I have been reading a lot of posts that recommend specific prep books/prep courses and strategies that are largely derived from them. I am interested in knowing what "other" things are valuable?
1) Are there any specific university courses that make a big difference (please do not say humanities, English, etc.) - the more specific the better.
I only have room for 2-3 of these course over the next year, so I want to pick the ones that are most conducive to improving MCAT scores.
2) It has been said many places that the more you read the better you will do on the verbal reasoning section (for the most part). If you could recommend specific readings or types of reading that are effective in preparing you for the verbal reasoning section, please let me know!
3) My biggest issue has been finding out what MCAT considers the right answer to be. (do MCAT writers prepare the questions for the verbal reasoning passages or the authors themselves?- I'd assume the former). Anyways, I have always excelled in verbal reasoning and I still can not get over a 10. What seems to be bringing me down are the questions that I genuinely believe to be correct and MCAT doesn't- even after reviewing their explanation for their right answer selection, I am confident that their answer is no more right than mine (or mine is right). Basically, I have been finding that there are questions that allow for more than 1 right answer and do not provide enough information to decisively identify one over the other (there is built in ambiguity, insufficient information to select one answer over another, and the reasoning that resulted in one answer being chosen over the other doesn't necessarily have to be the case- other interpretations are in some cases equally true).HOW DO I FIGURE OUT WHAT MCAT WANTS???
- I have always excelled in my philosophy and liberal arts courses and reading comprehension has always been one of my strongest areas- which doesn't seem to be playing out on the verbal reasoning section. WHAT SHOULD I DO?
4) has anyone noticed and tested trends/themes in MCAT verbal reasoning questions/answers that help eliminate wrong answers? Trends that can be reliably counted on to produce the right answer if they can be recognized... ( I have read Kaplan and EK verbal reasoning prep books and I STILL think I haven't identified all of the trends that could help my unify my reponses according to MCAT's reasoning..)
5) anything else that might be helpful...
Thanks.
K
1) Are there any specific university courses that make a big difference (please do not say humanities, English, etc.) - the more specific the better.
I only have room for 2-3 of these course over the next year, so I want to pick the ones that are most conducive to improving MCAT scores.
2) It has been said many places that the more you read the better you will do on the verbal reasoning section (for the most part). If you could recommend specific readings or types of reading that are effective in preparing you for the verbal reasoning section, please let me know!
3) My biggest issue has been finding out what MCAT considers the right answer to be. (do MCAT writers prepare the questions for the verbal reasoning passages or the authors themselves?- I'd assume the former). Anyways, I have always excelled in verbal reasoning and I still can not get over a 10. What seems to be bringing me down are the questions that I genuinely believe to be correct and MCAT doesn't- even after reviewing their explanation for their right answer selection, I am confident that their answer is no more right than mine (or mine is right). Basically, I have been finding that there are questions that allow for more than 1 right answer and do not provide enough information to decisively identify one over the other (there is built in ambiguity, insufficient information to select one answer over another, and the reasoning that resulted in one answer being chosen over the other doesn't necessarily have to be the case- other interpretations are in some cases equally true).HOW DO I FIGURE OUT WHAT MCAT WANTS???
- I have always excelled in my philosophy and liberal arts courses and reading comprehension has always been one of my strongest areas- which doesn't seem to be playing out on the verbal reasoning section. WHAT SHOULD I DO?
4) has anyone noticed and tested trends/themes in MCAT verbal reasoning questions/answers that help eliminate wrong answers? Trends that can be reliably counted on to produce the right answer if they can be recognized... ( I have read Kaplan and EK verbal reasoning prep books and I STILL think I haven't identified all of the trends that could help my unify my reponses according to MCAT's reasoning..)
5) anything else that might be helpful...
Thanks.
K
