Struggling with passages, any advice?

[Roxas]

I'm on day 2 of my study schedule (did TPR Bio chap 2 yesterday and Physics chap 2 today), reading a chapter a day out of TPR and doing 1/3 of the associated problems in the workbook. My problem though is I feel like I understand the material when I read (I take around 4 hours to read the chap and take notes), but when I go to do my practice discretes/passages I just get raped. I like to think that I'm a fairly intelligent person, but I don't know why I'm doing so poorly (i.e I'm only getting about 50-70% of the questions right, and its taking me WAY longer then I should spend per question/passage).

Basically my question being: Is this normal when you first start? Is this due to me not fully understanding content? I'm fresh out of bio 1 and 2, physiology and orgo. Currently taking physics 1.... Or is there some trick to doing passages that will develop with time? Honestly I didn't think I would struggle this badly. Any advice would be greatly appreciated, thanks guys

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[Shams al Deen]

I try doing some standalone questions like from ek 1001 before going to the passages. If you miss a bunch of those, then you probably need some more review on the content before trying the passages.

 

[UoCfin]

I'm on day 2 of my study schedule (did TPR Bio chap 2 yesterday and Physics chap 2 today), reading a chapter a day out of TPR and doing 1/3 of the associated problems in the workbook. My problem though is I feel like I understand the material when I read (I take around 4 hours to read the chap and take notes), but when I go to do my practice discretes/passages I just get raped. I like to think that I'm a fairly intelligent person, but I don't know why I'm doing so poorly (i.e I'm only getting about 50-70% of the questions right, and its taking me WAY longer then I should spend per question/passage).

Basically my question being: Is this normal when you first start? Is this due to me not fully understanding content? I'm fresh out of bio 1 and 2, physiology and orgo. Currently taking physics 1.... Or is there some trick to doing passages that will develop with time? Honestly I didn't think I would struggle this badly. Any advice would be greatly appreciated, thanks guys

Dude...i really feel you...we are not the same,,,but are in the same boat. I feel exactly the way you are (the only pre-reqs i have remaining are PHYSICS II, O-Chem II and Gen-Bio II) currently in PHYSICS I and O-Chem I. I am doing content review as well with EK and it seems that all the things i go over are fairly past...so am familiar with what they are, but when it comes to tackling questions, thats a whole different story. I constantly test myself, but see that am not on par with where i should be considering i wanna take this beast in late May or early June. But i guess with time and complication of the pre-reqs all together we will get there. I have notice from some practice sections am not yet done with some of the physics questions/o-chem questions. So i think next semester will take care of that. Since you are talking about discreets, i think amo switch my full attention to the TPR science workbook, lots of those there.
When it comes to th passages, i really think its our schooling that doesn't prepare us for that kind of problem solving and insight into experimental inference questions. I find my self guessing on lots of physical science passages becoz i get totally lost on what is being asked. Or some times i have narrowed the answer choices to two answers and end up choosing one the two which is a 50/50 guess.

Now: when it comes to verbal...when it comes to practice...read the passages out loud. When you follow the EK strategy for verbal (most important are the breath breaks)...read the passage out loud...you wont even have to return to the passage after reading it when you do the questions. I just did that this morning. Mind you i didn't score a high figure [ 7 ],,,but barely returned to the passage to look for the answer. I had 3 minutes to spare at the end. I am going to continue that until i see if there is something better.

 

[Roxas]

I try doing some standalone questions like from ek 1001 before going to the passages. If you miss a bunch of those, then you probably need some more review on the content before trying the passages.

I'm sure you are right. The problem is I only have EK 1001 gen chem right now, but I hope to get the physics one soon. TPRH SW has discretes in it as well, but I'm doing just as poorly on those as I am on the passages (especially in physics, formula recall and mental math is a b****! haha).

Dude...i really feel you...we are not the same,,,but are in the same boat. I feel exactly the way you are (the only pre-reqs i have remaining are PHYSICS II, O-Chem II and Gen-Bio II) currently in PHYSICS I and O-Chem I. I am doing content review as well with EK and it seems that all the things i go over are fairly past...so am familiar with what they are, but when it comes to tackling questions, thats a whole different story. I constantly test myself, but see that am not on par with where i should be considering i wanna take this beast in late May or early June. But i guess with time and complication of the pre-reqs all together we will get there. I have notice from some practice sections am not yet done with some of the physics questions/o-chem questions. So i think next semester will take care of that. Since you are talking about discreets, i think amo switch my full attention to the TPR science workbook, lots of those there.
When it comes to th passages, i really think its our schooling that doesn't prepare us for that kind of problem solving and insight into experimental inference questions. I find my self guessing on lots of physical science passages becoz i get totally lost on what is being asked. Or some times i have narrowed the answer choices to two answers and end up choosing one the two which is a 50/50 guess.

