Venting About Verbal
So what brings me to the "I Feel Crappy" thread today? Verbal Reasoning. And feeling discouraged.
I've been wanting to vent about that section of the MCAT for a long time now. So, I figured I'd just come here and let it all out. This comes with the understanding that different people have different experiences. I'm having a bad day with VR and know I will feel much better when I'm done with this post.
My complaints about VR:
1. No options for improvement: Or so it seems.
-Practice material hasn't helped. I did an awesome job in the science sections due to hard work and learning from errors. But in verbal reasoning, I've put in over a year of practice, have exhausted all of the Kaplan, EK, TPR, TBR, and AAMC material, and went over every last answer in every last book twice (and even wrote it all down). I am not scoring any better than when I started.
-Tutoring hasn't helped. My first tutor wanted to do a quick grammar review before starting verbal reasoning passages. Even though I have a Journalism BA (an A average in that major and graduated with honors) and already knew my grammar, he wanted me to review it with him. We sat down and he quizzed me on what nouns and verbs are, then advanced to gerunds and prepositional phrases and clauses, etc. $2000 est. later, I was still proving that I knew grammar and waiting for MCAT lessons to begin. I left, and would have left sooner if this tutor wasn't top rated with Harvard degrees. I searched for MCAT VR tutors near me and only found Kaplan and TPR, which I was warned to avoid. I was told that they push an ineffective method. (I think that was seconded on SDN somewhere.) So, my next option was LSAT, SAT, and ACT tutors. The SAT/ACT tutor I hired, admitted failure and said MCAT was very different from SAT/ACT. At least she didn't charge me. I am now being helped by two LSAT tutors and trying to learn what they focus on while they read, so I can copy that. One of them does a good job at MCAT passages so hopefully this will work. I'm not sure though. I recently emailed a couple MCAT VR tutors hoping that they will have time to meet with me as well. The trouble is tutors don't always have availability.
-Practicing hasn't really helped. I started practicing VR a long time ago. During this last year, I've done at least 6 VR passages a day almost every day. This includes going over every question (right or wrong) and every answer choice, and writing down why each is correct or incorrect as best I can render. My weightlifting coach once said, "Practice doesn't make perfect, it makes permanent. Only perfect practice makes perfect." Since my score hasn't improved, I would say that I must not be practicing right. A sad waste of time IMO. I did, however, seem to catch on to EK's VR logic. (I started out missing almost every question, and eventually started getting almost all of them right. Their wrong answers choices have patterns...) Problem is, this didn't help me with AAMC passages. (I've also gone through TPR and TBR and all of their answers twice.)
2. Practicing VR has a negative impact on me
-Robotic reading - VR seems to require emotionless reading without any reflection. I use to read for pleasure, academics,... work in the legal field. When I read I would catch myself laughing, wanting to cheer, grumbling, reflecting upon it, and not just reading words, but having an experience. I love to think and feel as I read. All of this VR practice seems to be forming a habit with me. I feel like the more I practice VR, the fewer spontaneous emotional reactions I have when other reading other stuff. I heard one of my favorite songs on the radio the other day. It reminded me of how I use to feel as I read, before practicing verbal reasoning.
3. "The fact that," is terribly overused.
4. Purpose of VR
-VR does NOT help anyone understand the common person (if that's even AAMC's goal). IF the goal of VR was to make sure we could all understand patients, AAMC should have gone out to various neighborhoods around the world and asked locals to write an essay using their own words. Most people do not speak or think as VR authors do. AAMC could have taken passages written by a variety of people - urban people, rural people, Hispanic people, poor people, scholars, etc. and used them for the VR test. If that's not the purpose of VR, maybe they should add a new section.
-Prepares us for medical school texts? I don't know if they are like VR. I kind of doubt it.
-Prepares us to communicate with scientists? I don't know. I doubt that too.
5. VR screens for, or is geared toward, the wrong kind of person (However, you can do well in VR without being "The wrong kind of person.")
-Overly literal -Taking every word as literally as a robot would, seems to be a theme of correct answers. I even found a passage where a non-scientist lay person was quoted and we were expected to take them uber literally. My friends would kill me if I interpreted them like that.
-Insensitive/lack of moral compass. A few passages and questions seem to set a very bad tone, and maybe even condone cruelty toward patients and meanness toward others. IMO, if they are going to include that sort of material, the tone needs to be acknowledged somewhere else, like in the answer key or beginning of the book. (Spoilers prevented. I have examples over PM if you want them. This one point is NOT primarily about AAMC, but more so some of the test prep companies.)
-Cheap trick users. My tutor (who specialized in LSAT) commented that the LSAT is hard but fair. On the other hand, the MCAT uses cheap tricks to try and trick you, in her opinion. I've found a few answers that seemed like cheap shots (spoilers prevented). I really don't know why we're being tested on that.
-For every complaint I've made, there is an opportunity. I hope the new MCAT replaces the VR section, and finds a way to select for a people person.
I am feeling much better now.
[Gauss takes a deep breath. In fact, I'm smiling.]
