reation Posted July 5, 2012 Report Share Posted July 5, 2012 There are seven passages on the real MCAT VR in 60 minutes, meaning each passage should be done within 8 minutes. I am finding it really difficult to finish a passage in that time. In fact, it is taking me a lot longer than that to finish a passage.. what should I do? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Legion Posted July 5, 2012 Report Share Posted July 5, 2012 Are you taking very long on all the passages? or is it certain types, like historical or political passages only? I also tend to take longer on historical/political passages but for the rest, I'm reasonably Ok. One main reason for the relative difficulty of the VR section of MCAT compared to other sections is the timing IMO. It would be great if you could allocate at least 10 minutes to each passage, but unfortunately that's not an option. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reation Posted July 5, 2012 Author Report Share Posted July 5, 2012 Yeah I'd say the historical/political ones do take me longer than others. I understand that is highly due to personal interest but just to finish reading the passage plus answering all the questions within 8 minutes is what I'm finding difficult overall. I feel that if do manage to answer the questions in 8 minutes per passage, I'm still at a high risk of comprising the correctness of my answers, which I can easily answer correctly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markov79 Posted July 5, 2012 Report Share Posted July 5, 2012 how are you rocking sci or artsy passages? how long does it take you to do those? could you do sci passages in 7 min and then historical ones or whatev in 9? can you afford that time pressure on the science (or whatever) kinds of passages? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clever Posted July 11, 2012 Report Share Posted July 11, 2012 How is 60/7 < 8? Anyway, EK recommends you take about 1/3 of the time reading the passage and 2/3 answering questions. Maybe when you're reading the passage try focusing less on small details. EK says to read the passage like a book, focusing on the overall picture instead of small events. If you find yourself frequently going back to the beginning of a sentence, try to just keep reading forward if you don't catch something. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markov79 Posted July 11, 2012 Report Share Posted July 11, 2012 yeah, getting each passage done in 8.5 minutes is getting closer to 60 minutes. i guess if you want to go back and check over some questions, getting them done in 8 min affords you a few minutes? i guess another point to be made re: 8.5 is that that's cutting it pretty close. if your "penultimate" passage takes you 10 minutes for some reason... have fun with the last passage, LOL. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Savac Posted July 11, 2012 Report Share Posted July 11, 2012 If you give yourself 8.5 minutes per passage, then you no longer have a safety cushion at the end. I find that by giving myself 8 minutes, I stay calm even if I'm slightly behind pace (as long as I'm not >4 minutes behind). Actually, on my most recent MCAT I was only 2 minutes behind and started stressing. It seriously affected my performance on the last 3 passages. Lesson learned. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sprinkles Posted July 11, 2012 Report Share Posted July 11, 2012 For me I actually found the science related ones to be the hardest cause I'm a social sciences bacground so I just skipped them until the end and then didnt even read the passages. I had like 12 min left? So I read the questions stems and guessed. No use ruining 5 passages I could excel at by worrying/stressing 2 passages I knew I would suck at even if I took the extra time Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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