Post here if you actually improved in Verbal

[Graffiti]

It seems like everyone is running with the idea that it's impossible to improve verbal. Anytime I read these forums, I always see so much negativity. Like the other day, someone was stuck at an 8 and was asking for others opinions, and some dude was saying that's pretty much the score he'll get on the exam since it's impossible to improve verbal.

Anyways, the point of this thread isn't to ask for advice. I'm merely asking for those who actually improved to simply come forward. Even if it was a point or two. Please post below. Post what you originally started out with on practice tests and how much you improved on the real deal or future practice tests. Also, if you can, post how much time you spent working on verbal to make that improvement.

Once again, I'm not asking for advice. I'm simply interesting in disproving the notion that it's "impossible to improve verbal."

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[bfarn30]

Of course it's not impossible to make improvements.

In 2009, I took the real MCAT and scored a 6...pretty darn bad. I had maybe taken 3-4 verbal section tests (aka I was an idiot in terms of preparation). It wasn't my time and I was Blessed with other opportunities.

Then, I decided to begin re-studying a year later. I began by getting 7s, 8s, and 9s on EK 101 and AAMC full lengths. By the time I tested in March, I was consistently hitting 10s.

On the real thing, I scored an 11. Statistically, there is about a 1% chance of raising 5 points on a retake. Here's the data: https://www.aamc.org/students/applying/mcat/admissionsadvisors/retester/85356/retester_retestvr.html

My point is simply that it is very well within reach to make some nice point improvements. Just have Faith.

Oh, and the second time around, I took probably about 20 VR section tests (under timed conditions). These came from EK and Kaplan. Then, of course, there were the VR sections in the full length tests I took (about 8 AAMC and 2 or 3 Kaplan).

 

[Silverfalcon]

I don't see the point of this thread. Small number of people improve but most people don't. But why does that matter?

 

[Graffiti]

I don't see the point of this thread. Small number of people improve but most people don't. But why does that matter?

Actually, it's weird that you posted because YOU are partially the reason I made this thread. I'm tired of your negativity and others. And it does matter because when pessimistic people like you make comments like, "its unlikely you'll improve" it discourages people from even trying.

 

[Rabolisk]

*posts*

 

[ModusProbandi]

it discourages people from even trying.

Depends on the nature of who's listening.

 

[ridethecliche]

Yeah seriously.

I'm more than happy to prove this guy wrong. I'm working towards improving regardless of what this dude is/isn't saying.

 

[Sharpies]

I think it is definitely possible to improve, but the process generally takes much longer than a typical person's MCAT study plan. Personally, I didn't see significant improvement over the course of taking practice tests (I started off at 11 with the first practice test I took, fluctuated without any pattern between 12-14 on the later ones, got a 10 on the practice test I did right before the test).

I can trace most if not all of my verbal test-taking skills from preparing for the SAT verbal in high school. For the SATs, I practiced verbal sections on and off over the course of ~2 years and saw improvement from the mid-600 range to the high 700 to 800 range.

I feel like improving on the verbal section is just a matter of doing practice passages over and over, then analyzing all wrong answers and coming up with your own explanation about WHY it's wrong. I also like to mark ones that I am not sure about, and if I get it right, I will come up with explanations for how I ended up choosing the right one. Eventually, you just get the hang of it and learn how the test writers think. However, I think this process takes >1 year for most people, but most don't spend that long studying for the MCAT.

 

[ridethecliche]

I don't think that MCAT verbal is at all comparable to SAT verbal.

I will say that the reason it's difficult to improve is because you have to be okay with picking the best answer vs the 100% correct answer. The sciences tested have right answers, the verbal section throws people for a loop because it has best answers that are often terrible answers, but the others just happen to be worse.

Getting in that mindset between two science sections is difficult, but I'm finding that it's slowly coming on for me.

 

[Sharpies]

I don't think that MCAT verbal is at all comparable to SAT verbal.

I will say that the reason it's difficult to improve is because you have to be okay with picking the best answer vs the 100% correct answer. The sciences tested have right answers, the verbal section throws people for a loop because it has best answers that are often terrible answers, but the others just happen to be worse.

Getting in that mindset between two science sections is difficult, but I'm finding that it's slowly coming on for me.

I would argue that they are pretty similar. I have no idea if there is concrete evidence, but I feel that there is a probably a strong correlation between SAT verbal scores and MCAT verbal scores. There are differences, of course-- I thought the MCAT answers were much more ambiguous and definitely encountered more questions where I could only knock out 2 answers. However, I think the general test-taking strategies are the same.

 

[ridethecliche]

I would argue that they are pretty similar. I have no idea if there is concrete evidence, but I feel that there is a probably a strong correlation between SAT verbal scores and MCAT verbal scores. There are differences, of course-- I thought the MCAT answers were much more ambiguous and definitely encountered more questions where I could only knock out 2 answers. However, I think the general test-taking strategies are the same.

Hey man, you're the one who got a 15.

I'll take your word for it. Haha.

