EK VERBAL DIRTY LITTLE LIE, reading speeds are important

[christian15213]

Ok, something was PEAVING me off about practicing for the verbal. I read in EK's verbal book that, "even the a VERY SLOW reader can read 600 words in 3 minutes." Now, when I first read that I thought to myself. Wow, I know I am not a SLOW reader so I didn't even think to question what they were actually saying.

Think about it. Lets first define a slow reader. Well, in your mind in conjunction to your reading speed one can actually test this out.

***Get a stop watch and repeat these 10 words. "This is what I can read in this time period." <<<<< It is ten words and I bet you that if you say it all at a about normal pace perhaps a smigent faster... it would be about 3 seconds... you can do it over and over again and the result is the same. Now, the 3 seconds is based on my time but nevertheless it is time based up saying everyword correctly from beggining to end. 3 seconds would be 600 words in 3 minutes. And calling someone who reads with the way they would speak in their minds a slow reader is a bit harsh don't you think? To me it is about normal reading speeds. And in fact as I have just checked it is... I am a vocal reader But my comprehension was very high 91 percent... LMAO... I litteraly just searched this stuff out and everything I am saying is correct... and a slow reader is 110 words a minute...

Super awesome website to at least test your speed... right here >>> http://www.readingsoft.com/
This website seems really interesting because it talks about comprehension as well. Wow would I like to read 700 words a minute... but more about that later...

My point is speed has to be somewhat of an issue on the MCAT... If I could read this in at least two minutes... then perhaps I could even do some of that map stuff or whatever... I know for sure if I could be done with everything by 3 minutes I would have 6+ minutes to answer questions... and That aint too bad...

What were your thoughts on this...

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[deleted103644]

My thoughts are that you need to have less typos in your polls before you start worrying about your reading speed.

 

[christian15213]

My thoughts are that you need to have less typos in your polls before you start worrying about your reading speed.

I used this tool once it fixed a sink that was leaking... Good tool... I wish I could find more tools just like it...

However, I think the best tool would be a tool that would help me read faster or at least help me comment about the content of the actual thread... Or would that tool not know how to read the thread at all?

 

[DropkickMurphy]

I think the best tool for you is a spell checker.

 

[ronehh]

i think this is when reading publications such as the economist come in handy

 

[Mark84]

To an extent it can help but to say that a person struggling in verbal should concentrate on increasing their reading speed is not a good idea in my opinion. Even if someone studies for three months straight, tactics and strategy to improve their reading speed, I would doubt the increase would not be of much significance. Much better ways to work on improving verbal reasoning.

 

[christian15213]

To an extent it can help but to say that a person struggling in verbal should concentrate on increasing their reading speed is not a good idea in my opinion. Even if someone studies for three months straight, tactics and strategy to improve their reading speed, I would doubt the increase would not be of much significance. Much better ways to work on improving verbal reasoning.

NOOOOOO I disagree... I disagree I disagree... Sorry but think about it... from the perspective of people who can read 500 wpm or even 400+ wpm compared to the average reader... They are reading twice as fast and probably comprehending more... How can this not be an advantage... plus EK make an agreagious error in assuming that a Very slow reader reads 600 in three minutes as if to say everyone goes so much faster than that... NONSENSE... I am a vocal reader and I know this is bad... i have to fix it..

 

[w00tz]

<200 WPM
9-11 Verbal

 

[christian15213]

<200 WPM
9-11 Verbal

Is that an actual MCAT or practice exam... I am speaking of EK verbal here... where I like to get pimped by a couple of passages... rediculous...

 

[DropkickMurphy]

NOOOOOO I disagree... I disagree I disagree.

I think your reading speed is the least of your linguistic issues and probably stems from much larger problems....

Ok, something was PEAVING me off about practicing for the verbal.

It is ten words and I bet you that if you say it all at a about normal pace perhaps a smigent faster...

Now, the 3 seconds is based on my time but nevertheless it is time based up saying everyword correctly from beggining to end.

I litteraly just searched this stuff out and everything I am saying is correct... and a slow reader is 110 words a minute

agreagious error in assuming that a Very slow reader reads 600 in three minutes

Is that an actual MCAT or practice exam... I am speaking of EK verbal here... where I like to get pimped by a couple of passages... rediculous...