Thanks for the insight, and I totally agree, school totally doesn't prep us for this haha. So my plan is to just keep going and hope that sooner or later I get a feel for the style of mcat passages, cause right now its pretty frustrating.

 

[maybemed2013]

It use to take my 20 mins at first to do one of PR Passages... I do not time myself on passages anymore.

 

[Roxas]

It use to take my 20 mins at first to do one of PR Passages... I do not time myself on passages anymore.

So do you just develop speed with passages over time? It just scares me that I'm taking so long, and that I won't get any faster because its always new material

 

[maybemed2013]

So do you just develop speed with passages over time? It just scares me that I'm taking so long, and that I won't get any faster because its always new material

After practice you develop speed in the BS and PS section similar to the PS section.

 

[Euxox]

I'm on day 2 of my study schedule (did TPR Bio chap 2 yesterday and Physics chap 2 today), reading a chapter a day out of TPR and doing 1/3 of the associated problems in the workbook. My problem though is I feel like I understand the material when I read (I take around 4 hours to read the chap and take notes), but when I go to do my practice discretes/passages I just get raped. I like to think that I'm a fairly intelligent person, but I don't know why I'm doing so poorly (i.e I'm only getting about 50-70% of the questions right, and its taking me WAY longer then I should spend per question/passage).

Basically my question being: Is this normal when you first start? Is this due to me not fully understanding content? I'm fresh out of bio 1 and 2, physiology and orgo. Currently taking physics 1.... Or is there some trick to doing passages that will develop with time? Honestly I didn't think I would struggle this badly. Any advice would be greatly appreciated, thanks guys

I've been working with the TBR books for about two a half months now, and here is my take.

Working through TBR is like doing a science class in college. In many college classes, you will have a lecture in which the professor covers a chapter from the book pretty thoroughly. Then you get the weekly problem set, and it takes you HOURS. Working through problems is very different from understanding the material. Understanding the material is a prerequisite for working through problems, but by no means will it takes you all of the way. The only way to learn how to work through problems is to... work through problems.

TBR is the same way. The reading is the lecture, and the practice problems are your weekly problem set. I take an initial set of notes on each reading (it takes me 3-4 hours, as it does for you) and then I work through the problems. When I'm checking my answers and reading through the answer explanations, I'll keep a log of why I got certain questions wrong. Once I've finished reading through my questions, I'll find that there are a few problem solving specific concepts that weren't covered very well in the reading (if at all), and I'll add them to my notes.

As far as timing, I don't think you really have to worry about that while you're still doing content review. You can use practice tests to get the timing down.

 

[JLeBling]

I'm on day 2 of my study schedule (did TPR Bio chap 2 yesterday and Physics chap 2 today), reading a chapter a day out of TPR and doing 1/3 of the associated problems in the workbook. My problem though is I feel like I understand the material when I read (I take around 4 hours to read the chap and take notes), but when I go to do my practice discretes/passages I just get raped. I like to think that I'm a fairly intelligent person, but I don't know why I'm doing so poorly (i.e I'm only getting about 50-70% of the questions right, and its taking me WAY longer then I should spend per question/passage).

Basically my question being: Is this normal when you first start? Is this due to me not fully understanding content? I'm fresh out of bio 1 and 2, physiology and orgo. Currently taking physics 1.... Or is there some trick to doing passages that will develop with time? Honestly I didn't think I would struggle this badly. Any advice would be greatly appreciated, thanks guys

Do not get discouraged. How many times did you fall and bust your face when you started riding a bike. learned to snowboard, or whatever? Any new endeavor entails a certain amount of face busting in the beginning. Even babies! Have you ever seen a baby struggle to walk around only to tumble backwards top-heavy (hilarious)? It's the same idea.

I'm only a couple of weeks ahead of you on the schedule, and I can already say that I'm starting to figure out what I am doing right and what I am doing wrong. Just persist and make a conscious effort to improve your weaknesses and there ain't no reason why you shouldn't succeed!

PS: Start timing yourself (at least that's what I'm doing)
PSS: The MCAT passages are always asking for something very simple, but they roll it around in Bull-poo and react it with fart gas to make it appear way more complicated. But it's pretty much always something that can be solved under 1 minute per question! Learn to sideswipe the poo and see the question for what it really is!!!

 

[JLeBling]

I was scoring 50-60-70 in the first few.

Now I'm getting 70, 80, even some 90+ on physics, orgo and gen chem. The trend is upward. But I'm still getting Oklahoma-City rang-raped by bio though lol

 

[zipnogg]

I'm on day 2 of my study schedule...

