Reading Material

[Will Ferrell]

What is some good reading material for developing an MCAT-verbal reading level? I heard The Economist is good; any others?

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[blz]

Verbal practice passages....

 

[Will Ferrell]

Of couse, but I don't want to use them all up.

 

[silkworm]

Atlantic Monthly, Harper's come to mind. Those are pretty cheap ($10/year) compared to Economist, which cost insane amount of money for an annual subscription. People say New Yorker, but I feel it's kinda light compared to the academic passages encountered on MCAT. You could also try New York Review of Books, Commentary. Basically any publications aimed at academics or quasi-intellectuals.

A good and free online source maybe www.aldaily.com , which compiles articles about "high" culture and intellectual concerns. It's updated daily and they have TONS of stuff.

Disclaimer: I don't think that reading those stuff will automatically help someone on MCAT, unless one has a habit of active reading for a long time. But reading those dense articles for a year may help with the confidence issue on the verbal section.

 

[bgreet]

EK's 101 verbal passages

 

[MoosePilot]

Science fiction, fantasy, and everything Stephen King writes. If you start 23 years ago, you'll be following my plan almost exactly

 

[dukejen04]

i subscribe to this thing knowledgenews.com
it's great because everyday i get a passage about something random, from monsoons to political problems in africa. it's not superdense, but it isn't light- especially because a lot of times it is giving info about stuff i don't know a lot about. easy and fun.

i really like the economist b/c they have short articles like mcat passages. you don't need to buy the $60 subscription- get a copy or two and read an article a day- there is a LOT of stuff in it.

if you want dense- journal of foreign affairs is good practice for getting through difficult stuff.

and despite what silkworm said- the new yorker is great. it's not simpleton at all, in fact, the style they use is very unique and can be stimulating because it reads differently than most magazines.

i also love the atlantic monthly and harper's because they are "intellectual" monthlies and have a lot of pretentious and dense writing. plus, you sound cool when you say you read about something in the atlantic monthly.

hope this helps!

 

[dukejen04]

new republic is also great- and it comes out once a week

 

[Heliums]

Atlantic Monthly, Harper's come to mind. Those are pretty cheap ($10/year) compared to Economist, which cost insane amount of money for an annual subscription. People say New Yorker, but I feel it's kinda light compared to the academic passages encountered on MCAT. You could also try New York Review of Books, Commentary. Basically any publications aimed at academics or quasi-intellectuals.

A good and free online source maybe www.aldaily.com , which compiles articles about "high" culture and intellectual concerns. It's updated daily and they have TONS of stuff.

Disclaimer: I don't think that reading those stuff will automatically help someone on MCAT, unless one has a habit of active reading for a long time. But reading those dense articles for a year may help with the confidence issue on the verbal section.

I liked that website thanks!

 

[rcd]

I don't know if you're familiar with it, but EBSCOhost is an online archive of many publications since long ago to present. I've started reading The Economist off of it from home (and for free). A lot of schools subscribe to it, and so do a lot of public libraries.

 

[silkworm]

I wasn't bashing New Yorker, I like it, especially the cartoons . But my point is that you won't find the stuff similar to the scariest-looking MCAT verbal passages in there.

i subscribe to this thing knowledgenews.com

and despite what silkworm said- the new yorker is great. it's not simpleton at all, in fact, the style they use is very unique and can be stimulating because it reads differently than most magazines.

i also love the atlantic monthly and harper's because they are "intellectual" monthlies and have a lot of pretentious and dense writing. plus, you sound cool when you say you read about something in the atlantic monthly.

hope this helps!

 

[CJMPre-Med]

Go from one end of the spectrum to the other:

Start with heavy philosophy-- first the classics such as Kant, Mill, or Aristotle/Plato, then some more modern fare.

Then critically read some serious economic/political analyses.


I have a friend who just got a 40 on the April MCAT (yes, seriously- an online friend, but a friend nonetheless ), and he told me that he felt that his philosophy degree helped him a LOT on the exam, and not just for the verbal sections; from what I've seen of the exam, I'd tend to agree with him. Best of luck.

 

[lorelei]

Don't read Kant. He's interesting, but incredibly dense and hard to read. You'll just get discouraged. Mill and the Greeks are good suggestions though. And you could try some of the feminist thinkers - I can't think of names right now but maybe Christina Hoff Sommers? - ask a philosophy 101 student - to get a different perspective that you might not agree with. Being able to read and understand slightly wacky authors comes in handy.

 

[CJMPre-Med]

Don't read Kant. He's interesting, but incredibly dense and hard to read.

Heh, that was sorta the point. I understand what you're saying, however; perhaps he could "work up" to Kant with some of the other stuff first. You're right, though-- from my experience, Kant and Hume were the most difficult reading (comparatively) among the philosophical works I've read. Still, if you can read Kant for meaning and really comprehend it, and get your mind thinking in that same style of nuanced thought (which is not an easy task), you should be fine on the MCAT imo. I'm assuming that he has more than 6 months for this and isn't asking how to raise his verbal scores for the August MCAT, because that would be incredibly difficult to do.

 

[mango2182]

I liked that website thanks!

i checked out this website and it was really great i love the variety in reading material thanks a lot

 

[RaistlinMajere]

Don't waste time reading anything but practice problems, especially this late in the game. If you run out, run to the nearest book store and buy more. Just keep doing them over and over. That is the best advice I can give you regarding verbal.