****Official Verbal Reasoning Help Thread****

[Re3iRtH]

I was scoring consistent 9s from the EK 101 passages book.
I heard that EK verbal was "just as hard and maybe a little
harder" than the actual MCAT.

Well I ended up with 3 points lower on the MCAT.. which killed
my chances of applying with this test.

I have noticed that the passages are very easy to read and understand
with EK, the questions do require you to think. Do you guys suggest
practicing with kaplan verbal... I've been trying to find kaplan verbal
material but havent had any success.

Any help is appretiated!

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[sino408]

I've been consistently getting 10-11 on my VR practice tests. I've heard from people that VR score is the toughest to raise, so my questions are:

1. Is that true?
2. What is the best strategy to raise my score by at least 1-2 points on VR.

I am reading at a normal reading pace and seem to finish at least by 15 min at the fastest pace.

 

[ADeadLois]

I've been consistently getting 10-11 on my VR practice tests. I've heard from people that VR score is the toughest to raise, so my questions are:

1. Is that true?
2. What is the best strategy to raise my score by at least 1-2 points on VR.

I am reading at a normal reading pace and seem to finish at least by 15 min at the fastest pace.

If you're getting 10-11 it's going to be difficult to raise. People who get in the 12-15 ranges generally just get a stroke of good luck on test day, or are just naturally good at verbal reasoning. I would suggest staying in a "holding pattern" and keep up with whatever strategy has worked for you while practicing AAMC exams.

 

[Schaden Freud]

Yeah, you're not going to go up much from 10-11. Any variation will be due to luck.

I've been consistently getting 10-11 on my VR practice tests. I've heard from people that VR score is the toughest to raise, so my questions are:

1. Is that true?
2. What is the best strategy to raise my score by at least 1-2 points on VR.

I am reading at a normal reading pace and seem to finish at least by 15 min at the fastest pace.

 

[sino408]

Yeah, you're not going to go up much from 10-11. Any variation will be due to luck.

Luck, that magical word that everyone uses. So both of you are saying that the lucky ones can bring a 10 to a 14 and a 11 to a 15? Wow, that's a pretty big jump. What does this luck entail? Type of passages/questions? Thousands of other people taking the test get sleepy in the VR section? J/K, and thanks for the guidance.

 

[ADeadLois]

Luck, that magical word that everyone uses. So both of you are saying that the lucky ones can bring a 10 to a 14 and a 11 to a 15? Wow, that's a pretty big jump. What does this luck entail? Type of passages/questions? Thousands of other people taking the test get sleepy in the VR section? J/K, and thanks for the guidance.

As sad/weird/frustrating as it sounds, it is luck.

On VR, you're basically taking 60 educated guesses. There are ways to make better guesses, but you're still basically taking guesses. There is no emperical ways to get the correct answer. The people who get 13-15 are the one's whose cards fall into place.

 

[braluk]

well the spread between an 11 to a 15 or from a 12-15 is rather small. I believe the differene between a few questions right or wrong will make you jump up or down a few points give or take when you are talking about 12-15. Thus, odds are, with such a small sample of questions, it is indeed luck that plays a factor into raising it from an 11 to a 14 with a strong elemt of good test taking strategies.

 

[shantster]

As sad/weird/frustrating as it sounds, it is luck.

On VR, you're basically taking 60 educated guesses. There are ways to make better guesses, but you're still basically taking guesses. There is no emperical ways to get the correct answer. The people who get 13-15 are the one's whose cards fall into place.

It's that, plus, it's all based on luck on what passages you get.

