D
deleted421268
It takes me like 4-5 minutes to read a CARS passage but I seem to have a hard time processing or making sense of what I am reading. It makes me feel dumb but what can I do.
- Joined
- Oct 21, 2017
- Messages
- 90
- Reaction score
- 84
Practice reading boring articles 1-2 times daily that you have no interest in whatsoever (try the New Yorker). My mom is an author and growing up she encouraged me to read “boring things” for this reason. Nothing about politics, pop culture, or medicine; something you have absolutely no interest in reading so you have to try to completely understand what the author is saying. Being a slow reader isn’t a negative if you can fully comprehend what you’ve read once you’ve finished. Just takes practice.
D
deleted421268
I think it might have less to do with not being interested in the passage I think more that I just CAN'T process what I am reading and the sentences like it makes me feel dumb that I lack brain cells or something.
- Joined
- Jan 24, 2017
- Messages
- 3,748
- Reaction score
- 4,304
Could it be that you have some reading problems?
D
deleted421268
I think it's more that CARS Passage topics can be tricky and not easy. I am using Testing solution passages so far and I've been getting like 50% of questions right on each passage sometimes less than that and few times more than that.
- Joined
- Oct 21, 2017
- Messages
- 90
- Reaction score
- 84
Outside of CARS are you able to read and comprehend w/o difficulty, or is a problem outside of CARS passages? If not, it could have to do w/ anxiety? If you're timing yourself I'd stop and see if it improves. ESL?
D
deleted421268
I hardly do reading in general and am not a big reader just read chapter 1 of a book today and I seemed to be fine when it came to reading and comprehending it.
D
deleted936470
practice literally every day, take a few deep breaths before each passage, read the passage title at the bottom to provide better context of what you're about to read - pay attention to not just the title but the date it was written. avoid rereading unless it's a highly specific / detail recall from the question stem, learn to let go of difficult questions and just move on, aim for 3-4 minutes of reading the passage, 4-5 minutes answering questions, read the passages in order and answer the questions in order, form a main idea and actively try and relate every new paragraph / piece of information into how it relates to the main idea, pay attention to change of tone, don't use outside knowledge to answer anything, eliminate wrong answer choices.
D
deleted421268
I switched from TS to Jack Westin passages today I found them to be easier to process and comprehend. I got 5 out of 6 on one and 3 out of 6 on the other but understood why I got the ones I got wrong easily. I feel a lot has to do with passage type like some passages I comprehend very easily and process others are more difficult.
- Joined
- Jul 2, 2014
- Messages
- 702
- Reaction score
- 1,018
One of the best pieces of advice I got was to tackle these passages like you'd normally read in general. I would do Kaplan's "take notes on each paragraph" but that ended up taking a lot of time that, frankly, we don't have. Though, practicing that helped me make mental notes of what was argued in each paragraph. It allowed me to look back to the passages quickly and finding the answer I was looking for. But PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE. You'll start seeing that you're remembering more and more as you go along.
I will say this: I read books for 45 minutes a day just to practice reading to understand. You have to pretty much remember what the author argues to answer questions correctly. So reading something each day trained my brain to stay focused.
I will say this: I read books for 45 minutes a day just to practice reading to understand. You have to pretty much remember what the author argues to answer questions correctly. So reading something each day trained my brain to stay focused.
D
deleted980662
i second the NYer suggestion. during college i was too busy to read many books for pleasure, but i did find time to read the new yorker cover to cover each week. i'm pretty sure this is what helped me score a 132 on CARS with basically zero studying.
aside from practice, i would say there are two important factors to doing well on CARS. the first is understanding the context of the passage. like someone else mentioned, take a moment to read the title and date of the passage before you start. these usually provide important clues to the author's intention and background. you might not fully understand the details of an argument, but if you understand the context of it, you've won half the battle.
the other factor is simply enjoying the readings! despite what some people might have you believe, the AAMC chooses genuinely interesting topics for the CARS passages. treat every subject like its your chosen field of research, and you're critically interpreting the writing of a colleague or rival. this will make you feel more invested in the reading and will prevent you from spending too much time worrying about whether you're understanding it correctly. the examkrackers CARS book has some excellent suggestions to this end.
