Hello,
I’m just wondering what is the best way to practice for the VR - I am currently taking the Kaplan course, but it’s really not helping … I took the same course 4 yrs ago and I got 7 on my verbal at the test day! Now, I just took the kaplan diagnostics and got a 4!!! the test might as well be in a different language - I’m thinking that I need a different strategy for the verbal - My PS and BS were OK (or rather, recoverable) - any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
That section is the one that I learned the most from taking the Kaplan course. How long have you been in the class so far this time?
I would suggest lots and lots of practice sections. I would suggest in addition to your Kaplan materials you also purchase the Princeton Review “Cracking the MCAT” from your local bookstore or amazon.com. That way you have evne more questions to practice with.
Good luck. The diagnostic is only the begining don’t let it worry you. I got a 3 on mine. I personally think that Kaplan makes it very hard so you can see improve as you go along and that then you will credit their classes with more credit. Just my humble opinion on that.
I would suggest you look at a couple of other test prep books–perhaps Princeton Review and ExamKrackers–to see if either of them makes more sense for you. If you took Kaplan last time and didn’t improve your verbal score, and the current course is taught the same way, then it stands to reason that this is not the best tool for you. Everybody’s a little different, and what works for some students may not be what works for you.
Look around and see if you can find something that “clicks” for you.
The other thing I’ve heard several people say is that you should look over the test at every question and answer and for the ones you got right, ask WHY you got them right, and for the ones you got wrong, try to understand the right answer and try to identify what threw you off when you were taking the test. This allows you to get maximum value from the practice tests.
I think Denise is right. There are many methods, but the most important thing to improvement is lots of practice with honest SELF ASSESSMENT. You need as much time as it takes to figure out why you are answering things wrong, recognize you weaknesses, and then practice over and over to conquer them. If you just do endless passages without changing for the better, you are really not going to improve much.
You will notice after a while that there are tell-tale ‘trap’ answers: Out of scope, extreme (ALWAYS/NEVER/etc). They are often written to be very tantalizing. The more practice you have, the more confident you will be to get rid of those ‘bad’ answers.
The best advice I got was not to look for the ‘right’ answer, but the ‘least wrong’ answer for the VR section. I could often make arguements to myself why one choice ‘could’ work, but I was reading too far into it. Find one thing about the choice that is wrong, and cross it off (it may sound 90% ‘right’ - but if one little part is wrong, it’s all wrong). Usually, you can get it down to 2 choices, and as you practice more, you will be able to get it down to one more times than not.
Good Luck!!
Matt
Thanks for all of the suggestions - I think I’ll try another method (for the VR only) - as for PS and BS, I will stick to Kaplan…it seemed to work the last time (around 4 yrs ago).
Anyway, I did remember reading the explanations and read all of the Kaplan materials (out of scope stuff, etc)- and even did the optional practice exams but when it came to applying the concept on the test - I’m just lost!!! I can’t seem to distinguish the wrong answers…almost like being color blind or something (it’s just not in my brain circuit!!!) I tried and tried and tried - but I couldn’t get past 7s on practice VR exams four years ago…needless to say (I got a 7 on the test day) Thus, I was disheartened…