VR Post Practice Test Analysis

[Dr Gerrard]

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So everyone always says that the only way to improve VR is to do an extremely thorough analysis after the test to see what I got wrong.

However, my analysis always tells me that the answers I got wrong were only due to not reading the passages well enough. If I had read the passages better, I would have gotten the answers right.

Is this all for analysis or is there actually more to it than me just saying I should have read the passage better?

 

[Dr Gerrard]

Like I feel as though you have to read the passage and retain information, especially for EK 101, because they test on specific information you had to have read and remembered, or if you did not remember, you had to look back.

It takes me 3-4 minutes to read the passage, so I barely have enough time to go back for every question.

It takes me that long to read and I get the main idea, but cannot nitpick the details that are important.

How is the method to write the main idea of the paragraph down, while you are reading so it doesn't take up time?

 

[Dr Gerrard]

I think my problem is that I do not read actively.

I go through the passage, understand basically what the author's opinion is, and what the main idea is.

However, active reading I feel like is key. I was told to skim over small details, but what has been really messing me up is that these details are not small and often contribute to the main idea, or the questions are directly based off of these details.

Am I doing this analysis right? My test is on July 31st, and I have alraedy done probably 16 or so passages out of the 101. I do not want to use up my material too fast. What should I do?

 

[loveoforganic]

I think one of the keys is to be able to identify where questions are going to come from as you read the passage.

 

[Dr Gerrard]

Any hints or tips on how to do that?

I find that if I start thinking about stuff like that, I lose focus of the passage, and since they are already usually a bit difficult to understand, it just throws me off altogether.

But the thing is, I usually feel relatively confident after reading/answering the questions, so that kind of sucks even more.

EDIT --- Why do people advise against reading questions beforehand. I feel like that would really help me (and pretty much anyone else) really know what to look for while reading the passage.

It would also almost eliminate the time necessary to read the questions after, as well as greatly decrease the time it takes to answer questions which might cause you to look back.

Also, on the AAMC, the questions and the passage are right next to each other, so it is not like there is a huge amount of time it takes to scroll through, or there is really no flipping back and forth.

 

[Dr Gerrard]

bump

 

[loveoforganic]

I'm not really sure. There just seem to be certain things that stick out to me. Like if someone is referenced in the passage, there's a good chance there will be a question pertaining to him. If the passage uses some weird analogy, it's likely there will be a question on it. If a passage makes a unsupported claim, there might be a question on it. Etc.

Give reading the questions a shot if you like. Maybe it'll work for you. But do it timed.

 

[Dr Gerrard]

Yeah, I tried to read the questions, I feel I don't have enough time to thoroughly read all questions and answers, and so it mostly did nothing except distract me.

Oh well. Any advice on any of my other posts?

Thanks for your help organic.

 

[kia ora]

Yeah, I tried to read the questions, I feel I don't have enough time to thoroughly read all questions and answers, and so it mostly did nothing except distract me.

Oh well. Any advice on any of my other posts?

Thanks for your help organic.

read the questions first...take maybe 15-20 sec. to do this - but do not read the answer choices. just the questions. then read the passage. take note of (highlight, maybe) words/phrases that indicate the author's opinion. time yourself on every practice passage; you want to get to the point where it takes you no more than about nine minutes per passage, max. do a minimum of three practice passages in a row - more if possible. keep at it. you can do it.

 

[Dr Gerrard]

My MCAT verbal experience is limited, but I'll try my best to help. In my opinion, reading the questions beforehand is worthless here. While that may have worked on the SAT, the questions here are a bit more complex and getting through the passage with a swift but focused reading first is a must (imo). Post-game analysis is really to get into the mind of the MCAT writers and try to figure out what their thought process is like as to what suggests the "right" answer. I think that a big part of doing well in verbal is having the right mcat "intuition", and if you don't have that intuition naturally, you'll need to spend some time on what you get wrong to see how your intuition differs from that the mcat writers believe should be used. As someone on these forums once said, always remember, the mcat writers justification is ALWAYS right. but, you mentioned that your problem seems to be from not reading the passage well enough - this tells me you might want to spend a lot more time with some dense reading articles on a regular basis to get proficient at getting through hard to read passages quickly while staying focused and not losing track of what you're reading.

hope that helps, good luck.

Do you think 2 months is enough to try increasing my comprehension skills by reading opinion articles from the economist and wall street journal?

My thing is that it normally takes me 3 minutes at least to read the passages, and then 4-5 to answer the questions for an average of 8 min/passage.

If I try the verbal strategy of vihsadas, to do a passage in 6 minutes, i just can't read and answer that fast. i also don't want to waste practice material trying to do this and running out.

kaplan vr on the other hand, I can do this, but everyone says not to waste time on those.

 

[Dr Gerrard]

Thanks feralis, that has actually helped a lot.

I keep expecting one piece of advice which will solve all my VR problems, but keep failing to realize that everyone is different, everyone has different strategies which work best for them and thus it is hard for anyone to give this kind of advice.

My only worry is that I do not really want to experiment with different strategies on the EK 101, because passages like that are so rare.

 

[Dr Gerrard]

Thanks for your help.

I guess my problem in VR comes simply from not reading the passage well enough. I see the words, but don't retain much info at all, except what I end up trying to piece together from the main idea. I often times miss one word in the passage which would show me the right answer.

How do you all handle this? Do you end up having to go back, do you take a good bit of time to read thoroughly, or are you all just super readers???