The 14/4/14 Depression

[qw098]

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Hi guys,

I just took AAMC 9... and got 14/4/14 with a big 4 in the verbal section 🙁

My MCAT test date is in a week and a half, what should I do!? The thing is, I believe I can answer the questions correct when the passage is interesting (Usually get full marks), but when the passages are humanities based I fail miserably as I don't give a ****.

I guess my verbal problem is that I can't concentrate well enough. Can anyone recommend ANYTHING for me, and any pieces of advice.

Thanks!

 

[StayingFocused]

What are your other VR scores? My VR scores suck too (6-8). But honestly, if you want to get into your state med school, if you have a 6 or 7 VR score and your 14's they'll accept you. They'll probably give you crap about it and ask you about it but you'll still get accepted. Just be confident and pretend every passage is interesting and tell yourself, "FU--K it" I'm just going to do my best in VR and you'll probably get like a 6 and if you get 13-14 on the sciences, honestly, you'll get accepted at your state school. People make a big deal about scoring 10+ on VR but med schools will still accept you, don't forget their averages for the sciences are 10s so you are well above average with that score.

At this point, you don't have time to improve your verbal so the least you can do is just be confident.

 

[rkmauria]

ok, i used to be doing TERRIBLE on humanities passages. After changing my outlook on verbal, i am not getting around a 10 on verbal pretty consistently.

First off, When i used to read, I could never concentrate on those damn humanities passages, and even some boring natural sciences ones too.

I can normally tell if it is a humanities passage by the first paragraph. The first paragraph normally sets the mood for the whole passage as well, so if you dont get anything out of a passage, at least look at the first and last paragraph. If a particular passage is boring, I try to get my self psyched up for it. Yea it wont work ALL the time, but try it. Also, try to read paragraph by paragraph. Instead of looking at it as a long passage, read one paragraph and quickly summarize attitude and point of it. Always have that mentality that you are looking for that main point/ attitude. This helped me concentrate more.

I found that as long as you can concentrate on the passage, you can improve alot. Also, a big part of verbal is confidence as well. Tell yourself you're going for a 15. Not a 10, not an 8, a 15. Aim the highest you can get, even though you might not get it, it sets your standards high. Good luck!

 

[qw098]

ok, i used to be doing TERRIBLE on humanities passages. After changing my outlook on verbal, i am not getting around a 10 on verbal pretty consistently.

First off, When i used to read, I could never concentrate on those damn humanities passages, and even some boring natural sciences ones too.

I can normally tell if it is a humanities passage by the first paragraph. The first paragraph normally sets the mood for the whole passage as well, so if you dont get anything out of a passage, at least look at the first and last paragraph. If a particular passage is boring, I try to get my self psyched up for it. Yea it wont work ALL the time, but try it. Also, try to read paragraph by paragraph. Instead of looking at it as a long passage, read one paragraph and quickly summarize attitude and point of it. Always have that mentality that you are looking for that main point/ attitude. This helped me concentrate more.

I found that as long as you can concentrate on the passage, you can improve alot. Also, a big part of verbal is confidence as well. Tell yourself you're going for a 15. Not a 10, not an 8, a 15. Aim the highest you can get, even though you might not get it, it sets your standards high. Good luck!

Nice, thanks! I like this idea of reading one paragraph, then summarizing it, then continuing!

 

[Renaissance Man]

Hi guys,

I just took AAMC 9... and got 14/4/14 with a big 4 in the verbal section 🙁

My MCAT test date is in a week and a half, what should I do!? The thing is, I believe I can answer the questions correct when the passage is interesting (Usually get full marks), but when the passages are humanities based I fail miserably as I don't give a ****.

I guess my verbal problem is that I can't concentrate well enough. Can anyone recommend ANYTHING for me, and any pieces of advice.

Thanks!

With 14's on the PS and BS you are more than smart enough (and a good enough test-taker) to score highly on VR. Check out my signature for 4 blog posts on improving VR scores. Good luck to you!

 

[qw098]

With 14's on the PS and BS you are more than smart enough (and a good enough test-taker) to score highly on VR. Check out my signature for 4 blog posts on improving VR scores. Good luck to you!

Nice blog post Renaissance Man; I like it!

I was wondering if you think this approach is a good one: Read the questions first, then go read the passage. When I am in the middle of reading the passage, if I remember one of the questions, I go and answer it immediately. What do you think?

 

[BABSstudent]

Nice blog post Renaissance Man; I like it!

I was wondering if you think this approach is a good one: Read the questions first, then go read the passage. When I am in the middle of reading the passage, if I remember one of the questions, I go and answer it immediately. What do you think?

