Please Help Me Figure Out What I Am Doing Wrong With Verbal/cars

[victorias]

HI all,

 

For MCAT CARS, honestly I don't know what exactly I am doing wrong. I have done so much practice including EK 101, TPR hyperlearning workbook, TPR ICC book, took the TPR in class prep course for my attempts on the old MCAT, Kaplan, Nextstep etc.

 

Attempt 1 (2012) = took in the summer during grad school. I took the TPR in class prep course and only used TPR and AAMC materials to prep. I was working in the lab full time running experiments and writing my papers, went to TPR class in the evenings (6-9pm) and took FL's on weekends. I took 2 weeks off before test day and focused on practice. My VR score was low on practice and I did all the practice I could but no significant improvement was made in my scores. When I took the MCAT, I ran out of time and had to guess on the entire last VR passage. I scored a 6.

 

 

Attempt 2 (2014) = took in the summer after graduating with my Masters degree, spent 2 months prepping by myself and did lots of practice - redo all TPR, AAMC materials and added EK101 and some Kaplan passages. My practice VR scores were not improving, the highest I got on AAMC practice tests was a 9. At the back of my mind, I really wanted to get the MCAT done with before the new MCAT came out. When taking this MCAT, I had a panic attack due to all the anxiety building up from my VR failures that I even ended up doing worse on the bio section. I had graduated from my masters, no job in sight and med school plans were not coming to reality either so all that anxiety and thoughts about I am screwed and what would I do with my life now were on my mind. I just couldn't focus on my studies or the task at hand of completing the test properly. I scored a 6 again.

 

 

Attempt 3 (2017) - took the new MCAT. This time, I went all out on studying and my science scores have improved significantly. I am working full time so I spent 10 months on and off (I know this is a long time but with a full time job and family commitments, I needed that time to study). I did extensive content review, read all the EK and Kaplan books, took extensive notes, made flashcards (anki, quizlet, handmade flashcards), watched all khan videos and other youtube videos and made really good notes - this is something I didn't do before but found that this style of learning works well for me. Took the month of January off from work and practiced as much as I could. I used Kaplan, TPR, Nextstep, AAMC practice materials. I completed 12 full length practice tests. As you can see, I used all the possible resources and study methods out there. CARS practice scores ranged from 122-128 on the FL's. My study methods paid off well for the science sections but I got burned by CARS again. 

 

I did few passages almost everyday for about 3 months and in January, I was regularly taking full length tests (2-3 FL's/week). I also spent months reading tons of articles from the Economist - when reading these articles, I focused on active reading - focusing and highlighting key words, making sure to understand the main point, keeping track of the differing opinions presented in the articles etc. I find that I am able to get the main idea questions right 99% of the time but I am having trouble with understanding and interpreting the question stems and answer choices. I have never felt confident after completing a CARS section so I had no idea what to think after I took the real test and waited for the scores. Honestly, going into the test, I knew CARS is my weakness and I knew that 129 for Western is probably not a reasonable goal. So my goal was to get 126-127, I know that this is on the low side but it would have allowed me to apply with some degree of certainty to USMD schools, UofT, Mac and Queens. Clearly, I was not able to meet this goal.

 

During the test, I took notes where I wrote down a couple of words after reading each paragraph, formulated the main idea in my mind at the end and moved onto the questions. I rarely went back to my notes when answering questions but this helped me with anxiety and kept me focused on the passage. My number one goal going into the test was to finish on time (leave no passages unread or for guessing) and maintain my focus on reading the passages and answering the questions - I did this during the test. I completely focused on the passages in front of me and did not let other thoughts wonder my mind. However, I scored a 123 on the real test.

