Vocab learning for MCAT?

[Medstart108]

Is learning some vocab useful for the VR section of the MCAT? I've noticed that sometimes words I don't understand can actually harm my understanding of a difficult passage, and sometimes words I don't understand are used in answer choices and it forces me to guess and can cause me to get it wrong.

Words like pedagogy or omniscient I don't know but sometimes will show up. Should I be writing down words I don't know that I find in passages and try to learn them? I'm about a month out from my MCAT and can devote full time to study.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[DocKingh]

IMO you don't really need to know vocab. The MCAT VR is not like the SAT reading section. Usually when they ask you something about a specific word you can just use the context to answer the question. Also, there are often words in a passage that I don't fully understand. However, those words don't necessarily cause me to completely not understand a passage. The trick is to read the passage without focusing on individual words, but on the main ideas in each paragraph and in the passage as a whole. Lastly, you have absolutely no idea what passage you are going to get on test day. Therefore, I think that studying a bunch of words will not likely help. You can easily spend your time more wisely by just practicing more on reading techniques, timing, and answering questions. Good luck!

 

[Dreamstoo]

IMO you don't really need to know vocab. The MCAT VR is not like the SAT reading section. Usually when they ask you something about a specific word you can just use the context to answer the question. Also, there are often words in a passage that I don't fully understand. However, those words don't necessarily cause me to completely not understand a passage. The trick is to read the passage without focusing on individual words, but on the main ideas in each paragraph and in the passage as a whole. Lastly, you have absolutely no idea what passage you are going to get on test day. Therefore, I think that studying a bunch of words will not likely help. You can easily spend your time more wisely by just practicing more on reading techniques, timing, and answering questions. Good luck!

The vocab on the SAT reading haunted me so much, I agree MCAT VR doesn't require much vocab at all.

 

[Sammy1024]

Usually they'll subtly slip in the definition in the passage. Otherwise you should be able to use context clues to get some gist.

I don't think it's worth it to learn vocabulary for MCAT VR when it's highly unlikely you'll see that word anyway.

 

[Medstart108]

Thanks for the advice. I've noticed the hardest passages for me to understand are those philosophical passages. Like ones that talk about existentialism, whether or not you or I really exist or its all perception. All that stuff just pisses me off because its hard to wrap my head around who perceives what and whether anything is true in this world and all those philosophical questions . On top of that they like to use words like existentialism, neo-*insert word* which cause trouble with understanding.

Is it better to just read up on some philosophical terms to get a better grasp?

 

[Sketcha]

I think learning vocab would be a huge waste of time for studying, at least when considering yield.

 

[Sammy1024]

If you've noticed certain words that you have trouble with coming up over and over again then you should definitely get familiar with them. As for philosophical passages themselves, my friend showed me how you can answer the questions even if you don't understand the passage. They try to make the questions easier (SOMETIMES) and things like that. However, those types of passages seem to be the most difficult for everyone as well as political passages.