Verbal Destroyed me. I want to retake it. What do I do next.

[WinterCharm]

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So, I took a Kaplan prep course, and knew verbal was my weak area. I did work on it extra...

My scores come in.... PS-11 | V-7 | BS-12

I'm going to retake it. That much, I know. This isn't anywhere close to my best - which was around a 37 while I was practice testing. Maybe it was first time nervousness. Maybe it was something else. I don't know.

How do I really prepare for verbal? Help would be appreciated.

 

[SWhitney]

EK verbal is good. They have pretty good tips and strategies.
Kaplan is really meh. I took their prep course before too, but i didn't find what they teach useful.

 

[WinterCharm]

EK verbal is good. They have pretty good tips and strategies.
Kaplan is really meh. I took their prep course before too, but i didn't find what they teach useful.

What's EK? (please excuse my ignorance)

 

[LuciusVorenus]

What's EK? (please excuse my ignorance)

Examkrackers.

Try to get the Princeton Review verbal books from someone who's taken the class (they're not for sale individually).

 

[SWhitney]

Examkrackers.

Try to get the Princeton Review verbal books from someone who's taken the class (they're not for sale individually).

yes princeton review is good too. I used that for practice as well.

 

[WinterCharm]

yes princeton review is good too. I used that for practice as well.

Thanks. I'll see what I can do about it.

It just makes me really angry, as I spent 3 solid months preparing for it, and got the scores I'd been getting in my practice test for the PS and BS sections, and for some stupid reason, verbal totally killed me.

😡

 

[argama]

im sort of in the same boat here.....except Ive already depleted EK101 and TPRH. I have TBR VR, but that's it. And my VR scores fluctuate between 7-11.......7 being the lowest and only happened once....on the real MCAT 🙁((( Normally i hit 8-10. Any advice for VR? I read a lot of editorials and journals from New Yorker, NY Times, WSJ, and Economists and at this point, I'm not sure what to do for verbal. For while I was improving then I went down and plateaued.

Any advice appreciated, thanks!

 

[LuciusVorenus]

im sort of in the same boat here.....except Ive already depleted EK101 and TPRH. I have TBR VR, but that's it. And my VR scores fluctuate between 7-11.......7 being the lowest and only happened once....on the real MCAT 🙁((( Normally i hit 8-10. Any advice for VR? I read a lot of editorials and journals from New Yorker, NY Times, WSJ, and Economists and at this point, I'm not sure what to do for verbal. For while I was improving then I went down and plateaued.

Any advice appreciated, thanks!

Are you running out of time, or getting a particular type of question wrong?

 

[argama]

to be honest, i can't really say. It's not time, I go by 8 minute blocks per passage. I end on time, by the second. The reason I can't say is because in the beginning, I was getting like <10 questions wrong per 7 passages in EK101 but somewhere halfway through my studying, I started to get like 11+ wrong. On AAMC tests, for AAMC 10 and 11 I got like 8 and 10 wrong respectively.

I'm pretty sure the ones I got wrong are generally inference type questions.

Also if the passage topic is a dud I wil obviously get more wrong. Sadly on the real deal, I thought all the passages were interesting so i was surprised to get such a low score.

 

[LuciusVorenus]

to be honest, i can't really say. It's not time, I go by 8 minute blocks per passage. I end on time, by the second. The reason I can't say is because in the beginning, I was getting like <10 questions wrong per 7 passages in EK101 but somewhere halfway through my studying, I started to get like 11+ wrong. On AAMC tests, for AAMC 10 and 11 I got like 8 and 10 wrong respectively.

I'm pretty sure the ones I got wrong are generally inference type questions.

Also if the passage topic is a dud I wil obviously get more wrong. Sadly on the real deal, I thought all the passages were interesting so i was surprised to get such a low score.

This is how I did verbal, if you're interested.

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showpost.php?p=13028130&postcount=94

 

[Nuel]

Read actively and create mentally live imagery of the passage. This will aid a lot in improving understanding eventually leading to a better VR score. Or do what I did: aim for a 9 or 10 on the VR, but aim for 12+ in the sciences. This way you can score 33-37.

 

[SMPtoMD]

my friend had a 13 PS - 6V - 14 BS (33R) and he is at a top 10 med school. however, he had an exceptional application with 4.0 from a top 15 undergrad school and publications, etc&#8230; i dono where you stand but just trying to provide with an example. &#8230; good luck

edit: forgot to mention, it was his retake from an earlier 7 on verbal so he actually went down but increased in his sciences&#8230;don't remember his old science scores...

 

[argama]

my friend had a 13 PS - 6V - 14 BS (33R) and he is at a top 10 med school. however, he had an exceptional application with 4.0 from a top 15 undergrad school and publications, etc… i dono where you stand but just trying to provide with an example. … good luck

edit: forgot to mention, it was his retake from an earlier 7 on verbal so he actually went down but increased in his sciences…don't remember his old science scores...

Lol no i cant do that. Im not exceptional enough.....just a cookie cutter and some sprinkles of "uniqueness" but nothing that will make my application seem that much different from any other competitive premed.

But congrats to him! I need to raise my PS and VR but esp VR since that killed my score a lot. And thanks for the encouragment i dont rly have time to be all depressed since my tests and other things are piling on now. I'm prob gunna crack open the MCAT books monday or so..

 

[SMPtoMD]

Lol no i cant do that. Im not exceptional enough.....just a cookie cutter and some sprinkles of "uniqueness" but nothing that will make my application seem that much different from any other competitive premed.

But congrats to him! I need to raise my PS and VR but esp VR since that killed my score a lot. And thanks for the encouragment i dont rly have time to be all depressed since my tests and other things are piling on now. I'm prob gunna crack open the MCAT books monday or so..

hey &#8230;i just met someone earlier in the evening (random stranger at a coffee shop)..he saw me studying for MCAT and just started the convo&#8230;.anyways turns out he told me a story that might be another encouraging story for you &#8230;lol i totally thought of this post while we were having the convo&#8230;

anyways&#8230;. he basically told me that he was an average student from a top 25 undergraduate school&#8230;.around 3.6 gpa with 29 on MCAT with a 7 on verbal and he is currently a 2nd year at a state school (TX) with full scholarship&#8230; he got several state school acceptances (all MD!)

-good luck 🙂

 

[Plane]

It'll be an uphill climb for sure with the 7. I do know someone at a top 25 med school who had a 7, but the PS and BS were ridiculous (14, 12). Get your VR up if you can, and maintain consistency in the others and you will be fine! Don't get me wrong though, your score will probably get you in somewhere.