 

 

In hindsight, I didn't sit down with a timer to do 9 CARS passages every single day for a few months. I did 3-5 passages/day on most days, keeping time in mind but not forcing myself with the timer, I did whole 9 passages when doing FL's. I went through my mistakes and read the solutions for all the questions, focusing on the ones I guessed on or got wrong. I made notes of the mistakes and reasoning in the margins of the printed practice passages but did not keep a log book for errors. So perhaps keeping a log book of errors and doing 9 passages with a timer every single day is something I need to do. Its just hard to stick to doing this when I keep making mistakes and feel confused with the questions.

 

I know that when I took the MCATs, I had other commitments like grad school or work that I did not 100% spend my time on the MCAT. Right now, if I were to retake, I will still be continuing to work full time. I can't quit my job to study for the MCAT and honestly I don't know if that would help with my CARS score anyways. My office is pretty slow paced so I can study at work (my boss doesn't mind) and I can take a couple of weeks off before the test.

 

 

Sorry for the long post. I am just trying to get all the info/facts on the table. I am by no means trying to make any excuses or justifying my poor MCAT stats. I am just objectively looking back at what I did wrong so that I can hopefully find a way to move forward.

 

I have no clue on where to start now and what steps to take. Can someone provide me with their perspective - What am I doing wrong? How should I approach CARS now? 

I am 100% committed to achieving my goal so I am willing to put in the time and effort. I need help in figuring out what I have done wrong and in setting a concrete plan in place.

 

Thanks!

[End Poverty]

CARS was the MCAT section that I struggled with the most as well. I felt that my score on CARS heavily depended on luck and my familiarity with the topic, luckily, during my exam, I had passages that I was quite familiar with.    It seems that you exhausted all the CARS material, but I still recommend doing them again. Here are some tips that may help you with CARS ( I am not sure if any of the advise that I will give you will be useful-- because you say you already understand the passage, however you struggle with understanding the choices-- most of my advice focus on passage interpretation b/c I believe passage interpretation is crucial for selecting the right choice):

 

At the beginning, do CARS  or reading comprehension SLOWLY , take as much time as you need, but make sure to write down the main point and tone of each paragraph. Also,make sure you highlight transitional words (ex., however, but, except, additionally, furthermore, moreover). Try to understand the main idea of passage, highlight new concepts/ key terms, try to understand contrasting/contradictory themes, and try to sense the author's tone ( Is the author appreciative of ideas, approving them criticizing them, against the idea, or is the author proponent of a particular idea or is the author neutral). TRY to IMAGINE the author, as if the author is personally talking to you. Try to appreciate the literature piece, and try to anticipate what the author will tell you as you read the passage ( i.e. Be an ACTIVE reader). Additionally, I would also try to understand the author claims/ assertions, what does the author try to argue?, how do they support their claims? What evidence do they provide? Does the evidence substantiate their arguments? Does it corroborate it or does it weaken it? . I also take a note of the type of passage is a descriptive passage ( a passage where the author is just trying to describe something or tell a story) OR is it an argumentative passage ( where the author is trying to convince the readers about a particular subject). When answering the questions, I also try to go back to the passage to make sure I have selected the right choice. Also, I try to use the POE actively, because quite often you will be selecting the less wrong answer, not the right answer. One last tip, is to try to think of the answer before looking at the choices so you would not be distracted by the choice. Lastly, whenever the author adds an example or another critic's idea try to understand why the author is doing that, and always try to connect it to the author's purpose ( the author's point of writing the article). If you have any other questions, I would be happy to answer them    Best of Luck!!

[indefatigable]

I think the above is great advice - initially untimed and focused on quality preparation.  I ended up with a good score on VR doing similar.  I also found that reading more abstruse material (e.g. art criticism, political science) seemed to have been helpful (the Economist is a little simpler).  Good luck!   

