SN2ed 2013 summer folks, post here!

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Hey guys,

Just thought I would start a thread for people taking the MCAT in late August/September and using the SN2ed schedule. I thought it would be a good place to post our progress, issues, rantings about the studying, or questions we had about the schedule?? I myself am not starting until later this week after finals.

GOOD LUCK everyone!
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jevindoes said:
Hello everyone.

I am new to this forum and am using the 3 month study plan for my 9/19 test date. I am having trouble figuring out how to shift all of the calendar dates in the given study schedule to match my test date. I would like to keep it all on Google Calendar. Right now I am simply changing the dates 1 by 1, but this is becoming tiresome. Any help would be much appreciated, thank you!
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the origional thread of SN2ed has some posts with good suggestions that I'm sure will help you.

BTW, there is no test for "9/19" :D :laugh::love:
 
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One of the greatest things about SN2ed's schedule is the use of different sources for context review. No matter how great the source, they all contain some errors (and using multiple sources helps to identify these errors). But sometimes the errors go beyond simple typos and mismarked answer keys, and erroneous information is provided in the text.

I was wondering if anyone has links to known errata for the various books we are using. I know ExamKrackers has some posted on their website's forum but what about the others? I hate wasting time searching through old forums for previously identified errors, and I'm really hoping someone can share a place where some lovely person(s) has consolidated this information for us.
 
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What do you guys do if you end up falling a couple days behind? Like if it's 4-5 days?

I'm thinking of doubling up on some of the days as it comes. For example, if the schedule says to read BR Physics and I missed the chapter before it, I think I would just read do two BR chapters for that day along with 1/3 passages for each.

How does that sound for catching up on missed days?
 
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genessis42 said:
What do you guys do if you end up falling a couple days behind? Like if it's 4-5 days?

I'm thinking of doubling up on some of the days as it comes. For example, if the schedule says to read BR Physics and I missed the chapter before it, I think I would just read do two BR chapters for that day along with 1/3 passages for each.

How does that sound for catching up on missed days?
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It is fine as long as you don't miss important content by hurrying yourself. It's definitely possible to do 2 chapters a day.
 
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For some of them, it is around 2-3 chapters in one day as well..

For the missed content, If I double up, I only do the first 1/3 of the passages because it is too much trying to fit in the second 2/3 of the passages..

Its only a couple chapters, so its not like I'll have to double up each day...Is there anything else I can try?
 
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I was considering taking a Kaplan Summer Course or trying SN2ed's method. I am a little behind, but I was planning on rotating so for example on my first day I'll do Day 1 + Day 2 and then on second day I'll do Day 3 and then on third day i'll do Day 4+ Day 5 and so on.... Will this be too much work as I get deeper into studying. I am not very far right now and it seems ok. Please let me know what everyone recommends.

Also, I was wondering when SN2ed says we should review the problems (right and wrong) the next day. Should I review, like quickly read question look at my answer and read explanation until I understand. Or should I redo? I've kind of been redoing in my head for my review. I was wondering what everyone else following this schedule does.

Thanks
 
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distillation said:
I was considering taking a Kaplan Summer Course or trying SN2ed's method. I am a little behind, but I was planning on rotating so for example on my first day I'll do Day 1 + Day 2 and then on second day I'll do Day 3 and then on third day i'll do Day 4+ Day 5 and so on.... Will this be too much work as I get deeper into studying. I am not very far right now and it seems ok. Please let me know what everyone recommends.

Also, I was wondering when SN2ed says we should review the problems (right and wrong) the next day. Should I review, like quickly read question look at my answer and read explanation until I understand. Or should I redo? I've kind of been redoing in my head for my review. I was wondering what everyone else following this schedule does.

Thanks
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I always redo them before I look at the answer. Almost all the time, I can redo it correctly. If you get it wrong, I think it's good to redo it without a time limit. Better than just spoonfeeding yourself the answer.
 
