Nontrad - Can I start practicing CARS now without much prereq knowledge?

[Doctoscope]

Hello everyone. I'm a nontrad who recently started a premed track, and I've only taken General Human Anatomy and General Biology 1.

From what I've read around on SDN, r/MCAT, and r/PreMed, CARS seems to be one of the more troublesome sections for a lot of people, and also takes the longest to improve your score in.

I understand that I'm getting ahead of myself, but I was never all that great at critical reading (only going off by my SAT scores lol), so I'd like to start a long-term CARS practice plan if I can. I'm at least 2 years away from taking the MCAT, but I'd like to do maybe a couple of passages a week long-term so I can gradually get better at it.

Does the MCAT CARS section require prerequisite knowledge to prepare for? If not, is it a good idea for me to start slowly practicing critical reading using old MCAT books (free PDFs)? If so, what are some resources I can use to start building my critical reading skills? LSAT? GRE?

Thank you.

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[AMCASTuesdays]

Nope, the only pre-req you need is to have english reading comprehension. Start practicing as early as you want.

 

[Doctoscope]

Nope, the only pre-req you need is to have english reading comprehension. Start practicing as early as you want.

Thanks! Do you think it's a smart idea to use old MCAT books (<2011), LSAT Verbal, and GRE Verbal resources? Or are they structured in a different way where skills in one do not necessarily translate well to another?

 

[Dochopeful13]

Thanks! Do you think it's a smart idea to use old MCAT books (<2011), LSAT Verbal, and GRE Verbal resources? Or are they structured in a different way where skills in one do not necessarily translate well to another?

Awesome idea. I wish I would of been this ahead of the game. I recommend signing up for Jack Westin daily cars passages. It’s free and you get a ton of passsges. They can be difficult so don’t get discouraged!

 

[AMCASTuesdays]

Personally i think you can use any non-scientific reading material to prepare for CARS. Unless you want to strictly follow a specific study service reading strategy, you dont need the most recent book at all. You can prepare really well by just getting used to literary analysis and improving your comprehension speed

 

[AMCASTuesdays]

Personally i think you can use any non-scientific reading material to prepare for CARS. Unless you want to strictly follow a specific study service reading strategy, you dont need the most recent book at all. You can prepare really well by just getting used to literary analysis and improving your comprehension speed

Forgot- someone on here mentioned reading magazines like the New Yorker and I think that’s also a good idea I wish I had thought of

 

[AB92]

I’ve been doing the Jack Westin free daily passages! I’m about a year and a half away from the MCAT as well, but doing one of those a day can’t hurt! I’ve also Keep hearing that just reading in general, like books for fun, is helpful!