VRorDEATH Posted February 19, 2015 Report Share Posted February 19, 2015 Hi everyone, I just received my 3rd MCAT score yesterday and it's 13 PS/4VR/11BS Yes, that's right I ended up with a 4 on verbal! And I have no idea what to do next.. Should I just suicide and end this because I will never pass verbal? Considering now verbal is getting harder Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PurpleS Posted February 19, 2015 Report Share Posted February 19, 2015 What were your practice scores like for the AAMC tests? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SunAndMoon Posted February 19, 2015 Report Share Posted February 19, 2015 What was your verbal score in your previous attempts? What was it in your practice tests? How did you practice for VR? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VRorDEATH Posted February 19, 2015 Author Report Share Posted February 19, 2015 I was averaging between 8-10 on practice tests. I had an 8 on my second attempt but my sciences weren't on the bar with a void on the first one. I used all AAMC materials, EK, TPR, Kaplan, and a bunch of other resources. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PurpleS Posted February 19, 2015 Report Share Posted February 19, 2015 Did you try your best to stimulate the MCAT setting, timing, etc. during your practice tests? And did you do your practice tests at the same time of day as your actual MCAT? Doing all of that can help lower your test day anxiety. Did you go over your tests after and analyzed why you got each question wrong? Or maybe you focused too much on the sciences and neglected VR which resulted in your score. Either way, if you really want to become a physician, a re-write in a must. Unless your GPA and ECs are stellar, then you will have a good chance at Ottawa. I recommend practicing VR with a friend and discussing the passages together after. Bonus points if your friend is not in the sciences so you can gain other perspectives and insights while reading a passage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VRorDEATH Posted February 19, 2015 Author Report Share Posted February 19, 2015 Thank you for your reply. I actually focused most of my time on verbal to improve my 8 on VR. I stimulated the test conditions and took a min of 3 days to review each test by googling everything that I got wrong/right. Rather than improving on verbal, I ended up with a much lower score. I'm OOP. So I don't have a chance at Ottawa.. I feel that my reading speed is limiting me because I guessed on the last passage. However, I still guessed with my 2nd attempt and ended up with an 8. I don't have a problem spending my entire life on verbal but I just hate how subjective and unpredictable that section is.. Sorry for the long post Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PurpleS Posted February 19, 2015 Report Share Posted February 19, 2015 What really improved my VR score was taking another approach. Instead of focusing on reading speed, I read the passage slowly and made sure I understood everything prior to tackling the questions. Then I was able to answer the questions really quickly without having to refer to the passage that much. I find this approach actually saves time and helps you answer questions more accurately. I know it's frustrating to have to re-write because of VR ): And sometimes you just need more time to prepare/practice. How long did you prepare for your MCAT? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
_ _ Posted February 19, 2015 Report Share Posted February 19, 2015 What really improved my VR score was taking another approach. Instead of focusing on reading speed, I read the passage slowly and made sure I understood everything prior to tackling the questions. Then I was able to answer the questions really quickly without having to refer to the passage that much. I find this approach actually saves time and helps you answer questions more accurately. I know it's frustrating to have to re-write because of VR ): And sometimes you just need more time to prepare/practice. How long did you prepare for your MCAT? I second this I really struggled with VR (got 8's on my first few practices), and I did manage to pull it up a bit (10, so not great but half-ok) The thing that helped me was spending like, double the recomended time on the AAMC self-assesment. It's like 30 dollars I think, so it was cheaper then buying a prep book, and I just went really carfeully through it and looked for all the keywords, tricks, stuff like that and finally started to figure out where on earth they were picking those answers from... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StayHappy Posted February 19, 2015 Report Share Posted February 19, 2015 follow each line with your finger and mouth the words. Just try it. Took me from a 7 to a 10. You can beat this! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VRorDEATH Posted February 20, 2015 Author Report Share Posted February 20, 2015 Thank you for the replies everyone. I really appreciate it I spent 4 months this time to prep for the mcat. 2 of those for verbal using the AAMC self-assessment in addition to EK, Kaplan, TPR and verbal mastery. I'm just frustrated with this section brcause this time around I was confident with my answers and I read the passages really well that I still recall them right now. I still remember how bad I felt about my second verbal attempt, yet I was surprised with an 8. Could verbal really fluctuate that much? I mean it is a standardized test? Is it possible to be an error in reporting? