Verbal Strategies

[Againstalloddz]

This is my first post, I wanted to see if anyone had a similar experience when preparing for verbal.

Since I've been young, I've been an avid reader and enjoyed literature. I find this as one of my strongest academic abilities, I read fast and have consumed many advanced pieces of literature from Nietzsche to Marx and Henry James. In addition, I have taken many literature and English courses.

So I was surprised (to say the least) when I simply could not score above a 10 on my verbal practices. I would look at the analysis and I would consistently get all of the hard, very hard and easy questions, but was screwing up the medium difficulty questions. I then realized my problem. I was over-analyzing every question. I would refer back to the passage a billion times (wasting time) and over think every problem. So I decided to just go with gut instinct, limit my references to the passage and not over analyze. This resulted in scores way above 10. Anyone have a similar experience?

Sometimes you just gotta dumb yourself down.

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[bipolarbear]

Sometimes you just gotta dumb yourself down.

i don't think this is entirely true. being over-analytical is not necessarily the mark of a genius. sometimes it takes more intelligence and skill to find the simple, but concise, answer.

 

[futuredoctorboy]

Not overanalyzing goes for the MCAT in general. Specifically for VR though, you gotta come away from the passage first understanding the general message, the author's thesis, and the author's tone towards the subject. Get those three down, and the questions become a lot more straightforward.

A lot of the wrong answers are wrong simply because they go too far to one extreme or another. The true answer usually lies somewhere in the middle. Other times answers are wrong because they are too specific...and something that an overanalyzing mind likes are specifics. It's really just a test trap. Questions on the MCAT, much like other stuff in life shouldn't be too overanalyzed.

 

[BennieBlanco]

Not overanalyzing goes for the MCAT in general. Specifically for VR though, you gotta come away from the passage first understanding the general message, the author's thesis, and the author's tone towards the subject. Get those three down, and the questions become a lot more straightforward.

A lot of the wrong answers are wrong simply because they go too far to one extreme or another. The true answer usually lies somewhere in the middle. Other times answers are wrong because they are too specific...and something that an overanalyzing mind likes are specifics. It's really just a test trap. Questions on the MCAT, much like other stuff in life shouldn't be too overanalyzed.

Weren't you recently banned for trolling with another account? or advertising... I forgot.