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Improving verbal?
kyleasdfjkl
#1 Posted : Thursday, July 14, 2011 9:16:36 PM
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I dunno about any of you guys...but personally this seems to be the hardest section to improve...I managed to score decently high on the diagnostic and havnt even been able to stay at that score...getting 2 points lower...

Is there any more to do at this point? Or after all the EK passages are done? Are there any other books or strategies to try? It seems like such a crazy section....
mybarrette
#2 Posted : Thursday, July 14, 2011 9:36:38 PM
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I would also love some feedback on this. My score is consistently poor each week. I don't know what to do now that my MCAT is a couple weeks away!
matthewward
#3 Posted : Sunday, July 17, 2011 3:30:52 AM
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A couple things to ask yourself:

-Are you properly reviewing your VR tests after you write them? You should quite literally spend 3 hours reviewing for everyone 1 hour of writing. Try to focus on the wrong answers (not just the correct one) and start to work on identifying the reoccuring question patterns in VR.

-Are you still focusing on details when you are reading, or have you finally bought into the idea that VR is ALL about the Main Idea and the Author? Ask yourself these sorts of questions when reading a passage:

1) What is the main point or overall gist of the passage.
2) Who is the author?
3) What is the author's opinion on this topic (tone)?
4) Why did the author write this passage (purpose)?
5) How did he write the passage (structure) and how effective were his arguments?

Indeed - stop focusing on the details of the passage and get away from the idea that VR is reading comprehension...it is NOT.

-Are you accepting and implementing the question strategies we have told you to utilize?

1) Finding the correct answer from elimination (and simply accepting the answer as correct even if it still doesn't seem right...remember: ideal answers are often not present, therefore the best answer = correct answer).
2) Accepting 50/50 as good outcomes - guess and move on!
3) Fully understanding what the question stem is asking for (and appreciating that the question stem is often an extension of the passage itself).

Finally, you need to note that VR is easy for virtually no one! If it were easy, everyone would do well on it and medical schools wouldn't put the emphasis on it like they do right now. To master VR, it takes hours (and I do mean hours...like, the equivalent, if not more time than what you have put into all the science subjects combined!) and even then, there are unfortunately no guarentees. Therefore, the best advice I can give you is don't give up - keep working towards improving your VR score any way you can, as even one or two more points higher might make you significantly more competitive for medical school. However, you are certainly not alone in your VR woes and there is certainly no magic/silver bullet.

Hope some of this helped and keep moving forward!

-Matt

P.S. If you are looking for additional VR materials, the next best source after EK and the AAMC (in my opinion) is The Berkley Review. Ordering their VR book can be a pain, so I'd first suggest checking out Amazon...
umqually
#4 Posted : Tuesday, July 19, 2011 2:34:13 PM
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I also have had some problems on this subject both in the past and now. I wrote the MCAT last year and have to re write it this year due to the VR. It is only recently that I have found my scores improving and as Matt said its all about putting in some hours. Further more DO NOT PANIC ABOUT TIME. It seems bad at first but re writing the MCAT is not the end of the world however going into the test terrified that you may have to re write unless you pull out a miracle on the VR is a sure fire way to fail it. Work hard on it but don't get discouraged at any point in time.
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