Reading comprehension help

[currentlybc]

So I am doing well academically but my reading comprehension SUCKS! I read a sample passage from an MCAT exam and I had no IDEA what was going on! I will be taking the MCAT 1 year from now and I dont want to be stuck last minute studying the verbal reasoning. I want to read an article once a day but I don't know where to go? What should I do while reading the article to help me prepare? Any and every suggestion will be greatly appreciated!

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[didimao]

So I am doing well academically but my reading comprehension SUCKS! I read a sample passage from an MCAT exam and I had no IDEA what was going on! I will be taking the MCAT 1 year from now and I dont want to be stuck last minute studying the verbal reasoning. I want to read an article once a day but I don't know where to go? What should I do while reading the article to help me prepare? Any and every suggestion will be greatly appreciated!

I would recommend reading news articles, which helped me out a lot. I would then summarize what I read on paper/out loud, reread the article and see if I hit all the major points.

 

[BABSstudent]

So I am doing well academically but my reading comprehension SUCKS! I read a sample passage from an MCAT exam and I had no IDEA what was going on! I will be taking the MCAT 1 year from now and I dont want to be stuck last minute studying the verbal reasoning. I want to read an article once a day but I don't know where to go? What should I do while reading the article to help me prepare? Any and every suggestion will be greatly appreciated!

Buy a few magazines and I am not talking about People or Times. You should buy the Economist, Scientific American and the New Yorker. Start at one cover and read it through to the other. If you dislike an article, well, suck it up and keep reading. It isn't like you get to pick topics on the MCAT.

 

[Redpancreas]

Edit: In retrospect this post is a bit clear. Please refer to my other one below for more clarity.

Coming from someone who improved dramatically in verbal you're ABSOLUTELY doing the right thing by starting this early. I say this because others say verbal can be learnt as a skill during the 3 months time. I learn this after taking it the first time. i started out with like a 7 on a diagnostic and got an 8 on the real thing. I had 6 months between testing periods and spent the first three months focusing on reading.While you'll improve by just taking passages, you won't improve as much as you can. What you need to do is start reading daily for 2-3 hours. Read every opinion story online from sources like WallStreet, The Economist, The New Yorker, etc. if you don't want a subscription just read the featured articles available to all. Don't start doing passage until 3/
4months out but now (a year from) I assume its summer for you. For this reason you need to get into reading.read everything possible. If you need to take a break to read more interesting stuff than do so. I feel like we go through stages and get smarter after each couple of months. It's best to start early, especially with VR. Also, when you read each article summarize what was said in 1-2 sentences afterwards. Reading boosts things like your vocabulary knowledge (sometimes at first there were words I didn't understand on practice passages), your comprehension skills (you'll start recognizing where your weaknesses are-do you skip details, big picture, etc), and your speed (at first read passages took me 4 minutes and then 3 but then I realized I was not understanding so I went back to four and naturally after awhile it back down to 3). Start reading now! Have fun with

 

[currentlybc]

Thanks for the advice, I just made a subscription to the Economist and the Scientific America magazine. Hopefully this will help me do well on verbal!

 

[okokok]

Try longform.org

 

[Rhino1000]

Coming from someone who improved dramatically in verbal you're ABSOLUTELY doing the right thing by starting this early. I say this because others say verbal can be learnt as a skill during the 3 months time. I learn this after taking it the first time. i started out with like a 7 on a diagnostic and got an 8 on the real thing. I had 6 months between testing periods and spent the first three months focusing on reading.While you'll improve by just taking passages, you won't improve as much as you can. What you need to do is start reading daily for 2-3 hours. Read every opinion story online from sources like WallStreet, The Economist, The New Yorker, etc. if you don't want a subscription just read the featured articles available to all. Don't start doing passage until 3/
4months out but now (a year from) I assume its summer for you. For this reason you need to get into reading.read everything possible. If you need to take a break to read more interesting stuff than do so. I feel like we go through stages and get smarter after each couple of months. It's best to start early, especially with VR. Also, when you read each article summarize what was said in 1-2 sentences afterwards. Reading boosts things like your vocabulary knowledge (sometimes at first there were words I didn't understand on practice passages), your comprehension skills (you'll start recognizing where your weaknesses are-do you skip details, big picture, etc), and your speed (at first read passages took me 4 minutes and then 3 but then I realized I was not understanding so I went back to four and naturally after awhile it back down to 3). Start reading now! Have fun with it!

I don't understand. So... 3 months of what your "verbal-boosting" strategy only raised your score up 1 point, and you're recommending that this guy follow it?

Else it's possible I misinterpreted your point. I had a long day hosting a party at my house.

 

[kautionwirez]

Buy a few magazines and I am not talking about People or Times. You should buy the Economist, Scientific American and the New Yorker. Start at one cover and read it through to the other. If you dislike an article, well, suck it up and keep reading. It isn't like you get to pick topics on the MCAT.