Edit: Fine a 14. Boo friggin hoo

 

[Sharpies]

Hey man, you're the one who got a 15.

I'll take your word for it. Haha.

Haha. First of all, I am female. Second, I did not get a 15 on verbal... dunno where that came from. I did get a 14

 

[GreenRabbit]

I think it is definitely possible to improve, but the process generally takes much longer than a typical person's MCAT study plan. Personally, I didn't see significant improvement over the course of taking practice tests (I started off at 11 with the first practice test I took, fluctuated without any pattern between 12-14 on the later ones, got a 10 on the practice test I did right before the test).

I can trace most if not all of my verbal test-taking skills from preparing for the SAT verbal in high school. For the SATs, I practiced verbal sections on and off over the course of ~2 years and saw improvement from the mid-600 range to the high 700 to 800 range.

I feel like improving on the verbal section is just a matter of doing practice passages over and over, then analyzing all wrong answers and coming up with your own explanation about WHY it's wrong. I also like to mark ones that I am not sure about, and if I get it right, I will come up with explanations for how I ended up choosing the right one. Eventually, you just get the hang of it and learn how the test writers think. However, I think this process takes >1 year for most people, but most don't spend that long studying for the MCAT.

This. I spent more time rereading wrong answers and marked questions than actually doing new passages. But I also think this works regardless of whether you spend a year studying or a month. Unless your overall reading ability is deficient (maybe, verbal <10?), answering more questions won't help you understand the writers -- looking at your mistakes will. Unlike the SAT, the MCAT is ambiguous, but the more you learn how the writers think, the less ambiguous it becomes.

 

[NickNaylor]

I went from 10-12 on practice tests to a 15 on the real deal. I wish I had some sort of advice or a method to how I did it, but frankly, I don't. I stopped studying for VR a few weeks into my schedule. The only practice I got was on the FLs that I took.

The only things I would recommend are:

1) going over your tests and reading the explanations for all of the answers. If you do this, you might get an idea of the "logic" the MCAT is expecting of you. Don't be fooled: IMO, VR is more about thinking how the test wants you to think than reading comprehension.

2) in the long term, taking some critical reading courses. For example, I was a great texts/great books minor, so by the time I took the MCAT I had taken 3-4 courses in which we did nothing but read, analyze, and discuss important texts throughout history. I think that more than anything helped me on VR.

Best of luck. Try not to stress too much over it.

 

[Y88]

I was averaging 10-11 on the practice tests, 12 on the real deal. I did get a 12 once on the practice tests, but I didn't think I'd really do better than 10-11. I actually felt the real test was harder/longer.

What worked for me I suppose was simply the amount of focus I put into the real test. I diverted every gram of glucose to my brain on that section. That was my primary method for having any kind of hope of doing better.

 

[Genemo]

I love the idea of this thread. May I also ask if you improve your verbal, what do you think is most helpful? Thx~!

 

[YouNeverKnow22]

I went from 10-12 on practice tests to a 15 on the real deal. I wish I had some sort of advice or a method to how I did it, but frankly, I don't. I stopped studying for VR a few weeks into my schedule. The only practice I got was on the FLs that I took.

The only things I would recommend are:

1) going over your tests and reading the explanations for all of the answers. If you do this, you might get an idea of the "logic" the MCAT is expecting of you. Don't be fooled: IMO, VR is more about thinking how the test wants you to think than reading comprehension.

2) in the long term, taking some critical reading courses. For example, I was a great texts/great books minor, so by the time I took the MCAT I had taken 3-4 courses in which we did nothing but read, analyze, and discuss important texts throughout history. I think that more than anything helped me on VR.

Best of luck. Try not to stress too much over it.

agree with the all of this, VR in my opinion just takes practice reading the passage stress-free in about 4ish minutes and look at the questions calmly. The questions aren't that hard if you analyze carefully.

 

[sdsoccer]

deleted

 

[thomasfx10]

Here is a quick EK strategy that helped me.

Do 3 or 4 practice passages and ONLY look at the question stem and answers. Do not go to the passage even if it says ... in paragraph two the author is saying ... What you are trying to do is glean the correct answers from the question stems / answers. If you get stuck on a question move to the next one which could give you insight to another question, and so on. This helped me look for traps and extremes.

You will be surprised on how many you will get correct without even looking at the passage.

Once you have done this a few times then try one using both question / answer gleaning with looking at the passages. You will find your passage reading speed increase as well.

 

[bfarn30]

here is a quick ek strategy that helped me.

Do 3 or 4 practice passages and only look at the question stem and answers. Do not go to the passage even if it says ... in paragraph two the author is saying ... what you are trying to do is glean the correct answers from the question stems / answers. If you get stuck on a question move to the next one which could give you insight to another question, and so on. This helped me look for traps and extremes.

You will be surprised on how many you will get correct without even looking at the passage.

Once you have done this a few times then try one using both question / answer gleaning with looking at the passages. You will find your passage reading speed increase as well.

yes the ek learning strategy is awesome!

 

[Graffiti]

Thanks for the feedback guys. I'm bumping this to get more input.