[victorias]

CARS was the MCAT section that I struggled with the most as well. I felt that my score on CARS heavily depended on luck and my familiarity with the topic, luckily, during my exam, I had passages that I was quite familiar with.    It seems that you exhausted all the CARS material, but I still recommend doing them again. Here are some tips that may help you with CARS ( I am not sure if any of the advise that I will give you will be useful-- because you say you already understand the passage, however you struggle with understanding the choices-- most of my advice focus on passage interpretation b/c I believe passage interpretation is crucial for selecting the right choice):

 

At the beginning, do CARS  or reading comprehension SLOWLY , take as much time as you need, but make sure to write down the main point and tone of each paragraph. Also,make sure you highlight transitional words (ex., however, but, except, additionally, furthermore, moreover). Try to understand the main idea of passage, highlight new concepts/ key terms, try to understand contrasting/contradictory themes, and try to sense the author's tone ( Is the author appreciative of ideas, approving them criticizing them, against the idea, or is the author proponent of a particular idea or is the author neutral). TRY to IMAGINE the author, as if the author is personally talking to you. Try to appreciate the literature piece, and try to anticipate what the author will tell you as you read the passage ( i.e. Be an ACTIVE reader). Additionally, I would also try to understand the author claims/ assertions, what does the author try to argue?, how do they support their claims? What evidence do they provide? Does the evidence substantiate their arguments? Does it corroborate it or does it weaken it? . I also take a note of the type of passage is a descriptive passage ( a passage where the author is just trying to describe something or tell a story) OR is it an argumentative passage ( where the author is trying to convince the readers about a particular subject). When answering the questions, I also try to go back to the passage to make sure I have selected the right choice. Also, I try to use the POE actively, because quite often you will be selecting the less wrong answer, not the right answer. One last tip, is to try to think of the answer before looking at the choices so you would not be distracted by the choice. Lastly, whenever the author adds an example or another critic's idea try to understand why the author is doing that, and always try to connect it to the author's purpose ( the author's point of writing the article). If you have any other questions, I would be happy to answer them    Best of Luck!!

 

Thanks! I have been doing all the things you mentioned above but I think I need to do it more consistently with DAILY practice.

 

I would also be more interested in a critique of the ways in which I have already tried to tackle CARS. I am just trying to figure out where I went wrong so that I can fix it this time. 

[aspiringdoctor14]

"In hindsight, I didn't sit down with a timer to do 9 CARS passages every single day for a few months. I did 3-5 passages/day on most days, keeping time in mind but not forcing myself with the timer, I did whole 9 passages when doing FL's. I went through my mistakes and read the solutions for all the questions, focusing on the ones I guessed on or got wrong. I made notes of the mistakes and reasoning in the margins of the printed practice passages but did not keep a log book for errors. So perhaps keeping a log book of errors and doing 9 passages with a timer every single day is something I need to do. Its just hard to stick to doing this when I keep making mistakes and feel confused with the questions."

 

Please take my advice with a grain of salt as I have yet to take the MCAT.

It appears that your self-reflection on what you should do is good and you seem to be very dedicated on doing well on the CARS section of the MCAT.

 

Now, what I would do in your situation is just as you mentioned in your self-reflection. I would time myself and see how long it takes me to answer a passage question. That way, I have an idea on approximately how long it takes me to think about what the topic of the passage is and how long I can come up with an answer that would best suit the question.

In addition, I think that keeping a log-book is a good idea to have, by having something that you can see physically, you can track down your progress. 

 

Please keep in mind that at times, quality trumps quantity.

Sure, it's good to have a lot of practice with your CARS but you have to keep in mind that your practice questions are a VERY scarce resource (this is what one of my mentor once told me when she was practising for the MCAT). You must make the best out of every single practice exams/tests that you have or you'll run out and end up doing the exact same tests/exams over and over again without realizing what you are missing and what your doing wrong.

 

As for time constraint, I think that maybe doing one or two passages a day with quality is good to utilize. As mentioned by the above advices, expanding on your readings may help you greatly when it comes to familiarizing with different topics of discussions in the passages.

 

Lastly, I would like to ask what you do the day before the MCAT exam? Do you practice and still review the materials over and over again OR do you take that one day before your exam to just relax and unwind your brain.

