Verbal Reasoning section difficulties

[bigballer27]

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Ive been working on my verbal for the last month, and still not too much improvement, i just cannot finish in time....and its driving me crazy because i put in so much time and effort and i see NO results

im doing each passage in about 10-15 min depending on how abstract the passages, and usually getting only 0-2 wrong

i tried speeding it up but then saw myself missing alot more (3/7, or 4/7, etc...)

i know im supposed to be shooting for 6-7 min a passage+ques, but it takes me that long to read the passage alone!


any help?

 

[PB315]

have you taken a course? I was having the same problem recently, but when I started using Kaplan's strategy I did see an improvement (although this may just be due to the fact that kaplan passages are easier...)

 

[bigballer27]

thanks for the input. Im taking princeton review, but their strategy is slowing me down and they tell you not to read the whole passage. But when i dont read the whole passage i seem to not fully understand the authors point or attitude.

i have the EK 101 also, i did the first test and got a 7 and somehow finished in time, but have not been able to CONSISTENTLY finish more than 5 passages in one hour

i have read other threads on here that the other mods and so on have posted, but overall, what other techniques should i employ?

i am seeing myself spending the most time on questions, roughly 7-8 min there, and 4-5 min on the passage

anyone else?

 

[g8orlife]

thanks for the input. Im taking princeton review, but their strategy is slowing me down and they tell you not to read the whole passage. But when i dont read the whole passage i seem to not fully understand the authors point or attitude.

i have the EK 101 also, i did the first test and got a 7 and somehow finished in time, but have not been able to CONSISTENTLY finish more than 5 passages in one hour

i have read other threads on here that the other mods and so on have posted, but overall, what other techniques should i employ?

i am seeing myself spending the most time on questions, roughly 7-8 min there, and 4-5 min on the passage

anyone else?

I recommend 2 things:

1) check out this loong post by mhwetsch (scroll to post # 40)

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=503250

2) I also had this problem. What worked for me was this: I tried reading something that I actually ENJOYED reading, but timed myself under stressful, timed conditions. Afterwards, I would take a 20 sec pause and ask myself, "Why did this author write this for me?" And I'd try answering with 2-3 sentences in order to get the Main Idea.

I see that you like Kobe; try this out an ESPN article. Give yourself about 4 min to finish a basketball article and question yourself, then try another with 3.5 min, then another with 3 min, then 2.5, then 2, etc. Just push youself to go as fast as you can. Once you get comfortable with the speed after trying this for a few days with articles you enjoy, you'll get used to "skim-reading" and still coming out with the Main Idea ... then you'll have more time for the questions which with practice will take you no longer than 4 min. (averaging out to a total of <3 for reading and <4 for questions .... unless you hit that "killer" passage)

Let me know if this works for you if you try it.

😎

 

[g8orlife]

have you taken a course? I was having the same problem recently, but when I started using Kaplan's strategy I did see an improvement (although this may just be due to the fact that kaplan passages are easier...)

Actually, most people on SDN have reported that Kaplan's passages are denser to read, but their questions are easier (mostly detail types).

 

[wolverine1]

has anyone tried taking about a minute per passage to read the questions before even reading the passage? To me this makes sense because you will have a few keywords to look for while reading the passage, which stem from the questions.

 

[bigballer27]

has anyone tried taking about a minute per passage to read the questions before even reading the passage? To me this makes sense because you will have a few keywords to look for while reading the passage, which stem from the questions.

i did try that, but it was killing my time there was NO way i could do that and fiish. so i dropped it, but i occasionally still glance to see if there are any of those "ADSFAS" as used in the passage most likely means?....so when i see it i will be sure to highlight it/pay attention.

 

[g8orlife]

has anyone tried taking about a minute per passage to read the questions before even reading the passage? To me this makes sense because you will have a few keywords to look for while reading the passage, which stem from the questions.

~from Bloody Surgeon:

Should I read the question before reading the passage?

Some look at the questions before the passage, but i think its a waste of time. If you don't have timing issue then by all mean do so... but IMO your probably going to refer back to the passage anyways so why do it twice?

~from Lorelei:

In general, I think it's a good idea to read the passage first, because if you can get a handle on the argument (as I described upthread) you will be able to answer several of the questions very quickly, and know where things are when you need to refer back. Whether to underline or make notes is up to you - I essentially mapped the passage in my head, but I think most people do better with some actual marks on the page.