Just keep practicing.

 

[IslandStyle808]

Dude...i really feel you...we are not the same,,,but are in the same boat. I feel exactly the way you are (the only pre-reqs i have remaining are PHYSICS II, O-Chem II and Gen-Bio II) currently in PHYSICS I and O-Chem I. I am doing content review as well with EK and it seems that all the things i go over are fairly past...so am familiar with what they are, but when it comes to tackling questions, thats a whole different story. I constantly test myself, but see that am not on par with where i should be considering i wanna take this beast in late May or early June. But i guess with time and complication of the pre-reqs all together we will get there. I have notice from some practice sections am not yet done with some of the physics questions/o-chem questions. So i think next semester will take care of that. Since you are talking about discreets, i think amo switch my full attention to the TPR science workbook, lots of those there.
When it comes to th passages, i really think its our schooling that doesn't prepare us for that kind of problem solving and insight into experimental inference questions. I find my self guessing on lots of physical science passages becoz i get totally lost on what is being asked. Or some times i have narrowed the answer choices to two answers and end up choosing one the two which is a 50/50 guess.

Now: when it comes to verbal...when it comes to practice...read the passages out loud. When you follow the EK strategy for verbal (most important are the breath breaks)...read the passage out loud...you wont even have to return to the passage after reading it when you do the questions. I just did that this morning. Mind you i didn't score a high figure [ 7 ],,,but barely returned to the passage to look for the answer. I had 3 minutes to spare at the end. I am going to continue that until i see if there is something better.

This works very well with me when I study for exams since information is usually stored in an auditory fashion (even though reading is a visual thing).

I have read your other posts on how to study for the MCAT. I was wondering how you tackled the verbal section. Since in a testing situation, it would be difficult to read out loud. Did you read at a whisper during test day or was there another way that you would read the passage? Also how do you finish on time? Any advice is greatly appreciated.

 

[Mtrader]

Like the others have said its very early so you need to keep working at it. That being said, i was in a similiar position. After about a month of studying i was only getting 60-70% correct (a few 55% scattered about!).

i improved my scores 5-10% by simply taking the passages the NEXT day. i found that i was tired, cranky and i was just not 100% focused after studying the chapters for 4-8 hrs. i know this might throw your current schedual out of whack but it might help.

i also feel like this is more accurate to testing conditions. Most people dont study new material for 8 hours prior to the test.

 

[Roxas]

i improved my scores 5-10% by simply taking the passages the NEXT day. i found that i was tired, cranky and i was just not 100% focused after studying the chapters for 4-8 hrs. i know this might throw your current schedual out of whack but it might help.

i also feel like this is more accurate to testing conditions. Most people dont study new material for 8 hours prior to the test.

Thanks for the input, I really appreciate it. From what I have noticed (for anyone doing an SN2ed style schedule at least), the point of doing some passages the day of content review is to start to apply what I've studied. Then, when I go back and do the 2nd 1/3 of passages for all subjects, you are starting fresh and its closer to test conditions.

All in all I realize that I am still very early in my schedule, I just got kinda freaked out when I wasn't doing so hot on passages (even the easy ones). I just thought I'd ask if this was typical when starting out, or if I am particularly weak in content and just don't know it. Thanks everyone for the help, I'll just keep hammering away and see what happens

 

[Mtrader]

im doing modified SN2ed also and i totally agree that passeges the day of has its pros. i just felt like my scores didnt really reflect what i actualy accomplished and worst of all i was wasting material! good luck!

 

[Roxas]

im doing modified SN2ed also and i totally agree that passeges the day of has its pros. i just felt like my scores didnt really reflect what i actualy accomplished and worst of all i was wasting material! good luck!

thanks bro, you too

 

[MedWonk]

I'm on day 2 of my study schedule (did TPR Bio chap 2 yesterday and Physics chap 2 today), reading a chapter a day out of TPR and doing 1/3 of the associated problems in the workbook. My problem though is I feel like I understand the material when I read (I take around 4 hours to read the chap and take notes), but when I go to do my practice discretes/passages I just get raped. I like to think that I'm a fairly intelligent person, but I don't know why I'm doing so poorly (i.e I'm only getting about 50-70% of the questions right, and its taking me WAY longer then I should spend per question/passage).

Basically my question being: Is this normal when you first start? Is this due to me not fully understanding content? I'm fresh out of bio 1 and 2, physiology and orgo. Currently taking physics 1.... Or is there some trick to doing passages that will develop with time? Honestly I didn't think I would struggle this badly. Any advice would be greatly appreciated, thanks guys

It's way too early to panic. I remember getting destroyed the first time I did bio passages, now two months in, I'm consistently getting at least 75% of the answers. You need to keep hammering away.