What do you do the day of the exam and before taking the exam? Do you go for a short walk to help clear your mind? Do you arrive on time? Did you have breakfast?

 

These are the small things that can really affect your performance during your exam. From your post, it appears that you often face anxiety and you also mentioned having a panic attack. I think that starting there is a good place to start!

Enjoy the little things in life before you enter that room and think of the good things that have happened to you instead of thinking of this monster as a "Make or Break it".

I suggest keeping a "Gratitude journal" where you write down at least 3 things that you are grateful for every single day! From the biggest things to the smallest things. This is what I like to do and my anxiety has been really decreasing down.

 

Well, that about wraps it out for me. As mentioned at the start of this post, please take my advice with a grain of salt, this is just what I would do if I were in your situation.

 

Best of Luck to you and to your future!

You got this!

[lulu95]

I think something that we all forget to do sometimes is trying to find what went right. As you mentioned, you went over the questions that you guessed on or got wrong, and definitely something you should be doing, but in order to improve, you also need to figure out what it is about the questions you got right that made them easier for you. 

 

Personally, I prepped for my MCAT with a kaplan course, and the thing I found most helpful was their reminder that beyond being able to summarize the main idea, CARS also tests your ability to think critically about the author's tone, stance, and what types of evidence supports/detracts from the point they're trying to make. These are all things that you've been doing throughout grad school anyway as you dig through literature/designing experiments/writing your thesis, you just have to remember to do this as you're reading the passage. You mentioned that you've been noting down a couple words, which I'm not sure what exactly they are, but make sure they're representative of the above thought process rather than just keywords from the passage. It also helps to try and spot the key piece of evidence the author is using to make their point, which may make it easier to decide which hypothetical piece of new evidence would support/disprove that point.

 

You're on a good track by improving your ability to spot the main idea, but just need to build an additional layer to that. I don't really know what material to suggest for practice, but academic literature is a good place to start, especially in the arts if your background is in the sciences, to challenge yourself in a new domain; flashcards don't really work for CARS, unfortunately. Lastly, if you have all that down, then it's really down to improving your test-taking strategies, like distinguishing between a "good" and "best" answer, and finding a way to maximize your efficiency. 

[Pippa756]

Thanks! I have been doing all the things you mentioned above but I think I need to do it more consistently with DAILY practice.

 

I would also be more interested in a critique of the ways in which I have already tried to tackle CARS. I am just trying to figure out where I went wrong so that I can fix it this time. 

You are so right. From my own experiences, and what all the experts I have asked have told me, it is making sure you have scheduled daily practice in order for all your additional readings to make a difference on how you score on CARS.  When I got really disciplined with this my scores really went north.

[HalfBaked]

 

I had a panic attack due to all the anxiety building up from my VR failures that I even ended up doing worse on the bio section. I had graduated from my masters, no job in sight and med school plans were not coming to reality either so all that anxiety and thoughts about I am screwed and what would I do with my life now were on my mind. I just couldn't focus on my studies or the task at hand of completing the test properly. I scored a 6 again.

 

. I have never felt confident after completing a CARS section so I had no idea what to think after I took the real test and waited for the scores. Honestly, going into the test, I knew CARS is my weakness and I knew that 129 for Western is probably not a reasonable goal. So my goal was to get 126-127, I know that this is on the low side but it would have allowed me to apply with some degree of certainty to USMD schools, UofT, Mac and Queens. Clearly, I was not able to meet this goal.

 

During the test, I took notes where I wrote down a couple of words after reading each paragraph, formulated the main idea in my mind at the end and moved onto the questions. I rarely went back to my notes when answering questions but this helped me with anxiety and kept me focused on the passage.

 

 

This is purely based on my personal opinion, but for what it's worth, I feel maybe you put too much pressure on you with CARS and you have yourself convinced that is not something you can do as great as the other sections and then it becomes a self-fulling prophecy when you take the exam. It happened to me with physics. You said in your practices it ranged from 122-128. So by the looks of it, you can reach the 128. 