....such as the questionable grasp on spelling and grammar that you've demonstrated time and again.

 

[christian15213]

I think your reading speed is the least of your linguistic issues and probably stems from much larger problems....





....such as the questionable grasp on spelling and grammar that you've demonstrated time and again.

Do you stalk women like you stalk me?

 

[Mark84]

Ok you disagree to my post but you are missing the point. Someone who reads 200wpm is not going to double their reading speeds in a short manner of time, say the time it takes to study for the MCAT. The majority of reading fundamentals get developed at a young age, most people who take the mcat have been reading the same way for 13-14 years so it is ludacris to say that in the time frame most people study for the MCAT that working to improve reading speeds would be of any real benefit. This isn't even touching the fact that faster reading speeds doesn't necessarily correlate with greater reading comprehension which will go a lot further on the verbal in the long run.

 

[DropkickMurphy]

Do you stalk women like you stalk me?

 

[christian15213]

Ok you disagree to my post but you are missing the point. Someone who reads 200wpm is not going to double their reading speeds in a short manner of time, say the time it takes to study for the MCAT. The majority of reading fundamentals get developed at a young age, most people who take the mcat have been reading the same way for 13-14 years so it is ludacris to say that in the time frame most people study for the MCAT that working to improve reading speeds would be of any real benefit. This isn't even touching the fact that faster reading speeds doesn't necessarily correlate with greater reading comprehension which will go a lot further on the verbal in the long run.

I see what you're saying and it makes sense... but I think what most people agree with, from what I researched is the vocalized reader is the fastest and easiest thing to fix... My problem is I read like I were speaking, only a smidgen faster. that isn't acceptable... And is probably the easiest thing to improve... Since I will be reading a lot practicing anyway I should try to increase my speed... If I can get my speed to 400 plus which is only about 160 - 200 more wpm in two months... That isn't too bad in my opinion... now 400 wpm on a 550-600 word passage will be amazing... instead of the 3.5 minutes it is taking me now. that is a savings of almost 1.5-2 minutes per passage... to me, that might be an 10 instead of a 9... This is what I am arguing...

 

[DropkickMurphy]

I used this tool once it fixed a sink that was leaking... Good tool... I wish I could find more tools just like it...

However, I think the best tool would be a tool that would help me read faster or at least help me comment about the content of the actual thread... Or would that tool not know how to read the thread at all?

[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LJw6PAi5Q8[/YOUTUBE]
It's not English, it's not Irish, it's just.....well, pikey.

 

[DocBR]

I see what you're saying and it makes sense... but I think what most people agree with, from what I researched is the vocalized reader is the fastest and easiest thing to fix... My problem is I read like I were speaking, only a smidgen faster. that isn't acceptable... And is probably the easiest thing to improve... Since I will be reading a lot practicing anyway I should try to increase my speed... If I can get my speed to 400 plus which is only about 160 - 200 more wpm in two months... That isn't too bad in my opinion... now 400 wpm on a 550-600 word passage will be amazing... instead of the 3.5 minutes it is taking me now. that is a savings of almost 1.5-2 minutes per passage... to me, that might be an 10 instead of a 9... This is what I am arguing...

I think everyone gets what it is that you are arguing for. OK, EK made an error in assuming 200WPM is "VERY slow".

It is, for the most part a moot point. The fact that you are a "vocal reader" is a larger problem than how quickly you read. Vocal reading means you assign the same importance to every word you read and that is just a waste of time. It does not matter how many words you read, it matters how many words you pay attention to. As far as VR is concerned, 80% of the passage is BS and if you can figure out the important things and skip/skim the unimportant even reading 100wpm is enough.

Additionally, if you worry about increasing your wpm, more likely than not, you will be "reading" faster, but comprehending less because in actuality you are just speeding everything up, but not improving.
Argument dissection and passage prioritizing will help you more than being able to read the passage twice in 3 minutes.

 

[wisguy]

EK's main point still holds. In the short term, it is much easier to save time on the questions than it is on the reading. When I took the test, i read slowly but for comprehension and almost never looked back to the passage. I can read fast, but then I end up having to look back to the passage and I generally get more questions wrong that way. Even on the CBT I had 10+ minutes at the end of the VR section (well, except on the real thing when I was blindsided by the non-matching passage/questions). If you can answer the questions quickly and accurately, it doesn't really matter how fast you read.

