VR woes

[dougkaye]

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I find it preposterous that i'm doing better in physical sciences than verbal review. I have never done less than 96%ile in a verbal standardized test (SAT, GRE). I know MCAT is different but this is crazy! Sometimes the answers just seem so out of left field. I also think that having done a lot of general reading really hurts me on this section, because I've studied philosophy and religion a lot and some of the passage conclusions are just WRONG! I've looked at the advice of EK, and others on the verbal section sticky, and I still can't get more than 11 on AAMC.

Any ideas, particularly for someone suffering from intrusion of outside knowledge. To give you an example, I just did the passage on Confucius in AAMC #3. The MCAT's conception of the main idea of "li" is really wrong! I specifically have taken a philosophy class that covered this.

I'm finding it hard to completely ignore what I know in order to take the test!!

PS I am also finding that, unlike most of the advice I've read on MCAT, going back to the passage and reading for detail is an necessary evil to do well on verbal section. The more I do these AAMC passages, the more I find that about half the questions require you to dig around for details. OK, maybe that's because I'm missing THE MAIN POINT sometimes but I don't think it's always the case.

 

[BenZq]

Any ideas, particularly for someone suffering from intrusion of outside knowledge. To give you an example, I just did the passage on Confucius in AAMC #3. The MCAT's conception of the main idea of "li" is really wrong! I specifically have taken a philosophy class that covered this.

I'm finding it hard to completely ignore what I know in order to take the test!!.

That's not necessarily a bad thing. Examkrackers advice is to read critically, like a professor grading high school essays. If you know that an argument is wrong, use that to help the info stick. Then when you get to the questions you can recall why the passage was incorrect and use that to answer the questions. Just a thought, good luck.

 

[Torr]

I find it preposterous that i'm doing better in physical sciences than verbal review. I have never done less than 96%ile in a verbal standardized test (SAT, GRE). I know MCAT is different but this is crazy! Sometimes the answers just seem so out of left field. I also think that having done a lot of general reading really hurts me on this section, because I've studied philosophy and religion a lot and some of the passage conclusions are just WRONG! I've looked at the advice of EK, and others on the verbal section sticky, and I still can't get more than 11 on AAMC.

Any ideas, particularly for someone suffering from intrusion of outside knowledge. To give you an example, I just did the passage on Confucius in AAMC #3. The MCAT's conception of the main idea of "li" is really wrong! I specifically have taken a philosophy class that covered this.

I'm finding it hard to completely ignore what I know in order to take the test!!

PS I am also finding that, unlike most of the advice I've read on MCAT, going back to the passage and reading for detail is an necessary evil to do well on verbal section. The more I do these AAMC passages, the more I find that about half the questions require you to dig around for details. OK, maybe that's because I'm missing THE MAIN POINT sometimes but I don't think it's always the case.

One method may not work for everyone however, as skeptical as I was about EK VR strategy, it really worked for me. I was consistently scoring 9's after just reading the EK methods and it was frustrating the hell out of me. It wasn't until I bought the 101 Verbal reasoning book and went through it as often as possible, and ALWAYS timed.

1. You'll begin to get a feel for correct answers, and equally important, you'll get a feel for the definitely wrong (trap) answers
2. Timing becomes more intuitive the more you practice.
3. You'll learn when to "guess" and when to actually go back and look for the answer.

I went from 9's to 10's and 11's fairly quickly and got an 11 on the real thing. I was working full time so I wasn't 100% happy with this but that's my own fault. If you dedicated more time to it I really believe you'll see improvements.

Good luck.

 

[dougkaye]

thanks for encouragement! I've done b/t 9 and 11 on AAMC (better on the supposedly more accurate #9 and 10). so I'm not desperate but looking for a way to get a consistent 2 point increase overall.

 

[Torr]

thanks for encouragement! I've done b/t 9 and 11 on AAMC (better on the supposedly more accurate #9 and 10). so I'm not desperate but looking for a way to get a consistent 2 point increase overall.

I feel like a 2 point increase is definitely within reach by really utilizing the EK technique. I'm fairly sure, if not for my schedule, I could have scored a point or two higher. Don't get frustrated by it. The VR section should be treated like a game IMO. It can be fun, as cheesy as that sounds.