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Synapsis said:
I always redo them before I look at the answer. Almost all the time, I can redo it correctly. If you get it wrong, I think it's good to redo it without a time limit. Better than just spoonfeeding yourself the answer.
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Totally agree! I never planned on it, but instead I just found myself redoing the Qs and I didn't always get the answer, but a lot of the time I was able to
 
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distillation said:
I was considering taking a Kaplan Summer Course or trying SN2ed's method. I am a little behind, but I was planning on rotating so for example on my first day I'll do Day 1 + Day 2 and then on second day I'll do Day 3 and then on third day i'll do Day 4+ Day 5 and so on.... Will this be too much work as I get deeper into studying. I am not very far right now and it seems ok. Please let me know what everyone recommends.

Also, I was wondering when SN2ed says we should review the problems (right and wrong) the next day. Should I review, like quickly read question look at my answer and read explanation until I understand. Or should I redo? I've kind of been redoing in my head for my review. I was wondering what everyone else following this schedule does.

Thanks
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Sounds good! It won't be too much as long as you take breaks and plan ahead when you double up i.e. some chapters are 50 pages and some are 20 - you probably don't want to double up on the chapters worth 50 pages! And also best to double up on the material you are strongest in, or else you might be rushing yourself through material that will come back for you later lol
 
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humangenome said:
Sounds good! It won't be too much as long as you take breaks and plan ahead when you double up i.e. some chapters are 50 pages and some are 20 - you probably don't want to double up on the chapters worth 50 pages! And also best to double up on the material you are strongest in, or else you might be rushing yourself through material that will come back for you later lol
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hmm thanks for the help. I am gonna give it a try and I should be ok for September test, worse case scenario I can delay for January.

Regarding passage review, I have been re-doing all the questions, and I think it helps. If I happen to get really stumped, I'll read the answer and make sure I understand it afterwards.
 
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I think you should be fine. I finished content review early by reading 3 chapters per day on occasion. As suggested above, take your time in your weak areas and feel free to move a bit faster through material you know you have mastered.

Good choice on your review. Redoing them at a more comfortable pace the second time may be just what you need to find the right answer. Sometimes I just have to laugh at my answer choice I made on the first run through.
 
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Hey guys! I didn't realize this forum existed until recently. I would totally appreciate your advice.

So I started the plan on 5/29 for the September 7th exam. I'm having trouble getting through all the material on days that involve rereading all chapters from the week and doing associated EK1001 problems. I get through only 2-3 chapters worth of problems on those days. Every other day I'm able to get through okay.

Thus, I feel like my studying according to SN2ed's method is sub-par... but I don't know what I can do (wish I could extend the day to 36 hours). Any suggestions?
 
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t5Nitro said:
I think you should be fine. I finished content review early by reading 3 chapters per day on occasion. As suggested above, take your time in your weak areas and feel free to move a bit faster through material you know you have mastered.

Good choice on your review. Redoing them at a more comfortable pace the second time may be just what you need to find the right answer. Sometimes I just have to laugh at my answer choice I made on the first run through.
Click to expand...

It's just really sad the choices I make every once in a while. Hindsight is 20/20...really lol.
 
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Synapsis said:
I always redo them before I look at the answer. Almost all the time, I can redo it correctly. If you get it wrong, I think it's good to redo it without a time limit. Better than just spoonfeeding yourself the answer.
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I think i'm missing something but I don't understand how this works...how do you re-do a question when you already know the correct answer?
 
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I think Synapsis means that he will look at the problem again and re-work it or think through it one more time before actually looking at the answer. Whether you answered the question right or not is irrelevant. I do this too. I check to make sure that I was thinking clearly the day that I made my answer choice.
 
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Synapsis said:
I always redo them before I look at the answer. Almost all the time, I can redo it correctly. If you get it wrong, I think it's good to redo it without a time limit. Better than just spoonfeeding yourself the answer.
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I personally do not redo because when I review a problem I remember my exact reasoning. When I read the answer explanation I make sure that I eliminated answer choices and arrived at the correct answer using the proper reasoning and the best possible method. If I find that I did do those things, I do not redo the problem. If I did not have the correct mindset when doing a problem, I go through the explanation paying close attention to where my thought process went wrong, why that answer is correct etc etc. I rarely redo problems. If I want more practice with a topic, I use materials from my undergrad classes or EK 1001 to help familiarize me.

