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Destroyed by verbal reasoning...


medguy5367

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I took the diagnostic in early May and verbal reasoning was my strongest score (11).

 

 

I just did my first practice test and got an 8... I'm really surprised, I read a heck of a lot and was hoping this would be my strongest area. I've also heard that med schools give this section a lot of importance.

 

Any tips for me? Anything that helped YOU increase your score on verbal?

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I took the diagnostic in early May and verbal reasoning was my strongest score (11).

 

 

I just did my first practice test and got an 8... I'm really surprised, I read a heck of a lot and was hoping this would be my strongest area. I've also heard that med schools give this section a lot of importance.

 

Any tips for me? Anything that helped YOU increase your score on verbal?

 

Wow, 11 is a very nice score for your first try! That's surprising it went down that low...which texts are you using? Most people would agree that EK has the best verbal strategy (I'm using it now, and I agree!).

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You shouldn't just judge your performance off one practice test. Could have just been some passages that really don't suit your strengths. I've done 5 practice tests so far, and my verbals have gone from 7, 8, 11, 9, 9. I wouldn't worry too much if I were you. Do some more tests and see how you do before getting worried.

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The same thing happened to me. On my first test, I got an 11...then went down to 7's and even got a 5 once. About a month before writing, I was between 10 and 14. On the mcat I got a 13.

I used EK....

Stay positive...I let it get me down for a while, it will come together.

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Thanks guys!

 

I am using KAPLAN review.

 

 

So would it be worth it to buy the ExamKrackers verbal book? (Or go into Chapters and sneak a look through it)?

 

I am just surprised because I read like 5 books a week and write a lot as well (as a hobby), so I would expect my verbal score to be higher than an 8.

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my first practice test I got a 4 on verbal and ended up with an 11 on the real thing.

 

I used EK supplemented by Princeton Review and every verbal practice I could find.

 

The only way I was able to improve my score so much was to approach it systematically and learn the categories of questions that are asked and how to approach them.

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Doing only one practice exam does not give you an accurate representation of what you will score...if you do 3 or more then you may get a better idea (ie. you may get 8, 10, 11 so this likely means you will score around a 10). If you do several and are consistently getting 8s, maybe you just need to practice more passages, or try to see if you are consistently getting certain types of questions wrong. And lastly, each MCAT is a crapshoot in a way. Especially with certain aspects like the verbal reasoning...each of us is more comfortable/interested in certain kinds of readings...some people may luck out and enjoy most of the readings/subsequently do well while others may find them really boring, jargon-filled crap and not do strongly. As MicrobiologyMan above put it "the only way ... to improve...is to approach it systematically and learn the categories of questions that are asked and how to approach them."

EK has good tips on how to differentiate the types of questions found on the VR MCAT, and how to approach reading the passages etc. Also, there is an interesting exercise that shows you that there's a lot of information about the answer in the question/choices not just the passage. Good luck.

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my first practice test I got a 4 on verbal and ended up with an 11 on the real thing.

 

I used EK supplemented by Princeton Review and every verbal practice I could find.

 

The only way I was able to improve my score so much was to approach it systematically and learn the categories of questions that are asked and how to approach them.

 

lol I got a 4 on the first PR diagnostic test too... lets see how the real thing turns out to be? :o

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