Sounds like a bad idea to me. You will read the questions (maybe spend 2-3minutes per passage doing that, wasted 14-21 minutes), read the passage (about 4-5 minutes per passage for 28-35 minutes), and jumping forward to answer questions when you can (add another 2-3 minutes per passage for 14-21 minutes) but you will have to read all the questions again to find the one you want to answer. You are out of time.

You wouldn't have the time to analyze the passage and find the main idea. Nor would you have time to debate the possible answers.

 

[rjosh33]

Sounds like a bad idea to me. You will read the questions (maybe spend 2-3minutes per passage doing that, wasted 14-21 minutes), read the passage (about 4-5 minutes per passage for 28-35 minutes), and jumping forward to answer questions when you can (add another 2-3 minutes per passage for 14-21 minutes) but you will have to read all the questions again to find the one you want to answer. You are out of time.

You wouldn't have the time to analyze the passage and find the main idea. Nor would you have time to debate the possible answers.

I agree and disagree here. Reading the questions first can be disastrous if done the wrong way, but very helpful if done correctly.

The disastrous way would be what I think BABS is getting at. Reading each question thoroughly and then trying to remember them all while reading the passage is a good way to overload yourself. You'll be trying to remember too much, taking too much time, and most likely missing the key information in the passage itself.

A good way to help yourself, though, is to skim the questions beforehand. Your only goal of doing this should be to get an idea of what the passage is about*, and it should take you no more than 30 seconds. It's time well spent, though, because then you can build a mental schema of what you're about to read, ideally allowing you to read faster with better retention.

*Exception -- sometimes a question will ask about the meaning of a specific word. If you see this, then by all means memorize that word and highlight it when you read the passage. It'll save you from wasting time later trying to hunt it down.

 

[qw098]

Sounds like a bad idea to me. You will read the questions (maybe spend 2-3minutes per passage doing that, wasted 14-21 minutes), read the passage (about 4-5 minutes per passage for 28-35 minutes), and jumping forward to answer questions when you can (add another 2-3 minutes per passage for 14-21 minutes) but you will have to read all the questions again to find the one you want to answer. You are out of time.

You wouldn't have the time to analyze the passage and find the main idea. Nor would you have time to debate the possible answers.

I meant just skim the questions (5 seconds per question max).

 

[Renaissance Man]

Nice blog post Renaissance Man; I like it!

I was wondering if you think this approach is a good one: Read the questions first, then go read the passage. When I am in the middle of reading the passage, if I remember one of the questions, I go and answer it immediately. What do you think?

I think that reading the questions first is really distracting and wastes time. I read critically and actively first. Then go through questions in order. If I have to, I refer back to the passage.

 

[hmania]

if you call this depression.... think about rest of us that dreams of getting past a 9 on any section. nonetheless, congrats. Just keep trying

 

[gtbROX]

I personally suck at verbal, but whenever I get really lazy or unable to focus this is what I do (it got me 6-8s on practice tests), I go through the passage reading it quickly but not skimming, and I focus on language and the attitude of the reader [only]. I bracketed only because in those situations I am focused almost completely on the author's language/attitude, but open minded to anything else. Highlight all words that show attitude/tone (unfortunately, bad, inadequate, etc..) and anything that seems important. Circle answer choices that match the attitude/tone the most. Many times when I read a passage I cannot understand, I resort to this technique alone, but usually I try to get the main idea along with the tone and answer questions based on that. If you tend to be slow and not finish questions, try inputing an arbitrary answer choice B, C, or D for the remaining unanswered questions and mark the first of them. I've been told that most mcat verbal answers are not A because alot of distracting and attractive answer choices are put there to trick test takers into clicking it and moving on.

Make sure to also be getting rest and eating healthy as well. Good luck on your mcat!

 

[miringains]

you should try reading the first paragraph semi-slowly, the second paragraph faster and each subsequent paragraph even faster and connect them as you go. this took me from a 8 to an 11

 

[Medical Muse]

It's not too late to improve your score. I know you don't care about the humanities passages, but you must. Don't let them stand in the way of getting into medical school. I like to change my strategy if a passage seems boring or difficult. Try looking to the questions first. Some people like this technique, but others don't. Practice it a few times, but do it the right way. Don't focus on main idea or inference questions. Find the specific detail questions, and remember those while reading. I'd recommend only 2 questions. Spend no more than 30 seconds doing this. Another thought is to leave all the humanities passages until the end. You know you struggle with them, so might as well get all the other passages done first. Then change your technique and tackle them. Whatever your plan, practice it this week so you can gain confidence in it.