 

[braluk]

i do disagree with the notion that getting a 8-10 is not simply luck of course. That requires some sort of insight that can be improved. To answer the question, verbal is typically the hardest to raise your score in because as Adeadlois said, there are no empircal strategy to get the right answer. whereas chem and bio and such all have set formulas and facts that you can learn to improve your score the next time around, verbal passages that are similar in subsequent tests that have any empirical value, are few and far between. Thus, the only way to really improve scores is to imporve strategies in taking the verbal, learning how to read a passage, pull out the right things from it to figure out what the author is saying/implying/etc. Key words are helpful. aside from that, the best way ive heard to improve points (although its really hard since its mostly luck to raise from an 11 to anything above it) is to do some hardcore periodical reading such as the economist, or wall street journal, etc. to be able to just practice going through some scholarly reading quickly and efficiently will probably help you. EK101 is also a good resource as well.

 

[4s4]

Is it better to spend the time reading stuff like the Economist (I know it helps with writing section too, but I'm solely talking about verbal here) or just practice doing more passages? (you are subconsciously reading too, right?)

 

[4s4]

I don't know if it's just me being stubborn but I don't agree with many of the EK explainations. Somehow, I feel that a lot of their "assumptions" and "arguments" are sort of forced onto you and I could still see room for some of the other answers to be correct or that the true answer is only weakly correct. For some reason, I've never had this feeling when doing Kaplan; their explanations always made sense to me and made me realize stuff I overlooked.

On top of that, I'm finding a lot EK questions being of 2 extremes, either really easy, i.e. go to the passage and look for it, or really hard--based on some twisted assumption type question. Kaplan questions seem to be spread more evenly and I haven't found that many go look into the passage q's.

But then why does everyone say that EK is closer to the real MCAT than Kaplan? *puzzled*Oh yeah, I do slightly better on Kaplan on my raw score by like 5 points usually in comparison to EK..argh so frustrating, really not liking EK right now.

 

[4s4]

I don't know if it's just me being stubborn but I don't agree with many of the EK explainations. Somehow, I feel that a lot of their "assumptions" and "arguments" are sort of forced onto you and I could still see room for some of the other answers to be correct or that the true answer is only weakly correct. For some reason, I've never had this feeling when doing Kaplan; their explanations always made sense to me and made me realize stuff I overlooked.

On top of that, I'm finding a lot EK questions being of 2 extremes, either really easy, i.e. go to the passage and look for it, or really hard--based on some twisted assumption type question. Kaplan questions seem to be spread more evenly and I haven't found that many go look into the passage q's.

But then why does everyone say that EK is closer to the real MCAT than Kaplan? *puzzled*Oh yeah, I do slightly better on Kaplan on my raw score by like 5 points usually in comparison to EK..argh so frustrating, really not liking EK right now.

 

[sino408]

i do disagree with the notion that getting a 8-10 is not simply luck of course. That requires some sort of insight that can be improved. To answer the question, verbal is typically the hardest to raise your score in because as Adeadlois said, there are no empircal strategy to get the right answer. whereas chem and bio and such all have set formulas and facts that you can learn to improve your score the next time around, verbal passages that are similar in subsequent tests that have any empirical value, are few and far between. Thus, the only way to really improve scores is to imporve strategies in taking the verbal, learning how to read a passage, pull out the right things from it to figure out what the author is saying/implying/etc. Key words are helpful. aside from that, the best way ive heard to improve points (although its really hard since its mostly luck to raise from an 11 to anything above it) is to do some hardcore periodical reading such as the economist, or wall street journal, etc. to be able to just practice going through some scholarly reading quickly and efficiently will probably help you. EK101 is also a good resource as well.

I guess I'm in, coincidentally, luck. I am a news junkie and I have subscriptions to The Economist and Newsweek. I'll start reading those articles more

 

[ADeadLois]

I don't know if it's just me being stubborn but I don't agree with many of the EK explainations. Somehow, I feel that a lot of their "assumptions" and "arguments" are sort of forced onto you and I could still see room for some of the other answers to be correct or that the true answer is only weakly correct. For some reason, I've never had this feeling when doing Kaplan; their explanations always made sense to me and made me realize stuff I overlooked.

