verbal improvement

[deleted388502]

hi!

this has been asked here a million times but I'm looking for more of a plan of improvement for my specific case/if anyone has any unique guidance, it would be much appreciated.

I've worked my butt off to get my score up from when I first started studying in may, and I scored a 30 on AAMC 8 this weekend (12 PS/7 VR/11 BS). I took AAMC 7 last week (10PS/8VR/9BS), and post-gamed VR heavily, did VR passages from the official MCAT guide, and really worked hard in between taking AAMC 8 so I'm feeling really discouraged on how to improve. I felt EXTREMELY rushed during verbal on AAMC 8 and I really don't want to take the excuse that it's a harder VR- I retook the AAMC 8 VR section today timed without having post-gamed and scored a 9, which further disappointed me.

I'm scheduled to take the test on Oct 25th, and pushing is not an option because every date is full. I'm really looking for strategies to get my VR up to a 10-11 in the next 3 weeks. I'm a voracious reader and seem to be struggling with the 'application' style questions on VR. Upon doing the MCAT official guide VR questions, I missed only application style questions and find that I really struggle with the time crunch of choosing between two closely related answers. I find that I can get down to two answers and end up picking the wrong one. Even when I post-game and figure out why the one I picked was wrong, I seem to continue to make the mistake and I feel like I'm running in circles! When I approach the passage I read the first and last paragraph, then continue along the passage. I've also found that I will miss most of my questions on 1-2 dense philosophy passages.

Any help is absolutely appreciated. I've gone through TPRH in it's entirety and EK 101 was absolutely useless for me.

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[Jumb0]

EK 101 was absolutely useless for me.

Why was EK 101 useless? It is regarded as one of the best resources for VR preparation. I went through the entirety of EK 101, and I average 12 on AAMC VR. EK 101 is really hard. It makes you do mental gymnastics like none other. I suspect the reason it is "useless" to you is because you have an aversion to the types of questions EK likes to ask, but, ironically, those are the types of questions that will make you better verbal reasoner. I think the best thing for you to do is tackle EK101 until you love it. If you can do well on EK, then AAMC will be a piece of cake.

 

[JJD777]

Try something different. Maybe read the questions before you start the passage or maybe just read the passage the whole way through. Because your current strategy isn't working, just try different approaches. I also struggled with eliminating when down to 2 answer choices but I found something as simple as reading the questions beforehand and practicing at it markedly improved the number of questions I got right at least within the AAMC's.

 

[kabead]

I used EK101, and although the passages are NOT similar to the actual test/aamcs, it is a helpful resource. The fact of the matter is that there is no test company that has the exact style that AAMCs have to offer. However, it shouldn't discourage you from using them. Strangely enough, EK101 was an accurate predictor of my score and I also used TPRH Verbal to test out different verbal strategies to find which one was the most effective for me. It also helped me focus on the passage more, and become more aware of what I was ignorant to when doing the questions.
Also...for choosing the wrong answer....I noticed that when I come down to the 2 possible answers, one of them seems to have "one/two words" that make the whole statement wrong but its a bit tricky. I'm not sure if you have the same experience, but that was what happened to me with the questions that I personally got wrong. I think if you practice a bit more, you will find a more generalized reason for why you are getting those questions wrong. Good luck!

 

[texan2414]

Why was EK 101 useless? It is regarded as one of the best resources for VR preparation. I went through the entirety of EK 101, and I average 12 on AAMC VR. EK 101 is really hard. It makes you do mental gymnastics like none other. I suspect the reason it is "useless" to you is because you have an aversion to the types of questions EK likes to ask, but, ironically, those are the types of questions that will make you better verbal reasoner. I think the best thing for you to do is tackle EK101 until you love it. If you can do well on EK, then AAMC will be a piece of cake.

This is such a flawed mentality.
While EK101 may work for you does NOT mean that it will click for others. I harbor the same sentiment as op and ditched EK101 soon after finding numerous logical fallacies among many of their vr tests.
Arguing that if you do well on EK will make AAMC a piece of cake is such a simplistic view. Of the 10 VR tests that I did in EK, maybe only realistically 40% of the questions were on par with AAMC. The rest are either too unrealistic, subjective, or downright logically incorrect.

To OP- how were you scoring on TPRH? Also something that I commend you on is that you are recognizing the specific AAMC question category (Application) that you seem to be missing most of your questions on. Very few people even pay attention to the 4 AAMC question categories.

I myself am no expert in application questions but because they have the greatest variety in which they can be asked, you always have to identify the RELEVANT idea or assertion in the passage and work backwards. For application questions, you are going from the context of passage → outside info. (Be careful because for incorporation of info you are going outside info → passage in order to make passage claim consistent with new info). Beyond this, it really boils down to how well you recognize logically flawed answer choices. Some of the common fallacies AAMC uses are 1) faulty detail; 2) false equivalence; 3) irrelevance; 4) ambiguity; 5) non-sequitir are some that come to my mind.

My advice is for you to go back to your AAMC exams and this time DISSECT the questions AND the answer choices. People don't realize that verbal is as much as question comprehension as it is passage comprehension. You MUST be able to translate (mentally) what the question is asking you to do, go back to passage, then evaluate answer choices to see if logically incorrect statements are present. Hopefully it won't take as long for all the questions because some you can quite quickly pick up the correct response.

