I was that student that never knew why I was failing the CARS section when I would always walk out of the test feeling like I aced that section. I was that student that always thought CARS is something you cannot study for. I was also that student that took the test twice and got a 123 both times. The only thing I did differently when taking the test the third time around was that I practiced with more stringent time conditions and with many passages. I also took the passages and pasted them onto a microsoft doc and zoomed out to 120% and practice with this zoomed setting so that I can stimulate the real mcat testing situation. I did it!!! I finally broke the 123 barrier and got a 127. The reason why I am saying this is I was extremely depressed that my score was 123 for the longest time and taking the test a third time was a lot of pressure, but I still managed to improve so don't lose hope! A bit about me…I took the mcat at the end of sophomore year summer after 3 months of studying and got a 26. I took the new version of the mcat having studied for an additional 3 more months and got a 502 (26 again). The third time I took the test I got a 506 (29) and now I'm getting ready to apply! So don't lose hope or get overwhelmed by the # of posts with 510+ because statistics show that there is only 33% of the population getting that score and much lower percentages for scores that are 520+. Only people who do well post so don't let that bother you. Just keep practicing! Good luck!!!
Now to specifically, answer your question……
That is a hard question because with time and lots of practice as you read the question you should be able to intuitively know whether to look in the passage or use the main idea. I used to have the same problem. The key is you shouldn't be afraid to look back at the passage often. When you do….remember you are not going back to find a specific sentence that will help paraphrase the answer choice like the SAT but rather you are reminding yourself what the main idea of that topic was….you should be skimming that section and should know where to look in the passage rather than try to skim the whole passage to find that section. So as a rule of thumb if you are having difficulty, I would start off looking back at the passage a lot when you know where to find the topic described in the question…sooner or late you will be able to train your brain to look back less.