On top of that, I'm finding a lot EK questions being of 2 extremes, either really easy, i.e. go to the passage and look for it, or really hard--based on some twisted assumption type question. Kaplan questions seem to be spread more evenly and I haven't found that many go look into the passage q's.

But then why does everyone say that EK is closer to the real MCAT than Kaplan? *puzzled*Oh yeah, I do slightly better on Kaplan on my raw score by like 5 points usually in comparison to EK..argh so frustrating, really not liking EK right now.

You're right about the EK answer explanations, they can be frustrating. That's why a lot of people say they do 1-2 points better on the real thing than on EK.

Kaplan's explanatons do make more sense...but it's because they write their passages to fit their strategy. In comparison to AAMC tests, though, they're not very similar.

 

[Haemulon]

I disagree with many of the posts about luck on here. While sure, there is some chance involved with any section in getting questions with which one is more familiar, high scores on any test generally require higher aptitudes. 10 - 11 is a good score for verbal. So if you can pull that on the real thing, i'd be happy. Some people are just naturally better at different things. Verbal is one of my strengths. Doing physics problems quickly, however, is a weakness for me. Consequently I scored high in verbal and low in PS. I have heard that VR is harder to bring up, but its not impossible. As with PS, it really comes down to practice. Practice reading faster, remembering concepts from passages, reasoning through questions. Just like practicing problems for PS, working out equations, remembering formulas will help with that section. Just my opinion anyway. Best of luck to you.

 

[braluk]

Is it better to spend the time reading stuff like the Economist (I know it helps with writing section too, but I'm solely talking about verbal here) or just practice doing more passages? (you are subconsciously reading too, right?)

Its good to do both. the only reason why i dont solely use verbal passages to enhance my scope of understanding in verbal reasoning is because i need to save those for my practice exams. Hence I might as well use my break in between studying MCATs to read up on current news through the economist and such.

 

[28_Days_Later]

According to EK, reading passages WITH questions is better than reading passages WITHOUT questions (outside reading)...

Further, you don't need knowledge gained from outside reading as this knowledge can hurt you.

So, this might sound stupid.... but why is it good to do outside reading as opposed to just doing passages earlier in the prepping phase. What is it that you get from outside reading with scholarly articles that you don't get from just doing a whole lot of passages? What is lacking in just doing a whole bunch of passages without outside reading?

Are reading materials - in the form of passages - offered by EK, Kaplan and other test prep co. insufficient in giving you the reading flexibility you need for Verbal? Are the hard passage types (economics and philosphy) offered so few that it is impossible to be familiar with enough jargon required to faciliate comprehension on test day?

I just want to know if there's any profit from doing outside reading, 'cause I'm still deciding whether or not to do it at this point...

 

[jamen316]

The truth is that there isn't much you can do to raise your verbal score other than get a better set of passages that's either based on an easier curve to conquer or ones that have more interesting topics (since I learn things I want to learn much more easily). If you're getting 10+ on that section, don't feel too pressured to try and bring it up much more than that. The people who do best on that section are the ones who can't really explain the strategy, yet still finish 15 min before time is called. Then there was me guessing on the last passage because there just wasn't enough time. I don't know when there's going to be a situation where I have to read something hastily and apply it all at once, so I don't know why I was tested on it. Even more bizarre is the fact that I made a 9 on the verbal but got an S on the writing section. Does this say that I can write but can't read? It's a messed up section that's either a boon or a bane to MCAT takers, hopefully you're in the former category who just has the natural talent to get through it. Good luck guys!

 

[ADeadLois]

According to EK, reading passages WITH questions is better than reading passages WITHOUT questions (outside reading)...

Further, you don't need knowledge gained from outside reading as this knowledge can hurt you.

So, this might sound stupid.... but why is it good to do outside reading as opposed to just doing passages earlier in the prepping phase. What is it that you get from outside reading with scholarly articles that you don't get from just doing a whole lot of passages? What is lacking in just doing a whole bunch of passages without outside reading?