This is my method but if you find that redoing each problem works for you then awesome, stick with what works. Everyone learns differently you just have to figure out how YOU learn the best.
 
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cbfc said:
I think i'm missing something but I don't understand how this works...how do you re-do a question when you already know the correct answer?
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I do lots of problems before grading, and when I grade them, I just look at the answer not the explanations. I end up not remembering most of the correct answers. In some rare cases, I remember a couple of answers in the beginning or end of the problem sets. Primacy and recency effect..
 
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Hey guys, just finished chapter 6 in the orgo 2 book, and I am getting a bit fed up with these errors (there seem to be a lot of them in these books!!)

On page 112, example 6.15, the correct answer is choice C correct? It says D but I am 99% certain the correct answer is C.

And on page 126, the answers to questions 7,8,9 are all identical. The reasoning is the same as is the letter even though they are completely different questions, which is inconvenient because questions 8 and 9 were the hardest questions to me. Does anyone know the proper answers to 8 and 9? (I assume #7 is right)

Thanks guys
 
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How does everyone review for Bio in SN2ed's method. I am gonna be using EK as recommended, but I was wondering if people type their notes or handwrite them? I am not very far in but I do not want to come to the realization much later in my studies wishing I had typed them all up.

Thanks
 
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Also for bio passages do you guys read them? Or should you skip the passage answer things and then go back? Or have you guys been treating it like vr?
 
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distillation said:
How does everyone review for Bio in SN2ed's method. I am gonna be using EK as recommended, but I was wondering if people type their notes or handwrite them? I am not very far in but I do not want to come to the realization much later in my studies wishing I had typed them all up.

Thanks
Click to expand...

I asked about this before and it's discussed elsewhere as well and there's a lot of people who type and a lot of people who write out their notes. I personally type out my notes, then print them and draw out any relevant diagrams. I type out my notes b/c there's just way too much info for me to write - I am a much faster typer. Also, EK is a bit deceptive in that the chapters are only ~20 pages but they take a while to read b/c theres not a lot of fluff lol. But yeah, I guess you've got to find out what works best for you in terms of type or write :)
 
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ariyon said:
Question

when you guys take notes on what you get wrong, what do you guys take notes on?
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I don't take notes on the specific question but rather the concept behind it, so that if the a diff question w/same concept comes up, my notes are applicable to it. For instance, I got a couple of questions wrong in physics relating to air resistance, so I took notes on the part of the concept behind the question that caused me to get it wrong i..e how does air resistance affect velocity of an object
 
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cbfc said:
I think i'm missing something but I don't understand how this works...how do you re-do a question when you already know the correct answer?
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Sometimes I do what csdanim does, but more often that not, I look at the answer and explanation for my first wrong question - I often find something from that explanation that I was not thinking when I was originally doing the passage and then I try to re-answer other questions I got wrong based on the new stuff I learned from that explanation. It actually helps b/c once I get on the 'right path' of thinking by getting that one piece of info that I was missing, I am able to reason through the other Qs without looking at the answers. I hope that made sense lol.

Other types, I just find that re-doing the Qs may correct some careless mistake or wrong way of thinking b/c of time pressures. And it's nice to know I didn't get it wrong simply b/c I didn't know anything about the Q lol.
 
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Neutral said:
Hey guys, just finished chapter 6 in the orgo 2 book, and I am getting a bit fed up with these errors (there seem to be a lot of them in these books!!)

On page 112, example 6.15, the correct answer is choice C correct? It says D but I am 99% certain the correct answer is C.

And on page 126, the answers to questions 7,8,9 are all identical. The reasoning is the same as is the letter even though they are completely different questions, which is inconvenient because questions 8 and 9 were the hardest questions to me. Does anyone know the proper answers to 8 and 9? (I assume #7 is right)

Thanks guys
Click to expand...

Unfortunately I haven't gotten there but I totally understand what you mean it's so frustrating lol! I would think that by this many editions and for a pretty important test there would be better editing (if any editing?) than this; oBR books are great but they should really invest in editing
 
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On a side note, for anyone considering Chad's videos - get them!!!!! they are amazing. When I first starting reading the BR books, I thought they were pretty good, but after listening to Chad's videos, I dread reading BR b/c of how awesome Chad's videos are in comparison. I wish Chad did an exact correspondence to BR books with his vids so i wouldn't have to read 50 pages of BR ad could just sip to Qs :) though his vids are pretty closely matched to BR, so I can't complain!
 
