VR Tips Please: Striking a balance between rushing AND reading too slowly

[Gauss44]

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Please provide tips:

1.* on how to read faster without "rushing" or going so fast you miss information

2. on how to make progress in verbal reasoning. (I feel like I am working very hard and getting nowhere. 15 hours a week on verbal, and the same score as last year, according to Columbia Review). :-(

3. does anyone know of a good place to hire a vr tutor in boston? PM me.

* The key might be: becoming familiar with common passage structures/maps, taking a split second to make sure you understood the last paragraph before continuing on (the "train" of thought), concisely mapping, and obviously read actively as fast as you can but not so fast you are skipping words. These are my current strategies. They might not be working.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Captain Sisko]

Deleted. Turns out I only got a ten on vr despite high practice scores. May everyone who follows me do better 🙂

 

[Temperature101]

for me it was all about my mindset going into the section. instead of focusing on "taking the test" or attacking it, as if it were an obstacle to overcome, i took more of the view that i was reading for interest, as if i cared about the material. i took a brief look at the stems to get an idea of what it was about then just read normally. once i was interested, i found i read more quickly and could focus on what they were trying to say instead of trying to mentally take it apart. just my perspective. good luck

How was your progress in VR and what you ultimately got?

 

[Captain Sisko]

How was your progress in VR and what you ultimately got?

nothing under 11 for my aamc practices, with a high of 13 on aamc11. i took the 3/23 exam so I'll find out in a couple weeks.

 

[circulus vitios]

for me it was all about my mindset going into the section. instead of focusing on "taking the test" or attacking it, as if it were an obstacle to overcome, i took more of the view that i was reading for interest, as if i cared about the material. i took a brief look at the stems to get an idea of what it was about then just read normally. once i was interested, i found i read more quickly and could focus on what they were trying to say instead of trying to mentally take it apart. just my perspective. good luck

How does that work when you're reading a philosophy passage written by some pseudointellectual jerkoff?

 

[dudewheresmymd]

How does that work when you're reading a philosophy passage written by some pseudointellectual jerkoff?

as EK would say imagine a friend telling you a story "letting details come through one ear and go out the next" reading for the main idea.

 

[Gauss44]

How does that work when you're reading a philosophy passage written by some pseudointellectual jerkoff?

There's got to be some good advice about philosophy (and poetic) passages somewhere. I remember a Confucius passage on one of the practice tests that I didn't understand at all after reading 5 times! It's not a matter of pacing (rushing vs. too slowly) in those cases. In poetic and philosophical passages, it's figuring out the organization or what separates it from nonsense. Thankfully those seem to be pretty rare. If I get one on the real MCAT, I'll void and retake later.

Right now I'm just trying to make progress with my reading pace. Will continuous rushing make me a faster reader, or just solidify bad habits? Or should I just practice active reading as fast as I can, hoping to get faster? What's the secret to really improving reading pace as efficiently as possible for MCAT? Maybe reading Berkeley Review actively at my best pace 3hrs a day?

 

[Temperature101]

I still dont get how people can score 13+ in VR seeing how difficult it is to understand some of these passages. Also, the questions in the easiest passages can also be sooooooooooooooo convoluted with minor differences in two of the answer choices. These people basically miss at most 4 questions in the entire VR section. AMAZING!

 

[Jepstein30]

Pick and choose where you're reading closely and skimming.

In general, you should try to get comfortable just skimming. Read through the passage and focus on two goals: 1) the main points/tone of the passage 2) know where the details are talked about.

For instance, if I'm reading a passage about Confucious.. I'm not spending time reading about how he grew up or what year he published his books or whatever. When that comes up, I skip it. Only reading to get the main point of each passage so I don't care what the details are.

There are too many details to bother with. There's only so many questions and odds are, that one detail you spend ten seconds reading about won't be asked about. When you quickly skim or skip those parts, just remember where they are. So if you are asked about it, you know exactly where to look and can then spend the time to read closely (when you are assured points are at stake).

For practice, I'd suggest stopping after each paragraph of a passage. Summarize to yourself in five words or less WHY that passage was included (not WHAT was in the passage but WHY the author talked about that content). Write it down. You'll have a nice two sentence summary of the passage afterwards as well as an indicator as to where to look later on for details/follow-up. You'll also focus more on the main point this way. This is somewhat like mapping but I feel mapping is too detail-orientated, honestly.

As for picking between answers, learn the common answer traps and make sure to avoid them. Things like extreme answers and out of scope answers will show up all the time. Most importantly, if you are stuck between two answers.. always go with the one that has PASSAGE support and is more related to the main idea (odds are, it'll be the correct one).

 

[AFLATPEG]

I still dont get how people can score 13+ in VR seeing how difficult it is to understand some of these passages. Also, the questions in the easiest passages can also be sooooooooooooooo convoluted with minor differences in two of the answer choices. These people basically miss at most 4 questions in the entire VR section. AMAZING!

ditto, i dont get it either.. 😡

 

[circulus vitios]

I think I'm going to start skimming through the questions before I read the passage. I'm so sick and tired of a question asking "what does the word (whatever) mean in the context of the passage," and of course the word isn't italicized, bolded, or searchable. 😡

 

[AFLATPEG]

I think I'm going to start skimming through the questions before I read the passage. I'm so sick and tired of a question asking "what does the word (whatever) mean in the context of the passage," and of course the word isn't italicized, bolded, or searchable. 😡

this happens to me all the time! it kills my time tryna look for the word!

 

[Chelbe]

Hello people,

I am feeling terrible to say that I am still scoring 2/7 in VR passages using EK and Kaplan after 3 months. I have used all EK materials and I have some Kaplan passages left . My test is coming up in June and I am worrying. My current strategy is to read the passage for understanding for under 4 min and do the questions for another 4 min. This method makes sense to me, but it is getting me no where. I am not feeling good at all about this. Please, I am open for any valuable comment or suggestion to get out of this situation.

 

[BBlocker]

Hello people,

I am feeling terrible to say that I am still scoring 2/7 in VR passages using EK and Kaplan after 3 months. I have used all EK materials and I have some Kaplan passages left . My test is coming up in June and I am worrying. My current strategy is to read the passage for understanding for under 4 min and do the questions for another 4 min. This method makes sense to me, but it is getting me no where. I am not feeling good at all about this. Please, I am open for any valuable comment or suggestion to get out of this situation.

Hey, 2/7, sorry but I think you can definitely do better. I've been doing horrible in EK, then I started reading for the main idea. I still do crappy (9,10), but at least it's better than 8 that I just couldn't break. Once again, reading for the MAIN IDEA and ACTIVELY. What does that mean? Here is an example:

I am feeling terrible to say that I am still scoring 2/7 in VR passages using EK and Kaplan after 3 months-->ok, this dude is struggling, that sucks... . I have used all EK materials and I have some Kaplan passages left. My test is coming up in June and I am worryinghmmm, okay, soon i guess, go on. My current strategy is to read the passage for understanding for under 4 min and do the questions for another 4 min. This method makes sense to me, but it is getting me no whereok, maybe he should read for the main idea, and not understanding?. I am not feeling good at all about this. Please, I am open for any valuable comment or suggestion to get out of this situationwow, he is desperate...

If I were to encounter your passage in the EK, I would read the first sentence slowlier, but then, once I noticed that you are just describing the problem introduced in the first sentence, I would just speed my reading... Also, I kinda move my lips and whisper during this whole process.

Good Luck.