Question about reading research articles?

[AOT11]

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I have very poor comprehension for the BS section so an MCAT instructor recommended I read some pubmed articles. I was hoping someone could help me out. Here is an article I found. Which parts of this article should I be reading (I'm doing practice problems too, don't worry!)


http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2855211/?tool=pmcentrez

 

[Vladimir B]

Hi.

Read the abstract most thoroughly. The abstract is most similar to something you would be presented on the MCAT. Map in your head or on paper the pathways and processes described in the abstract, to make sure you understand them, and would be able to answer questions about them.

Regards,
Vlad

 

[AOT11]

Hi.

Read the abstract most thoroughly. The abstract is most similar to something you would be presented on the MCAT. Map in your head or on paper the pathways and processes described in the abstract, to make sure you understand them, and would be able to answer questions about them.

Regards,
Vlad

Awesome! Thank you! Just the abstract? It's not worth reading anything else (remember, I'm only trying to improve comprehension, not trying to learn new material)?

 

[OCDOCDOCD]

Read the intro section, the graphs and their captions, and then try to figure out everything in the paper from that. Look at the results section as needed. Then read the discussion section to see if the conclusions you made from the data are correct.

Vlad makes an interesting point I never thought about before, however I'm not sure how much the average abstract will help you since usually they're summaries of what the article is about; basically just "this problem exists so we did this experiment to find out more about it and found out this". Rarely do they ever go into any real depth, much less enough depth to jump straight to figures and know what's going on, unless maybe you're knowledgeable about the subject/field. As an undergrad reading a professional journal you most likely aren't. Even if you are, that's likely because the article matches up with your major or area of research, in which case it's not going to help you much for the MCAT since the MCAT is going to throw random stuff at you which, thanks to Murphy's Law, are almost certain to only be your weakest topics.

 

[Vladimir B]

Awesome! Thank you! Just the abstract? It's not worth reading anything else (remember, I'm only trying to improve comprehension, not trying to learn new material)?

Read the intro section, the graphs and their captions, and then try to figure out everything in the paper from that. Look at the results section as needed. Then read the discussion section to see if the conclusions you made from the data are correct.

Vlad makes an interesting point I never thought about before, however I'm not sure how much the average abstract will help you since usually they're summaries of what the article is about; basically just "this problem exists so we did this experiment to find out more about it and found out this". Rarely do they ever go into any real depth, much less enough depth to jump straight to figures and know what's going on, unless maybe you're knowledgeable about the subject/field. As an undergrad reading a professional journal you most likely aren't. Even if you are, that's likely because the article matches up with your major or area of research, in which case it's not going to help you much for the MCAT since the MCAT is going to throw random stuff at you which, thanks to Murphy's Law, are almost certain to only be your weakest topics.

Hi,

I believe my answer was a bit incomplete, and the above poster's was more complete. In my experience, you will be given a gutted-out version of an abstract and/or introduction, depending on length and detail. So, study those two sections. Then, as the above poster mentioned, study the figures. You should be able to read a body of information as well as interpret the figures. This is how the MCAT will write questions. For example, in your paper, imagine Figure 1 had no caption. Could you get from Figure 1 that Gα13Q226L stimulates MEF2-dependent gene transcription (the caption of the figure)? I believe it would be important to understand trends and relationships in figures, because I felt that was hit on heavily in the BS section of the MCAT. Finally, as the above poster concludes: "Then read the discussion section to see if the conclusions you made from the data are correct". This is excellent advice.

Regards,
Vlad