Are reading materials - in the form of passages - offered by EK, Kaplan and other test prep co. insufficient in giving you the reading flexibility you need for Verbal? Are the hard passage types (economics and philosphy) offered so few that it is impossible to be familiar with enough jargon required to faciliate comprehension on test day?

I just want to know if there's any profit from doing outside reading, 'cause I'm still deciding whether or not to do it at this point...

I'm very much in the camp that doing outside reading really won't help you all that much in the time most people prep for the MCAT. If you have a few years, then reading The New Republic or The Economist may be beneficial.

This goes back to the notion that VR is not a reading comprehension exam. Understanding the passage isn't the most important thing; it's understanding how to answer the questions. Needless to say, reading outside material won't help you understand MCAT style questions.

 

[kevster2001]

I didn't do any outside reading to prep for the mCATs, just practice passages

 

[TSK]

I really think that there's no need to do outside reading. Kaplan and their AAMC materials provide more than enough practice in formats similar to those that you'll find on test day. Many of the passages that I practiced with were similar to the ones that I found on the real thing.

I prepared for the April MCAT by taking a Kaplan classroom course. On my Diagnostic, I gor a 7 in VR. After like the first VR lesson, my scores began to change significantly. I got an 11VR on the April 06 MCAT.

According to EK, reading passages WITH questions is better than reading passages WITHOUT questions (outside reading)...

Further, you don't need knowledge gained from outside reading as this knowledge can hurt you.

So, this might sound stupid.... but why is it good to do outside reading as opposed to just doing passages earlier in the prepping phase. What is it that you get from outside reading with scholarly articles that you don't get from just doing a whole lot of passages? What is lacking in just doing a whole bunch of passages without outside reading?

Are reading materials - in the form of passages - offered by EK, Kaplan and other test prep co. insufficient in giving you the reading flexibility you need for Verbal? Are the hard passage types (economics and philosphy) offered so few that it is impossible to be familiar with enough jargon required to faciliate comprehension on test day?

I just want to know if there's any profit from doing outside reading, 'cause I'm still deciding whether or not to do it at this point...

 

[shantster]

I never once went through the answer explanations. It felt too passive to review the test that way.

 

[hardworker101]

guys in middle of verbal tests i get a headache in full lengths.
can't focus much

Any opinions
thanks

 

[CanAmPremed]

guys in middle of verbal tests i get a headache in full lengths.
can't focus much

Any opinions
thanks

Honestly, I am in the same boat. So what I do is goto an environment (ie. a big library) and purposely sit around people studying for the MCAT. Seeing them work hard makes me feel stupid at the slightest bit of slacking off.

 

[4s4]

I always finish 15 minutes ahead of time as well, but then I end up with 7s. I guess I can try to slow down a bit. I've always been a naturally fast reader, and I find that I absolutely loathe going back and trying to get re-read questions again. =( Ironically, I actually got a 8 once with EK by skipping an entire pasasge and just going really slow.

 

[odependent]

I was wondering if people actually follows EKs advice and spend 1/2 hr on each passage the next day, and try to answer questions from question stems and analyze it.

Thanks.

 

[stiffany]

Hi guys. I started studying for the MCAT with a diagnostic back in May (3R), earning a 12 in verbal. In the beginning/mid part of June, I scored 11s on a few practice tests (6R, TPR 4911), and I thought I was doing well. Now, over the past few practice tests I've taken (TPR 4921, AAMC 4R, and EK verbal tests), my score has decreased down to a 9. I have no idea what's causing this change and with only 5.5 weeks towards the MCAT, it's starting to freak me out. Anyone have any suggestions???

 

[ADeadLois]

Hi guys. I started studying for the MCAT with a diagnostic back in May (3R), earning a 12 in verbal. In the beginning/mid part of June, I scored 11s on a few practice tests (6R, TPR 4911), and I thought I was doing well. Now, over the past few practice tests I've taken (TPR 4921, AAMC 4R, and EK verbal tests), my score has decreased down to a 9. I have no idea what's causing this change and with only 5.5 weeks towards the MCAT, it's starting to freak me out. Anyone have any suggestions???

