Verbal: 2 Passages / Day for 3 months OR 18 Passages / Day in 10 Days

[90210]

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I know this is a strange question, but I wanted to get other peoples take on verbal. It's something I've been struggling with for some time now, and I admit I brushed it off for a long time. My test is approaching (July 16th). I already rescheduled it from June 16th.

My question though is what do people think of doing 18 Passages a day & Reviewing them as opposed to doing 3 a day & reviewing them. Obviously I'd be spending more time during the day during verbal and spending as much time reviewing them as I typically would had I done 2 passages a day. I was just curious what people thought of this. Is it equally effective? Is it a bad idea? Input would be great. Thank you.

 

[raltima07]

There is no middle ground between the numbers? 18 would be burn out inducing

 

[MDminded]

Verbal skills are not something you can develop overnight, or in a week. It takes tiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiime.

I'd suggest the 2 passages/3 month plan out of your two options, but if I could suggest a better way - 4 passages/1.5 months. That way, you are getting more in, trying your endurance, and getting it done closer to your actual date. 🙂 I feel like 2 passages = 14 minutes = not much to devote to verbal.

 

[Genemo]

Why cant you do 7 per day and 3 days per week?

 

[MDminded]

Why cant you do 7 per day and 3 days per week?

👍 Good suggestion, Genemo!

 

[90210]

Why cant you do 7 per day and 3 days per week?

7 / day for 3 days a week = 21 passages a week

I plan on taking FL's in about 3 weeks, so that gives me about 63 passages of practice before FL's.

The issue here is really about the fact that I have about a month left and haven't really improved my verbal skills.

 

[MDminded]

7 / day for 3 days a week = 21 passages a week

I plan on taking FL's in about 3 weeks, so that gives me about 63 passages of practice before FL's.

The issue here is really about the fact that I have about a month left and haven't really improved my verbal skills.

Get off SDN (because frankly, it's not the best reading material), read "The Economist" online, do EKs instead, if you can get your hands on TPRH, do those, read through the Verbal Strategies thread to find inspiration.

You should be doing verbal passages every day, except those days that you are taking a FL (obviously you don't need to do double the amount). Just work through it every day for the next month. You can bring it up!

Which types of questions are giving you trouble?

 

[90210]

Verbal skills are not something you can develop overnight, or in a week. It takes tiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiime.

I'd suggest the 2 passages/3 month plan out of your two options, but if I could suggest a better way - 4 passages/1.5 months. That way, you are getting more in, trying your endurance, and getting it done closer to your actual date. 🙂 I feel like 2 passages = 14 minutes = not much to devote to verbal.

I understand it takes time, but I really don't see the difference in a 3 month duration vs. a condensed variation of doing verbal if the amount of practice & review is equal.

 

[90210]

Get off SDN (because frankly, it's not the best reading material), read "The Economist" online, do EKs instead, if you can get your hands on TPRH, do those, read through the Verbal Strategies thread to find inspiration.

You should be doing verbal passages every day, except those days that you are taking a FL (obviously you don't need to do double the amount). Just work through it every day for the next month. You can bring it up!

Which types of questions are giving you trouble?

Thanks for the advice. I probably should lay off SDN. The issue I'm having with mostly is forming a main idea. I have a really hard time figuring out what the main point of the passage I'm reading is. I tend to get lost in the details and find myself having trouble to extrapolate the points the author is bringing up to the way he feels about the whole situation. That type of stuff. It's also the reason why I tend to feel like I'm guessing on some of the questions... I think if I get that down (hopefully with practice), I can atleast break a 10. I've been averaging 12 and 13s on TBR science passages. It would really suck to get a 4 in verbal (and that's the way I feel right now).

 

[GooseWing]

One strategy that I read somewhere on here that I've found surprisingly helpful is:

Read the passage like it's crazy interesting to you.
I don't know how but it really turns your brain on somehow.

Also, after finishing a paragraph I try to think of a word/a few words that explain the "point" of that paragraph.

Hopefully this strategy works for you!

--After typing that I've realized that one benefit of spreading out your preparation is so you can try different approaches to the passages.

 

[Genemo]

👍 Good suggestion, Genemo!

Thanks lol

 

[Genemo]

7 / day for 3 days a week = 21 passages a week

I plan on taking FL's in about 3 weeks, so that gives me about 63 passages of practice before FL's.

The issue here is really about the fact that I have about a month left and haven't really improved my verbal skills.

Then do 7/day and 4-5 or even 7 days/week.

My point is you really only want to do 7 passage at a time to mimic what you gonna feel during the real exam. Less than 7 will not work, more than 7 will burn you out.

 

[coyotelime]

I don't think it would be difficult to do 10 passages a day(esp if you were doing SN2's schedule, verbal is fun compared to TBR passages in other subjects) but I would recommend 2-4 so you can analyze your mistakes THOROUGHLY. I understand that there are a few to many questions on EK 101 that are ambiguous so ignore those but make sure you understand why you're missing the questions. Is it because you misread the question? Didn't go back to the passage because you thought you knew what it said? Extrapolating incorrect information?

