both times. The only thing I did differently when taking the test the third time around was that I practiced with more stringent time conditions and with many passages. I also took the passages and pasted them onto a microsoft doc and zoomed out to 120% and practice with this zoomed setting so that I can stimulate the real mcat testing situation. I did it!!! I finally broke the 123 barrier and got a 127. The reason why I am saying this is I was extremely depressed that my score was 123 for the longest time and taking the test a third time was a lot of pressure, but I still managed to improve so don't lose hope! A bit about me…I took the mcat at the end of sophomore year summer after 3 months of studying and got a 26. I took the new version of the mcat having studied for an additional 3 more months and got a 502 (26 again). The third time I took the test I got a 506 (29) and now I'm getting ready to apply! So don't lose hope or get overwhelmed by the # of posts with 510+ because statistics show that there is only 33% of the population getting that score and much lower percentages for scores that are 520+. Only people who do well post so don't let that bother you. Just keep practicing! Good luck!!!
Now to specifically, answer your question……
That is a hard question because in my opinion Next step has some of the best passages so if you want to practice reading passages under timed conditions, this is the best resource. There language is as dense as the AAMC passages and they choose passages from AAMC's high yield CARS passages sources. But this is not the best resource! Why? the questions are really off and part of acing the CARS section is practicing with questions that allow you to use similar critical thinking as the AAMC tests! If I had to choose, I would do other resources because they help you try to figure out which sentences in the passage are loaded with transitional ideas and author's tone. I honestly believe practice is key ….but more importantly practice with the right material (ex. AAMC CARS section pack, AAMC practice tests, TPR-Hyperlearning, EK)
*Note TPR - focuses too much on finding specific sentences that will help paraphrase the answer choice like the SAT but this is not the right approach. When looking back, you should be reminding yourself what the main idea of that topic was, rather than finding a specific sentence….you should be skimming that section and should know where to look in the passage rather than try to skim the whole passage to find that section.
*EK - helps with new information questions….but they overdo it sometimes causing you to make multiple leaps of inference and this type of critical thinking is not found in the AAMC tests. The AAMC answer choices have some support in passage even if it is an extrapolated new information question.
In my opinion, both Kaplan and KHAN are subpar
