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- Thread starter cerealguy3
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I think doing passages is the best way to get better. Sometimes content review can just become redundant, and then you start thinking that you know everything.
If you do more passages, you will get more practice analyzing data, graphs, etc. and might get hit with a surprise question that tests content that you think you know. Then you can go back and see if you need more practice analyzing data/graphs--but the best thing is that it can pinpoint you to a certain content where you might have overlooked weaknesses.
Good Luck!
If you do more passages, you will get more practice analyzing data, graphs, etc. and might get hit with a surprise question that tests content that you think you know. Then you can go back and see if you need more practice analyzing data/graphs--but the best thing is that it can pinpoint you to a certain content where you might have overlooked weaknesses.
Good Luck!
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i wrote recently... i wish i'd done alot more questions, although i had to learn more material than most candidates.
if you don't have to learn for first time very much material (hopefully none), then i'd only do questions.
i'd say to some degree doing passage questions are overrated vs. simple content questions. doing some will make interpreting the passage Q's on the exam less scary but i don't think they help that much with the content itself........ there are tons of places to get basic practice Q's on all the subjects. the more numerical subjects are huge no-brainers for tons of practice Q's
same as you, i definitely got bored doing content review endlessly and a few questions to complement it. it's pretty low stress too so it's easy to want to do that over many practice Q's. but the point is to get a good score or don't do it at all (trying to movivate, i felt exactly same way as you)
if you don't have to learn for first time very much material (hopefully none), then i'd only do questions.
i'd say to some degree doing passage questions are overrated vs. simple content questions. doing some will make interpreting the passage Q's on the exam less scary but i don't think they help that much with the content itself........ there are tons of places to get basic practice Q's on all the subjects. the more numerical subjects are huge no-brainers for tons of practice Q's
same as you, i definitely got bored doing content review endlessly and a few questions to complement it. it's pretty low stress too so it's easy to want to do that over many practice Q's. but the point is to get a good score or don't do it at all (trying to movivate, i felt exactly same way as you)
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i also think that most passage questions i've seen are too difficult. they scare you into almost all material in way too much depth. that leads back to content review which is not what you want.
i recently took the exam. if there were 120 bio and chem science Q's (basically excludes the P/S and CARS), probably only 20 were really difficult. not saying i did well as i had huge amounts to learn but i could recognize that almost all questions were highly gettable with a good knowledge base. edit: might be alot less than 20 hard Q's...........
section banks and practice passage Qs from many sources had alot of really hard Q's (many i couldn't do with open book and lots of time), which really don't help that much. yes, the test day Q's seem easy by comparison but i think really hard Q's just end up confusing you
i recently took the exam. if there were 120 bio and chem science Q's (basically excludes the P/S and CARS), probably only 20 were really difficult. not saying i did well as i had huge amounts to learn but i could recognize that almost all questions were highly gettable with a good knowledge base. edit: might be alot less than 20 hard Q's...........
section banks and practice passage Qs from many sources had alot of really hard Q's (many i couldn't do with open book and lots of time), which really don't help that much. yes, the test day Q's seem easy by comparison but i think really hard Q's just end up confusing you
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i think OP is asking about studying, not the exam.
did you really electronicially flip through the passages before you dove in? that just seems to time-consuming and confusing to me... i did flip through and do the stand-alones first.
did you really electronicially flip through the passages before you dove in? that just seems to time-consuming and confusing to me... i did flip through and do the stand-alones first.
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@cerealguy3
Once you feel comfortable with most of the content, I would recommend doing practice passages like you have mentioned then you will know how to analyze the passages which is the biggest part on the MCAT. Not only that, you may discover certain content that you are not as familiar with, or things you need to work on moving forward.
Once you feel comfortable with most of the content, I would recommend doing practice passages like you have mentioned then you will know how to analyze the passages which is the biggest part on the MCAT. Not only that, you may discover certain content that you are not as familiar with, or things you need to work on moving forward.
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IMO, analyzing passages is not the most important element of MCAT or even close. knowing the content is #1 (but do practice questions)
a few more thoughts,
1) the first time i saw a passage i did freak out. but then it gets much much better
2) passages on test were nowhere near as difficult as i saw many others places.
3) i don't think i ever had a problem with understanding what a question asked or where the relevent info was in the passage. for sure, once i got to that stage i sometimes didn't know what to do with the info provided. but that's content knowledge
a few more thoughts,
1) the first time i saw a passage i did freak out. but then it gets much much better
2) passages on test were nowhere near as difficult as i saw many others places.
3) i don't think i ever had a problem with understanding what a question asked or where the relevent info was in the passage. for sure, once i got to that stage i sometimes didn't know what to do with the info provided. but that's content knowledge
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yup, i definitely did some questions. but when it comes right down to it, i learnt on the exam what i didn't know well enough. that's really bad.
people will say "do section bank" or "do practice exam" but frankly that's not many questions....... find as many questions as you can cheaply. as i've said before, the questions don't have to be from MCAT-related content.
people will say "do section bank" or "do practice exam" but frankly that's not many questions....... find as many questions as you can cheaply. as i've said before, the questions don't have to be from MCAT-related content.