I read the Economist for a year before I took the MCAT.

Went from 5/6/7 to 9 on the real deal.

 

[Redpancreas]

I don't understand. So... 3 months of what your "verbal-boosting" strategy only raised your score up 1 point, and you're recommending that this guy follow it?

Else it's possible I misinterpreted your point. I had a long day hosting a party at my house.

Hi. I apologize if my long winded response was unclear. Here's what I meant:

May 2012:
Initial diagnostic MCAT verbal: 7
Mcat study via Princeton Review. No major reading outside of MCAT studying and doing verbal passages. Did 2 passages a day of verbal reasoning and did more the month before my MCAT.

September 2012:
Real deal verbal: 8 (+1 improvement from original)

October 2012:
Once I heard my score I dedicated myself to increasing verbal. I didn't pick up verbal practice material yet because I decided to improve my general comprehension/reading skills and was busy with school so I did not want to waste materials too far from my new exam date which was in March Make sure you take note of the limited amount of verbal materials OP. There's only 4 decent sources for verbal. Don't waste them 5-12 months out from the exam. These 4 sources are all AAMC material (obviously), TPRH Hyperlearning Verbal Workbook, and ExamKrackers 101 Passages (also anything by TPR is generally good for verbal). I've spent a lot of time looking for other stuff but nothing's as good. I'm sorry, but Berkeley's just terrible..,the best sources for the sciences though.. I've also heard bad things about Kaplan and them emphasizing specific details so I didn't want to take a chance with them, and Gold Standard's stuff doesn't MCAT passages either. Anyways, so in this time period I read the Economist, The New Yorker, Wall Street Journal, and multiple non fiction books. I read about 5-6 articles or a chapter of a book per day. I did only this until December. Again I didn't touch verbal practice material yet as I had already depleted a good amount of it because during my first studying phase I wasn't thinking about a retake.

December 15thish 2012:

Started official MCAT prep and did an SN2 variation. I practiced the same amount of verbal passages as I had the time before and if you do the math for about the same amount of time as during my first MCAT prep (and used the same materials as I had before- AAMC stuff, TPR online content, TPR verbal workbook, and EK 101). Kept reading articles in my down time.

Took MCAT in March:
Verbal Score: 11 (+3 improvement from last MCAT, +4 improvement from diagnostic)


For whatever reason I sometimes get bored and do a verbal passage because it bugs me seeing blank ones in my Verbal workbook and the results are the same. I do just as well. Also, I've picked up more picks often and read faster. Looks like I've really acquired some permanent skills :



---------------------------

So overall, most things were kept the same in my 2 prep phases except during my second phase I dedicated an additional 3 months to just reading (without MCAT practice). The reason this is relevant to your query OP is because you say your MCAT is a year out and right now it's summer. What a perfect time to spend a couple of months just reading! Of course have fun too but read regularly and often. If you do it right then you'll still immensely enjoy your summer and you'll be a more skillful reader at the end of it...the idea is gradual practice and just a little a day. Make sure you're reading sophisticated writing like Op-Eds in WallStreet, The Economist, etc. NBA.com, Yahoo, etc. is ok to mix in as it can't hurt but it shouldn't be your go to source.



All the best!

 

[Redpancreas]

Thanks for the advice, I just made a subscription to the Economist and the Scientific America magazine. Hopefully this will help me do well on verbal!

Also, I know you mean well but lose that, "hopefully this will help me do well on verbal" sentiment. You're probably a hard worker determined to succeed but it will be easier to read during this summer if your motivation is general improvement of a skill (like working out). This should really be about you improving your reading skills as a whole (atleast until 3 months before the test). Once you're 3 months out from your MCAT you can start hoping the MCAT verbal practice material helps you on MCAT verbal.

 

[currentlybc]

Thanks a lot for your advice. I started reading some articles and I just wanted to know what I should do if
I dont understand an article (have no idea what its saying)? Also, would reading articles from the Examiner and Newyorker help me with the Humanities passages?

 

[BABSstudent]

Thanks a lot for your advice. I started reading some articles and I just wanted to know what I should do if
I dont understand an article (have no idea what its saying)? Also, would reading articles from the Examiner and Newyorker help me with the Humanities passages?

It's fine if you don't understand everything. A lot of that stuff is more complex than you need to/want to know. Just practice writing down a fast summary of what each paragraph is about and the overall purpose of the article.

On the MCAT, you will also get passages that you will finish and have no idea what it was about. However, if you wrote down a very quick, brief summary of what each paragraph was about and then read a question that asked about a certain detail, you have a map of where it should be in the passage. You then find that detail super quickly and reread it and find the correct answer choice.

Obviously this takes a lot of practice and that is what the practice readings from magazines is for. It also gets you used to reading things you have no interest for.

