Really struggling. :( (In general, but especially with passage-based questions)

[Deleted member 1077394]

I got sick end of last week and got a little off-schedule. So, I am working on week 1 of Nymeria's 100-day MCAT schedule. I started with CARS stuff apart from that schedule and that was going fine.

Neuroscience is "my jam" and I got an A in 400-level Neurobiology in school.

I didn't want to know the percentage, but I got nearly half of the passage-based questions wrong on TBR Biology (Physiology's) Nerve & Muscle questions. I did much better on the discrete questions, so I think it's the passage-based ones that are my problem right now.

At this point (first few days of the schedule), are the questions for evaluating where I stand or for teaching me material in an active way?

Clearly, whatever I am doing isn't working for me. Any ideas for how I can improve?

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[Dr. Basketball]

It takes practice. From what I am understanding, you are only a few days into the schedule? Stay consistent. No matter how well you know the science, the passage-based questions force you to learn how to attack the passages in a very specific way. Yes, it's annoying, but you will get better. I'm currently an MS2 and have not seen a passage based question once since starting medical school, even when doing board-style questions. So rest assured that this is strictly a ridiculous MCAT thing. As you do more passages you will get your rhythm on how to attack them. Best of luck!

 

[Princeton Medical Student]

Practice

 

[Nerd300]

Try to do passages untimed, then moves to doing them in 10 minutes, then decrease the time. This will allow you to know where you weakness lies. It is because of the time restrain, or are you lacking in knowledge (content review).

Also try to identify the type of questions that you got wrong, (synthesis questions or pure memory questions. etc). It takes time.

TAKE THE TEST ONLY WHEN YOU ARE HITTING YOUR TARGET SCORE.

 

[Startingover123]

Practice

I have the same issue. Is it doable to improve greatly after practice?

 

[Deleted member 1077394]

You guys are the best. Thank you so much for your help!

 

[Blueprint Med School]

I have the same issue. Is it doable to improve greatly after practice?

Absolutely. Every time you do a practice passage, you implicitly get better at reading and comprehending the passage, and explicitly improve by reading answer explanations and learning more content.

Many students spend 200+ hours just doing practice in preparation for the MCAT.

Kevin W, MCAT Tutor
Med School Tutors

 

[PlsLetMeIn21]

Like everyone has said, you just have to keep grinding and grinding. It takes exposure and time to get used to how to work through passages. Then when you switch to AAMC, there is another learning curve to climb. Do not get discouraged by your early scores.

 

[joshualander]

I'm in the same boat here myself I only began my studying a couple weeks ago and when I go through flashcards I can recall so much information but as soon as I stare at a passage, it's like my brain fell out somewhere and I can't find it. Yes, it's early into my studying but I could really use some suggestions as to how to begin tackling a science passage. If I can figure this out in the beginning of my studying I know i'll own that test

 

[FrameshiftAndrew]

I'm in the same boat here myself I only began my studying a couple weeks ago and when I go through flashcards I can recall so much information but as soon as I stare at a passage, it's like my brain fell out somewhere and I can't find it. Yes, it's early into my studying but I could really use some suggestions as to how to begin tackling a science passage. If I can figure this out in the beginning of my studying I know i'll own that test

More could be said about this, but here are a few points to start with:

• Look for familiar content—even though passages often sound like they come from completely out of left field, they're essentially a complex scaffolding that the MCAT uses to (a) test you on content that you've studied, just presented in a new context, and (b) test you on the basics of experimental design and reasoning. In other words, use familiar/testable content as an anchor, instead of getting intimidated/distracted by the unfamiliar packaging of that content.
• Many, but not all, passages are experimental. Experiments tell stories. As soon as you see a figure indicating that the passage is going to present an experiment, start thinking about: (a) what are the experimenters trying to find out, (b), how did they do it, (c) what did they measure, and (d) what did they find. Not all details in the passage will be relevant for this goal.
• As you review, pay close attention to where you had to get the information from in order to get the question right—your head, the passage, or both? Where did you have to turn to in the passage, and how did you use that information? If you carefully analyze this as you review, you'll be able to hone your intuition for what you should be paying attention to in a passage versus what's likely to be irrelevant details.

