What is it with these reading errors?

[IsScrubsReality]

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I got a 27 on AMCAS 5, without reading errors (not reading comprehension, i mean plain old misreading the question or the passage) I would have gotten a 31

How do people get over these errors? I know they usually happen because I read too fast but I need to in order to keep my pace. Also, have people read the questions first, and then gone to the passage? Does that help with reading errors?

Thanks in advance 🙂

 

[BB8730]

How do people get over these errors?

Practice, and every time you make a mistake, make a mental note of it. For example, I know that I get pH increases and decreases confused. In my brain, pH = acidity so I tend to say that pH increases as acidity increases. However, I KNOW that I tend to mess this up, so every time I encounter a pH question like this, a little red flag pops up and I double check my answer.

Keep practicing and find the patterns in your reading errors. Analyze them over and over again. Then you'll start to foresee situations where you would normally encounter these errors. Good luck!

 

[ebasappa]

Practice, and every time you make a mistake, make a mental note of it. For example, I know that I get pH increases and decreases confused. In my brain, pH = acidity so I tend to say that pH increases as acidity increases. However, I KNOW that I tend to mess this up, so every time I encounter a pH question like this, a little red flag pops up and I double check my answer.

Keep practicing and find the patterns in your reading errors. Analyze them over and over again. Then you'll start to foresee situations where you would normally encounter these errors. Good luck!

This is what I do, I even do it for the pH thing too like he does! What helped me is physically writing them out, I find that the more I write something down, the better I can remember it.

 

[OCDOCDOCD]

One thing I noticed is that I'm most likely to make errors at the beginning of a section and the end of a section. On the most recent practice test I took I went back to the first passage even though I was sure I got everything right in it, and sure enough on the second question I saw I had made an absolutely dumbfounding mistake (marked an answer choice that said nonmetals are on the left side of the periodic table).

Anyway, I feel you on this. My practice test scores would all be about 1-2 points higher if it weren't for careless reading errors. I'd give more advice but like you I'm still trying to iron this out.

 

[BABSstudent]

I got a 27 on AMCAS 5, without reading errors (not reading comprehension, i mean plain old misreading the question or the passage) I would have gotten a 31

How do people get over these errors? I know they usually happen because I read too fast but I need to in order to keep my pace. Also, have people read the questions first, and then gone to the passage? Does that help with reading errors?

Thanks in advance 🙂

Practice, practice and more practice.

Take note where you are making the mistakes. I tended to misread "NOT" type questions. I would always get them wrong because I would pick a true answer when I should have picked a false one. Just simple practice fixed that.

 

[IsScrubsReality]

Practice it is. I have 4 days to decide whether I'm taking the MCAT in two and a half weeks and it's upsetting that these are the questions that are making my score drop.

Just for laughs, here's one of the concepts I got wrong.
The question asks how a negatively charged particle will move when near a stationary positively charged particle. I think, it accelerates of course. So I put that. Go back to check my answers, found out I put the answer that said the negatively charged particle will move away from the positively charged one.
FYI people, negative and positive charges attract each other -_-

Thanks for the responses 🙂