I hope the above info helps you- Remember, there WILL be a dense philosophy/psychology passage on your MCAT. What you must realize is that YOU are in control of the test, not the other way around. The objective of practice, especially for VR, is to develop a personal strategy of attack for the 4 AAMC question categories and apply this strategy consistently to all practice passages.

All the best,

 

[deleted388502]

Thank you all for your advice!

Why was EK 101 useless? It is regarded as one of the best resources for VR preparation. I went through the entirety of EK 101, and I average 12 on AAMC VR. EK 101 is really hard. It makes you do mental gymnastics like none other. I suspect the reason it is "useless" to you is because you have an aversion to the types of questions EK likes to ask, but, ironically, those are the types of questions that will make you better verbal reasoner. I think the best thing for you to do is tackle EK101 until you love it. If you can do well on EK, then AAMC will be a piece of cake.

This may actually be a good idea; EK 1001 was something I picked up at the beginning of my prep and I felt it unrepresentative of the passages, but many friends have recommended I use it now to try to improve my verbal so I think at this point all the practice I can get may be good just to get timing and exposure.

Try something different. Maybe read the questions before you start the passage or maybe just read the passage the whole way through. Because your current strategy isn't working, just try different approaches. I also struggled with eliminating when down to 2 answer choices but I found something as simple as reading the questions beforehand and practicing at it markedly improved the number of questions I got right at least within the AAMC's.

Madness is doing the same thing and expecting different results. Phenomenal advice.

This is such a flawed mentality.
While EK101 may work for you does NOT mean that it will click for others. I harbor the same sentiment as op and ditched EK101 soon after finding numerous logical fallacies among many of their vr tests.
Arguing that if you do well on EK will make AAMC a piece of cake is such a simplistic view. Of the 10 VR tests that I did in EK, maybe only realistically 40% of the questions were on par with AAMC. The rest are either too unrealistic, subjective, or downright logically incorrect.

To OP- how were you scoring on TPRH? Also something that I commend you on is that you are recognizing the specific AAMC question category (Application) that you seem to be missing most of your questions on. Very few people even pay attention to the 4 AAMC question categories.

I myself am no expert in application questions but because they have the greatest variety in which they can be asked, you always have to identify the RELEVANT idea or assertion in the passage and work backwards. For application questions, you are going from the context of passage → outside info. (Be careful because for incorporation of info you are going outside info → passage in order to make passage claim consistent with new info). Beyond this, it really boils down to how well you recognize logically flawed answer choices. Some of the common fallacies AAMC uses are 1) faulty detail; 2) false equivalence; 3) irrelevance; 4) ambiguity; 5) non-sequitir are some that come to my mind.

My advice is for you to go back to your AAMC exams and this time DISSECT the questions AND the answer choices. People don't realize that verbal is as much as question comprehension as it is passage comprehension. You MUST be able to translate (mentally) what the question is asking you to do, go back to passage, then evaluate answer choices to see if logically incorrect statements are present. Hopefully it won't take as long for all the questions because some you can quite quickly pick up the correct response.

I hope the above info helps you- Remember, there WILL be a dense philosophy/psychology passage on your MCAT. What you must realize is that YOU are in control of the test, not the other way around. The objective of practice, especially for VR, is to develop a personal strategy of attack for the 4 AAMC question categories and apply this strategy consistently to all practice passages.

All the best,

This is really great advice as well. I definitely post-game in this way, but how do you keep this kind of "alertness" in the stress of the test? I feel like I've gotten to the point where I overanalyze the **** out of the question stem and the answer choices where I feel like everything is trying to trick me. Am I overthinking too much or overthinking too little? Maybe it depends on the question......but I guess I'll try thinking about that for these application style questions.

 

[texan2414]

@avenlea

That is exactly how you should be feeling lol! I know its really stressful to anatomize VR questions like that in the beginning but hopefully persistence will pay off. You will soon behaviorally begin to respond to the nuances in answer choices with enough practice.

Also remember the most simply you answer a question, the more likely you are to be correct!!

Make use of the 2015 CARS practice material released by AAMC this year - (1) official MCAT guide questions cost $10; (2) AAMC2015 FL costs $25.
Remember, there's also AAMC Self Assessments for VR for even more practice.

 

[NextStepTutor_1]

I agree with @JJD777
If you're post-gaming heavily and know you're internalizing what you're reviewing. If you've been able to pinpoint where your problems are and keep them in mind when you take your section to try to avoid them, then I feel you need to shake up your strategy.

Will more time help you choose correctly between those 2 questions you have trouble deciding on?
Will more time spent reading the passage have a similar effect?

Who knows, so experiment.
Try spending more time (or simply effort!) on the passage if you feel a greater comprehension will help. Or, read quicker, from the first sentence to the last, and see if the extra time is what you need for the questions where you find yourself indecisive. Based off of your science scores and the date of your test, you have time to test the waters in terms of VR strategies. It's scary, I know, but don't be stubborn. Practice does not make perfect unless you are practicing perfectly.