Taking 5 minutes to read a VR passage <-- too long

[bored]

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Hi guys, I did afew ek tests and have come into a specific problem.

If I spend less than 4 minutes reading and comming up with a main idea, I don't understand the passage at all and I do very bad on the passage (more than 3 mistakes),

On the other hand, If I give my self 5 minutes to read the passage, I do much, much better. However, this is way too much time becuase In the end it takes me 11 minutes to finish the passage.

Can someone suggest what I should do/try out to improve on this?

the problem is, If I read too fast (4 minutes or less) I don't get the main idea and all my questions suffer. If, however, I read too slow (5-6 minutes) I do well on the questions but its wayy too much time spent.

 

[PanRoasted]

Have you tried the AAMC VR passages yet? You should really be gauging yourself on those instead of EK. EK is good practice, yes, but it will not serve as an accurate indicator of how well you will do on AAMC passages. You can also take your pick of generic advice others might give you: pretend the passage is interesting, pretend it's a friend telling you a story, imagine morgan freeman is reading it to you, or samuel L jackson is yelling it at you.

 

[PanRoasted]

I took the 21 June exam. A week before I sat the test, I got an amazing piece of advice from those obnoxious audio osmosis cd's (the EK ones). The guys suggest during the verbal to sit up and on the edge of your seat. You want to be as alert as possible. Everyone in that test room was leaning back. I sat uncomfortably on the edge of my chair with my back straight. It worked. I kept my attention completely focused on the passage. My verbal score was a 13 for what its worth.

Try it when you practice and see if it works.

lmao, i read this in the EK verbal book. apparently it stimulates your sympathetic nervous system. hah, i would never have thought it would actually help anyone. Maybe i'll try it...

 

[bored]

Have you tried the AAMC VR passages yet? You should really be gauging yourself on those instead of EK. EK is good practice, yes, but it will not serve as an accurate indicator of how well you will do on AAMC passages. You can also take your pick of generic advice others might give you: pretend the passage is interesting, pretend it's a friend telling you a story, imagine morgan freeman is reading it to you, or samuel L jackson is yelling it at you.

I have tried aamc passages which I found to be a little shorter (4-5 minutes), however the large time requiring just to read the passage just hurts timing wise.

I'll be doing aamc 5 after doing ek101 #5, will report back.

 

[Medical Muse]

You have a few options to consider to improve your speed with Verbal. As you practice, your speed will improve, so make sure you do as many passages and exams as you can. Now if you take 11 minutes per passage, then you'll be finishing 17 minutes late, or roughly with 1.5 passages to go. Obviously, you need to get your time down. I wouldn't push too much to get your reading speed lower. Maybe shoot for 4 to 4.5 minutes per passage. That will save you 3.5 to 7 minutes over the exam. If you really are committed to keeping your reading time, then you have to cut time while answering the questions. This means you don't look back to the passage unless you are really stumped. Otherwise, you trust that your detailed reading was thorough enough. You only get about 8.5 minutes per passage, so you have to find how much time you want to spend reading and how much time you spend answering questions.

 

[bored]

You have a few options to consider to improve your speed with Verbal. As you practice, your speed will improve, so make sure you do as many passages and exams as you can. Now if you take 11 minutes per passage, then you'll be finishing 17 minutes late, or roughly with 1.5 passages to go. Obviously, you need to get your time down. I wouldn't push too much to get your reading speed lower. Maybe shoot for 4 to 4.5 minutes per passage. That will save you 3.5 to 7 minutes over the exam. If you really are committed to keeping your reading time, then you have to cut time while answering the questions. This means you don't look back to the passage unless you are really stumped. Otherwise, you trust that your detailed reading was thorough enough. You only get about 8.5 minutes per passage, so you have to find how much time you want to spend reading and how much time you spend answering questions.

I really hope that bit about practice improving my score is true, cause I'm doing a vr fl a day and am starting to feel guilty about using up so many passages.

 

[flashlightpen]

Hi guys, I did afew ek tests and have come into a specific problem.

If I spend less than 4 minutes reading and comming up with a main idea, I don't understand the passage at all and I do very bad on the passage (more than 3 mistakes),

On the other hand, If I give my self 5 minutes to read the passage, I do much, much better. However, this is way too much time becuase In the end it takes me 11 minutes to finish the passage.

Can someone suggest what I should do/try out to improve on this?

the problem is, If I read too fast (4 minutes or less) I don't get the main idea and all my questions suffer. If, however, I read too slow (5-6 minutes) I do well on the questions but its wayy too much time spent.

Wow, I just spoke to my TPR about this. This was our last verbal class and I was just really feeling like crap.

I feel slightly better, but only because of a pep talk. I am in the exact same boat. If I read 5min, I'm decent (not to get perfect score... but about 2-3 wrong in a passage).. if I read 3-4 minute, I am totally screwed, lol.

I have nothing to really add other than keep trying..... thats what i was told........