That sort of fluctuation is normal, especially considering you're taking different versions from different prep companies.

I would take AAMC7-9 as gauges for your progress. I was consistently between 9-11 on EK and AAMC tests down the stretch and ended up with a 12.

 

[ADeadLois]

I was wondering if people actually follows EKs advice and spend 1/2 hr on each passage the next day, and try to answer questions from question stems and analyze it.

Thanks.

Yes, although not necesarily that much time, it's a good strategy.

 

[doc G]

guys in middle of verbal tests i get a headache in full lengths.
can't focus much

Any opinions
thanks

hey I had the same problem...I found that after each passage if I stopped and went to my happy place for about 10 seconds....then re focus and start the next..it relieves some tension and headaches may subside...good luck

 

[Gabujabu]

Up until a few years ago, the AAMC even grouped scores of 13-15 together. The thing is, at the upper ranges, answering just a few more questions right increases your score by 2 points. In addition, a few of the questions and passages are poorly worded (compared to some other tests I've taken), so the difference between a 12 and a 14 may very well have been luck in answering those questions. Since so many people are taking these tests, a few of them will always get lucky.

 

[kdburton]

Is it better to spend the time reading stuff like the Economist (I know it helps with writing section too, but I'm solely talking about verbal here) or just practice doing more passages? (you are subconsciously reading too, right?)

It is much better to practice doing more passages unless you plan on taking the MCAT next August - then you could consider doing a lot of extra reading for comprehension outside of MCAT materials.

 

[johnmillsbro]

I have a horrible time reading through these types of passages. Im looking for some good reference material that would be good practice. Any advice? Maybe some academic material with questions and answers from the passages would be the best. Any and all help will be greatly appreciated.
thanks
J

 

[suicidal cell]

I was having the same problem as you when I was approaching these passages. I just dreaded these passages. I think the most important part is to not get caught up with all the details and funny names, and let the main idea, or the point that the author is trying to make, speak to you. It's starting to work for me.

 

[suicidal cell]

I was a skeptic with the EK strategy at first, but I've stuck with it. It's really starting to work for me. I'm doing everything that the guide tells me to do, including the Q-stem exercise for each passage. I don't spend 30 minutes on each passage though. 10 minutes for each passage should be fine.

 

[suicidal cell]

What really works for me is that I pretend that it's the real MCAT that I'm writing. It gets my adrenaline pumping and it helps me stay focused.

 

[28_Days_Later]

no pain, no gain.

 

[GeoMay22]

I had the same problem with the 30 min thing too the first time I read it, so I went to the examkrackers forum to see if it was a typo. Jordan himself verified that it was. See the link:

http://www.examkrackersforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=1629

 

[bananaboat]

I had the same problem with the 30 min thing too the first time I read it, so I went to the examkrackers forum to see if it was a typo. Jordan himself verified that it was. See the link:

http://www.examkrackersforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=1629

my question is, if you do it for all 9 passages in a section test, or just 3

i just get so bored..

 

[doublehh03]

i tend to do better on EK than Kaplan.

which one is more accurate?

 

[hardworker101]

guys
I really want to hear what made the improvments in verbal scores of people that are scoring 10 above.

Please, mcat is close.
I need your help,

 

[GuzzyRon]

I get a bad headache each time I take full lengths, too. It usually starts midway into verbal. But here's what I do: I take a couple of Advils before the test and a couple more midway into the test (shortly before the BS section). This has worked well for me each time and no more headaches

guys in middle of verbal tests i get a headache in full lengths.
can't focus much

Any opinions
thanks

 

[italian831]

hey guys....i did a EK verbal passage not timed, but didnt go back to the passage and got 4 out of 7 wrong! The big problem was that i didn't fully understand what the author's view was and the guy he was talking about...so basically it was a main idea issue. How do I improve this? I'm trying not to become so dependent on the passage so I didn't look back, but I feel like if i did, I would have gotten more right...any advice?

