realistic PS strategy?

[WhizoMD]

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I've taken 2 aamc's so far (3 and 4):
on 3 I ran out of time during PS and had to guess on the last ~10 questions

On 4 I got about ~70% through PS and saw that I was going to run out of time again If I didn't change something, so I stopped reading the entire passages, and just skimmed them as needed. I ended up finishing with like 1 second to spare.

I did as well (slightly better) on the passages where I skimmed as compared to the passages that I read completely, and my PS score went from 7 --> 10, so I was thinking of changing my P.S. strategy to skimming instead of reading entire passages, but I heard aamc 3/4 are easy, and not very representative of the real test,
so I was wondering if skimming would be a realistic strategy for the actual exam? I don't want to switch if it won't work for the actual exam.

 

[MCAT guy]

I've taken 2 aamc's so far (3 and 4):
on 3 I ran out of time during PS and had to guess on the last ~10 questions

On 4 I got about ~70% through PS and saw that I was going to run out of time again If I didn't change something, so I stopped reading the entire passages, and just skimmed them as needed. I ended up finishing with like 1 second to spare.

I did as well (slightly better) on the passages where I skimmed as compared to the passages that I read completely, and my PS score went from 7 --> 10, so I was thinking of changing my P.S. strategy to skimming instead of reading entire passages, but I heard aamc 3/4 are easy, and not very representative of the real test,
so I was wondering if skimming would be a realistic strategy for the actual exam? I don't want to switch if it won't work for the actual exam.

hard to say because people have a different definition of skimming. You really don't need to understand 100% of a passage, sometimes you only need to garner 15-20% of the info and it can be gathered during questions. Other times you need to get a bit more out of a passage. Regardless, there will only be a few vital ideas in it.

The thing is though, if you skim you will likely miss some of the things. The reason you are doing better is because it is allowing you to answer all the easy/moderate questions towards the end. Guessing on questions is an automatic score killer.

So #1 I would say not to skim but definitely you can speed up and watch for key info... (i.e. genetics, if they say it is only passed down mother to father in a passage, key. If they talk about really high level complex stuff, then likely not key. You just have to know what to pick out).

Do whatever allows you to finish. You may just need to learn math tricks (estimations that are faster) or maybe improve your formula recall. That can save you a passage's worth of time if you do those well.

 

[Silverfalcon]

Maybe you should practice more? Build up speed?

 

[phltz]

You should not be aspiring to skim, you should be aspiring to read the passages. Unless you have a reading related learning difference, the total time spent reading passages for PS should probably be 10 minutes or less. You might shave a few minutes off that by skimming, but at what cost? Your best bet is to learn to do the questions faster - that's where you spend the bulk of your time.

Skimming is a last-ditch effort for if you're running out of time. If you _do_ skim, which I don't really recommend, do it strategically. Skim when you get to a passage describing some sort of physics device you're already familiar with, not when they're describing rival theories for the Quantum Hall Effect.

 

[Isoprop]

Depends on the section. Definitely don't skim verbal or bio. physics is almost always bad to skim with a few exceptions. Chem and OChem passages are very "skimmable."

Though I've met students who just look at the figures and equations in the passage to get the general idea, move on to the questions and refer back to the passage when needed. It really depends on what works for you.

What you don't want to do is fall into the trap that you must understand everything about a passage to answer all the questions.

 

[PharMed2016]

Depends on the section. Definitely don't skim verbal or bio. physics is almost always bad to skim with a few exceptions. Chem and OChem passages are very "skimmable."

Though I've met students who just look at the figures and equations in the passage to get the general idea, move on to the questions and refer back to the passage when needed. It really depends on what works for you.

What you don't want to do is fall into the trap that you must understand everything about a passage to answer all the questions.

The only section that I skim on are bio, ochem, and physic if I feel like I'm getting more confused.

 

[Isoprop]

The only section that I skim on are bio, ochem, and physic if I feel like I'm getting more confused.

As I said, depends on the student.

 

[Studentforlife1]

I was having the same problem when I started taking FLs. Definitely practice and keep taking tests, that is the best way to find your personal rhythm and get more comfortable with the material. After my second test I started doing better and better and now I'm finishing around five minutes early every time.

I found out that my big problem at first was that I was lingering to long on tough problems. Eventually I unconsciously started realizing which questions would eat up a lot of time, marking them and taking care of all the others first. After I'd finished all the questions I was sure about, I'd look at the clock and realize I have plenty of time to devote to those questions that originally would have slowed my momentum.

That was just my hurdle in particular, it might not be yours but either way just doing more timed exercises is the way to go.

 

[WhizoMD]

I found out that my big problem at first was that I was lingering to long on tough problems. Eventually I unconsciously started realizing which questions would eat up a lot of time, marking them and taking care of all the others first. After I'd finished all the questions I was sure about, I'd look at the clock and realize I have plenty of time to devote to those questions that originally would have slowed my momentum.

That was just my hurdle in particular, it might not be yours but either way just doing more timed exercises is the way to go.

yeah that's what's killing most of my time I think.
I was a bit better with marking on aamc4, hopefully I'll develop a better sense of what to mark/review as I do more practice tests.
Sometimes the questions I linger on aren't even hard, I just develop some obscure logic to second guess my initial (usually correct) answer then usually end up picking it in the end anyway. I don't have this problem with verbal or bio, so I probably just need to develop more confidence in my ps answers

I think I'll still try some selective skimming, some of the passages don't reward complete reading.