 

Because honestly, I'm reading and rereading your post and I notice two things. First, I feel you did practically everything there was to be done for CARS. Pretty much all the advices I usually give you applied them. Second, you lack confidence and this may be why you can't reach the CARS score you want. I know this sounds like two-cents psychology, but honestly it's the only thing I see that really needs improvement. The rest you do amazing. Your way of studying paid of for the sciences section and I believe it would for CARS if that section didn't frighten you as much.

 

What I would suggest to change in what you already do:

• It's preferable to do 9 passages timed one time a week then 5-6 passages not timed everyday. Because in my opinion you need to practice on stamina and time management to succeed on CARS more than the other section. CARS need you to be more focused than the other sections because it demands of you to interpret what you are reading and not just assimilate some data like in the other sections.
• Logging errors in a book is helpful. It can help you identify a certain pattern of mistakes by looking at your perfomances transversally that by just focusing on what went wrong in a given passage.
• Lulu 95 is right. Also look at what you did good. You already reach the 128 mark. You know how to do great on CARS so look out for what you did right also.
• Practicing everyday CARS might just tire you out too much and will make you more anxious and hate CARS.
• Don't just read the economist. Read foreign policy, read the new yorker, read about philosophy, arts. Rent books and read five pages a day of theories in different areas from urbanism to history. 
• BE CONFIDENT. Believe you are a CARS god(dess) through and through. If you stress too much with CARS you will unconsciously shift your focus on "i have to not screw up" instead of being focused on looking for the clues that helps you understand the author as much as the passage. It will make you doubt the answers you choose. You will look too much into the question. See traps that are not there or stress so much you won't be able to see traps you could have avoided. 

Ok so now how to avoid stressing for CARS. There is no easy answer for this. And it totally depends on you. 

 

Advice #1 - CARS is like a synthetic human being

I work in a hospital so what I did for CARS was imagining I was talking to one of my patients. Always remember ultimately CARS tests your patients skills. Contrary to other sections where you need to pay attention to what is there, in CARS you have to pay attention to what isn't. Mcat passages are like half the pieces of a puzzle. In sciences sections you complete the puzzle with the pieces of knowledge you studied. In CARS, you complete it with your human qualities. Now it's hard because you don't have the non-verbal to guide you but you have the "in-between the lines": extreme words, markers of emotions, punctuation, bias demonstrated by the adjectives or lack thereof. While you read, it's not just about understanding the text. The MCAT doesn't care that you understood what inflation was. It wants to know, did you understand the way the author understands it, did you pay attention to how he taught you. Did you understand the person behind those words enough so that when we test you, you can answer correctly. Did you simply care?

 

Advice #2 - HAVE FUN

Ok I may be biased because CARS was my absolute favourite part of the MCAT, it was my joy ride. But honestly CARS is fun, envision it like a cocktail party and you get to talk to 9 very different people. Now you might disagree with them, you might find them boring or confusing at times, but who cares you have a chance to discover new awesome human beings and they are giving you a chance to discover new things through their perspectives and expertises; and that is absolutely exciting.

 

Advice #3 - It's not you, it's them

Whenever you read something and feel your confidence waver, remember it's not you that isn't good with CARS. It's the passages that are written poorly, misconstructed or simply not making sense. Don't let them intimidate you. One advice I liked was thinking you were a teacher correcting your students paper. If you don't understand something, it's because it doesnt make sense and you are right. 

 

Advice #4 - Trick your mind

Light a lavender scented candle when you practice CARS, repeat a mantra describing your awesomness between passage, look at yourself in a mirror before starting CARS complimenting your amazingness, treat yourself to something good everytime you finish CARS. Associate CARS to things you like, things that relaxes you and things that empowers you. Make yourself believe CARS is your favourite section and that you love it. Did that with physics, improved my scores drastically.

 

Trust yourself to succeed because I am pretty you already have everything you need to do so! Good luck!