tms Posted August 21, 2011 Report Share Posted August 21, 2011 I have been studying throughout the summer for the MCAT and also took a prep course. I have improved in all other sections compared to my first diagnostic except verbal. I am really aiming for the 11 minimum in verbal. I have done 5 practice tests so far and have been getting mostly 6 and 7, one 8. I have been practicing verbal and trying to track my mistakes etc....however my score is not improving. I am supposed to be writing my test on September 10....is that enough time for me to "significantly" improve on verbal? I am not planning on applying this year, so should I keep practicing and wait it out till Jan/Feb 2012 to write the test? Can someone please suggest what I could try at this point to up my VR score. I have gone through all the passages in the TPR VR workbook and have not seen an improvement since my first test. I know I need to work on my timing for sure as I am not completing the full lengths in time. Other than that, what else could I do? A lot of people have told me that verbal is not black and white.....its more like shades of grey.....I feel that I am just not getting that. I can't seem to be able to read in between the lines. I try to focus on what is given in the passage as I don't want to inject any outside knowledge or thoughts into the passage information. I am stuck as to what I can do with verbal now.....can someone please advise other things I should try or keep in mind. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eternalkeener Posted August 21, 2011 Report Share Posted August 21, 2011 If you comb the MCAT forum, you will find a huge amount of advice on verbal. If I could sum up verbal in a sentence, it would be: Store the argument structure, main idea, and how the author feels about the issue in question in your head; with that, you are armed to answer almost any question because the right answer choice will NOT be outside of the scope or relating to anything other than that. With this in mind, read the passage as fast as you can in order to ONLY get the above-mentioned things stored in your memory, and then you can have lots of time to think and search in the passage if you need to on certain questions. The crucial thing about verbal is that they're just not going to test you on normal things, most of the time; they want you to focus on strange question tasks and assume that you managed your time well enough to go after the question. So don't spend too much time reading and focus on the TASKS at hand, keeping in mind that ANY answer choice will be within the above-mentioned range and go NO further - author's opinion (the word 'passage' is code for 'author's opinion' in VR), scope, argument structure and then little details you can check BECAUSE YOU'VE MANAGED YOUR TIME WELL READING THE PASSAGE!!!!!!!!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tms Posted August 22, 2011 Author Report Share Posted August 22, 2011 Thanks eternalkeener. Your advice has been really helpful. I will keep that in mind as I continue to practice. I have also been looking through the forum for other similar posts with more advice. Thanks a lot! Did you find this strategy to work for the specific inference questions? I find that when I come to a question of that sort, I waste too much time scrambling around the passage to find an answer that best matches with the passage. Does anyone else have any specific tips on timing? When I am reading the passage, I do not skim as I want to really understand it the first time around instead of having to re-read it to be able to answer questions. So, I am taking a lot longer to read the passage and also going back too much which is costing me lots of time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eternalkeener Posted August 22, 2011 Report Share Posted August 22, 2011 I'm glad my advice helps. I'm going to sum up what the flow of events was in my practice which helped me answer any question, given that practice makes you end up with more time to answer the questions. I read passages back to back until I realized that some passages really take forever and some are so simple... you have to let yourself take more time on some passages than others without screwing yourself on the last passage (eg only having 5-6 minutes to read and answer questions). This takes time doing many full tests. VR is all about how you can get the vital info in the shortest time possible, and then spend the maximum time on the questions. This is only learned with practice. Good luck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.