I’ve been offered a conditional acceptance to a top university if I can get my VR score up from an 6 to an 8. What is the best approach for improving VR and knocking it out of the park?
Hi, first of all, congratulations on the conditional acceptance, that is wonderful. Raising the VR from 6 to 8 will take some work, but you can do it. I am taking the MCAT again next April, however the last time I’ve taken it I scored a 9 in VR. The best approach for me was just practice, practice, practice. I really like the examcrackers approach, which the basics of it are attempting EVERY question and don’t skip around on the passages; work through each question in order. The more you practice using practice tests and other materials under timed conditions, I promise you that you will see improvement. Again, I recommend the Examcrackers approach.
I concur fully. The examkrackers audio osmosis short VR lecture/advice is the ONE piece of advice that I tell EVERYBODY who takes the MCAT. They say that the reason people don’t finish the VR is that they don’t finish the VR… (Huh?)
People get hung up on reading and rereading and searching for the answer in hopes of finding it. Their advice is read it once carefully and never go back. read each question as carefully, and give yourself a specific time limit to answer. Don’t have the answer by that time, eliminate, guess and move on… (my caveat is a minute for each question at most, I will pass a question once and while still in the passage I may go back to the skipped question after I do the other 5 or 6 questions but for 45-60 seconds only and then bye-bye.)
Their other advice is focus and a 5 second break between passages with the most important break being BEFORE YOU START THE FIRST PASSAGE. A real story on that is that I was helping an OPM’er I met at a conference who was getting 28’s with VR being the worst, working the last month on “focus” and “zen” got a 34 on the MCAT with a 10 in VR. And if she hadn’t freaked on the first passage she is sure she would have gotten a 36.
And opposite side is I have taken the Kaplan course and really think the their method is not great. BTW, I know someone who is a kaplan instructor who has an undergrad degree in both bio and classics, who aced the Physical Science and Bio but who also got a 6 on the VR.
PM for some more on the audio osmosis VR
The EK book on how to take the verbal exam is a REAL gem. With this book, I’ve learned to answer half of the questions BEFORE reading the passage!
This is just my opinion but do not use EK to study for VR. Move to Kaplan. EK I found focuses too much on detail and not enough on drawing out the main concept. EK’s Audio Osmosis for VR was great though. I found the best piece of advice they gave was read the passage as if you were listening to a friend. Assuming you listen to your friends, I think that should help some.
BTW - Congrats on that conditional acceptance! They must really want you if they are telling you exactly what you must do to guarantee acceptance.