What did you use or what methods did you use to prepare for the MCAT verbal?

[georgia_md]

Please comment. Thank you

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[secure]

exam crackers verbal 101, Economist Magazine, Scientific American

 

[aclementine]

many ppl say to read more, I don't know if anyone one else feels this way, but I don't notice an improvement in my verbal scores, so i think it has to do with my approach:

when you guys read for leisure... how do you know if you're doing well? like what do you do to tell if you are improving you're reading skills?

 

[0Complications]

many ppl say to read more, I don't know if anyone one else feels this way, but I don't notice an improvement in my verbal scores, so i think it has to do with my approach:

when you guys read for leisure... how do you know if you're doing well? like what do you do to tell if you are improving you're reading skills?

I don't know how everyone else reads, but I read actively. If something doesn't make sense I read it again until it does. I also think about what I'm reading while I'm reading it, making comparisons, etc.. My reading speed is definitely slower as a result, but my comprehension is usually much higher. I'm not sure how this will pan out for me in the VR section, but I'm hoping it will work.

If you're not sure that your reading is improving you should start asking yourself about what your reading every so often, "What did I just read? What was the primary point? How is it related to the rest of the book/article? do I agree with this or disagree? Why would the author add this section?" Those are some of the things you can keep in mind while reading that usually help to ensure that you are not only on task, but are also understanding the material.

 

[Psychotropic]

EK 101
Economist-a must have

When you read the economist, read for the author's tone instead of content. I'd practice EK problem sets 3 passages at a time (27 minutes/set) 1x a day for 2 months with Sundays off.

Lots of patience, time and effort. Stay off of SDN.

 

[Jonari]

EK 101
Economist-a must have

When you read the economist, read for the author's tone instead of content. I'd practice EK problem sets 3 passages at a time (27 minutes/set) 1x a day for 2 months with Sundays off.

Lots of patience, time and effort. Stay off of SDN.

Did that work for you? I was thinking about doing a complete passage test, trying to finish all of the essays within a hour time period. I found that it wasn't possible, atleast for me, and would need to increase the time to a hour and 10 minutes.

 

[TexasTriathlete]

I took Allen Iverson's advice: we talkin about PRACTICE

 

[littlealex]

I worked in a lab, so I read a lot of dense research papers. Helped me a ton, raised my verbal from a 6 to a 10 as I learned to extract information quickly. The improvements were gradual over maybe 2 years.

 

[gbennett]

i improved my verbal diagnostic from a 5 to a 15. i began reading more serious novels with dense vocabularies--like classics or the stuff you used to hate when you had to read it in high school. also read some scientific articles, but mostly those on topics i was not interested in at all to get used to reading stuff that didn't interest me. i also used kaplan verbal edge, which i didn't think was worth the price, but when i received my score, the $400 didn't seem so bad anymore. and i used some EK 101 passages, and did tons of practice tests, all of kaplan's and aamc's, focused in the last 10-14 days of prep.

good luck!

 

[bodonid]

what would a gunner do? I chose to compete with my LSAT-takin' roomate in alternate rounds of LSAT and MCAT verbal sections. We kept the records on the refrigerator.

And I like to read russian lit, a lot of which is translated by Constance Garnett or was translated in the same period and has lots of big words in it.

 

[metastasis]

i improved my verbal diagnostic from a 5 to a 15. i began reading more serious novels with dense vocabularies--like classics or the stuff you used to hate when you had to read it in high school. also read some scientific articles, but mostly those on topics i was not interested in at all to get used to reading stuff that didn't interest me. i also used kaplan verbal edge, which i didn't think was worth the price, but when i received my score, the $400 didn't seem so bad anymore. and i used some EK 101 passages, and did tons of practice tests, all of kaplan's and aamc's, focused in the last 10-14 days of prep.

good luck!

How long did this take you? I have heard of a person going from 8 to 14, but 5 to 15 is just crazy. Thanks.

 

[gbennett]

i studied for about five months, as i wasnt in school and i was working.

 

[Nikki2002]

if you have a lot of time I would try taking some philosophy classes...


other than that--just practice all you can. Try checking your university and public libraries for mcat books to at least save a little $$

 

[georgia_md]

Thank you all! You people are the best people on SDN!

I am scheduled to take the MCAT on May 10, 2008. Verbal is still kicking my ass

 

[georgia_md]

is exam crackers really good to use for verbal? better than Kaplan verbal study guide?

 

[Jonari]

is exam crackers really good to use for verbal? better than Kaplan verbal study guide?

EK is good, and so is Kaplan. However, if I had to choose, I'd go with EK. I bought the EK book, and it has 11 exams in there. What I'm doing is, waking up every morning, and before I start studying, I dedicate 85 minutes to take a full practice exam. However, I'm almost done with the book and will have to resort to other means.