Sounds simple but I struggle with it a lot. Good luck!

 

[90210]

Then do 7/day and 4-5 or even 7 days/week.

My point is you really only want to do 7 passage at a time to mimic what you gonna feel during the real exam. Less than 7 will not work, more than 7 will burn you out.

Alright. Looks like I'll be doing 7 a day for the next 3 weeks. (~150 passages). Hopefully it helps.

 

[90210]

I don't think it would be difficult to do 10 passages a day(esp if you were doing SN2's schedule, verbal is fun compared to TBR passages in other subjects) but I would recommend 2-4 so you can analyze your mistakes THOROUGHLY. I understand that there are a few to many questions on EK 101 that are ambiguous so ignore those but make sure you understand why you're missing the questions. Is it because you misread the question? Didn't go back to the passage because you thought you knew what it said? Extrapolating incorrect information?

Sounds simple but I struggle with it a lot. Good luck!

Verbal is fun? Yeah right! 😛 I agree though that you gain a lot for post analysis. I tend to read the passage once - do the questions - then review them. Then repeat the process again to really understand what I should be looking for and how I should be approaching questions. It's very time consuming, but I think it'll turn out to be very helpful in the long term.

 

[90210]

By the way, thanks for the advice guys. I'd love to get more input from others too 🙂

 

[Genemo]

Alright. Looks like I'll be doing 7 a day for the next 3 weeks. (~150 passages). Hopefully it helps.

From my own experience, I find I can only do verbal when I feel I'm energetic enough. I do not touch verbal when I feel tired or sleepy, since it's not like science knowledge which you can just read through and get it. To me, verbal is more like getting a feel of the test style and getting used to it. But do not burn out, because when you are not feeling when, doing verbal is like wasting valuable resources. You do not have to stick to "doing 7 passages every day". Take a day off each week may not be a bad idea.

I started at V5 and now I think I'm around v8, which happened in three weeks. So I guess you can actually improve it within three weeks, but really depends on where you are now (V12-V14 might be much harder than V5-V8 as you could imagine 😛). So cheer up and work on it~😉

 

[90210]

From my own experience, I find I can only do verbal when I feel I'm energetic enough. I do not touch verbal when I feel tired or sleepy, since it's not like science knowledge which you can just read through and get it. To me, verbal is more like getting a feel of the test style and getting used to it. But do not burn out, because when you are not feeling when, doing verbal is like wasting valuable resources. You do not have to stick to "doing 7 passages every day". Take a day off each week may not be a bad idea.

I started at V5 and now I think I'm around v8, which happened in three weeks. So I guess you can actually improve it within three weeks, but really depends on where you are now (V12-V14 might be much harder than V5-V8 as you could imagine 😛). So cheer up and work on it~😉

Thanks so much. You have no idea how much it helps to hear that someone was scoring that low and improved -- because that's where I am right now. If you don't mind me asking, what materials have you been using and how many passages have you done within those 3 weeks?

I've been missing 3-4 questions per passage (sometimes 90% of the questions), even untimed. I decided I probably should throw away the timer for now and figure out how to "THINK" and what to look for in order to answer these questions. Based on what I've seen from EK, a lot of answers are verbatim in the passage -- you either have to recall reading it or scan the passage to find it. That alone could help answer some questions. The whole extrapolation questions where they present information and ask what the author would do, ...or "how the author would feel about this" ...or "which if any would most undermine the author's statement" ...those questions require really understanding the passage.

Just the other day I was doing a verbal passage from EK. At first I thought the author was indifferent about the material he was talking about. It didn't really seem like he was favoring one side or another. But based on the facts and information he was throwing out there, even though he's not directly saying, "Hey I support this" ...the facts he's presenting (all which support the issue being discussed) was enough to say that the author supported the situation. It's this type of thinking I definitely didn't prepare for and one I think most people have to get accustomed to for the MCAT verbal section.

 

[Genemo]

I hear you. When I started at v5 I thought I'd never be able to improve, especially I'm ESL and I have vocabulary problem as well. But see it is still possible and you should not lose hope.

I mainly used TPRH for study. I find TPRH passages tend to be harder but the questions tend to have less ambiguous answers. I think I got the idea of the style of the questions from TPRH. I've already used up TPRH and switched to EK101. The first test after that swtich was brutal, but starting the second day I started to have a feel for EK. These two books feel quite different, I would say. I also bought TBR since I just need as many passages as I can find. But apparently TBR is not as good as the other two books.

Oh and I did 7 passages per day, but only on those days I feel comfortable. I try to do 3-4 days per week. But I'll make sure every time I do the verbal I'm energetic and focused. After that 1hr test I totally feel exhausted.
In the beginning I try to finish 7 passages in 1hr, but if I come accross super hard ones I allow myself extra time just to finish it. Later on I try to limit myself within 1 hr.

 

[MDminded]

Someone already mentioned that pretending to think that the passage is crazy interesting works. That was going to be my first suggestion.