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gettheleadout said:
Content errors are uncommon in TBR. I can think of only one off the top of my head.

I have a more lengthy list of at least a dozen errors in EK Bio that are not listed in EK's official errata.
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I have come across more than one error in TBR and it sounds like others have too. I just wish I could find a compilation of all previously identified errors since the editions I am using are older, and I am sure someone has made note of these errors somewhere.

Do you mind sharing your list of errors from EK Bio?
 
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humangenome said:
I don't take notes on the specific question but rather the concept behind it, so that if the a diff question w/same concept comes up, my notes are applicable to it. For instance, I got a couple of questions wrong in physics relating to air resistance, so I took notes on the part of the concept behind the question that caused me to get it wrong i..e how does air resistance affect velocity of an object
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Thats very insightful. Im going to start doing that! Thank you so much!

One other question.

How do you guys approach the bio passages? Should i read them? Or what?
 
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ariyon said:
Thats very insightful. Im going to start doing that! Thank you so much!

One other question.

How do you guys approach the bio passages? Should i read them? Or what?
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Always smart to read them in my opinion. You never know what the heck is in there. A lot of the questions I've been doing recently (either by the AAMC or other companies) have been requiring passage use anyway. I wouldn't try to dodge the passage.

Sometimes it's easy to do that for orgo though lol.
 
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Synapsis said:
Always smart to read them in my opinion. You never know what the heck is in there. A lot of the questions I've been doing recently (either by the AAMC or other companies) have been requiring passage use anyway. I wouldn't try to dodge the passage.

Sometimes it's easy to do that for orgo though lol.
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Yeah i read somewhere that on the mcat its almost like verbal.

"Got a 14 in Bio. For me, it was just recognizing that a significant (I would say >50%) of the answers are in the passage. Then the actual info you need is fairly basic."

Would you guys agree?
 
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ariyon said:
Yeah i read somewhere that on the mcat its almost like verbal.

"Got a 14 in Bio. For me, it was just recognizing that a significant (I would say >50%) of the answers are in the passage. Then the actual info you need is fairly basic."

Would you guys agree?
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I totally agree. I was actually just going to say that some of the passages, particularly bio are almost like verbal where the Qs come from passage extrapolation vs. knowledge from content review i.e. i just did a gen chem passage yesterday where 3/6 answers could be found directly from passage, which is quite a lot for chemistry!
 
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humangenome said:
I totally agree. I was actually just going to say that some of the passages, particularly bio are almost like verbal where the Qs come from passage extrapolation vs. knowledge from content review i.e. i just did a gen chem passage yesterday where 3/6 answers could be found directly from passage, which is quite a lot for chemistry!
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What about ps? Would you use the same approach?
 
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Yep. As I'm taking my FLs, when I finish VR and start BS, I immediately jump to the first orgo passage because those are less like VR.
 
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haha my productivity has seriously faltered over the past few days, one day of being sick is enough, making it so hard to catch up
 
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Neutral said:
Hey guys, just finished chapter 6 in the orgo 2 book, and I am getting a bit fed up with these errors (there seem to be a lot of them in these books!!)

On page 112, example 6.15, the correct answer is choice C correct? It says D but I am 99% certain the correct answer is C.

And on page 126, the answers to questions 7,8,9 are all identical. The reasoning is the same as is the letter even though they are completely different questions, which is inconvenient because questions 8 and 9 were the hardest questions to me. Does anyone know the proper answers to 8 and 9? (I assume #7 is right)

Thanks guys
Click to expand...

What version? My 6.15 is not on 112 and it seems to be correct.
As far as Orgo goes, I haven't found any wrong answers..confusing ones yes but never have recognized a wrong one
 
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Neutral said:
Hey guys, just finished chapter 6 in the orgo 2 book, and I am getting a bit fed up with these errors (there seem to be a lot of them in these books!!)

On page 112, example 6.15, the correct answer is choice C correct? It says D but I am 99% certain the correct answer is C.

