Verbal Scores: How did your scores change?

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tncekm

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I've been prepping for the MCAT for a week and after a couple of EK 30 min tests, I'm starting to feel uncomfortable with VR. At this point, it seems like many of my problems lie in misreading the actual question prompts, but I'd also say that at least 1/8-1/4 of the questions I just don't "get" the answers.

Anyway, where did most of you start, and how did you finish on the MCAT (or how did your scores change over time)?

Thanks for your input in advance!
 
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I took a Kaplan diagnostic exam cold (i.e. no prep or studying whatsoever) at the beginning and ended up with a VR of 5. After a few weeks of practice, I was getting consistent 9 and 10's. On the real thing, I got an 11 (not super, but I was personally happy!)
 
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im getting between 8-12 on EK verbals...talking to some med students i know they seem to be of the opinion that EK tests are most like the real MCAT...having only studied verbal for a couple of weeks and seeing a steady increase its the section im feeling most confident about at the moment...i still have over two months before the test so its nice to see results this early...the one thing i have heard over and over again and the thing the EK verbal book tells you is that its really a matter of not overthinking...the passages ask straight-forward questions and 9 times out of ten the straight forward answer is there, you just have to weed out the BS
 
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Thanks for the responses.

Now, did you both just do your best and follow the guidelines provided by EK / Kaplan, or did you have your own strategies?
 
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my verbal didn't change too much throughout. it stayed consistent....if anything went up 1 or 2 points but nothing too dramatic. verbal is the most difficult section to bring your score up though.
 
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Yeah, that's what I'm worried about. My EK and PR experience so far with the sciences has been that I've been doing pretty well, but VR I'm doing average at best. I guess I'll find out as I do more passages, eh?
 
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tncekm said:
Thanks for the responses.

Now, did you both just do your best and follow the guidelines provided by EK / Kaplan, or did you have your own strategies?
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the only strategy i followed is doing the easy ones first. if i thought a passage was really hard, i skipped it, otherwise i did it. in the end i came back to the ones i skipped. didn't bother ranking them or anything. other than that, i read them slowly and methodically. sometimes with verbal it just clicks and you'll instantly recognize the "correct" answers. guess just gotta practice.
 
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xiaoyi666 said:
my verbal didn't change too much throughout. it stayed consistent....if anything went up 1 or 2 points but nothing too dramatic. verbal is the most difficult section to bring your score up though.
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I disagree. I think verbal is the easiest section to improve your score. Just practice, practice, practice. EK has good info. in the beginning of their VR book about how to conquer VR.
 
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I started with a 7 and ended with a 13. My strategy was to find the passages with the most questions and start there. I worked to keep track of time. After finishing a passage I took a deep breath relaxed for 10 seconds and went on to the next longest passage. If the first few sentences seemed hard I skipped a little lower. If it still seemed hard, I went to the next longest passage. I did this as quickly as possible until there where no passages left. I never had any time left at the end🙁. Find a method that works for you... ranking or whatever. Just stick to it and practice. Good luck to everyone. I love you all.
 
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honestly, don't get discouraged is the first thing. Set your goals high. I'm not done with my studying yet so not entirely sure what I'll wind up with but my first verbals from ek 101 passages/verbal content book/mini mcats were HORRENDOUS. I'd say my first 6 verbal practice sessions I was getting around 50% on each set. I then decided to do the first ek 101 passages (the whole 85 minutes) and wound up doing fairly well on first few but then bombing the ones at the end. Today I took the second ek 101 set but only did the first 40 questions and in 60 minutes like the normal MCAT and put more thought into pacing myself. I got the equivalent of a 10 (was getting 6's before) and was a question away from an 11 (and one of the questions I got wrong was a misread).

So after this long drawn out post that I can assure you was not meant to toot my own horn because I have yet to show I can perform consistently, here is my advice.

Firstly, don't get discouraged. It's discouraging to be doing poorly on verbal because it feels like it's something that's hard to study for (it's not like there's content to learn). Understand that a lot of the MCAT is about how you take the test, and while in some sections your knowledge of subjects may help you, on verbal it's ALL how you take the test.

Secondly, you mentioned not necessarily understanding the right answer to questions you got wrong. Well spend more time trying to understand. Decide if it was a subtlety in the question, misreading the question, misreading the answer, and pay more attention to those kinds of errors. See if you remember narrowing the question down to 2 but just chose the wrong answer, figure out why you chose the wrong answer instead of the right one, and figure out why the right one was the right one. The only way you're going to do better is to really understand why you're getting questions wrong.

Finally, I absolutely disagree with the skipping around strategy. I personally think it's a waste of time because you HAVE TO come back to EVERY passage so why not just do it correctly the first time. Put some earplugs in and get in the zone. Read every word and gather your thoughts as you go on. As soon as you start drifting force yourself to focus. Pay specific attention to the vocabulary being used and the general tone, as well as specifics/comparisons that are being made. Eventually you'll begin to realize what is important in the passage and it will stick out more in your mind. I need to go but i hope the advice is helpful. Good luck
 
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Thanks, I appreciate the response. Its encouraging 🙂 Hopefully you continue to get 10+!

