<p>Hi,</p>
<p>I am new here. I graduated last May in Biochem and had GPA of 3.68. I received my High Honor Research. I took my MCAT and got 27: 11 PS, 10 BS, and 6 VR. I think VR is killing me if I risked to apply to med schools. Do you guy suggest me to retake MCAT since I am not really sure I can get 8-9 on VR since verbal is not really my strength.</p>
<p>Thanks alot</p>
<p>Are you a native English speaker? </p>
<p>(ELLs get a bit more latitude with their verbal scores than do native English speakers.)</p>
<p>If you are, I think that allopathic medical schools may be a reach with VR 6. It’s widely rumored (but not explicitly published anywhere) that English speakers with a VR below 8 will get you screened out at most schools. </p>
<p>Have you checked the MCAT averages at your in-state schools? You might consider contacting admissions and asking if they have a verbal score floor for consideration.</p>
<p>27 is not good, but I do not know how to imporve VR. VR has always been the lowest on all of my D’s standardized tests, including MCAT. She prepared for much longer time than most. Her other scores improved, but not VR. One cannot change the way they read.</p>
<p>
False. It’s much more difficult because it’s a habit we have developed over a much longer period than our science knowledge but the verbal section can be improved through certain practice techniques (I forget the fancy name Kaplan had, but the exercise where you go through passages and give reasons for why each answer is wrong, then compare to the kaplan explanation is very helpful), or test taking techniques (passage mapping).</p>
<p>Even in my own personal life I took a speed reading course the other year and while the bump in reading scientific literature is pretty minimal, I can read news articles and other non technical lit much faster and have definitely been able to minimize my internal voice and read with my eyes alone more.</p>
<p>??</p>
<p>You still have time to retake for this next app cycle. Why not study for the MCAT now and retake in April?</p>
<p>brown,
D has taken several “speed reading course the”, they were completely useless in her case. While you could improve your reading, many will not. And that is the fact. Her problem is just that - she is NOT a reader, she does not like reading, she has practically no interest in any political / economic events, I bet she lack vocabulary in this area. " news articles and other non technical " is exactly what she has the most difficulties understanding. Keep in mind, her hardest HS class was History, you would not believe what effort it took to get that A, how many hours of discussion with her father. I never seen her doing calc, chem., Spanish, those took few minutes at school.
People like her will always have a problem with the verbal. But MCAT was the last one, no more verbal / reading…</p>
<p>*Quote:
One cannot change the way they read.
*</p>
<p>I don’t know what the problem is with the OP. I can only speak to what went on with S2. For years, when he took standardized tests, his reading sections were always his lowest scores. He’d say that he didn’t like reading and I thought that was it. I also knew he was a slowish reader.</p>
<p>Years later, when he was reading a SAT prep book’s tips, he came across a mention about slow readers. Turns out that some slow-readers “silently pronounce” each word in their heads…which slows down reading a lot. The book gave some tips on how to overcome that by just forcing the eye to run over each word without that “silent pronouncement.” So, using one’s finger and running it quickly under each sentence, forces the eye to keep moving and the person is supposed to just kind of “absorb” the word rather than pronounce it.</p>
<p>After that, son was able to significantly increase his scores that involved reading.</p>
<p>I forgot who (on CC) said this: To be good at verbal tests like this, a person had better have a variety of interests on many “intellectual” subjects which require some extensive reading (mostly out of his/her own interest.) Some people are just naturally lopsided toward, and become an “expert” in, fewer areas, while some others are naturally interested in more subject areas. (Come to think of this: BDM seems to be somewhat like a person who is naturally interested in many intellectually-rich subject areas.)</p>
<p>I think DS’s interest is not that broad, but is not very narrow either. In certain subject areas, it appears he would bother to learn something that would mostly be interested by some other generation when they were young. Occasionally, he would meet somebody who’s 20-30 years older than him. That person would be surprised that a young person like him would know something that his generation (but not the new generation) would know. They could talk to each other on the shared interest for a long time.</p>
<p>mom2collegekids,
D. knows why she reads slower. She developed her type of reading because it works very well to study material in class. She is much more efficient than many others. She points out that some asked questions that explained very well in a book. Here is her way: while reading, she is making logical connections to many other facts outside of what she is reading, “creating a picture” for herself so to speak. It helpes her to understand deeper, to retain longer and think faster later on. It slows down reading, while helping tremendously with class material. Her way does not help at all in understanding reading which is completely outside of her interest (politics, economy). Most verbal sections in standardized test are in area that is completely outside of D’s horison and she even might lack vocabulary there. Thank goodness, her way of reading continues helping her in Med. School and she will never be tested in Verbal / Reading section anymore. At the same time, I do not believe that she would be successful in something like Law School, but she is well aware of it.
