Thoughts about ExamKrackers 101 Verbal Reasoning

[TheAnonymous]

Hello,

There have been numerous threads and posts regarding EK101 verbal book but I was hoping that by creating a new thread, I could get some input from the new MCATers as well as SDN verbal gods!

What are your thoughts on EK 101 Verbal Reasoning ? Did you find it helpful?

I personally have a lot of difficulty with this book (my avg is around a 7-8). Although I feel like the passages are alright (though very interesting in most cases), I feel like the questions are weird. I find myself surprised a lot of times when I go through their answers and their reasoning behind the questions and how they come up with the right answer.

Is this normal? Should I keep working on it, continuously reviewing my answers and modifying my strategy? Or should I just use them as extra practice materials and not do a full post-test analysis?

I also have Kaplan online materials + Princeton online materials + Berkeley + TPR Workbook + TPR ICC + TestSolutions


Thank you all 🙂

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[texan2414]

I found EK to be very inconsistent with AAMC (imo only 40% of the questions are reflective of the reasoning questions on AAMC VR tests).
There is an awful lot of subjectivity and ambiguity in the questions themselves. Even though AAMC is imperfect in itself, I think you are more likely to do better with TPR and Kaplan materials.

All the best

 

[GodComplex]

I agree with Texan in finding that some of EK is subjective/ambiguous. That being said, I feel that it still helped prepare me for the exam. I was only averaging around a 9 on EK, averaged around 12 on practice AAMCs and got a 12 on the real exam. EK 101 can help. If you do continue using EK 101 then just don't take your practice scores too seriously and just focus on the practice itself.

 

[Doctoblast]

I think it's good practice. I used it and got an 11 on verbal. My only complaint is that the passages were way more interesting than the AAMC ones are, but the questions are more difficult imo. What I did was use the AAMC self assessment for extra practice in all sections.

 

[Aerus]

Hated it. Only ended up doing 4 FL verbal sections before I quit it. Incredibly subjective questions. Easy to read passages that are not nearly as long or dense as the real thing. Does not resemble the real thing at all.

If you are in dire need of more verbal practice, go ahead. Otherwise, I would use TPRHL Verbal and AAMC Self Assessments.


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[Gauss44]

Not that great.

 

[TheRhymenocerous]

I hate it! I'd heard such good things about it on here, but on at least half the questions I get wrong, I completely disagree with their "correct" answer. There are also tons of typos. I'm doing okay on them (11 on all 6 I've done) but I was an English major, so I should be scoring higher. I feel like I can't quit until I get a good score (can't let 'em beat me!), but it's kinda hard to improve when I feel like so many of my wrong answers are their mistakes, not mine.

 

[bararaboi]

I'd use the Princeton Review Hyperlearning, Verbal Self-Assessment, and the AAMC practice exams as verbal practices. The type of questions on EK 101 are different than the ones on the actual exam. I did poorly on the ones on EK 101, did well on verbal on my actual MCAT.

 

[basicallyno]

Has anyone had their scores fluctuate GREATLY when doing EK Practice? I do about 2-3 passages everyday and just recently I got almost EVERY question wrong on one practice session and I feel so depressed.....!

 

[lostnconfused]

I'm about half way through the EK exams and don't seem to be making much progress. However, I just recently switched back to TPR verbal hyperlearning and I definitely see improvements there after having done EK. Hope to see this carry over to AAMC exams!

 

[KevinGnapoor]

Has anyone had their scores fluctuate GREATLY when doing EK Practice? I do about 2-3 passages everyday and just recently I got almost EVERY question wrong on one practice session and I feel so depressed.....!

Same here. The other day I got 11 on test #5 and today I got 8 on test #6. Usually I get 1-2 wrong per passage but on test #6, I started to get 3-4 wrong per passage. I don't know if it's because I've lost critical thinking skills in a few days or if these passages and questions were just harder than the previous ones. Hopefully I can bounce back from this.

