Timing for BR passages

[MShopes]

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Hi guys I'm planning to do the TBR passages for each section of each subject (10 passages per section, 100 questions in majority of sections including some discrete questions) under timed conditions so that I can get used to timing. What should be the time for 10 passages and 100 questions. I did a conversion from the real MCAT that allows 70 minutes to solve 52 questions and found that I need exactly 134.6 minutes to solve those questions. And in some sections that have 70 questions and 10 passages , I did the conversion and got 94 minutes allowed to solve them. Am I in the right track? From the 94 minutes, I figured that each passage needs 9.4 minutes to be done which might seem kind of enough time since it is very easy to skim through the passage in 30 seconds and get to the questions unlike the verbal section. But then the calculations and concept might take the time. What you guys think?

I plan to do 1 section of each subject a day, meaning 4 sections total for a total of 40 passages in average with approx 400 questions a day.... and planning to finish BR passages (around 400 passages) in 10 days maximum. Yes, I can do it and it is not a burn out. each day 6-7 hours isn't actually a burn out. Thank you all!

 

[Donald Juan]

Your timing plan seems fine. Some people just try to do 7-8 minutes per passage or something like that. I didn't even time myself when doing BR passages, because I felt like a I didn't have any issues with timing so I just took it easy when doing those passages.

I doubt you will be able to do four sections in a day. Remember that the most important part about doing those practice passages is reviewing your answers both right and wrong, which can take a significant amount of time. It's no good to just be flying through the questions without reviewing what you are missing and why. That being said, I think a more accurate estimate of timing would be more like two hours to solve the problems and two hours to review the problems per section. So, doing four end of chapter questions would probably be more close to 16 hours of straight studying with no breaks. I was trying to do about 1.5 sections a day when I was studying. Good luck!

 

[PingPongPro]

1)Not all BR sections have 10 passages. Most have more, it might be different for your edition maybe.

2)Doing all of even one section's passage in a day is somewhat stupid. You will never be able to see if you learned the material since you won't have any passages to do once you reviewed your passages.

3) 4 Sections a day is lol. 40 Sections in 10 days is even more lol. I guess since you aren't reading the content (i assume) its not as bad as others who are thoroughly going through the book. Its still a lot of passages, and you are probably better off doing 1/2 of the passages from each section if you are adamant about finishing in 10 days.

4) Do you realize 4 sections a day is 94minutes per section x 4. That is 376 minutes of doing passages, assuming you do not take a single break between sections. That is 6.27 hrs. It is physically impossible to do all those passages without taking a single break. Also you have to factor in the time to review the passages. You do realize that taking all these passages are essentially pointless if you don't review them right? Review time SHOULD generally take at least twice as long, if not longer.

I guess if you really believe 6-7 hours isn't burn out, fine. But if you are tryin to do this plan it is probably more accurately estimated at around 18-20hours a day, which might be burn out...

 

[tak08810]

9 minutes per passage is way too much. On the actual MCAT, if you do the discretes in one minute each, you'll have about eight minutes for each passage. And everyone says that for whatever reason the actual mcat takes significantly longer than any practice passages, so you should be aiming for at most seven minutes per passage. SND2 recommends you try to get it to six, although I think that's pretty insane.

Also, doing four whole sections of passages a day is insanity. The most I've done were seven passages from each section a day, and I couldn't do that straight for ten days.

 

[MShopes]

Thank you guys for your replies. I hope I didn't sound like I just wanted to fly through the passages to just get them done without careful reviewing. My whole point of doing them is to learn my mistakes and weak areas from them as well as improve my timing. I agree that it takes twice as long to just review the questions which would turn out to a lot of hours a day to finish four sections with their review which in the turn would be a real burn out that I don't want to happen before my AAMC Fls. I will just do half the passages of each section (about 5 passages or so) like the other poster said and review them. If I ever have time later, I will continue on the rest of the passages. At least this way I will be able to work on certain passages for each section and learn my strong and weak areas every where.

As for the timing, why only 6 minutes? It is not a verbal reasoning test where the passage itself takes time to read and needs careful reading plus it is way longer with the same amount of questions like the science passages. I actually finish almost all science passage reading in 40 seconds to 1 minute top and sometimes I can answer most questions without actually reading the passage especially in bio but I won't ever do that in the real test for sure just to make sure I know what I'm doing. 8 minutes per passage*7 passages in the real thing makes 56 minutes leaving 14 minutes for discrete questions and spare time. I will try to stick to 8 minutes or 7.5 but definitely not 6 minutes that would be insane.

And I don't know if that matters, but I'm almost done with content review and when I practice these passages, I will be just doing passages no content review.
Thank you guys for your helpful answer, I will change the number of passages per day as you recommended!

 

[tak08810]

Like I said, almost EVERYONE talks about how the real thing seems considerably longer than the practice tests/passages, whether it's due to nervousness or actual increased length. I think everyone should aim for seven minutes at least. It's a goal so it's okay if you don't reach it but I think feeling comfortable just barely finishing the exam during a practice could be very costly during the actual exam where you are even more crunched to time. Of course if your content is weak focus on that too rather than rushing through exams.

Six minutes is pretty unrealistic I admit. I'm a very fast worker and reader and I do sets of seven or eight passages in 49 or 56 minutes, and I finish with only a few minutes to spare (I usually get higher than 10 except for the BR Bio passages). Six minutes is probably only doable consistently by savants.