 

[Redpancreas]

Thanks a lot for your advice. I started reading some articles and I just wanted to know what I should do if
I dont understand an article (have no idea what its saying)? Also, would reading articles from the Examiner and Newyorker help me with the Humanities passages?

Anytime man! Glad I can help!

This is good. It shows you have room to improve but also keep in mind even on the actual exam there'll be stuff that you won't be able to understand and you'll just have to read it and try to understand what the author's trying to achieve by saying what he's saying. Idk about The Examiner but The New Yorker's been listed as a go-to along with The Economist for MCAT prep on SDN(for reasons unknown to me). I also do not know if they will specifically help with humanities passages. From my experience though, The New Yorker has a mix of everything. For humanities passages try:

1. Taking a philosophy class with lots of reading

2. Get a library book about art/history/something you're interested in that's been written in the 1970's-1990's and read a chapter from there as a substitute for the 5-6 articles in a day.


Also, if you want to start practicing for verbal keep this mind while reading:


The main point of each couple of sentences is what you're looking for when reading and then if you're interested in a particular detail practice working on where to find it.

 

[Rhino1000]

Hi. I apologize if my long winded response was unclear. Here's what I meant:

May 2012:
Initial diagnostic MCAT verbal: 7
Mcat study via Princeton Review. No major reading outside of MCAT studying and doing verbal passages. Did 2 passages a day of verbal reasoning and did more the month before my MCAT.

September 2012:
Real deal verbal: 8 (+1 improvement from original)

October 2012:
Once I heard my score I dedicated myself to increasing verbal. I didn't pick up verbal practice material yet because I decided to improve my general comprehension/reading skills and was busy with school so I did not want to waste materials too far from my new exam date which was in March Make sure you take note of the limited amount of verbal materials OP. There's only 4 decent sources for verbal. Don't waste them 5-12 months out from the exam. These 4 sources are all AAMC material (obviously), TPRH Hyperlearning Verbal Workbook, and ExamKrackers 101 Passages (also anything by TPR is generally good for verbal). I've spent a lot of time looking for other stuff but nothing's as good. I'm sorry, but Berkeley's just terrible..,the best sources for the sciences though.. I've also heard bad things about Kaplan and them emphasizing specific details so I didn't want to take a chance with them, and Gold Standard's stuff doesn't MCAT passages either. Anyways, so in this time period I read the Economist, The New Yorker, Wall Street Journal, and multiple non fiction books. I read about 5-6 articles or a chapter of a book per day. I did only this until December. Again I didn't touch verbal practice material yet as I had already depleted a good amount of it because during my first studying phase I wasn't thinking about a retake.

December 15thish 2012:

Started official MCAT prep and did an SN2 variation. I practiced the same amount of verbal passages as I had the time before and if you do the math for about the same amount of time as during my first MCAT prep (and used the same materials as I had before- AAMC stuff, TPR online content, TPR verbal workbook, and EK 101). Kept reading articles in my down time.

Took MCAT in March:
Verbal Score: 11 (+3 improvement from last MCAT, +4 improvement from diagnostic)


For whatever reason I sometimes get bored and do a verbal passage because it bugs me seeing blank ones in my Verbal workbook and the results are the same. I do just as well. Also, I've picked up more picks often and read faster. Looks like I've really acquired some permanent skills :



---------------------------

So overall, most things were kept the same in my 2 prep phases except during my second phase I dedicated an additional 3 months to just reading (without MCAT practice). The reason this is relevant to your query OP is because you say your MCAT is a year out and right now it's summer. What a perfect time to spend a couple of months just reading! Of course have fun too but read regularly and often. If you do it right then you'll still immensely enjoy your summer and you'll be a more skillful reader at the end of it...the idea is gradual practice and just a little a day. Make sure you're reading sophisticated writing like Op-Eds in WallStreet, The Economist, etc. NBA.com, Yahoo, etc. is ok to mix in as it can't hurt but it shouldn't be your go to source.



All the best!

Thanks for clearing that up! Do you happen to know if the articles freely available on economist.com (without having to log in or anything like that) are "just as good" as the ones found in the printed issues? Is it necessary to subscribe to get the most benefits from The Economist?

 

[Redpancreas]

I didnt subscribe. I had the IPhone and just bought the free app. There was a handful of articles every couple of weeks. Same goes for WSJ and The New Yorker. I alternated between the 3, had a bunch of time magazines (not the best). Also, I had a print subscription to WSJ that my parents had that I just borrowed. Just subscribe to all 3. I think Wall Street Op Ed is the most abundant source since new articles are out every day and atleast one or two is readable via their website.

 

[Redpancreas]

Also the ones freely available should be just as good to my knowledge. They don't select which ones are available to all based on their resemblance to the MCAT.