<p>I know that the MCAT tests your critical thinking and the verbal section is weighed heavily. I am not that good of a "speed reader" and on the SATS, the only section which I really didn't do really well in was the critical passages/reading section. I have been reading a lot more (economist, wall street journal, etc) to improve my reading/understanding of the text, but are there any other methods/tips you guys recommend when one is trying to increase their MCAT verbal score? BTW, I am a freshman, so I don't know if practice tests are a good idea.</p>
<p>I would go ahead and take a verbal-only practice test just to see where you stand and get a feel for the expectations they place on you.</p>
<p>Just the one section. Just the one time. Don't practice. Don't try to improve. Just take it once to get a feel for what it's like, and then don't touch it again until the actual MCAT time comes around.</p>
<p>And, just for the record: it's easier to learn when you start from the belief that the test answers are always right and never arguable -- if you disagree, it's only because you're wrong. It helps make you think the way they do.</p>
<p>Read, read, read, read, read. Being able to read a variety of types of non-fiction is a great start, so I think your choices of the Economist and WSJ are good. Throw in some books too, particularly science books aimed at non-scientists as well as some social sciences stuff - some personal favorites include Finding Darwin's God, The Selfish Gene, Sperm Wars, Savage Inequalities, Unequal Childhoods, and Nickel and Dimed. At least during my time with Kaplan, I could tell that science majors often had difficult dealing with the social science and humanities passages that came up on the VR section because the writing style is different and the types of questions had them thinking in very different ways.</p>
<p>thanks for the replys bdm and brm, I really appreciate it. I will continue to just read and I'll get those books from the library- some of them sound very interesting! </p>
<p>also bdm, </p>
<p>"it's easier to learn when you start from the belief that the test answers are always right and never arguable"</p>
<p>I am not sure quite what you mean by this (maybe because I haven't looked at a verbal question yet). If it's a reading comprehension question, are you saying to pretend that all the answer choices are right and then try to disprove the 4 wrong ones by evidence from the text? I'm confused.</p>
<p>No, sorry for being unclear.</p>
<p>I mean that many of the students in my class would often pick an answer and check it against the answer key. When they discover that they picked the wrong choice, they tended to argue that they were right in the first place, that the test was wrong or made no sense or whatever.</p>
<p>Whether they had merit or not is not the issue. My point is that this approach did not serve them well.</p>
<p>They would have done far better had they set aside their complaint and worked hard at convincing themselves that the test was correct as written, finding the explanation, and learning to think like the test-writers.</p>
<p>PS: The BDM Reading List (BRL) is Freakonomics, Tipping Point <a href="do%20NOT%20touch%20Blink">/U</a>, and Moneyball.</p>
<p>ok thanks for the clarification. </p>
<p>p.s. I will try to read most of those books, but moneyball doesn't look too appealing since I am a yankees fan :P</p>
<p>im a freshman too, and I asked a few juniors about MCAT verbal. They tell me that the best way to start preparing is not by reading novels (although thats just one viewpoint). Most say that reading articles from the economist, nature (the one's can understand in the first part of the magazine having to do with science-politics and the book reviews), and the opinion section in the LA Times would be a good start. Personally, I think that a few classes in philosophy and english would be good, because the coursework usually includes reading a passage (or sometimes a book) and breaking down the author's argument on a specific subject and writing your ideas into a 2-3 page paper.</p>
<p>I don't think either BRM or I mentioned any novels.</p>
<p>^i wasn't referring to your posts :). I basically asked my friends "which books should I read to prep for verbal" and they told me it was better to read mcat-length passages.</p>
<p>would consistently reading the newspaper help? how about reading medical journals and such?</p>
<p>Newspaper yes, medical journals probably not really.</p>
<p>cool, thanks for the feedback, bdm. I subscribed to the NYTimes so hopefully it should help if I am consistent in reading it.</p>
<p>Reading the newspaper - as long as we're talking about ones like the New York Times, Wall Street Journal (if you're particularly interested in business), Washington Post, LA Times, etc - absolutely. But some cities have pretty poor newspapers - I swear my campus newspaper in undergrad was as good or better than the fluff that is presented in my current cities newspaper.</p>
<p>WSJ > NYTimes</p>
<p>wow, you guys recommend reading stuff you're not interested in just to boost an MCAT verbal score? that's the stupidest thing i've ever heard! the sad thing these ppl listen to you and will likely start reading the WSJ, Economist, newspapers, etc. not out of interest but to boost their scores. that is retarded. i'm not saying it won't help them, but that's just a sad way to go about it haha. extremely superficial...i think being good on verbal tests comes from life long experience of reading such things. being like "oh no i need to read today's WSJ so i can boost my mcat score" is stupid and i think anyone who does that for that sole purpose should be rejected from every med school. lol, i know i'm not being a bit extreme...i apologize but just such advice seems absurd to me.</p>
<p>so what if we're bad at verbal? should we just not try and improve our score? is wanting a higher score "superficial"? what do you suggest we do?</p>
<p>bfjava, I sort of agree with Bruinboy on this one. I just made the thread because I didn't really do that well on the critical reading part of the SAT and I figured I could use the extra help when it came to the MCAT since the MCAT requires verbal skills in ALL of its sections. </p>
<p>On a side note, I said that the books BDM and BRM recommended were interesting and were probably books I would have read anyways (if someone had told me about them). </p>
<p>p.s. Why post in the thread if you were just going to say something negative?</p>
<p>"that's a sad way to go about it"</p>
<p>If you know a better way to improve then please post! :)</p>
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Bigredmed: "if you're particularly interested"
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<p>Interest matters.</p>
<p>taking lots of practice tests i would think? that way you learn what kind of questions they ask and what sort of answers they want. i just remember back in high school all the kids memorizing the huge lists of vocab words for the SAT analogy section. that is so pointless down the road because you are just going to forget all that in a few months. i dont know, i personally only like to study what i'm going to remember down the road. i'm very relieved that collegeboard got rid of the analogies tho, perhaps they realized the skill of choosing analogies is completely unproductive. unfortunately, many classes make you learn dribble that you'll never use again. i only like classes that i actually learn useful things. unfortunately, many of my bio classes make you memorize tons of garbage you'll never see again. i just don't understand this sort of learning, ya know?</p>
<p>anyways, if you want to read the Economist and so forth to improve your verbal score, then by all means do it. but do you really think that's going to help if you start doing that a few months before the mcat? you at least better read something that interests you or then it's completely superficial imo.</p>
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you really think that's going to help if you start doing that a few months before the mcat?
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<p>The OP points out:
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BTW, I am a freshman
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