Hope this helps, and good luck getting started!!!

 

[joshualander]

More could be said about this, but here are a few points to start with:

• Look for familiar content—even though passages often sound like they come from completely out of left field, they're essentially a complex scaffolding that the MCAT uses to (a) test you on content that you've studied, just presented in a new context, and (b) test you on the basics of experimental design and reasoning. In other words, use familiar/testable content as an anchor, instead of getting intimidated/distracted by the unfamiliar packaging of that content.
• Many, but not all, passages are experimental. Experiments tell stories. As soon as you see a figure indicating that the passage is going to present an experiment, start thinking about: (a) what are the experimenters trying to find out, (b), how did they do it, (c) what did they measure, and (d) what did they find. Not all details in the passage will be relevant for this goal.
• As you review, pay close attention to where you had to get the information from in order to get the question right—your head, the passage, or both? Where did you have to turn to in the passage, and how did you use that information? If you carefully analyze this as you review, you'll be able to hone your intuition for what you should be paying attention to in a passage versus what's likely to be irrelevant details.

Hope this helps, and good luck getting started!!!

Thanks for the tips, they'll definitely help!

 

[FrameshiftAndrew]

Thanks for the tips, they'll definitely help!

You're very welcome! Oh, one more thing that slipped my mind—I think it's really good that you're doing some passages early on in your studying. A lot of people avoid that, and try to take a strict content first, practice second approach, but I think that's often a mistake, since you'll study the science more effectively if you have a sense of how it's tested. As you do practice passages early on, don't beat yourself up for it if you truly just miss a question because you didn't know some random tidbit—that will come with time. But questions that focus purely on outside knowledge are only a minority of those that you'll encounter (~35%, roughly corresponding to Skill 1 questions in the AAMC outline).

 

[joshualander]

You're very welcome! Oh, one more thing that slipped my mind—I think it's really good that you're doing some passages early on in your studying. A lot of people avoid that, and try to take a strict content first, practice second approach, but I think that's often a mistake, since you'll study the science more effectively if you have a sense of how it's tested. As you do practice passages early on, don't beat yourself up for it if you truly just miss a question because you didn't know some random tidbit—that will come with time. But questions that focus purely on outside knowledge are only a minority of those that you'll encounter (~35%, roughly corresponding to Skill 1 questions in the AAMC outline).

I was definitely considering doing the same and thought content review would be the first thing to do and then follow up with passages but I agree that it definitely would have been a mistake. Wow! I didn't realize it was only about 35%, that's crazy! Good to know tho

 

[FrameshiftAndrew]

I was definitely considering doing the same and thought content review would be the first thing to do and then follow up with passages but I agree that it definitely would have been a mistake. Wow! I didn't realize it was only about 35%, that's crazy! Good to know tho

Yep! So, technically that 35% figure applies to the proportion of questions that are Skill 1 ("Knowledge of Scientific Concepts and Principles"), while 45% of questions are Skill 2 ("Scientific Reasoning and Problem-Solving"), 10% are Skill 3 ("Reasoning About the Design and Execution of Research"), and 10% are Skill 4 ("Data-Based and Statistical Reasoning"). Skill 1 questions almost all rely on outside knowledge. Skill 2 questions often involve a combination of passage information and outside knowledge in various proportions (although you might encounter a few that are outside knowledge-based), and Skills 3 and 4 are very strongly passage-driven. So the 35% figure for "only outside knowledge") is a little bit fuzzy because some Skill 2 questions can be constructed that way, but I definitely think it's safe to say that pure knowledge questions are a solid minority of what you'll encounter.

 

[JimKimSlim]

Also, try reading some research papers online. It helped me with B/B passages personally.