Anyway, how often do you study verbal, and how often do you test on it?

I know they say not to just start "reading" but do any of you do the following: Do any of you look up op. ed. pieces about current events and read them to understand the content and the author much like you would any other VR passage? I was given that information because it will possibly help you with VR, but it'll definitely help you to muster up content for the not-so-important, but can be helpful, writing sample.
 
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tncekm said:
Thanks, I appreciate the response. Its encouraging 🙂 Hopefully you continue to get 10+!

Anyway, how often do you study verbal, and how often do you test on it?

I know they say not to just start "reading" but do any of you do the following: Do any of you look up op. ed. pieces about current events and read them to understand the content and the author much like you would any other VR passage? I was given that information because it will possibly help you with VR, but it'll definitely help you to muster up content for the not-so-important, but can be helpful, writing sample.
Click to expand...

Honestly I think reading articles is very low yield as far as verbal practice goes. The MCAT passages are specific kinds of passages, and are often very edited. If you are running out of practice passages to do then maybe something like LSAT passaged would be more worthwhile (pure speculation as I'm not at that point yet).

As for how often I study verbal, I guess my "studying" is in checking where I go wrong after I take any passage. My weekly schedule gives me about 15 passages I can do each week. 6 of those passages generally make up my "verbal section" practice test, and the rest I'll try to do 2 of them every few days. If I had more passages and knew I wouldn't run out if I did them as often as I wanted I'd honestly do more, but that's just because I'm obsessed with the section right now.

I generally read the news every day in some form or another, and if I were to suggest any method of study revolving around outside reading I'd say just pick an article that interests you and read it under MCAT conditions (quiet place, focused). Again I think outside reading is low yield but at least this way you get some practice staying focused and may learn something interesting. Keep it up =)
 
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Maybe thats a stupid question but I cannot find any info on it.
 
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My Kaplan diag was a 7. After a fair bit of studying, I was consistently getting 10-11. I pulled off a 13 on the real MCAT.
 
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tncekm said:
I've been prepping for the MCAT for a week and after a couple of EK 30 min tests, I'm starting to feel uncomfortable with VR. At this point, it seems like many of my problems lie in misreading the actual question prompts, but I'd also say that at least 1/8-1/4 of the questions I just don't "get" the answers.

Anyway, where did most of you start, and how did you finish on the MCAT (or how did your scores change over time)?

Thanks for your input in advance!
Click to expand...

did ek 10001 and kaplan vr book, started in the 5's worked my way up to 10,11,12,and then on the real thing? much lower
 
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Its all practice. If we could do well on the mcat without reviewing and practice then places like Kaplan would be out of business! I'm opposite of most people. My science scores haven't changed much (7 and 8s) and my verbal has been pretty consistently high. On the kaplan diagnostic I got a 9 the first time. Second time I tried it in a loud panera and got a 10. The last two times I got 11s. (First of the two in library, while second was in a cafe. If I can focus with all that crap and music can go on, I can focus anywhere) A big thing is to forget all outside knowledge. Just leave it out the door. Means jack. Also, tell yourself you are legitimately interested in EVERY SINGLE ARTICLE. I had to read about philosophy crap, and I despise philosophy, but it turned out being one of the articles I missed nothing on. I just kept telling myself I loved it. Verbal is one of the most difficult scores to change. Most people are not taught how to read and interpret information. I am at a slight advantage in that I was a German lit. major and was forced to analyze a bit. (It gets me in trouble sometimes too) You have to kind of ignore your science instincts to memorize every fact. Learn to find the main purpose of every paragraph, ask yourself "Why is he/she telling me this?", note where general facts are, but not the details behind them, etc. I've seen a lot of people jump up 4 or 5 points in 2 months of studying the science stuff, but I consider a consistent 1 or 2 point jump in Verbal in the same time a success. Consistency is key.
 
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aliDO said:
I disagree. I think verbal is the easiest section to improve your score. Just practice, practice, practice. EK has good info. in the beginning of their VR book about how to conquer VR.
Click to expand...

Statistics will tell you otherwise by the way. 😉 Historically, this is the one students have the most trouble bringing up. Why, I have no clue. I think it tends to be because they don't study for it properly.
 
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UCDavisdude said:
did ek 10001 and kaplan vr book, started in the 5's worked my way up to 10,11,12,and then on the real thing? 6!!!
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Seriously? Your score changed that much on the MCAT? Sorry to hear that man.

Thanks to everyone for their responses!
 
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tncekm said:
Seriously? Your score changed that much on the MCAT? Sorry to hear that man.

Thanks to everyone for their responses!
Click to expand...

yup, sux, and because of that, im without an acceptance and will likely have to delay med school another year. studying for the damn thing again.
 
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i took an exam crackers VR test this weekend and got a 9. i was doin reall well until i missed like every question on this passage and brought down my score significantly.

the EK test was 85 minutes though and 60 questions. i would have thought they would have adjusted their practice tests to be like the MCAT now. does anybody konw why it was so long? there were 9 passages. maybe i got an old version, i dunno. i just got the one required for this 2 unit course i am taking at my school, which is basically just a class to prep for VR
 
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What strategy did you use? I'm getting about 70% of the princeton review workbook stuff correct, and after 18 passages my average hasn't moved--well, if anything, it moved down a couple points!
 