D. has very wide range of interests (wider than most in her age, mostly because of her background). But they are not connected anyhow to politics / economy / business side. She is a very mature person and has developed many skills outside of schience/medicine, that she has also used to her advantage and many time helping others.
There is no general rule here. Some people can (want) to improve and many (most?) will never improve their reading score.</p>
<p>OP- you should definitely consider taking a MCAT prep course and/or reading up on SDN for tips on how to improve your verbal score (there are many people there with ideas and success stories). A 6 on verbal may get you auto screened out of many allopathic schools before they even consider anything else about you. You can also get several different verbal MCAT prep books and assess what your problem with the verbal section is. A DO school may be ok with this subscore along with the rest of your application.</p>
<p>Reading is a skill. You can improve your verbal score over time. We don’t all start out reading fast and efficiently-- that is why we learn how to do it and how to improve it during schooling. People who do not improve have not put in the significant time and effort to do so-- have you read Outliers? </p>
<p>The rest of your MCAT subscores and GPA are on target-- but the verbal will be a problem.</p>
<p>a 6 is poor. Retake. </p>
<p>But in the meantime, sign up for a Philosophy class or two at your local college. To get better at reading and expand your vocab, you need to start reading many more non-STEM books.</p>
<p>Thank you all for your reply and suggestion.</p>
<p>I am studying verbal explicitly right now and thinking about retake MCAT in this May…but one thing is I am so depressed when I am practicing my verbal. The more I try to read and improve my reading skill, the more depressed I am thinking about my future. English is not my mother language so it is much harder also. </p>
<p>Don’t delay…the MCAT seats in May are likely filling up now.</p>
<p>
I personally take this to be a good thing for you. I think it means you could potentially improve your score more so than someone who was a native speaker getting a 6.</p>
<p>iwbb,
Do you have a background to support the statement in your last post? I do not mean some internet statistical data. Anybody can check for internet statistical data. I mean if you have a personal background to assess the OP situation. Based on your posts, it looks like your advice is strictly coming from theoretical assumptions. Be careful with this.
OP, assess your situation with the cool head and maybe discuss it with somebody of the similar background. I am not sure that any of us here can intellingently advise you. Any theoretical assumptions are irrelevant. You need to assess what your personally able to accomplish and people with the similar background might have some helpful hints. </p>
<p>@MiamiDAP,
I tried to word my post to make it clear that I’m speculating. I worked at Kaplan for almost 2 years and I do think verbal reasoning on the MCAT is it’s own skill and that it does involve breaking down/developing new habits in terms of reading. That part is well supported by Kaplan as well. By extension, my untested hypothesis is that someone who is scoring poorly because english is not their first language, rather than deeply entrenched poor reading habits or an inability to grasp the proper verbal reasoning strategy, will be more likely to improve their score as their english progresses. I very well could be completely wrong though.</p>
<p>I was also trying to offer encouragement given this statement:
</p>
<p>Even if I’m completely wrong, I don’t really see the harm for the OP in thinking that this student has a higher ceiling because his issues are language comprehension, not verbal reasoning.</p>