 

[DrBowtie]

The first assumption is that reading faster = more comprehension. That's not always the case. The second assumption is that more time = higher score. That's not the case either. It is the nature of the verbal portion that answers are ambiguous, vague, and require thinking.

Take a practice test untimed. You'll still miss some.

You shouldn't be worried about increasing your reading speed unless you aren't finishing whole passages. In that case, you need to set time limits for each passage and set of questions. Get used to moving on after the time has elapsed. The time factor is only a portion of what makes the MCAT tough, but you just gotta practice.

 

[deleted103644]

I used this tool once it fixed a sink that was leaking... Good tool... I wish I could find more tools just like it...

However, I think the best tool would be a tool that would help me read faster or at least help me comment about the content of the actual thread... Or would that tool not know how to read the thread at all?

My comment about spelling was not irrelevant. You had plenty of time to set up this post, and clearly put a lot of thought into the poll. You do not, however, have a firm grasp of the English language. If it is your second language, that is understandable, if it is your first it is not. You need to read more - i.e. books + newspapers, not faster. In general, for ANY reading comprehension exam, this is what you should do - read through the passage quickly first to get an overall sense of the point and where the information heavy sections are, then go back to the important parts after you see the questions. I'm not sure if this is what any of the testprep companies suggest, but it has worked very well for me in the past.

Now that I've been helpful to anyone reading this thread, let me give you some more personally relevant commentary... You're an idiot, stop posting gibberish and go away.

 

[UMP]

The thing with the verbal passages is that you are not only reading to comprehend what is going on, but you should be dissecting the passage and looking for all the themes and arguments and predicting questions as you are reading. I found taking it slow and grasping the passage and really seeing how the argument takes shape was the most important... this took a large chunk out of my time on the questions portion. People want to breeze through the reading and get to the questions too much... not a great idea.

 

[Noeljan]

I did well on verbal and never worried about "speed reading" What I did was practice. I read during the summer (wall street and economist) and I did kaplans Verbal workbook. Interesting to note, I hardly ever timed myself. I would read a passage, go to the solutions, and go over every explanation. Came time to the MCAT, I didn't sleep for two days, and was able to reread just about every passage and did just fine. I don't think there is a "trick" to verbal, just read the passage well and answer the questions.

 

[QofQuimica]

Guys, I have gotten some reports about this thread. Please keep things civil so I don't have to close it.

 

[DropkickMurphy]

Go ahead and close it. It's not really serving any productive purpose related to the topics this forums is intended for.

 

[estairella]

Go ahead and close it. It's not really serving any productive purpose related to the topics this forums is intended for.

From what I've seen, that's true of 90% of christian's posts.

 

[christian15213]

Go ahead and close it. It's not really serving any productive purpose related to the topics this forums is intended for.

the environment here is better or worse without you doing this? You are obsessed and the most ignorant thing I have ever seen... Will you please stop and or grow up.

 

[DropkickMurphy]

I'm not the only one who is apparently ignorant then:

From what I've seen, that's true of 90% of christian's posts.

You're an idiot, stop posting gibberish and go away.

My thoughts are that you need to have less typos in your polls before you start worrying about your reading speed.

What the hell?

SOURCE: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showpost.php?p=4898599&postcount=12

are you serious with this ****? oh my god, man.

SOURCE: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showpost.php?p=4894113&postcount=46

I also nominate christian15213 for this list. That dude's got some identity and insecurity issues.

SOURCE: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showpost.php?p=4738868&postcount=52

SECONDED.

SOURCE: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showpost.php?p=4740079&postcount=57

That's just a small sampling.....enjoy.

 

[Dr.Inviz]

I'm not the only one who is apparently ignorant then:







SOURCE: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showpost.php?p=4898599&postcount=12


SOURCE: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showpost.php?p=4894113&postcount=46


SOURCE: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showpost.php?p=4738868&postcount=52


SOURCE: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showpost.php?p=4740079&postcount=57

That's just a small sampling.....enjoy.