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I swear to God I'm about to burn my verbal book... this is so fwcking frustrating.
 
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The guy next to me in molecular biology told me he went from a 6 to a 13. He claims that he did 1077 verbal passages to do that. He ended up with a 38 total and didn't seem like he was lying so I guess there is always hope.
 
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Looks like that's what I'm going to need to do. ~70% Avg on princeton review material (8-9 if it correlates w/ past MCATs) and a 6 average after my first three EK (not 101) passages (6,7,4--yeah, 4 is essentially a score you get as a product of probability).

I just do not feel like I'm able to read and attempt to understand the passage. I can't focus!
 
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To those of you who used EK's method:

Did turning to EKs method initially hurt your scores? The "4" I got was one where I decided to forgo underlining, etc, and the higher scores I got I underlined stuff. If EK initially hurt your scores, did they raise after practice, or did you just have to not use their method?
 
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tncekm said:
To those of you who used EK's method:

Did turning to EKs method initially hurt your scores? The "4" I got was one where I decided to forgo underlining, etc, and the higher scores I got I underlined stuff. If EK initially hurt your scores, did they raise after practice, or did you just have to not use their method?
Click to expand...


I think you should stick with whatever method you are more comfortable with. Personally, EK method helped me get more questions right since it focused on the main idea of the passage. If I were you, I would practice EK method for another practice test or so and then evaluate. If, in the end, underlining gets you the higher score, you should definitely stick with that. GOOD LUCK! 👍
 
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Thanks!

VR is just so frustrating. I just finished doing some TPR physics stuff, and I get, at the minimum, 90% of the stuff right on my first go around and the 10% I missed were stupid mistakes. So going from that to the horrible VR scores I've been getting is very irritating! If I could pull consistent 10s in VR I'd be STOKED!!!

Oh, and do you do ANY underlining/marking/note taking at all using EK? How long did it take to start seeing improvements?
 
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I didn't use underlining or highlighting except on the test. I found that the simple act of highlighting was enough to focus my mind on what was important.

You guys who are scoring <10 need to slow down and think and stop taking the test for time. After you can get a majority of the questions correct then focus on doing it in shorter and shorter time periods.
 
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Thanks....so I guess I should just do the passage until I think I'm as close as I can be to 100% correct, then after I keep my scores up for a while, speed things up slowly? Sounds like a plan.

Thanks again!
 
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tncekm said:
How do you go about reading through the passage and answering questions?
Click to expand...

I've posted in a couple places my VR strategy...but I can't find it right now. Try searching under my username and 'verbal strategy' or something. I also posted it in the 'MCAT tips' thread.
 
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tncekm said:
Looks like that's what I'm going to need to do. ~70% Avg on princeton review material (8-9 if it correlates w/ past MCATs) and a 6 average after my first three EK (not 101) passages (6,7,4--yeah, 4 is essentially a score you get as a product of probability).

I just do not feel like I'm able to read and attempt to understand the passage. I can't focus!
Click to expand...

is there a difference in the EK 101 passages book and the one that you did?
 
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ek verbal passages are easier to understand, the questions are a little tougher. the passages on the real deal seem to be on par with kaplans passages. just wierd,stupid,******edly written passages. since when did "scholarly" writing become so pretentious. i mean really, why call an individual an "onerously truculent young bloak", when you can just call someone a crazy ass mofo.
 
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UCDavisdude said:
ek verbal passages are easier to understand, the questions are a little tougher. the passages on the real deal seem to be on par with kaplans passages. just wierd,stupid,******edly written passages. since when did "scholarly" writing become so pretentious. i mean really, why call an individual an "onerously truculent young bloak", when you can just call someone a crazy ass mofo.
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Really? I read lots of posts where people though Kaplan verbal was too easy?
 
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does anybody use actual MCAT passages so that there is no "that one is easier this one is harder..."

what if you buy an AMCAS practice test from their website for like 35 bucks or whatever it is. is that an actualy MCAT?
 
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ryserr21 said:
does anybody use actual MCAT passages so that there is no "that one is easier this one is harder..."

what if you buy an AMCAS practice test from their website for like 35 bucks or whatever it is. is that an actualy MCAT?
Click to expand...

Yes all of the tests on the e-mcat site are previously administered MCATs. Don't let this completely fool you. While the e-mcat exams are the best and most indicative exams, the real MCAT can be harder/different. Just be prepared, and learn to adapt.
 
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Diag: 5

Real thing: 11 (second MCAT attempt)

First time I took the MCAT I didnt practice VR much. I was getting anywhere from 6-9 on practice exams and thought I would pull off a 9 on the real thing.

Second time, I did the entire EK VR book. Towards the end of the EK book my scores seemed to be much more consistent. My last few practice scores were like this... 9, 10, 10, 10, 10, 11. I matched my last EK VR practice score on the real MCAT.

Good Luck!
 
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