Secondly, I like to pretend a friend is talking to me. What is the story/point they are telling me? I tend to listen a little better that way.

In terms of main idea, you can normally figure it out in the first paragraph, often the last line. They'll give a lot of fluff to introduce the topic. What's the subject matter?

Okay, the next few paragraphs are going to be support (or a refute) of this idea. The way you read the author's tone is going to be in the words he uses. Scholarly people sound like they studied for the SAT in their vocabulary. Passionate people use plain language. If they throw around words like "this claim" or "irrefutable", well, those are sorta strong words. Those strong words hint at how the author feels.

My suggestion is to do a few passages untimed, and highlight or circle the strong words. Sometimes you may see an entire phrase worth of strong words, but let's practice finding those strong words. That'll give you a sense of how the author feels. Then over time, you won't need to highlight those words, you'll automatically detect them.

Figuring out the tone will then help lend you to figuring out the point. If you're know the author is angry or ecstatic about a topic, well, you're bound to want to know why. So you'll find that faster.

Hope these pieces help a little bit. Good luck, and you'll get find your way to success soon! Let me know if I can help more!

 

[coyotelime]

Someone already mentioned that pretending to think that the passage is crazy interesting works. That was going to be my first suggestion.

Secondly, I like to pretend a friend is talking to me. What is the story/point they are telling me? I tend to listen a little better that way.

In terms of main idea, you can normally figure it out in the first paragraph, often the last line. They'll give a lot of fluff to introduce the topic. What's the subject matter?

Okay, the next few paragraphs are going to be support (or a refute) of this idea. The way you read the author's tone is going to be in the words he uses. Scholarly people sound like they studied for the SAT in their vocabulary. Passionate people use plain language. If they throw around words like "this claim" or "irrefutable", well, those are sorta strong words. Those strong words hint at how the author feels.

My suggestion is to do a few passages untimed, and highlight or circle the strong words. Sometimes you may see an entire phrase worth of strong words, but let's practice finding those strong words. That'll give you a sense of how the author feels. Then over time, you won't need to highlight those words, you'll automatically detect them.

Figuring out the tone will then help lend you to figuring out the point. If you're know the author is angry or ecstatic about a topic, well, you're bound to want to know why. So you'll find that faster.

Hope these pieces help a little bit. Good luck, and you'll get find your way to success soon! Let me know if I can help more!

+1.

Note that some passages cannot be interesting no matter how hard you try. I read one in EK 101 #12 about recipients and foundations.. there was a similar one in a previous exam that was 100x more interesting, this one literally put me to sleep.

 

[whiteshadodw]

Thanks so much. You have no idea how much it helps to hear that someone was scoring that low and improved -- because that's where I am right now. If you don't mind me asking, what materials have you been using and how many passages have you done within those 3 weeks?

I've been missing 3-4 questions per passage (sometimes 90% of the questions), even untimed. I decided I probably should throw away the timer for now and figure out how to "THINK" and what to look for in order to answer these questions. Based on what I've seen from EK, a lot of answers are verbatim in the passage -- you either have to recall reading it or scan the passage to find it. That alone could help answer some questions. The whole extrapolation questions where they present information and ask what the author would do, ...or "how the author would feel about this" ...or "which if any would most undermine the author's statement" ...those questions require really understanding the passage.

Just the other day I was doing a verbal passage from EK. At first I thought the author was indifferent about the material he was talking about. It didn't really seem like he was favoring one side or another. But based on the facts and information he was throwing out there, even though he's not directly saying, "Hey I support this" ...the facts he's presenting (all which support the issue being discussed) was enough to say that the author supported the situation. It's this type of thinking I definitely didn't prepare for and one I think most people have to get accustomed to for the MCAT verbal section.

I started out on the EK 101 book, and missed literally everything on the first warm up passage, then 6/8 on the second passage. then, i tried doing passages untimed, and even then i couldn't get more than half right. eventually you just get better and you realize what works for you and what doesn't. however, you should also understand how these passages are written. most of the passages are probably small "editorials" or similar. as such:

-almost all the passages you read will be opinionated. the author is probably taking a stance on an issue (artistic, scientific, historic, or cultural)
-try to understand the main idea of what the author is saying. the "detailed" questions aren't that hard because the details will support the main idea. so if you get a question about a detail, you can say, "hold up, wait a second, the main idea is about xxx, and aaa just doesn't support it"
-main idea. i seriously can't stress this enough, but to make things easier, try to focus the most on the first paragraph which usually will be a dead give for the main idea. also, the last paragraph tends to wrap up the main idea. everything in between is just support for what the author is claiming/suggesting.
-try to read the economist/NY times/the wall street journal and sit down with the VR topic outline from AAMC. see how many of those topics you can discuss after reading an article from the economist. try not to refer to the article for details.

 

[nice2012]

+1.

Note that some passages cannot be interesting no matter how hard you try. I read one in EK 101 #12 about recipients and foundations.. there was a similar one in a previous exam that was 100x more interesting, this one literally put me to sleep.

this one is not so interesting.

 

[raltima07]

I agree, some can be terribly boring