DrPhilster Posted July 30, 2013 Report Share Posted July 30, 2013 Hello everyone, I'm having slight trouble maintaining my 'mental stamina' when doing verbal passages. I have the old EK 101 Verbal book (with 9 passages/60 questions per test) and I have found it to be excellent practice. My scores have been improving decently (considering where I started from) throughout my practice. One thing that always gets me though is the lack of precision in the final 3-4 passages where I usually go from 0-1 wrong to 2-4 wrong (meaning that I would get 0-1 wrong on first half of test, to 2-4 on second half). I notice it myself, since I lose focus of the main idea while reading and have a generally less motivation to finish strong. My goal is 11-12, and I am consistently scoring 9-10 (with my aforementioned struggles) Can anyone else comment on this, and whether there are any strategies to build stamina (apart from the obvious "keep practicing" answer). Also, would it be beneficial if I took 40 question tests instead of 60 question tests, or will doing the 60 question tests help make the current length easier to bear? Thanks so much, hope anyone can add their own stories about struggling with VR. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hockeynut Posted July 30, 2013 Report Share Posted July 30, 2013 Push through the pain! On the real test you'll be much more focused (well hopefully) than any practice you do. You could try the 60 question ones but I personally just worked through as many 40 question ones as I could get my hands on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrPhilster Posted July 30, 2013 Author Report Share Posted July 30, 2013 Push through the pain! On the real test you'll be much more focused (well hopefully) than any practice you do. You could try the 60 question ones but I personally just worked through as many 40 question ones as I could get my hands on. Yeah that's my thinking as well, but I'd like to hit my target at least a couple of times while practicing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
every1knewherasnancy Posted July 30, 2013 Report Share Posted July 30, 2013 Something I found really useful was reading for pleasure every night - I got a really good book (fiction) and would read it for about half an hour every night before bed (even after studying). I found I was burning out reading long passages and I needed to train my brain to actually want to read what was in front of me. I had found I had just been glazing a bit after studying so intensely all summer, but putting great fiction in front of me re-trained my brain a bit. Not sure if this would work for everyone, but it really worked for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlurstOfTimes Posted July 30, 2013 Report Share Posted July 30, 2013 This sounds weird but one thing I found really helpful was to close my eyes and take a deep breath before each new passage (I think this might have been suggested in the EK book, can't remember for sure). Just getting my eyes off the page for a few seconds helped boost my energy to read more, and after doing this habitually on every practice test, it also helped me feel more familiar and comfortable on the actual test day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lalab Posted July 30, 2013 Report Share Posted July 30, 2013 This sounds weird but one thing I found really helpful was to close my eyes and take a deep breath before each new passage (I think this might have been suggested in the EK book, can't remember for sure). Just getting my eyes off the page for a few seconds helped boost my energy to read more, and after doing this habitually on every practice test, it also helped me feel more familiar and comfortable on the actual test day. That's exactly what I did in order to rest my mind for each passage. That's what the book recommends too. I had this really long and mean passage halfway through my actual exam... So glad the EK strategy was drilled into me... Pretty sure I would have bombed every subsequent section afterwards Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaKirbster Posted July 30, 2013 Report Share Posted July 30, 2013 Also, would it be beneficial if I took 40 question tests instead of 60 question tests, or will doing the 60 question tests help make the current length easier to bear? I did the same - practiced the old, longer version of every section. Personally, I found it helped my stamina a lot. Yes, the practice tests were a huge pain in the butt since they were so long, but it was definitely worth it IMO. The real thing seemed like a cinch afterwards. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jaybird Posted July 31, 2013 Report Share Posted July 31, 2013 Caffeine mother**** caffeine. And sugar. If you aren't twitching every second or so at all points of the MCAT you are doing it wrong Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Birdy Posted July 31, 2013 Report Share Posted July 31, 2013 The thing I'm finding that helps me best is to think of something completely unrelated for a few seconds after each passage. My pets or my kids or what I'm going to do that weekend. It distracts me enough that I mostly forget the last passage. I also have a mental whiteboard where I take notes while I'm going through things and I picture it clearing, but I don't know if that's a normal way to organize one's thoughts so I'm not sure how helpful suggesting that might be. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ralk Posted July 31, 2013 Report Share Posted July 31, 2013 This sounds weird but one thing I found really helpful was to close my eyes and take a deep breath before each new passage (I think this might have been suggested in the EK book, can't remember for sure). Just getting my eyes off the page for a few seconds helped boost my energy to read more, and after doing this habitually on every practice test, it also helped me feel more familiar and comfortable on the actual test day. Totally agree here. Maybe not before every single passage, but doing this every once in a while, especially when focusing becomes difficult, made a huge difference. Honestly, I still use this technique for other tests - while everyone's racing to get started, I'm getting myself relaxed and ready to answer questions Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sarvish Posted July 31, 2013 Report Share Posted July 31, 2013 Push through the pain! On the real test you'll be much more focused (well hopefully) than any practice you do. You could try the 60 question ones but I personally just worked through as many 40 question ones as I could get my hands on. I'm usually more focused on real tests but being the MCAT, I can imaging having a minute of freak out time where I read too fast and don't absorb anything. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
viseguy Posted August 1, 2013 Report Share Posted August 1, 2013 VR fatigue wasn't a real issue on the MCAT. Personally, I find that I was most focused during the actual exam compared to any practice exam I've written. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duke101 Posted August 2, 2013 Report Share Posted August 2, 2013 anyone think the questions/passages are ordered from easy to hard? i seem to do better at the being as well, i was thinking it might just be because the questions and passages are easier at the beginning instead of it being because i loose focus. anyone else feel this way? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrPhilster Posted August 2, 2013 Author Report Share Posted August 2, 2013 anyone think the questions/passages are ordered from easy to hard? i seem to do better at the being as well, i was thinking it might just be because the questions and passages are easier at the beginning instead of it being because i loose focus. anyone else feel this way? I was thinking that as well, which is why on my next couple of tests I'll start from the back and see if there is any variation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaKirbster Posted August 2, 2013 Report Share Posted August 2, 2013 anyone think the questions/passages are ordered from easy to hard? i seem to do better at the being as well, i was thinking it might just be because the questions and passages are easier at the beginning instead of it being because i loose focus. anyone else feel this way? They are not arranged like that in any way. You are correct in saying that its your fatigue that makes it appear the passages go from easy to hard. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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