how did you prepare for the verbal section of the MCATs?

Question

The BIO/CHEM/Physics parts are straight textbook. But I am having trouble with verbal. Any tips?

Answer 1

http://www.aamc.org/students/mcat/preparing/vrprep.htm --- Read it and click on "practice test 3r". There you'll find a sample section from the verbal part of the test. They also have a free practice test you can take but it looks like you have to sign up for an account to do that.

Also..
Do you have any suggestions on how to prepare for the verbal reasoning
section?
People who really enjoy reading seem to do better than others on the VR
section since they tend to have had much more practice at this skill. The
more you read, the better you will get at reading. So you can prepare by
reading a lot. And even better than this is to read articles similar to those
that appear on the MCAT, e.g. NY Times Op/Ed section, The Economist,
etc. But even this is like learning to play tennis without a ball. You would
do better by completing practice MCAT (or GRE, LSAT, etc.) passages.
First, just try to get the right answers, then try to work within the time
constraints. (www.chem.latech.edu/~hji/MCAT/FAQ.pdf)

Here's a link for Verbal Reasoning Skills Topics so you can see what exactly they're trying to evaluate you on (it's a PDF file!): http://www.aamc.org/students/mcat/preparing/vstopics.pdf

Also, I don't have the link for this but when I was looking at some other websites for you, it said that the verbal section was very similar to the reading comprehension section on the SAT and other standardized tests. I'm not sure if you have an old SAT review book hanging around from high school or if you can purchase one for cheap somewhere but going through and reading the passages and answering the questions wouldn't hurt.


Good luck on the MCAT! :)

Answer 2

The honest answer is that you just have to have read a lot. But no one ever wants to hear that. *g*

The truth about the MCAT is that the whole test is verbal reasoning. Those Biological Science and Physical Science sections? They're mostly passage-based. I think there are about 15 'discrete' questions per section. So the reality is that the better you are at reading and digging the meaning out of the passage quickly, the better you will do on the whole exam. (Don't take my word for it--check the website. They just announced the numbers for 2006 and humanities students, for about the fortieth year in a row, have come out on top on the test as a whole. They also, for the first time, did better in BS that biology majors.)

So the VR is important. You probably think I am never going to stop yapping and answer your question. So here it is: when you read any passage, you think about three things right from the start.

1. What is the passage about? (This will help you with the simpler-level questions, like topic, subject, era...)
2. Why did the author write it? (Here you want to think about intent. Is it an editorial? Does it seem like a textbook? Literary? These are slightly more complex questions about intent and context.)
3. What does the author want to do in the passage? (Instruct? Convince? Compare/contrast? Deny? These are always the more difficult questions.)

A lot of people advise reading the newspaper's editorial section or The New Yorker; I think it's probably just as well to use practice material, but whatever you're willing to do is good. I was ridiculously amused to find a Stephen Jay Gould passage on my exam that I actually recognized; they pull from his stuff all the time.

Best of luck. This is a very manageable test--just keep plugging!

Answer 3

I found the Princeton Review MCAT study book to be very helpful. Kaplan also has a helpful review book. The books are a bit pricey, but if you want to do well, they are almost necessary. Another thing that you can do, is organize a study group and each time you get together, focus on one part of the exam. Studying with others may help you understand things that maybe you didn't understand before because more than likely someone in your study group will be able to help you with the parts that you didn't do so well in! Good luck!

Answer 4

"MUD" has a good answer. Years ago when I took it, I studied vocabulary learning 5000 new words to prepare. Only one was on the test, so my preparation was futile. Yet I still did well, got into med school, and became top 5% in comparison with other med students nationwide. In the "old days" of the 1970s the MCATs did not count as much as your grades and the all important interview. Lots of people have good "scores". The interview is where you need to show your best. (Unless things have drastically changed.)