Reading the WSJ The Economist etc help at all with verbal????

[Ahmed786]

I decided to postpone my MCAT untill next year around march or so and have tons of time untill then so I really want to improve my Verbal by that point my verbal improved 0 in the 3 months i studied for MCAT (i got a 25/40 on my first test and a 26/40 on my last test before i decided to postpone)

I am just wondering if any of you guys currently read the opinion based sections of the WSJ etc etc and if so, how do you approach the passages in order to help you with verbal.

Also, are there any other sources that you guys could recommend?? I want to find a website with artist commentary or something of that sort as well in addition to the politics/economics/history of the WSJ and the Economist

thanks in advance

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[BennieBlanco]

I decided to postpone my MCAT untill next year around march or so and have tons of time untill then so I really want to improve my Verbal by that point my verbal improved 0 in the 3 months i studied for MCAT (i got a 25/40 on my first test and a 26/40 on my last test before i decided to postpone)

I am just wondering if any of you guys currently read the opinion based sections of the WSJ etc etc and if so, how do you approach the passages in order to help you with verbal.

Also, are there any other sources that you guys could recommend?? I want to find a website with artist commentary or something of that sort as well in addition to the politics/economics/history of the WSJ and the Economist

thanks in advance

Economist
New Yorker
Scientific American
Harpers
The Atlantic

Remember that you need to address the problem before you can solve it.

Are you missing questions because you lack focus? Do you not understand the language? Are you running out of time? You need to know why you got each of the 14 or 15 questions wrong and also why you are getting the 25 or so correct. What is happening, are they detail or main idea questions, etc.

Get the EK book for a decent strategy but verbal is mostly common sense and knowing the arguments. Then timing. timing timing.

 

[Compass]

Archaeology is nice, as well. Plenty of thick reading, though limited updates

 

[jaxasp]

just reading won't do too much, obviously there aren't questions at the end of each WSJ article, but make sure you're analyzing the article as you go on and not passively reading for 'fun'

 

[wanderer]

Reading this sort of material will only be helpful if you are a really slow reader or you really have trouble comprehending the passages. Once you are getting around a 9 the limiting factor is how well you can pick up the author's argument/main idea, and how well you can discern the differences between similar choices. For 99% of people there will always be a few (like 3-5) questions that you must guess on because there are often 2 answers that both seem equally valid.

I haven't tried it but one member (Vihsadas) mentioned trying all sorts of different literature (such as poli sci journals, film criticism and so on) just to get a feel for the different types of passages you might get. Sounds better than just reading the WSJ; if I had had the time to do this before my MCAT I certainly would have done so.

 

[chispasco]

If you're gonna be reading a lot, perhaps you should practice highlighting as the tests on AAMC's e-mcat.com site allow for that.

 

[marble30]

I would highly recommend the Reader Rabbit CD's for reading comprehension and understanding.

For some reason, that rabbit reader comment really brings to mind (the now banned) indiangurl's comments.

Coincidence?