spring Posted February 17, 2013 Report Share Posted February 17, 2013 Hi, I will be rewriting the MCAT in the early summer. I am having a hard time with VR section (scored poorly on it the first time around). I can usually read the passage in 3-3.5 minutes and I try to come up with the purpose/main point of each chunk and the overall passage as well as the author's tone. I am mainly concerned about my ability to answer the questions. Often times, I understand the passage but make mistakes on the questions and my timing with the questions is also a little off (I run short by 3-4 minutes at the end and had to guess on my last passage on my previous attempt). I have gone through the prep materials and there are different types of questions that the books talk about. When I am doing the passages, I don't think about question types because its too time consuming. I read the passage and do the questions using process of elimination and not really think about any strategies etc at that point. I constantly score between 5-8 on practice tests. I really feel that there is something wrong that I am doing that is resulting in my poor VR scores. There is something that I am missing, something that I am not getting and that's why I am making so many mistakes. I have tried to keep a log of my performance on VR passages and I don't see any trends in terms of the types of questions I am getting wrong etc. Any tips/advise/suggestions? I know VR strategies topic has been brought up a million times and I have used the search function and read a bunch of posts already. I am trying to see everything possible that I can do to improve my scores. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
souljaboy Posted February 17, 2013 Report Share Posted February 17, 2013 I really think the only way to get better is practicing. If you're reading and understanding the passage and questions fine then there's nothing that's going to significantly change your score. There's no miracle strategy that'll bump you from an 7 to a 11. Keep practicing and hope you get lucky on the real MCAT. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spring Posted February 17, 2013 Author Report Share Posted February 17, 2013 I really think the only way to get better is practicing. If you're reading and understanding the passage and questions fine then there's nothing that's going to significantly change your score. There's no miracle strategy that'll bump you from an 7 to a 11. Keep practicing and hope you get lucky on the real MCAT. Thanks! I really feel that there is something wrong I am doing in my approach in answering the questions - perhaps understanding the questions and the associated answer choices. Basically, when I read the passage, most of the time, I get the big picture and understand the passage. I am not paying too much attention to the minute details but when it comes to answering the questions, all the strategies (thinking about question types etc) goes out of my head. I am looking for some advice on how I should tackle the questions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spring Posted February 17, 2013 Author Report Share Posted February 17, 2013 Do you get bored reading the passages? Thanks! I only feel bored of reading the passage on for the really abstract historical type passages. I try to read attentively so that I can understand the passage in one go rather than just reading it but not understanding. Its the questions that I am having a hard time with. Do you guys think of the answer before reading the answer choices? This is something that I have tried doing but have had a hard time trying to get my head around this strategy. Any other suggestions? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
qszwdxefc Posted February 17, 2013 Report Share Posted February 17, 2013 To be honest with you just try every strategy yourself and see what's best for you. I'm also rewriting this year (pending UofT invite) and last year my mistake was following the "cookie cutter" strategy set out by TPR etc. The first few AAMC practice tests I got 7 and that's when I decided to change it up. I got up to 11 on the last one but only scored 9 on the actual (it was a little to late since by the time I changed strategies there were about 2 weeks before the MCAT. So with that in mind I will dump every strategy I can think of here and you can try them for yourself and see which one suits you. You can probably combine strategies too. - Make mental/sideline notes as you read the passage (mapping I think people call it) - Read the passage straight up without doing anything and answer the questions (what I found out was best for me too late) - Highlight key words as you skim the passages quickly, then return to highlights as you go through the questions - Read the questions first, then read the passage with the questions in mind Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
souljaboy Posted February 17, 2013 Report Share Posted February 17, 2013 The only thing I can recommend when looking at question types is to not pick the really vague or absolute sounding choices unless you're absolutely sure. Also I tend to scan the questions to see if there's any asking about specific details in the passage and note that when I come across it when reading, which saves a lot of time. I hated the strategies from TPR etc and I'd just read the passage then answer the questions from what I know. I tend to read the passage very quickly (2 mins or so) and refer back to the passage a lot, which you're usually not suppose to do. I finished the section with 5 mins to spare and got a 12. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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