I'm just curious if every single passage on MCAT are "adapted" from science articles... A lot of people seem to recommend reading science articles from Pubmed and such to prepare for the types of passages that will be on the MCAT. So I'm wondering if every single passage on the MCAT are in fact the written in the type of style you would see in a typical research journal. Are there any passages in the new MCAT that will look anything like the passages from the AAMC question packs? Or are the passages just going to be completely different than the AAMC question pack style of passages?
TYPES OF PASSAGES ON THE NEW MCAT
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this scares me
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The best advice I think anyone could give would be to look at the AAMC released materials. Based on what they've released, assuming it was written by the same authors responsible for the actual MCAT, it would seem that the passages can fall into different categories, including ones based on research articles. I would do my best to practice with passages from all the categories you feel their practice materials contain in roughly the same percentage ratios. If half of what you analyze are research article based passages, then make sure your preparation includes about half of your total passages being those types of passages.
With that said, how are the passages contained within BR's Full Length practice exams (tests 1-4)? Are the majority of the passages in these practice tests adapted from research articles?
I would look at the Section Bank-type questions instead of the question packs. The question packs test the same topics that will appear on the new MCAT but not necessarily in the same way (the passages are much shorter). The Section Bank was written specifically for the new MCAT so I would guess those are more representative.
In terms of how "research article" they are like, they are pretty research-heavy, though adapted from the papers. That is, they don't quote them verbatim but change around some of the wording to make the passage itself able to stand alone from the rest of the paper and other figures which of course they couldn't include.
Finally, in terms of reading papers to prepare, I wouldn't say go out of your way to read papers just for this. I think it would be higher yield to go through all the AAMC practice material. You should already be reading papers from the primary literature at this stage in your college career, whether it's just for a class or if you have to do so for your research project, etc. If you're not reading any papers whatsoever, I would recommend browsing Nature and Science weekly and just glance over some papers that interest you. That'll have the added benefit of keeping you up-to-date on current scientific happenings, which just makes you a more knowledgeable person overall.
In terms of how "research article" they are like, they are pretty research-heavy, though adapted from the papers. That is, they don't quote them verbatim but change around some of the wording to make the passage itself able to stand alone from the rest of the paper and other figures which of course they couldn't include.
Finally, in terms of reading papers to prepare, I wouldn't say go out of your way to read papers just for this. I think it would be higher yield to go through all the AAMC practice material. You should already be reading papers from the primary literature at this stage in your college career, whether it's just for a class or if you have to do so for your research project, etc. If you're not reading any papers whatsoever, I would recommend browsing Nature and Science weekly and just glance over some papers that interest you. That'll have the added benefit of keeping you up-to-date on current scientific happenings, which just makes you a more knowledgeable person overall.
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One thing I highly recommend; practice reading long passages. The new verbal, CARS, will suck your brain power like a gravitational pull of a black hole, leaving you with nothing half way through the test.
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I can't suggest anything so far because I have only purchased the AAMC (2) and EK (all 4, finished 1 of them). However, many have asked this question before and I suggest you look up what the consensus is.
