Reading full passage necessary?

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Ive been doing Next Step Practice exams and so far Ive been finding that it is totally possible to answer a lot of questions (a full set for a passage) without reading the full thing. I just usually go back to the pssage for info that I need specifically pertaining to experiments etc. So Im able to save a lot of time, usually have 20 mins or so left of each section... My current scores/errors (low 500s) are not knowing the content well enough so its unrelated to whether or not I read the full passage.

On the real MCAT, is this a strategy I can use? Or should I still read every passage thorough before answering questions JUST in case I miss something?
Do people actually do this? or am I being foolish in skipping the reading
Thanks

 

[vrazzles]

Ive been doing Next Step Practice exams and so far Ive been finding that it is totally possible to answer a lot of questions (a full set for a passage) without reading the full thing. I just usually go back to the pssage for info that I need specifically pertaining to experiments etc. So Im able to save a lot of time, usually have 20 mins or so left of each section... My current scores/errors (low 500s) are not knowing the content well enough so its unrelated to whether or not I read the full passage.

On the real MCAT, is this a strategy I can use? Or should I still read every passage thorough before answering questions JUST in case I miss something?
Do people actually do this? or am I being foolish in skipping the reading
Thanks

I would read the full passage. A lot of information that you may not directly know can be deduced from the passage. This worked well for me on the MCAT (524). Of course everyone is different, but maybe try a few tests where you read the full passage and see what your scores do?

 

[sunshinefl]

Ive been doing Next Step Practice exams and so far Ive been finding that it is totally possible to answer a lot of questions (a full set for a passage) without reading the full thing. I just usually go back to the pssage for info that I need specifically pertaining to experiments etc. So Im able to save a lot of time, usually have 20 mins or so left of each section... My current scores/errors (low 500s) are not knowing the content well enough so its unrelated to whether or not I read the full passage.

On the real MCAT, is this a strategy I can use? Or should I still read every passage thorough before answering questions JUST in case I miss something?
Do people actually do this? or am I being foolish in skipping the reading
Thanks

I had a 508 so I’m not some magic guru, but I personally didn’t read the passages for chem and bio sections. I would look at the questions first and then read the portions that I had to. For CARS and psych I read the whole passage.

 

[Zenabi90]

I had a 508 so I’m not some magic guru, but I personally didn’t read the passages for chem and bio sections. I would look at the questions first and then read the portions that I had to. For CARS and psych I read the whole passage.

I'm not a magic guru either 🙂 but here's my take:

C/P: Usually formulas and data analysis. Generally didn't read the whole passage.
CARS: Read the whole passage. It's CARS after all
B/B: Read the passage if they were short, lots of tables and stuff here for my exam so this means I usually did read the whole passage.
P/S: Read the whole passage. Lots of context clues. Felt like CARS with a Psych spin actually.
Score: 517

Now I think of myself as a fast reader, so if I had the time to read through everything. Generally though, I would recommend most takers build up the reading speed and timings so that they can allot 1 min per question, 5 minute safety net, and divide the rest of time among the passages.