 

[sino408]

guys
I really want to hear what made the improvments in verbal scores of people that are scoring 10 above.

Please, mcat is close.
I need your help,

Re-analyze the structured strategies that you've been using. E.g. read slower and see what happens to your score, read faster and see what happens, read more in-depth and retain details, read less in-depth to save time, etc.

Keep the things that work and throw away the things that don't.

 

[LifetimeDoc]

Modified EK Method:
Read the passage, circle things that will help me reference them later on IF I need to go back to the passage. Read at a normal, quick pace. Read to understand, not to memorize facts. I have a hard time with names, so I circle the names of places, names of people, names of ideas, etc. I don't underline keywords or any of that sort of stuff.

Realize the questions have a wealth of information, and that you can sometimes answer the question without reading the passage. Many answers are correct, but don't answer the question being asked. Spend at half of your time reading the questions and answering them.

If you typically don't finish the verbal exam in time, don't refer back to the passage. Read and answer the questions, and move on. You want your timing to give you 5-10 minutes extra at the end to go back and mull over those questions you circled, answered, but needed more time to go over. Learn to give up on a difficult question, make your best guess, and move on.

 

[H and D]

What has really helped me in the last week or so is to use the question stems and answer techniques from EK. A couple days after I do a verbal exam I go through and re-answer all the questions only using the question stems and answer choices (no passage). I was extremely surprised by how many you can answer correctly. It also helped me get a "feel" for what correct answers will sound like.
I have improved my EK verbal passage score from 6-8 to 11s. I read the passage, then I read through all the questions, then I answer the questions based on what I read in the passage. If there are questions which are confusing or I am having a hard time picking betwen 2 or 3 choices I examine the question and all the answer choices again and decide based on their wording, style and feel. Generally if they use words such as always, or never, (or other strong modifiers) they will not be correct.
I did not believe EK's claims that this would help but it really has. I only refer back to the passage for detail type questions and do not really use it for main idea type questions as I was doing that before and not scoring well.
Hopefully my success with this method will continue to hold (right now I am feeling pretty confident about verbal, we will see).
Hope that helps.

 

[xylem29]

hey guys....i did a EK verbal passage not timed, but didnt go back to the passage and got 4 out of 7 wrong! The big problem was that i didn't fully understand what the author's view was and the guy he was talking about...so basically it was a main idea issue. How do I improve this? I'm trying not to become so dependent on the passage so I didn't look back, but I feel like if i did, I would have gotten more right...any advice?

To comment on their method - I find that their 101 passages book to be WAY easier than the passages found in their Math and VR book...the passages in this book were real killer ones...not the passage themselves but the questions. For the 101 passages, you can actually read the passage, get the basic idea of it and actually answer some questions without going back but I find that, at least for me, there is no choice but to go back for the questions that ask for details. As for going back to the questions a day later and trying to answer them again without reading...I still find it difficult to do that b/c I remember the main idea from the passage etc and thus, I already have a head start with trying to find the main idea from the question stems!

 

[whateva07]

i cant seem to find my vr book which explains the method to go over the passages. I took a kaplan verbal test and I just read over their explanations to see what i did wrong and I dont feel like it helped, because their explaining the passage itself. i feel like they need to be like ok we got this answer by deductive reasoning or something. Anyways I was wondering if someone could please explain the EK strategy in go overing the tests. As far as I understand you go over the questions without looking at the passage.

 

[whateva07]

good question.

 

[Chemgirl27]

Hey guys,
I'm getting really fustrated because I've just finished taking my third EK verbal and I've been getting consistent 8s. I'm just scared I won't see improvment and this will be a trend. How soon after using the EK verbal method, did you guys actually see changes? Well, please let me know. I just don't know what more to do.

 

[LifetimeDoc]

If EK doesn't work, try another, mix methods, or make your own.