Verbal Timing!

[VanillaBear]

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Hey Fellow MCAT-ers,
I need some input on timing for verbal. It's taking me about 11-12 mins per passage and that's way too long! I know it's different for everybody, but I'm spending about 3-4 mins reading the passage and then FOREVER on the questions (and sadly I still get some wrong in each passage)!

I know practice is the main component to improving verbal, but is there anything else you guys can suggest to help me move faster? Thanks in advance, and good luck to everybody in everything!

-VanillaBear 😎

 

[SketchLazy]

Hey Fellow MCAT-ers,
I need some input on timing for verbal. It's taking me about 11-12 mins per passage and that's way too long! I know it's different for everybody, but I'm spending about 3-4 mins reading the passage and then FOREVER on the questions (and sadly I still get some wrong in each passage)!

I know practice is the main component to improving verbal, but is there anything else you guys can suggest to help me move faster? Thanks in advance, and good luck to everybody in everything!

-VanillaBear 😎

This might not work for you, but it worked reasonbly well for me. Read the first paragraph and the conclusion, and then only read first sentence of all rest of the paragraphs. Then go through the questions and try to find where the answers is based on what you scanned through. I've found that this works for me because I end up having to reread the passage trying to find the answers to my questions anyway.

 

[PRodulous]

I follow the EK method of reading the passage once and move to answering the questions (it sometimes takes me longer 4 to 4.5 min!!! 😱). In regards to the questions though, the EK method suggests not going back to the passage when answering. Rereading the passage is the most time wasting task. Eliminating answers by using the main idea usually eliminates two choices. Hope this helps.

 

[ahmedqman]

Read passage once for understanding and main concepts. Answer questions, and if you have to use something explicit to determine the correct answer, go back to the passage if you have a general idea where it is.

 

[RSAgator]

well c-bear

it's really just practice...on most questions you should be able to very quickly eliminate 2 of the answers and then from there you should be either deciding which of the last two is correct or which is wrong, because both will yield you the right answer =). If you're spending too much time answering the questions then you either need to just pick an answer when you're hung up on a question, or spend a bit more time to read the passage better.

 

[PRodulous]

I agree with dcohen. Statistically, this method works well. If you can eliminate 2 answers easily and guess on the last 2, your chances of getting the right answer is 75%. Hopefully you can rely more than just guessing and increase your score past 80%. This giving you ~10.

 

[0Complications]

Yep, I agree with the two above. My scores started to improve drastically when I started to follow the EK method.

I completely abandoned the Kaplan VR advice for EK (Even though I paid for Kaplan). EK is so much stronger, imo. If you don't have ExamKrackers VR I suggest you buy it and read through it.

Good luck!

 

[VanillaBear]

thanks for all those that have replied...u guys rock.
Also, has any one esle noticed that when you do narrow it down to 2 answer choices, the right one seems to be the less obvious one? (by less obvious i mean that it's the one that is a little more "out there" and complicated, and not as simple as the other one) 😛