 

[Im Learning]

Here is a quick EK strategy that helped me.

Do 3 or 4 practice passages and ONLY look at the question stem and answers. Do not go to the passage even if it says ... in paragraph two the author is saying ... What you are trying to do is glean the correct answers from the question stems / answers. If you get stuck on a question move to the next one which could give you insight to another question, and so on. This helped me look for traps and extremes.

You will be surprised on how many you will get correct without even looking at the passage.

Once you have done this a few times then try one using both question / answer gleaning with looking at the passages. You will find your passage reading speed increase as well.

What is a question stem?

 

[NickNaylor]

yes the ek learning strategy is awesome!

That said, I don't recommend sticking to the letter for ANY strategy (yes, even though EK says to). Not all strategies work for all people. Try several strategies out and keep the useful parts while ignoring the not-so-useful parts. People tend to think that since something is written in a book, it must be awesome. Not necessarily true.

 

[Silverfalcon]

Actually, it's weird that you posted because YOU are partially the reason I made this thread. I'm tired of your negativity and others. And it does matter because when pessimistic people like you make comments like, "its unlikely you'll improve" it discourages people from even trying.

There's a difference between giving false encouragements and providing realistic assessment. If you are someone who's scoring 7-8 on AAMC Verbal, the chance for you to score 13 on Verbal does exist, but it's very slim. So, yes, you should keep trying by taking practice tests and whatnot, but don't fret about what other people did. That means NOTHING.

This just goes to show that in the end, what you are asking is people to come and just reveal their scores. Who cares? They got 13 on MCAT Verbal while practices said 10. What does THAT have to do with you? None! There is no "need" to disprove whole "Verbal is impossible to improve" because people do improve on their scores, and just because you don't hear about it as often doesn't mean it doesn't happen.

 

[bfarn30]

That said, I don't recommend sticking to the letter for ANY strategy (yes, even though EK says to). Not all strategies work for all people. Try several strategies out and keep the useful parts while ignoring the not-so-useful parts. People tend to think that since something is written in a book, it must be awesome. Not necessarily true.

Agreed. Start with a strategy and figure out what works best. Drop the parts of the strategies that don't seem to do it for ya! IMO, EK's baseline strategy is way better than Kaplan's. But other people may find that other modified strategies are better.

 

[ridethecliche]

I don't see the point of this thread. Small number of people improve but most people don't. But why does that matter?

There's a difference between giving false encouragements and providing realistic assessment. If you are someone who's scoring 7-8 on AAMC Verbal, the chance for you to score 13 on Verbal does exist, but it's very slim. So, yes, you should keep trying by taking practice tests and whatnot, but don't fret about what other people did. That means NOTHING.

This just goes to show that in the end, what you are asking is people to come and just reveal their scores. Who cares? They got 13 on MCAT Verbal while practices said 10. What does THAT have to do with you? None! There is no "need" to disprove whole "Verbal is impossible to improve" because people do improve on their scores, and just because you don't hear about it as often doesn't mean it doesn't happen.

If it doesn't matter, then why are you still posting on this thread.

If people are getting motivation from the successes of others, then that's not fretting at all. You're the only one fretting here.

Calm down.

It matters because learning to do better at verbal is learning how to take the test. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that if you can learn to apply the skills you pick up while trying to improve verbal to the other sections, you'd get a score increase due to decreased 'stupid' mistakes.

 

[ModernAlchemist]

I started out at 8s and am now getting 10-11 consistently. I attribute improvement to three things:
1. Forcing myself out of my comfort zone by reading passages that bored me and also forcing myself to read a little faster than I felt comfortable with.
2. Approaching passages the way I would read something I was really interested in learning and using for the rest of my life.
3. REALLY picking up on the author's personality.

Those are just things that I found helpful in practice, but I'll let you know if it worked after Saturday.

 

[Glazebrook]

I've actually gone down a little over the 11 practice tests I took

Diag was a 13 (extremely lucky, only got 2 wrong), hit a couple 12's, then hit straight 11's for the past 5 tests or so. Still happy with it, but a 12 on verbal would help offset my PS...

 

[Silverfalcon]

If it doesn't matter, then why are you still posting on this thread.

If people are getting motivation from the successes of others, then that's not fretting at all. You're the only one fretting here.

Calm down.

It matters because learning to do better at verbal is learning how to take the test. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that if you can learn to apply the skills you pick up while trying to improve verbal to the other sections, you'd get a score increase due to decreased 'stupid' mistakes.

I posted originally not to annoy the OP, but to say that it's better to just focus on your progress and not waste time looking at what happened to others (a.k.a. get off SDN). I think you too are missing the point in that it's perfectly fine to be curious, but if other people's success is the inspiration you need to believe that Verbal can be improved, then that's problematic.

Based on the last post, you see your MCAT as a way to "prove" me that Verbal cannot be improved. I never said/believed such a thing, nor I wish that you will not score well in Verbal. I wish best for everyone taking the beast, but I could careless if you scored high and "proved" me wrong. Good luck everyone.