Verbal for people who speak English as a second language

[Cold Penguin]

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English is my second language, and I am truly agonizing myself with the repeated verbal score 5 after having done a number of passages that is embarrassing enough to reveal. Even though I began learning English in high school(literally from the alphabets), reading and writing (in English) have been my strong points. I was a humanity/social science major at one of the Ivy League schools (not that going to Ivy League matters with verbal score 5. Forget the Ivy League stuff and med school with 5). Does anyone who speaks English as a second language, started from a score like 4 and 5 and improved 10+ on the verbal section?

I am applying the Topic, Scope and Support Kaplan method, and it's really not working. I feel like, "Screw Kaplan and find my own way to conquer the section." Making time to practice passages is not a problem for me since I am determined to score 10+ on each section of the MCAT, but this verbal score has been a real hurdle. In the midst of this kind of strenuous exercise, I just need an honest and practical moral boost from someone who has been in the similar situation as mine. The solution to my problem is not "to practice more passages" but is more on figuring out "HOW" to practice passages.

Also, please don't tell me that I have no chance of getting 10+ with English as a second language.

CP

P.S. No offense, but when I mean "people who speak English as a second language," I mean people who arrived in the US at some point in high school and lived here since then, not someone who came to the US at the age of six and grew up speaking English at school while maintaining their mother tongue at home.

 

[Mr. Tee]

When you read, do you visualize the author speaking right in front of you? Can you detect wit, sarcasm, gravity, etc. in the passage? Do you understand his viewpoint and how he delivers it? In other words, do you have the fundamentals mastered? The author wrote the passage for a purpose, otherwise he/she wouldn't have written it in the first place.

After that, it's all down to decoding/dissecting the questions and answer choices. The big hurdle in VR is not the reading part, but the reasoning part IMO. Just understanding the passage doesn't mean you'll necessarily answer all the questions correctly, especially with all the tricky and curveball questions they throw at you.

 

[cabrillo]

I think everything comes to practice and looking for the main idea and of course be critical of what the author says. even if you are a secong language learner you should be able to read at the right speed. I guess evrything has to do on how you approach it. be confident and practice a lot!. I will be taking my first EK verbal test today so I will find out how I do. I came here when I was 17 years old so we are in the same boat. 👍

 

[Cold Penguin]

Some of the answer choices look so similar. I have a good understanding of the passage itself, but when it comes down to choosing the right answer, that's when everything starts falling apart. About 85% of the wrong answers I chose are the answers I picked after narrowing down to the last two.

Another problem, even though I was a social science major, I do the worst on one of those social philosophy passages with so many abstract concepts that have numerous ways of interpretation. As a social science major, I have read numerous philosophical writings, but I never had to read them under the time pressure of having to read 4-6 paragraphs under 5 minutes.

So, there goes my timing issue. I can't never finish all the passages on time, and even if I do, there is no point because I get so many wrong. I feel like I need to focus on getting the right answer first before working on my timing issue. I am aiming 10+ so cannot afford to skip any passage.

My practice goes on.

When you read, do you visualize the author speaking right in front of you? Can you detect wit, sarcasm, gravity, etc. in the passage? Do you understand his viewpoint and how he delivers it? In other words, do you have the fundamentals mastered? The author wrote the passage for a purpose, otherwise he/she wouldn't have written it in the first place.

After that, it's all down to decoding/dissecting the questions and answer choices. The big hurdle in VR is not the reading part, but the reasoning part IMO. Just understanding the passage doesn't mean you'll necessarily answer all the questions correctly, especially with all the tricky and curveball questions they throw at you.

 

[Cold Penguin]

I have read the EK verbal book, and I also have the 101 passage book. I did the first few set of practice exams and realized that these passages were very different from the Kaplan type of passages. I found EK verbal to be harder than Kaplan. I decided to stick to one thing at a time, so now I am working on the Kaplan stuff. I should go back to EK 101 after honing down my skills with Kaplan.

I think everything comes to practice and looking for the main idea and of course be critical of what the author says. even if you are a secong language learner you should be able to read at the right speed. I guess evrything has to do on how you approach it. be confident and practice a lot!. I will be taking my first EK verbal test today so I will find out how I do. I came here when I was 17 years old so we are in the same boat. 👍

 

[hmm...]

I have read the EK verbal book, and I also have the 101 passage book. I did the first few set of practice exams and realized that these passages were very different from the Kaplan type of passages. I found EK verbal to be harder than Kaplan. I decided to stick to one thing at a time, so now I am working on the Kaplan stuff. I should go back to EK 101 after honing down my skills with Kaplan.

practice makes perfect. just do more tests and if there is a word that you don't know, stop the timer and look it up. you can only improve with more practice