Tutoring Overview & Test-Taking Tips

MCAT VERBAL REASONING TUTOR

Affordable
Individualized Tutoring Includes:
Evaluating Your Test-Taking Strengths & Weaknesses,
Time Management & Time Saving Skills,
Stress Reduction,

Fact-Finding Question/Answer Tactics,
Big Picture Question/Answer  Strategies,
Standard Practice Tests,

And Much More...

Contact: brianels@dcn.org

Conveniently located in Davis, California

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Do you feel stressed during MCAT Verbal Reasoning Section Practice Tests?

Did you know that stress can distract you from using your powers of reason and logic to solve the VR?

Stress is understandable; there’s a lot at stake, of course.

There is no other standardized test quite like Verbal Reasoning.

It is a unique obstacle on your way to becoming a physician.

For example, a correct MCAT VR answer isn’t necessarily exactly 100% correct. 

Sometimes a correct VR answer is simply the one that is correct enough.  

To solve some VR questions, you must infer, interpret, analyze literary techniques and so on. Many pre-med students find these skills unfamiliar. 

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Raising your VR practice scores consistently is very possible.

All it takes is practice and your willingness to think through each step you need to take to understand nuances of the passages and choose correct answers. 

A slight change in attitude may help as well.

Do you "attack" the VR as though it were a normal reading comprehension test?
How is that working out for you? 
Do you stress when that doesn't work on the uniqueness of the MCAT VR? 

                  Perhaps individualized VR tutoring is for you.

Learn to lower stress by approaching the MCAT VR on its own unique terms.

Could a change in attitude help? Try reading the passages as though they were challenging and (hypothetically) fascinating magazine articles.

That way you'll become aware of "Main Ideas," "Supporting Evidence," "Literary Techniques," and other MCAT VR configurations you need to know to choose correct answers.   

As stress decreases, your score numbers will increase.

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How Does Self Evaluation Work?
Passage/question sets that are easy for some test-takers others may find difficult.
MCAT VR passages are, unfortunately, designed to be boring and difficult. Learn to adapt and adopt an attitude like you are going to get through these passages and glean the information you need. 
Adapt to distractions and words you don't understand. Learn a different approach to reading than you may be used to. 

MCAT READING STRATEGY: 
Read each passage twice. Skim the first time through. Don't slow down if you come across words you don't understand; simply note their locations. That way, if those words appear in a question or answer, you can quickly find them again. You can learn the meanings of most unfamiliar words you'll find in MCAT passages by examining the context where you found them.

Overly Complex And/Or Convoluted Language?
MCAT VR passages are written to throw you off with "distractors." What are "distractors? They are words or phrases in an answer, for example, that appear to be identical with relevant language in the passage. Except they are not! Read every word; sometimes the addition of a "not" will change the meaning to the opposite of what the passage says. Every single word in a truly correct answer must be true to t he passage. 

[FIND OUT MORE ABOUT DISTRACTORS IN THEIR CHAPTER, Later.]

TIME MANAGEMENT

Keep track of the time you spend on each question during your practice sessions. Test-Taking Tactic: Don’t let the clock dictate to you. If the clock stresses you out or even induces a “panic attack,” stop. (If you let emotional turmoil take over you won’t be able to use reason to solve the questions.) Close your eyes, take a few deep breaths, relax. Perhaps visualize a physical place you enjoy being in, that’s peaceful and relaxing for you. Try this on practice tests. You’ll be surprised how fresh and able to tackle the MCAT VR you’ll be after taking your mind off the clock!   

Test-Taking Tactic: If two passages appear to be equally difficult, do the one with more questions first. That way you can score more correct answers for the same amount of work.

Some "Big Picture" questions may ask about different aspects of the same topic (not necessarily the Main Idea of a passage). After you understand what you need to know to answer one Big Picture question, you don't necessarily have to start from scratch to answer a related "Big Picture" question. You might even be able to answer the second related "Big Picture" question in 30 seconds!  That's because you will already be oriented to the passage and know where to look for the information you need. 


(More on Fact-Finding and  Big Picture questions later) 

Have you noticed the following pattern in how you take the VR? In practice sessions? With about 5 minutes to go do you still have questions left to do? Questions that you just had to blindly guess at because you didn't feel you had enough time to read the entire passage?

If so, how many questions were left? Do you know why you didn’t have enough time to thoroughly review each question?

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Time—How much time did you spend on questions you got wrong? If you only spent one or two minutes on questions you got wrong, you may be rushing.

Evaluate: did you stop dealing too soon with questions you got wrong because you became frustrated or bored? Did you lose the thread of the passage’s argument or organization and have to start reading the whole passage or a paragraph over again?

If you find a passage is really hard, spend an extra minute or two reading it over carefully. Get oriented. Take every step you need to qualify the correct answer (repeat if necessary). For the really hard passages give yourself up to four minutes. That much leeway is built into the MCAT VR. (You may only spend 10 seconds choosing a correct answer if all you have to do is find a fact in the passage.)

Take enough time to check all the facts and make sure you accurately understand the Big Picture questions and related material in the passage.