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnGrisham Posted February 20, 2015 Report Share Posted February 20, 2015 There may be 1 or 2 US schools that will consider you with such a low VR score, but strong science scores and strong GPA/ECs. Any chance you are ESL? PM me if you want more information. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VRorDEATH Posted February 20, 2015 Author Report Share Posted February 20, 2015 Yes, I'm an ESL. However, I don't have a significant issue with the language. For example, I took a literature class and ended up with an A+. It's just I'm a slow reader and that wasn't an issue with any class that I took before. Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sdj78we9jtf2o3mgfvj298j Posted February 21, 2015 Report Share Posted February 21, 2015 ...................................................... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VRorDEATH Posted February 21, 2015 Author Report Share Posted February 21, 2015 Hey I struggled a lot with VR too. In my practice I ranged from a 7-9 and I got an 8 on my first write. My second try I studied VR for two weeks straight with a new strategy and got an 11. What I did differently the second time was to read the first half of the passage and begin answering questions. Once I've answered all the questions I can answer at that point, I read the rest of the passage and finished off the questions. Give yourself an 8 minute time limit per passage and move on no matter what. I had a lot of trouble with timing in my first write like you did (I didn't finish reading the last passage and I guessed on the last 4 questions). The second time I finished with 7 minutes to spare and I was able to check my work. A couple of guiding questions you should have for every passage are "Why is the author writing this? What is his point? What is his tone and diction? How are his arguments constructed to support his point?" Understand that the author has a perspective that needs to be understood and that he is writing that passage for a reason. Hopefully I was helpful. That seems to be a good approach that I have never tried before. Being able to finish the section would absolutely shoot my score. I'm interested to know how you actually could tell the tone of the author by just reading half the passage? Most of the passages that I have done are usually inconsistent in terms of how the author deals with a certain issue. So for me, I can only catch the tone when I have a holistic idea about the whole passage... Thank you for your help, that is certainly something that I have never heard of before Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sdj78we9jtf2o3mgfvj298j Posted February 21, 2015 Report Share Posted February 21, 2015 That seems to be a good approach that I have never tried before. Being able to finish the section would absolutely shoot my score. I'm interested to know how you actually could tell the tone of the author by just reading half the passage? Most of the passages that I have done are usually inconsistent in terms of how the author deals with a certain issue. So for me, I can only catch the tone when I have a holistic idea about the whole passage... Thank you for your help, that is certainly something that I have never heard of before I found that it helped me because I relied less on my memory when answering the questions cause I'm only reading 2-3 paragraphs at a time. I also don't waste my time searching through the passage for answers because I remember what I did and didn't read. In terms of determining the author's tone, just look at the usage of positive or negative wording throughout the passage. That's probably the clearest way of understanding the author's position and opinion. I had the same feeling where I thought the author's tone was inconsistent, but the reality was that I didn't really understand the passage. The inconsistency derives from modifications of the author's original opinion (eg "I really think that bugs that fly are majestic, but moths disgust me). Try to clearly understand how the author develops their opinion throughout the passage. Try my approach and you'll see that your understanding of the passage greatly differs when you read in smaller chunks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VRorDEATH Posted February 22, 2015 Author Report Share Posted February 22, 2015 Thank you very much chocolatecheese for your insights, I really appreciate your help Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bearded frog Posted February 23, 2015 Report Share Posted February 23, 2015 You're going to have to work on your reading speed. It can be improved. VR has hard cut offs at most school because they use it as their language requirement. Medschool and Medicine in general has a LOT of reading and not a bunch of time so its definitely a skill you're going to need. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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