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MCAT Verbal Prep Course?


longlurker

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Hi guys, I'm rewriting my MCAT sometime in 2014, and I was just wondering if there are any prep courses for only the Verbal section? I am fine with the Sciences, but would like a second opinion on Verbal. I'm in Toronto, if that helps!

 

Thanks!

 

Success is usually founded upon practice and self-study. EK is good, so look into that, but you will need to practise, and practise regularly. Starting around 6 months in advance is recommended. See this:

 

http://www.premed101.com/forums/showthread.php?t=85327

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I took a full prep course with Kaplan and I have to admit that their verbal strategy (skimming and mapping) isn't the greatest. I also have a friend who taught TPR but said herself that TPR's strategy is also somewhat more of a marketing strategy than a practical one. After all, all they teach you is theoretical knowledge for reading and you should already know how to read if you're thinking of applying to medical schools.

 

I agree with longlurker in the sense that practising verbal extensively by yourself is probably the best way to improve your verbal score (keyword extensively). Once you start reading a lot of MCAT passages, you can anticipate what's about to come up and sometimes even some of the questions. It's also a good idea to use practice questions from a variety of sources (EK, Kaplan, TPR) and approach VR from different perspectives since no one source perfectly represents the AAMC VR. I found my VR score increased dramatically when I did that. I also started to skim my questions before I read the passage (should not take longer than 5 seconds) to look for keywords, names, concepts that I should be focusing on so I don't completely miss the point of the passage. And remember to calm your mind before VR since focus is crucial and every second counts (I meditated for about 5 minutes prior to starting the VR section on my MCAT).

 

Good luck!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Thanks for the advice!! I'll give meditating a try :P

 

I took a full prep course with Kaplan and I have to admit that their verbal strategy (skimming and mapping) isn't the greatest. I also have a friend who taught TPR but said herself that TPR's strategy is also somewhat more of a marketing strategy than a practical one. After all, all they teach you is theoretical knowledge for reading and you should already know how to read if you're thinking of applying to medical schools.

 

I agree with longlurker in the sense that practising verbal extensively by yourself is probably the best way to improve your verbal score (keyword extensively). Once you start reading a lot of MCAT passages, you can anticipate what's about to come up and sometimes even some of the questions. It's also a good idea to use practice questions from a variety of sources (EK, Kaplan, TPR) and approach VR from different perspectives since no one source perfectly represents the AAMC VR. I found my VR score increased dramatically when I did that. I also started to skim my questions before I read the passage (should not take longer than 5 seconds) to look for keywords, names, concepts that I should be focusing on so I don't completely miss the point of the passage. And remember to calm your mind before VR since focus is crucial and every second counts (I meditated for about 5 minutes prior to starting the VR section on my MCAT).

 

Good luck!

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I will be writing in July 2014, do you think if I begin this around December 2013, it would be efficient enough? Is there anything I can do now to prepare myself?

 

Thanks

 

Most definitely. You should check out the link I posted, there's lots of useful information there in starting your prep in December.

 

http://www.premed101.com/forums/showthread.php?t=85327

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