some questions on the verbal section in April 05 MCAT

[RUscrewed]

For those that just took the MCAT, how many passages were in the verbal section- still 9?

Do you remember about how many lines most passages had- about 1 1/2 columns (60 lines) or 2 (90 lines)?

Were the questions evenly distributed on a per passage basis- i.e. did each passage have 6-8 questions or did one have way too many like 9-10?

Thanks in advance for your input.

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[SanDiegoSOD]

Yes, nine passages:

2 passages, both of medium length, had 10 questions (and were surprisingly straightforward)
4 passages, of varying length, had 5 questions
2 passages, one very long, one medium, had 7 questions
1 passage of short length had 6 questions (but, damn it was hard)

Overall, I felt pretty good about it. Only one (the 6 question passage) qualified as a killer in my book. The long ones (10 questions), with the exception of one or two each, were pretty straightforward.

Hope this helps! Feel free to ask questions.

 

[docmorgan]

On my exam (FM), there were 9 passages. Most were about a column and a half. One was about 2 full columns. Two passages had 10 questions, two had 5 questions, and the rest were between 6 and 8.

 

[shuzee]

On my exam (FM), there were 9 passages. Most were about a column and a half. One was about 2 full columns. Two passages had 10 questions, two had 5 questions, and the rest were between 6 and 8.

HOW THE HELL DO YOU GUYS REMEMBER ALL THIS!!! I cant even remember a single passage, let alone how many questions it had! you guys sure have an elephant's memory!!!....its gonna help you in med school i suppose...

 

[mlcchem11]

I had nine passages. the first passage had five questions. other passages had five questions too. many passages had six questions. BUT what I Do remember is that where two passages with 12 questions each, and these passages were much longer than the average passage and had a lot more information to integrate

For those that just took the MCAT, how many passages were in the verbal section- still 9?

Do you remember about how many lines most passages had- about 1 1/2 columns (60 lines) or 2 (90 lines)?

Were the questions evenly distributed on a per passage basis- i.e. did each passage have 6-8 questions or did one have way too many like 9-10?

Thanks in advance for your input.

 

[RUscrewed]

Thank you for the input. It seems that all of you had at least one monster passage with a ton of questions. The reason I ask is because I'm having timing issues with finishing the test, and wanted to get all the inside info I possibly could. Although EK stresses not to prioritize passages (and do them all in order) I am thinking that it would be better to make sure to finish the monster passage before dedicating time to smaller ones. Thanks again.

 

[silverdime]

Thank you for the input. It seems that all of you had at least one monster passage with a ton of questions. The reason I ask is because I'm having timing issues with finishing the test, and wanted to get all the inside info I possibly could. Although EK stresses not to prioritize passages (and do them all in order) I am thinking that it would be better to make sure to finish the monster passage before dedicating time to smaller ones. Thanks again.

This seems like an efficient strategy. I usually finish VR with about 20-25 minutes to spare, so I had a good buffer for what happened on test day: the monster passages in my form were passages 6 & 8, so I paced for even dispersion of questions and lost about 15 minutes of my buffer when I hit them due to fatigue.

Had I known the test would be like that, I would have done them first and spent less time on the passages with less questions, as they definitely didn't need as much attention to detail.