recommend verbal strategy?

[bioJUNKIE]

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hi all,

i was wondering if you guys can help me figure a strategy to attack the verbal portion of the mcat. in my princeton review course, they told us to rank the passages, rank the questions, and go about it scanning through the passage and finding the answers. ive tried this numerous times with no consistency in my performance. it's either i do well or not.

upon trying to solve this, i have tried a new system in which i pick the passages with the most questions. and actually read them very carefully and thoroughly. i know this may conflict with time constraints, however it works best because i am not strong in reading comprehension. of course, i do suffer when i have about 10 minutes left and 2-3 passages left to do.

can any of you offer any insight please? thank you so very much. i hope you all have a wonderful day!

 

[Silverfalcon]

@OP: A simple search will present you with more replies than this one would generate since there have been million threads in this area.

General consensus is EK VR strategy. Again, search this forum and you will find it. It seems to work well for a lot of people in terms of score and timing.

 

[Don Draper]

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[SN2ed]

I suggest you check out some of the verbal help threads from the MCAT sticky. Additionally, I wouldn't retake practice passages. While it may be fine for some, it's not for most. Furthermore, take advice from people that score very high with an atypical amount of effort with a grain of salt. Their strategies are usually non applicable to most. For instance, some people promote taking the MCAT cold or after a week of studying simply because they scored 40+ in that time. However, that doesn't mean studying for a week would work for most.

Are you having trouble on the MCAT? Here is a list of strategies and guides that others have applied to become successful.

Breaking Down the MCAT: A 3 Month MCAT Study Schedule - http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=623898

BloodySurgeon Verbal Guide- http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=509702

QofQuimica & Shrike - http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=516521

30+ MCAT Study Habits- http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=503250

Tips for MCAT Studiers- http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?p=3719232

Vihsadas Verbal Guide- http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showpost.php?p=6022602&postcount=96

Bozz's Study Tips - http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=499207

gecko45's Study Tips - http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=499808

Rabbit36s Study Tips - http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=578461

Official "Please Help" Thread - http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=535393

Post a Tip for Current MCAT Studiers - http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?p=3719048

 

[Parthenon89]

Verbal Reasoning Strategy

- Narrow down the answers choices to 50%, then guess between the two.
- Read the passage like a douchebag, and look for flaws in the author’s argument.
- Take a five second break
- Read every word
- Construct a main idea
- Use all four tools to answer the questions:
1. Going back;
- ONLY GO BACK WHEN: you know what you are looking for and where it is found.
2. The main idea;
- Rely heavily on the main idea, and give little weight to details.
- While reading, ask yourself: why is the author telling me this, what is the point? Is his real interest in idea A or is it in idea B?
- Use life experiences to stereotype the author, it will help guide your intuition.
- 90% of the verbal section questions will concern the main idea.
- Main idea should reflect author’s opinion (whether implied or stated).
3. The question stems; and
4. The answer choices.
- Typical correct answer choices contain softeners .Softeners are words that make the answer true under more circumstances, such as most likely, seemed, had a tendency to, etc.
- Simplify the answer choices in terms of the main idea, find the one that concedes most with the main idea.
- Extreme sounding answers are almost always wrong.
- Answers that sound similar or say the same thing are usually both wrong.
- Watch out answer choices with identical or similar vocabulary to the passage. A very common trick is that often words that were used in the passage will be transplanted into an answer choice with either: 1) a cause and effect relationship reversed so that it is wrong, 2) a fact from the passage taken out of context, 3) a hypothesis that is mis-stated, 4) a slight twisting of the author's logic, 5) an incorrect detail has been inserted into the answer choice. Watch out for these, and when you see an answer choice with alot of identical words to the passage, be very sure to dissect it so that you understand its meaning. As you practice more and more, you'll begin to find other curious aspects of answer choices and question stems that stick out at you.
- For example, what did the question really mean when it said "evidence." Most of the time, it turns out, "evidence" refers to something specific mentioned directly in the passage rather than anything implied.

 

[Parthenon89]

what i just posted, is a mix of EK stategy and stuff I found on SDN

its working pretty well for me, and has for a few other people, give it a shot

 

[kehlsh]

EK Verbal strategy opened my eyes

 

[bioJUNKIE]

thank you so very much everyone. my apologies for not search sdn first for similar posts. i however really do appreciate the pointers. reading some of the replies gives me some hope. i hope all of you have a great end to the week! have a good one!

 

[Don Draper]

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[SN2ed]

Just to stay on topic for at least part of my post, Parthenon89's strategy is sound. Another tip, keep to your verbal strategy. Don't jump from strategy to strategy. You should try to master your strategy. Also, keep in mind that the AAMC apparently wrote in their official MCAT guide that they know some test takers look for extreme answers.

This sounds like an opinion, but stated as a fact. What are you basing this upon?

From my experiences helping people on here for a few years. True this is my opinion, however, almost everything you read on here is opinion. For instance, I'd wager nearly every poster on here believes taking FLs is necessary for MCAT success. That's not a fact, but a widely held opinion. Additionally, I am almost never disingenuous about the advice I give nor do I think the poster that got a 43 was being disingenuous. When I am joking, I use a smilie to indicate that I'm not serious. I am trying to help people get through the MCAT and I hope my posts reflect as much.

Now onto why I hold this opinion. Awhile ago, when I kept my PM box open, I would get lots of messages from people that had done poorly on their retake and were looking for advice. One of the trends I noticed in all of the messages was that a good number of those people retook their practice passages. I noticed the same trend in people that would make new threads looking for advice following a bad retake. Additionally, other posters saw the same trend and would advise others against retaking practice passages except sometimes in cases to analyze their mistakes.

Regardless, this is my opinion and it's up to the reader to decide if it's worthwhile advice or not. Since this is off-topic, I'll leave it at that and stop derailing the thread.

 

[Don Draper]

Awhile ago, when I kept my PM box open, I would get lots of messages from people that had done poorly on their retake and were looking for advice. One of the trends I noticed in all of the messages was that a good number of those people retook their practice passages. I noticed the same trend in people that would make new threads looking for advice following a bad retake. Additionally, other posters saw the same trend and would advise others against retaking practice passages except sometimes in cases to analyze their mistakes.

Regardless, this is my opinion and it's up to the reader to decide if it's worthwhile advice or not.

Sure. I guess you run this forum, I shouldn't question what you say.

 

[Ahsan]

Hey hey! DONT YOU MESS WITH SN2ed!

He is GOD! 🙂

 

[Parthenon89]

don you should chill out a little bit, your tone is more critical than helpful

 

[Don Draper]

Hey hey! DONT YOU MESS WITH SN2ed!

He is GOD! 🙂

Whatever you say. 👍

 

[Don Draper]

don you should chill out a little bit, your tone is more critical than helpful

Sure bud.