VR strategy EMERGENCY! Please help!

[BlessedSoul]

I've been doing verbal passages more heavily in the past few weeks and I realised that I'm not improving. I've been doing the EK 101 60Q passages for a while now and have completed Tests #10, 11, and 3 so far and i'm frequently scoring 20/40 (around a 5). I'm doing everything the EK book tells me to do, but i'm still scoring low! What i'm currently doing is: I read the passage (takes 3-6mins) and rush through the questions with the overall passage in mind.

 

The only 3 good aspects about my situation is that:

1. I have less than 4 weeks until my MCAT

2. My stamina has significantly improved (before I couldn't even do 2 passages together, now I can do 6 in a row but barely fit a 7th with the remaining 5minutes).

3. I noticed that the longer it takes me to read the passage (ex. 5-6minutes), the lower I score in that passage. But when I finish the passage in 8-9mins, I usually score with ~2 mistakes. Is this normal??

 

 

To summarize my questions/concerns:

1. To those who score consistently 9+, do you guys read the passage fast (like 3-4minutes) and spend majority of the time answer the questions? And how long does it take to read a passage for you guys?

2. Should I stop for details or just aim for the big picture?

3. When painting an imagine of the author, what should I pay attention to?

4. When the EK technique says read "arrogantly", how do you do that o.O.

5. Are the lower EK tests (#1,2,3..+) harder/easier than the higher tests (#10,11)?

6. What would you recommend me do?

 

 

Thank-you, I really appreciate the time you put into reading my situation and giving me a response. Much appreciated it!

[viseguy]

Ultimately you have to find a strategy that works for you and stick with it.

 

1. Typically 3-3.5 minutes. Those killer passages in each test I can spend 5-5.5 minutes, but never more. I spend most of my time answering questions.

 

2. Rarely are small details tested. Arguments, authors position, and the general structure of the passage should be gleaned from reading. I like mentally summarize each paragraph (~5 s) to get an idea.

 

3. Not sure about this question.

 

4. Attack each passage like your life depended on it The VR section is a marathon that should wear you out.

 

5. I got lower scores on the last tests (10-14) than the middle tests (4-9), I think they may be slightly harder. Overall my EK avg were much lower than AAMC avg.

 

6. Practice and go all out. You should be burning out after finishing each VR test, this is normal. Review mistakes thoroughly and figure out why you made them.

[t0ny]

I started with a 9 in verbal and now i am getting consistent 11-12 so i'm not sure if my strategies are going to be compelling to you but i'll give it a shot anyways:

 

1) When you are reading each paragraph, you want to be able to quickly sum up what that paragraph spoke about. This is simply the main idea,topic or argument of the paragraph. Be able to do this for each paragraph.

 

2) As you are reading, you should ask yourself the following questions about the author CONTINUALLY: Who is the author (writer, teacher, activist for the movement, historian, etc..), What is the author's tone in the passage (neutral, aggressive, defensive, etc..)

 

3) What type of passage is it? Always be on the lookout for compare and contrast passages as they are very common. Other examples could be descriptive, argumentative, narrative.

 

4) ALWAYS , and I cannot stress this enough, ALWAYS be able to sum up the main idea of the passage.

 

You will see that most questions regard how the author feels about such and such or if the author would agree/support or disagree with such and such. Understanding the mentality of who the author is and what he is trying to convey I find to be the most important. It is the reasoning aspect of "Verbal Reasoning". Taking a simple exert of any passage and being able to extract what the internal message and tone of the author is.

 

This is just my strategy which I learnt and modified from one of the prep classes. I hope it helps you

[BlessedSoul]

I started with a 9 in verbal and now i am getting consistent 11-12 so i'm not sure if my strategies are going to be compelling to you but i'll give it a shot anyways:

 

1) When you are reading each paragraph, you want to be able to quickly sum up what that paragraph spoke about. This is simply the main idea,topic or argument of the paragraph. Be able to do this for each paragraph.

 

2) As you are reading, you should ask yourself the following questions about the author CONTINUALLY: Who is the author (writer, teacher, activist for the movement, historian, etc..), What is the author's tone in the passage (neutral, aggressive, defensive, etc..)

 

3) What type of passage is it? Always be on the lookout for compare and contrast passages as they are very common. Other examples could be descriptive, argumentative, narrative.

 

4) ALWAYS , and I cannot stress this enough, ALWAYS be able to sum up the main idea of the passage.

 

You will see that most questions regard how the author feels about such and such or if the author would agree/support or disagree with such and such. Understanding the mentality of who the author is and what he is trying to convey I find to be the most important. It is the reasoning aspect of "Verbal Reasoning". Taking a simple exert of any passage and being able to extract what the internal message and tone of the author is.

 

This is just my strategy which I learnt and modified from one of the prep classes. I hope it helps you

 

Thank-you very much to both of you. Hopefully this helps.

 

So far what I've been doing was reading the passage and trying to get a feel of what the author is trying to convey. I don't actually sum up the main idea (which I realize I should now) but instead try getting the overall picture. But I have one more quick question:

 

1. This isn't a VR question but I have limited time to study and I haven't done much questions for the Science sections but I read through the TPR books (For chem, orgo, and physics) & EK biol book . Would you guys recommend me finishing all the passage based TPR questions or free-standing TPR questions? I only have time to finish either one of them.

Thank-you.

[viseguy]

Why don't you just do a few AAMC tests? They have a scope wide enough to tell you if you missed something in your content review.

 

I can't speak for the TPR questions, as I do not have that prep material.