not reading the PS passage!

[123coco]

Hi,

 

For those of you who recently wrote the actual MCAT, did any of you approach the PS section without reading the actual passage? I find that when I read the passage I get freaked out by the illusion of mystery and psyche myself out (WTF!). I perform much better when I just go straight to the questions (Plus I finish with a bit of time to spare). However, I understand that BS is becoming like VB. Has anyone noticed that PS is also becoming like VB too?

 

Cheers

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[xIcewind]

Well, I've always read the passage for verbal reasoning...

 

But unless the questions (this happens more in BS) asks directly of things in the passage, I usually just skip reading it altogether.

 

This works ONLY if you're really REALLY comfortable with the material, in which case the passage only serves to waste your time, supplementing you with little or no real information. Otherwise, READ THE PASSAGE. It'll give you hints as to what they're expecting.

 

I didn't read a single passage on my MCAT and scored 15 on PS, if that helps. I would not recommend doing the same unless you've tried it on MULTIPLE practice tests and scored 14-15.

[The Law]

That was what my TPR instructor said to do two years ago. I disagree, for me, the passage reminds me of some concepts and helps a bit. The passage often has tiny bits of info that you might neeed to answer one or two questions. Some of the passages also introduce some new material or make claims that you need to make note of in order to answer some of the questions (if you don't read it, of course you can always come back and skim for it... but I'd rather just try to identify it early on). If I was you, I would work at remaining calm and not trying to understand everything upon first read - but just highlight all the key concepts and try to remember the important claims that you might get tested on in the questions. When you get to the questions, answer the ones that are not based on passages first... then answer the others. Anyway, that's just my 2 cents...

[sv3]

First, if timing isnt an issue, you should read the passage. For me it was - i did fine (35) but always ran out of time.

 

So, for the science sections, I started to quickly (less than 30 seconds a passage) look at the questions for "stand alones" and I answered them.

 

I usually found about 2 stand alones per passage (on average of course).

 

Then I read the passage swiftly, knowing that I didn't need to know it really well.

 

It's hard to describe exactly what I did b/c it was my own thing, and this is something you gotto experiement with.

 

Play to your strengths. I found chem pretty easy and I remember on my MCAT that i was able to answer an entire passage (except for 1 question) without reading it. Same for some biology passages (one about the eye as i found this material really easy). If you can knock off a passage in 3 minutes, even just one, your timing will be fine even if you are slower like me.

 

In the end experiement - and do this early on - not on game day of course

[runningdoc]

It's an option. A lot of the questions rely on your previous knowledge and if you can pick it out immediately you may not need to read the passage. HOWEVER, you could miss something pretty significant by not reading the passage when you get to the questions.

[Nobodycirclesthewagons]

When I wrote, I read the passage. I tried the method where you don't read the passage a few times during my practice sessions, but I'd always end up going back to the passage for clues anyway. I felt everything went more smoothly when I did the section in the conventional way.

[123coco]

thanks for the advice folks

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