osmosis Posted November 24, 2009 Report Share Posted November 24, 2009 i have been studying verbal reasoning from the EK 101 passages book. our course instructor said to do 3 passages in 30 minutes every second day (the actual passages contain 6 passages in 60 minutes). the problem is that the scaled score conversion chart only refers to your score out of a total possible of 40 questions. normally, when i do 3 passages, i generally get between 17-20 questions. i was just wondering, if i took my score out of let's say 18 questions, and equated it to a score out of 40, then used to conversion chart to figure out my actual MCAT score out of 15, would this be a somewhat accurate representation of where i would score on the real thing? i.e., 13/18 = x/40 x = (40)(13)/18 = 28-29 / 40 = 9/15 MCAT scaled score. is this okay to do? thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
O'Neill Posted November 24, 2009 Report Share Posted November 24, 2009 Don't follow their instructions. Do the full test (60 mins) in one sitting with a day or two break in between each one. You need practice doing all passages in 60 mins which will train you to have the mental focus/endurance you need on test day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
osmosis Posted November 24, 2009 Author Report Share Posted November 24, 2009 Don't follow their instructions. Do the full test (60 mins) in one sitting with a day or two break in between each one. You need practice doing all passages in 60 mins which will train you to have the mental focus/endurance you need on test day. okay. what should i be doing in between each day? thanks for the reply. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
O'Neill Posted November 24, 2009 Report Share Posted November 24, 2009 okay. what should i be doing in between each day? thanks for the reply. Take a break from verbal. Study other portions of the MCAT (phys, chem, o-chem, bio). Some people say reading other things will give you practice with verbal (The Economist is often mentioned), but I recommend just following the EK verbal strategy and practicing with AAMC and EK VR tests. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
osmosis Posted November 24, 2009 Author Report Share Posted November 24, 2009 Take a break from verbal. Study other portions of the MCAT (phys' date=' chem, o-chem, bio). Some people say reading other things will give you practice with verbal (The Economist is often mentioned), but I recommend just following the EK verbal strategy and practicing with AAMC and EK VR tests.[/quote'] thank you very much. i have also heard that the economist is a good magazine to read. i was just wondering, do you think using the EK workbooks along with the AAMC practice tests is sufficient preparation? or should i be supplementing EK with TPR or Kaplan? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
O'Neill Posted November 24, 2009 Report Share Posted November 24, 2009 thank you very much. i have also heard that the economist is a good magazine to read. i was just wondering, do you think using the EK workbooks along with the AAMC practice tests is sufficient preparation? or should i be supplementing EK with TPR or Kaplan? I think if you have recently taken the courses (that is, a year each of physics, gen. chem, o-chem and biology), then the EK package plus the 1001 questions for each subject is fine. However, if you feel like you're not as sharp with the underlying theory (which helps a lot in quickly understanding passages) then I'd say all three would help. TPR and Kaplan have a lot more extra background information included, and reading the same concept from multiple sources in multiple ways will help your overall understanding. It's too bad you don't live in the Vancouver/Victoria area. I took the MCAT in September and I'm selling my books. I have the EK package, all 1001 books, the TPR CBT book, and the Kaplan comprehensive review book. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Law Posted November 24, 2009 Report Share Posted November 24, 2009 Do not do 3 passages for ten minutes each. That is way more time than you will have on the real thing. It's my opinion that it's best to simulate the real test conditions and force yourself to deal with less time. My strategy is to aim for about 8 minutes for each passage. Realize there are 4-7 questions for each passage. When I get to a passage that I'm really struggling with and if I find that I'm about to fall behind my timing substantially, I just guess and move on. It's better to get the easy questions of a later passage right than to get stressed out about hard questions, lose time, and then get screwed over by time for the easy questions later! Also - EK is definitely a great resource, but I think the #1 resource are the AAMC tests. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aerodynamic20 Posted January 2, 2010 Report Share Posted January 2, 2010 I think if you have recently taken the courses (that is' date=' a year each of physics, gen. chem, o-chem and biology), then the EK package plus the 1001 questions for each subject is fine. However, if you feel like you're not as sharp with the underlying theory (which helps a lot in quickly understanding passages) then I'd say all three would help. TPR and Kaplan have a lot more extra background information included, and reading the same concept from multiple sources in multiple ways will help your overall understanding. It's too bad you don't live in the Vancouver/Victoria area. I took the MCAT in September and I'm selling my books. I have the EK package, all 1001 books, the TPR CBT book, and the Kaplan comprehensive review book.[/quote'] Hi there, I go to SFU and I am planning to write the MCAT on August 2010. I am interested in buying the books...let me know if you are still selling them (I hope prices are negotiable lol) Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
terryann Posted January 2, 2010 Report Share Posted January 2, 2010 I got a temporary free subscription for a few months to the Economist. It helped. I forced myself to read articles that did not interest me, and tried to increase my speed of reading over the summer. One of my initial problems with VR was that I read too slow...and that was helped by constantly reading articles. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leap87 Posted January 2, 2010 Report Share Posted January 2, 2010 I got a temporary free subscription for a few months to the Economist. It helped. I forced myself to read articles that did not interest me, and tried to increase my speed of reading over the summer. One of my initial problems with VR was that I read too slow...and that was helped by constantly reading articles. Taking a speed reading course would have helped that. I used to read a whole lot very fast, but then when I actually took the darn course, some of my friends now are like "You already read that passage? What?!" lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
terryann Posted January 2, 2010 Report Share Posted January 2, 2010 Where do you take speed reading courses... How did you do on the VR with speed reading, did it increase your score. Are you able to retain it all...this would be a total gift to me if I get into med school as it will take me alot longer than the average person to read ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leap87 Posted January 2, 2010 Report Share Posted January 2, 2010 Where do you take speed reading courses...How did you do on the VR with speed reading, did it increase your score. Are you able to retain it all...this would be a total gift to me if I get into med school as it will take me alot longer than the average person to read ... Well, personally, I learned it on youtube. However, I know of a couple of courses that are offered through my university and I'm sure yours has some too. They're literally one weekend courses. I got a 14 on VR. It was my first attempt at MCAT, but my VR practicing kept being over 11 (before the speed reading course), because I just loved the VR section. The key to speed reading is to look at particular words which help you make up a sentence. So, it helped me (not substantially because I was already a fast reader but it did help me to get through the VR section faster and with more accuracy). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TurkandJD Posted January 2, 2010 Report Share Posted January 2, 2010 it must be genetic for you, and i think it's the case for anyone with 13+. whether you worked hard or did no practice, if your score is 13+, you have the gift of speedy reading and interpretation that 99% of other human beings lack. scores of 7-12, based what i've seen from unofficial reports of mcat results, is quite dependent on practice and hardwork (jumping from an initial score of 7 to a final score of 12 on real thing has been reported by many posters) and probably all fall into the '2nd class' category. consistent scores of <7 probably represents difficulty with reading, yet by no means does it reflect lack of intellect in other areas. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.