😎

 

[g8orlife]

~from Bloody Surgeon:

Should I read the question before reading the passage?

Some look at the questions before the passage, but i think its a waste of time. If you don't have timing issue then by all mean do so... but IMO your probably going to refer back to the passage anyways so why do it twice?

~from Lorelei:

In general, I think it's a good idea to read the passage first, because if you can get a handle on the argument (as I described upthread) you will be able to answer several of the questions very quickly, and know where things are when you need to refer back. Whether to underline or make notes is up to you - I essentially mapped the passage in my head, but I think most people do better with some actual marks on the page.

😎

I got Bloody Surgeon's from his Sticky and Lorelei's from here:

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=223930

 

[bigballer27]

great posts by the way, i wish there was sticky just on verbal!!

 

[SN2ed]

There are numerous verbal help links in the MCAT Guide sticky you may want to check out.

 

[CaptainSSO]

If you are missing 0 to 2, you have got this in the bag. You obviously have an intuitive feel for the answers, so just try to speed up your answer choices by going with your gut.

 

[wolverine1]

I have found that I can read a passage twice if I take 10 min. per passage. This substantially increases the number I can get correct (I only do this on extremely hard passages, like the Picasso one on AAMC 3/4).

 

[bigballer27]

I have found that I can read a passage twice if I take 10 min. per passage. This substantially increases the number I can get correct (I only do this on extremely hard passages, like the Picasso one on AAMC 3/4).

then how much time do you spend on the questions? that seems really long lol i don't know...

im taking my exam in a month so please share your strategy im willing to try anything until i find one that works

 

[bigballer27]

tha passage reading ive been getting down to 3ish min but its the questions that kill me...is 1 min a question bad?

 

[DrSmooth]

tha passage reading ive been getting down to 3ish min but its the questions that kill me...is 1 min a question bad?

If you aren't finishing EK 101 tests then it's bad. The real thing will take you significantly longer. Is there a reason you are taking the MCAT so early? You might just not be ready and need an extra month (or two) of full-time prep. If you are applying this year you could take the MCAT as late as June 17 and still be a fairly early applicant. I suggest giving yourself more time because it sounds like you might not have hit your "peak" by April. Of course you could always give it a shot in April and void your test if it does not go well, then retake in May or June.

 

[Vanguard23]

thanks for the input. Im taking princeton review, but their strategy is slowing me down and they tell you not to read the whole passage. But when i dont read the whole passage i seem to not fully understand the authors point or attitude.

i have the EK 101 also, i did the first test and got a 7 and somehow finished in time, but have not been able to CONSISTENTLY finish more than 5 passages in one hour

i have read other threads on here that the other mods and so on have posted, but overall, what other techniques should i employ?

i am seeing myself spending the most time on questions, roughly 7-8 min there, and 4-5 min on the passage

anyone else?

Are you highlighting? Before I was highlighting: 6-7. After: 9-11.

Seriously, it helps break up the information. Particularly good on those "hard" words that it refers back to since you can instantly spot it instead of hunting through the passage for a 7 letter word.

 

[bigballer27]

yeah i highlight the topic sentences and sometimes proper nouns i cant scan and look for easily...conclusion words and stuff like "therefore, nevertheless, thus, etc..."


i was going to postpone but where i live everything is pretty much filled until june and i dont wanna take it that late...but i hear people usually drop closer to their date so maybe i will snatch one that opens in may...

 

[PB315]

I am definitely NO expert when it comes to verbal, it is my weakness. I have seen a small improvement using the Kaplan strategy which basically tells you to "map" the passage. Read each paragraph, and after jot down a sentence for what it was about. I believe I have found this helpful because I am a student who always takes notes as I read, and this keeps me reading actively. Others may disagree, but I think the most important thing for the verbal section is finding a way to read and understand each passage in 5 minutes or less....

 

[g8orlife]

I am definitely NO expert when it comes to verbal, it is my weakness. I have seen a small improvement using the Kaplan strategy which basically tells you to "map" the passage. Read each paragraph, and after jot down a sentence for what it was about. I believe I have found this helpful because I am a student who always takes notes as I read, and this keeps me reading actively. Others may disagree, but I think the most important thing for the verbal section is finding a way to read and understand each passage in 5 minutes or less....

Your end goal better be to finish reading the passage in 3 minutes or less or else you won't have enough time to answer the questions. ... You don't get points for understanding everything in the passage. You get points for getting to all the questions and answering them correctly.

