MCAT Advice???

[Rhizoid]

Hi Everyone,

 

I'm first time poster and I am in desperate need of some advice.

 

I am in my second year and recently bought a bunch of MCAT books as I plan on writing the beast this summer. (August 2009). I will have finished all of my bio, chem, o-chem after this year and the only one ill be missing is physics. I took physics through grade 12 and am sitting in on the second half of the intro physics course at my uni this semester. I was told that taking physics isn't a must so im trying to study for it on my own.

 

I got the EK series, EK 101 verbal, and EK 1001 Bio. The bio doesn't seem to bad and im getting about 80% of the questions right without even studying. However, I just did a few of the intro verbal reasoning passages and got completely owned. I don't even want to say my score cause its so pathetic, but I will. I got 6/17 right.

 

I've never done that bad on anything in my life. I've always believed that working hard= Improvement but I'm really worried about this. Can you improve alot from a 6/17 initial verbal?

 

My question is how long it takes to see improvent in verbal reasoning? This was the first three passages I have ever done and I tried to do them in the time limit- 25 minutes. Í'm trying to study physics this semester on top of my 5 other classes and I don't know if I will be able to fit in verbal practice until the summer.

 

All im shooting for on this thing is a 30. Doesn't have to be balanced as im not looking at going to a school that uses cut offs (Well, hopefully I get above 8 in each section at least). My GPA is really good and my EC's are VERY good as well. I'm just worried that this stupid verbal section/MCAT will keep me from my dream.

 

Thanks for any advice.

[orange123]

Hey there Rhizoid,

 

you're good to go if you have all the prereqs. Grd 12 physics should suffice. Don't worry about MCAT studying at this time. You'll have plenty of time in the summer (if you don't work; and even if you do, as long as you're focused, it should be do-able).

 

About improvements in verbal, this is an area you can start preparing for even now. Read news papers, magazines, books, anything you can find your hands on. And then come summer, you can start doing EK verbal practice passages. The first time (doing vr) isn't easy, but it gets better the more practice you get. HTH.

[terryann]

You can do it without physics...I did not have any highschool or university physics...It was alot of work though, as I had to teach myself, but if you are willing to put in the time, it is can be done. I will say PS was my lowest mark on my mcat, but I was overly pleased with a 10.I will say that I was lacking in confidence when writing the mcat in physics compared to others..just psychological in knowing that I was lacking in formal education in physics. In hindsight, I should not have focused on how much schooling others had in physics...should have just focused on myself.

 

For VR start reading books and newspaper articles now..just to increase your speed and vocabulary.

You are well organized, and have lots of time.

[discworldheavylight]

I don't even want to say my score cause its so pathetic, but I will. I got 6/17 right.

 

aw ur too cute.

 

but seriously, don't worry. bio is probably something u learned in school, so obviously u would start out scoring better in it. but not to worry. ur verbal reasoning can catch up too. like the other people on this forum have mentioned, u will improve with practice. but just for encouragement's sake, i know many people that started practice tests with low marks...like 4s and 5s, and with practice, worked their way up to 9s and 10s.

 

good luck!

 

EDIT: oh i also wanted to add u probably want to start by just the questions. once u have some practice under ur belt, then start using the timer. it can be overwhelming to try to focus on time AND comprehension at the same time. better to get one down before incorporating the other.

[ChexMix]

It's okay dude, everyone does bad on their first verbal. Hang in there and keep practicing. If you are planning to write at the end of the summer, I would suggest just doing some light reading for the science sections, and for verbal don't do the passages yet (save some for the summer), and read up on ALL topics you can think of from magazines and newspapers. If you can find long, boring articles, that's even better practice!

[chrisman10]

I have no clue whats on the MCAT exams but I wish you all the best.

[Salsalover99]

If it's any consolation, I am struggling with verbal reasoning as well. I tried the first VR practice exam from Exam Krackers, and scored horribly as well (17/40). Luckily I have 3 months to practice. I'm sure I can increase the score by 10 or more. It does feel very defeating though. I'm going to put forth as much effort as I can though.

[Rhizoid]

Thanks everyone for the encouragement. I did a few more passages and did notice a dramatic improvement, so hopefully, when I actually start studying this summer, I will be able to get verbal down with some practice.

 

A question I have is what strategy you guys use for Verbal Reasoning? The EK method says that you shold just read the passages once and then try to answer questions and I did this the first time. But the second time I read the passages quickly and then went back to them for extra help in answering the questions and I did much better.

 

What strategies does everyone else use? Do you find you have enough time to go back and re-read passages on the real thing, or do you only have time to read the passage once?

 

Thanks again, I really appreciate it.

[astrogirl]

I like to read the questions quickly first and then read the passage so I know what to look for. And then I go back to the passage when I'm answering the questions if I need to. I'll let you know how that goes on the real thing after I do it. I don't usually run out of time, but I've heard that a strategy some people use is really focusing on all but one of the passages, and then just guessing on the last one if they run out of time. It might be worth experimenting with that on some practice tests.

[discworldheavylight]

Thanks everyone for the encouragement. I did a few more passages and did notice a dramatic improvement, so hopefully, when I actually start studying this summer, I will be able to get verbal down with some practice.

 

A question I have is what strategy you guys use for Verbal Reasoning? The EK method says that you shold just read the passages once and then try to answer questions and I did this the first time. But the second time I read the passages quickly and then went back to them for extra help in answering the questions and I did much better.

 

What strategies does everyone else use? Do you find you have enough time to go back and re-read passages on the real thing, or do you only have time to read the passage once?

 

Thanks again, I really appreciate it.

 

when you're reading it over, look for key phrases that you think will be important and highlight them. no one expects you to memorize everything you read when answering the questions, so definitely refer back to the passage. some things won't be stated explicitly, so you might have to reread over that section and get a better understanding. highlighting saves you a lot of time because you know where the key facts are. i think a big part of getting good at verbal is being able to identify what's important in a passage when reading.