And on page 126, the answers to questions 7,8,9 are all identical. The reasoning is the same as is the letter even though they are completely different questions, which is inconvenient because questions 8 and 9 were the hardest questions to me. Does anyone know the proper answers to 8 and 9? (I assume #7 is right)

Thanks guys
Click to expand...

I've been getting super frustrated with errors too. I have the same exact errors that you are talking about. I agree that the answer for Ex. 6.15 is C. I don't know about the other problems because I am not that far yet.

doy said:
What version? My 6.15 is not on 112 and it seems to be correct.
As far as Orgo goes, I haven't found any wrong answers..confusing ones yes but never have recognized a wrong one
Click to expand...

I have the same errors and am using 2012 edition.
 
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I know there was alot of talk of using Flash cards. I'm just wondering if anyone is using them and can explain their benefit and how they use them?
 
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ariyon said:
I know there was alot of talk of using Flash cards. I'm just wondering if anyone is using them and can explain their benefit and how they use them?
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I've always been a flashcard person. They seem so much better to me than just looking at notes. I like them because with each flashcard your mind is much more active than if you were to just read it on paper. And despite what people may say, a flashcard doesn't just have to be one word and a definition or something like that. You can use pictures, fill in the blank (often less effective in making sure you know it), etc. For a lot of things though, it's good to just put a word. For example, on one card, you can put yeast. And on the back, put everything you need to know about yeast for the MCAT. If you can make this card second nature, then when a passage/question mentions yeast on the MCAT, all the relevant info will instantly come to your mind.

But expect a lot of cards for bio. Mine take me almost two hours to get through one cycle lol.
 
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Currently on Day 51 and I can't believe how far I've made it through this schedule. I'm getting nervous though since my first AAMC is coming up in a couple of weeks. Any words of encouragement?
 
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NeurosciTMS said:
Currently on Day 51 and I can't believe how far I've made it through this schedule. I'm getting nervous though since my first AAMC is coming up in a couple of weeks. Any words of encouragement?
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Mine is coming up in a week. I think Nike puts it well, "Just do it". :laugh:
 
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just out of curiosity for people following the schedule, do you guys plan on taking any non-aamc FLs? and do you think we should?
 
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shrey93 said:
just out of curiosity for people following the schedule, do you guys plan on taking any non-aamc FLs? and do you think we should?
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I've been using TPR, Kaplan, and BR FL's. Since these are almost universally considered more difficult (except for Kaplan maybe?), I've been doing them before my AAMCs. My idea is to do the AAMCs last so that once I'd developed good enough strategies to conquer the "extremely difficult" FLs, I can handle the AAMCs. Also, it's just good the have the AAMCs be the last thing in your mind.

I think more FLs is a great idea.
 
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I know i asked earlier and people said they re-did the questions for "review", I was wondering when you "re-do" the questions do you "re-read" the passages again??

I know I should read the passage to do the question, but I just don't want to be wasting time because I might be able to benefit from spending my time in other ways.
 
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distillation said:
I know i asked earlier and people said they re-did the questions for "review", I was wondering when you "re-do" the questions do you "re-read" the passages again??

I know I should read the passage to do the question, but I just don't want to be wasting time because I might be able to benefit from spending my time in other ways.
Click to expand...

I "redo" the questions in my head and review the explanations, but I never reread the passage. As long as I review the questions within a reasonable amount of time, I usually remember the passage enough to understand what the question is asking. If the explanation refers to a specific part of the passage, or a figure, table, etc., then I will look that over again to make sure I understand the relationship.
 
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dgbmonkey said:
I "redo" the questions in my head and review the explanations, but I never reread the passage. As long as I review the questions within a reasonable amount of time, I usually remember the passage enough to understand what the question is asking. If the explanation refers to a specific part of the passage, or a figure, table, etc., then I will look that over again to make sure I understand the relationship.
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haha ok good point, I can remember most of the passage, but I feel like as long as I go through the thought process of answering the question is enough. If I didn't understand how to relate the passage's content to the answer the first time, I will most likely not know to do it the second time until I review the explanation...I just wanna make sure I am not wasting time, but do not want to "rush" either
 
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