Hello everyone
I am hoping to get some valuable information to my question.I have heard that the verbal reasoning & writing section on the MCAT is very difficult.Are there any undergraduate courses that i can take that will help me in preparing for the verbal reasoning part of the exam.Would taking a philosphy course help? What tips Emergency or anyone else have that can be shared on this topic.It would be very much appreciated.
The verbal reasoning section of the MCAT is like a triple-espresso induced, steroid enhanced, version of reading comprehension. Actually the comparison is completely misleading because it is definitely not reading comprehension at all. It is perceived to be so difficult because, unlike other areas of the MCAT, it is NOT based any understanding of previously learned concepts but tests your ability to comprehend, obtuse, nuanced, opinions, themes, viewpoints, arguments, etc and further apply these to potentially different set of circumstances. In short, it replies entirely on your understanding and judgment. You cannot calculate or find the right answer from the text.
Indeed this is why most students see the verbal section as so difficult. They search in vain for the “answer” in the text, believing it just a harder version of reading comprehension. Often the question stems are as complex as the passage itself. And as often students spend precious time going back to the original passage over and over again and just never finish the section.
One of my MCAT rules is the reason students do not finish the section is because students do not finish the section. That is not a typo. Students often do not a good process and discipline in place for taking this section. This is where feeling you do not know the answer is the norm and you must have a process from practice and practice that lets you calmly, deliberately, and timely work thru each question up to your time limit per question and move on to the next.
In Zen fashion, you must become one with the exam. You must read the passage ONCE, understanding it as best you can for the themes and points. You then must do each question without going back to the passage. You eliminate what answers you can and when your minute per question (approximately) time limit is up, you guess and move on. Like the wind, the question is gone, not to be thought of again. My only exception to this once you get thru all the questions in a passage, you may go back for a minute to redo a question, but you must, must, must follow your time limit and move on. You then must clear your mind and go on to the next passage without a thought to questions are past or what may be coming up. You must be focused, calm, and mind only on the passage and question in front of you. You must become one with the exam
Thanks for the advice, gonnif. I was at Border’s the other day, perusing through the EK verbal reasoning book and was very humbled after doing a few passages. In the past, reading comprehension has always been a strong area for me on standardized tests. The MCAT VR is definitely tough. I’m glad to know the many MCAT test takers feel the same way!
same way you get to carnegie hall
practice, practice, practice.
But really, the verbal section is a test of critical thinking. you need to be able to take the information you just read such as that which is presented in the passage or from the author’s purpose in writing it and apply it to another situation. Most of the time, people lose time because they go back to the passage to look for an answer that is really not there. This is not reading comprehension this is verbal reasoning.
- gabelerman Said:
same way you get to carnegie hall
practice, practice, practice.
practice, practice, practice.
I usually take the Q or R train to 57th street myself
- gonnif Said:
- gabelerman Said:
same way you get to carnegie hall
practice, practice, practice.
practice, practice, practice.
I usually take the Q or R train to 57th street myself
http://instantrimshot.com/
When you are actually sitting down to do your intense preperation for the MCAT I would recommend the Exam Kracker’s method suggested for VR. I originally took Kaplan and scored a 6 on VR. I re-took the MCAT a few months later after using EK complete home study package and scored a 10… a very solid score for VR for most schools.
EK seems over simplified, but for me it worked the best. Kaplan wanted you to “map out the passage” which takes time and as someone mentioned earlier in the thread, it’s really the time that gets to you in this section. EK on the other hand has you use some really common sense methods, such as envisioning in your head what the author of the passage looks like, and thinking about how that person would vote (liberal vs. conservative), male vs. female, are they an artist, scientist, writer, etc. In essence EK gets you to “stereotype” the author and this in turn helps you to answer the questions. I’m sure this approach may not work for everybody, but it helped me.
For the writing section I thought Kaplan actually did do a good job preparing me for that section. Their approach is very simple, and specific. The writing section is really about satisfying some basic criteria and everything past that is extra. Of course great spelling/grammer/punctuat ion/creativity all helps, but really it’s about satisfying the MCATs criteria of defining the prompt, coming up with a counterexample, and resolving the discrepancy.
Also, as mentioned earlier, practice, practice, practice! Can’t emphasize that enough!
Hope this helps!
-Theresa
Is the EK study package expensive? Would you suggest using different books for different sections of the MCAT?
The complete study package was $175. Well worth it in my opinion. The bio review is fantastic and the chem and physics books are adequate… they’re just not as good as the bio book. I’ve heard some other people echo this sentiment as well. If you’ve recently taken physics and inorganic chem then they’re probably fine. I found the 10 week home study program to be great. As long as your disciplined it’s a doable amount of work that will focus your study efforts.