Tips on analogies and reading

[PistonFan531]

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For those of you who have taken the PCAT and done well on the verbal analogy and reading comprehension sections, how would you recommend studying for them?

 

[trailrider400]

I'm a native english speaker and I did terrible on the verbal ability section. The reading I did okay. When I was studying I tried to think of ways to study these sections but none seemed very practical. Some people say read science journals. This is very time consuming and who knows if it will really help. The best thing I can suggest is buy a vocab builder book and learn some new words. I bought a portable recorder and listened to them in the car. The best advice I can give you is study the chemistry and biology section until you know it inside and out. You have the most control over these sections and doing very well in them will offset the low scores on those other two sections. My 97 bio offset my 53 on the verbal ability section and I still ended up with a competetive score.

 

[medicalCPA]

My verbal ability did not improve much until I had read a lot. I don't know how much time you have before you take your PCAT, but to prepare for the analogies, I would recommend prep books for the Miller Analogies Test (MAT). For the verbal section, if you do not have enough time to read widely (and I suspect you do not), you need lots of practice. You may want to try ExamKrackers 101 MCAT VR Passages. It's geared toward MCAT takers, and is much denser than the passages you will find on the PCAT, but it should give you some good practice.

 

[Rcu]

Unfortunately, I didn't find any decent study materials for those sections. I used the 2008 Kaplan book and REA's interactive flashcards. Neither one covered that material well. My best advice is to read for pleasure with a dictionary no more than an arm's length away. This is a really good way to boost your vocabulary and active reading skills.
I scored in the mid 90s on both the reading comprehension and verbal ability sections.