 

[bigballer27]

g8orlife, so i took your advice, and it did indeed help/work a little

but what about the questions? what do you do if u cant get the question times down to 3 minutes?

 

[g8orlife]

g8orlife, so i took your advice, and it did indeed help/work a little

but what about the questions? what do you do if u cant get the question times down to 3 minutes?

Great! Every now and then, I'd randomly practice on articles I enjoy in order to prevent reverting back to my previous pace.

The questions took me a lot longer to speed up on. I found that I had 2 main problems that killed my time:

1. I'd waste time referring back to the passage searching for answers.

2. I'd waste time just trying to understand/figure out what the questions and answer choices were actually asking me.


I dealt with these by:

1. Categorizing.
After getting used to "skim reading", I kind of went back to my old Kaplan passage mapping days; but, instead I did it in my head. Mapping mentally saved much more time than writing on paper. After each paragraph, I would look away from the screen/page, pause for about 1-2 seconds, and summarize the point of the paragraph in one phrase. After doing this, I knew exactly where to go in order to answer those Fact/Detail question types. If I didn't know exactly where to find an answer, I avoided wasting time rereading entire paragraphs by making an educated guess. I'd guess by sticking with the Main Idea of the passage and crossing out trick Wrong Answers.

2. Creating my own Question Types and Wrong Answer Types.
After I took a VR passage, I would go through and identify each Question Stem and each Wrong Answer choice as a certain type. After doing this, I could figure out what most questions were going to ask me after reading just the first few words! Once I got comfortable doing this, I only did it for the questions I got wrong in order to identify my weak areas. Identifying the common trick Wrong Answer choices became easier.

If you're in a prep course, they should have a list of question types and answer choices you can refer to. If not in a course, here's a site with some question types: http://wikipremed.com/mcat_verbal_reasoning.php . My wrong answer types are: Dodge (never answered the question; 'dodges' it), Out of Scope (ouside info needed), Extreme (contained "never", "always", etc.), Flip (mentioned in the passage but 'flipped' around), 2nd Best (true based on the passage, but not MOST likely/LEAST likely to occur).

Hope this helps.

😎

 

[Vanguard23]

The ones I have the most trouble on are the Assumption question types. "What information is the author assuming/not supporting?"
It's hard for me to sift back through each selection and see what is isn't supported, unless I was reading very critically and remembered.

 

[g8orlife]

The ones I have the most trouble on are the Assumption question types. "What information is the author assuming/not supporting?"
It's hard for me to sift back through each selection and see what is isn't supported, unless I was reading very critically and remembered.

Try this:

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showpost.php?p=2902541&postcount=15

 

[g8orlife]

g8orlife, so i took your advice, and it did indeed help/work a little

but what about the questions? what do you do if u cant get the question times down to 3 minutes?

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that doing Kaplan's "Predict & Match" after reading the question stem but before reading the answer choices helped a lot . 👍

 

[Vince86]

Hey, I got a 10 in verbal and I had alot of trouble in practice towards my exam. The main thing that helped me was to not loose your composure during hard passages.

I look for the general idea when im reading. Is this passage positive or negative or neutral? Why are they talking about this? What are they talking about? These questions run through my mind while I read. If you find yourself going blank, immediately stop and re-read the part you just went blank in; to at least get some sort of confidence going that you know what you are reading.

After going through it once, I go straight to the questions. I limit myself loosely around 8 mins per passage; in doing so you leave time to read every passage equally. Now, when I found myself running out of time I would speed it up; and when time went over if I saw 1-3 questions left out, I took max 1 min to skim through the leftover questions and pick the best feeling one by intuition/guessing. And then you leave everything behind and move on to the next passage. Some passages vary in difficulty of reading, so sometimes you might spend more time on one than another; eventually it will all balance out.

Now for answering questions, I like going back to the passage just to make sure. Kaplan passages help in this regard since their passages and passages are sort of detail oriented. A lot of people may argue the opposite to referring back to the passage might be a waste of time, but find what works best for you. It gave me confidence that my answer was correct.

I think just keep practicing and remember these passages during practice are NOT indicative of the real thing. Learn how to read different passages so on the real thing, if you get a similar confusing passage; you will be prepared. Learn how to adjust yourself on the fly when introduced to harder or easier passages. Slow down, speed up, read more carefully for certain genres are some things I did.

Lastly have some faith in yourself than your worth a lot more than a simple number. You have the ability to do well and go out and show it; you owe it to yourself and noone else.