 

[Radioactive1112]

Hello,

Does anybody understand how EK says you should review your EK 101 passages. Of course I am going back and seeing why I got questions wrong. However, it looks like on the EK website it says to redo the questions you get wrong..."re-read the question stem and answer all the questions. do not reread the passage".....um has anybody used this method? or did you simply just grade your tests and move on to the next exam?

 

[Sylvee]

I'm comforted to see that I'm not the only one going crazy over the EK 101 passages. I'm a fairly good reader, and I got an 11 on the old MCAT last year, but I can't break a 10 on the EK 101 passages.
When I go back over my answers, some of the wrong ones are legitimately wrong, but there are so many where I'm just, "What?! How is that answer better or even different than my answer?!" I was really starting to get worried that my reading comprehension and/or ability to critically think had gone out the door spontaneously.

 

[doctor in da makin]

I just asked a question about this.

But it seems from this thread that EK is not a good choice for CARS at all...

 

[bararaboi]

Use the Princeton Review HyperLearning. The type of questions on the EK 101 and the logic needed to answer them was definitely different from the actual verbal section. I also found the AAMC verbal assessments and question bamks to be especially helpful. Let me know if you have any other questions on the MCAT.

 

[El-Rami]

I got over 90% of the AAMC sample test CARS questions correct, but I struggled on the first few passages I did in EK 101. I've been doing some passages untimed while dissecting the answers in the back to understand EK's logic before moving on to doing them timed. Honestly, I agree that there is quite a bit of a difference in how AAMC and EK approach verbal. I feel that the answer explanations make a lot of sense, although I sometimes may have arrived at the correct answer by reasoning in a completely different way. Overall, I feel EK verbal is not too hard, but there are questions that were a lot trickier than what I experienced with AAMC. It is still great practice, though. Just vary your practice with material from different companies, along with the AAMC CARS question packs.

 

[MyNameIsRobertPaulson]

I found EK to be very inconsistent with AAMC (imo only 40% of the questions are reflective of the reasoning questions on AAMC VR tests).
There is an awful lot of subjectivity and ambiguity in the questions themselves. Even though AAMC is imperfect in itself, I think you are more likely to do better with TPR and Kaplan materials.

All the best

+1000, especially given the natural science passages that mean a good chunk of the book is not reflective of the new CARS section at all, regardless of how well the passage is written.

the aamc stuff is what I have. now I need to shop for more so I don't burn my aamc stuff too early. I'm between TPRHL and NStep 108 verbal. Is the hyper learning new or for old MCAT?

 

[El-Rami]

You would need to buy the CARS Workbook from the Princeton Review course if you want a version of TPRH Verbal that is "updated." People sell that book for a lot of money, though. I have the NStep 108 verbal, and I feel the passages are representative of something you could read on the MCAT. As far as the questions, though, there seems to be some agreement that the questions are not really AAMC-like yet may still be good practice. Several people think the NS book is super difficult though. Take that as you will. My only complaint about the book is that the format of the book isn't even set up like a CBT exam. The authors didn't bother to split the text into two columns. Even with that said, I don't feel that it is a bad idea to use the book. It's pretty cheap, and something that I really like about it is that they provide detailed explanations for each answer choice being right/wrong AND they even show the passage with highlighting in it so you also know what to focus on in your reading. No other verbal book I have seen does that. To be honest, that was a selling point for me when I decided to purchase it; I have a tendency to highlight too much information, so anything that can help me break this habit is great.

 

[doctor in da makin]

I'd use the Princeton Review Hyperlearning, Verbal Self-Assessment, and the AAMC practice exams as verbal practices. The type of questions on EK 101 are different than the ones on the actual exam. I did poorly on the ones on EK 101, did well on verbal on my actual MCAT.

How many verbal practice questions would you estimate you did in total?

 

[jordan222]

I pretty much exclusively studied CARS with the EK 101 book (along with a boatload of FLs) and it worked well for me. I would highly recommend going through the EK 101 book; I think the "science passages being removed" sentiment is overstated, as my June MCAT had several archaeology/history passages that involved a fair amount of science. I really liked the representative difficulty and the detailed explanations of EK 101.