.

[a_person1234567]

.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[topsoil municipio]

1st chillax

2nd reeeeeeeaaaaaaaad a lot. just whatever. all kinds of things at all levels as long as it's text-based. for persuasive and analytical writing (including research papers), start looking at why it does/doesn't work, what the authors used as tools for their argument... maybe pick up a book on rhetoric in writing? exposure is really important and then analysis.

 

[Anicetus]

Hi everyone, I got accepted into medical school with a low verbal reasoning score. I took the new MCAT, and did 80+ percentile (90+ on physics and chemistry) on other sections. I've been hearing that the verbal reasoning score is a good measure for how well a student will do in medical school/board exams, and that makes me nervous. I didn't read a lot when I was a child, and my high school had the worst English department.. we literally sat everyday in class doing nothing. I got an A in my college English course from hard work. I still remember getting a C on my first essay and freaking out. Do you agree that verbal reasoning is a good measure? And what can I do to prepare for medical school? Thanks!

I'm at the end of my third year of medical school.

You beat me by a longshot. I was 99 percentile on physics, and like 28th percentile for verbal reasoning (a 6 on the old Mcat).

I'm in the top third of my US MD class.
Step 1 score above the national average.
Was diagnosed with reading disability at the start of medical school. I don't use any accommodations since they show up on your residency app, regardless of what others on here have said.
The weakness definitely made me have to study a ton more than my classmates since it takes me longer to get through all studying in every shape or form, but if you grind it out 10-12 hours a day and not go hiking/traveling on weekends, it's doable. This is what I've had to do, but it's fine. The only thing verbal correlates is how long it takes people to study from what I've seen. Not so much scores.

 

[topsoil municipio]

The weakness definitely made me have to study a ton more than my classmates since it takes me longer to get through all studying in every shape or form, but if you grind it out 10-12 hours a day and not go hiking/traveling on weekends, it's doable. This is what I've had to do, but it's fine. The only thing verbal correlates is how long it takes people to study from what I've seen. Not so much scores.

u don't think there's any correlation in good verbal = better analytical of written = less study time + good scores?

also yeah opie, make sure there's nothing going on LD-wise, even if u don't get adjustments maybe you learn some tricks

 

[Lawpy]

Hi everyone, I got accepted into medical school with a low verbal reasoning score. I took the new MCAT, and did 80+ percentile (90+ on physics and chemistry) on other sections. I've been hearing that the verbal reasoning score is a good measure for how well a student will do in medical school/board exams, and that makes me nervous. I didn't read a lot when I was a child, and my high school had the worst English department.. we literally sat everyday in class doing nothing. I got an A in my college English course from hard work. I still remember getting a C on my first essay and freaking out. Do you agree that verbal reasoning is a good measure? And what can I do to prepare for medical school? Thanks!

The biology section (and probably the new chemistry section) is closely related to board performance. The verbal section is apparently more closely related to how you perform in clinical years, since much of it deals with translating patient stories into meaningful histories for medical notes (although granted, patients don't speak as complicated and dry as seen in verbal passages).

Personally, I would put the MCAT behind me and focus on doing well in medical school.

 

[Anicetus]

u don't think there's any correlation in good verbal = better analytical of written = less study time + good scores?

also yeah opie, make sure there's nothing going on LD-wise, even if u don't get adjustments maybe you learn some tricks

It's hard to say. All I know is that the deficiency in verbal can be overcome with more time put in. Unless you don't have that time available due to outside constraints, it's possible to sacrifice other things in life for that time in order to do as well/do better than the verbally-skilled colleagues.

Ideally yes, those with strengths across the board can do better if they put in just as much time into studying. The top of our class are fantastic readers plus they put in the time required and can even shove in more resources and material into their head come test day. However, the students who received lower science scores with 99%ile verbal scores are those who don't seem to study as much, which could be reflective of their MCAT scores seeing as these people are naturally great readers and didn't put in as much time to memorize all of the biology/physics facts.

On exams the verbal can definitely help with the time factor. However Step 1, much more than the MCAT required straight up memorization since the reading comprehension required for step was much easier than the comprehension required for verbal and even biology sections on the MCAT.

 

[Goro]

Hi everyone, I got accepted into medical school with a low verbal reasoning score. I took the new MCAT, and did 80+ percentile (90+ on physics and chemistry) on other sections. I've been hearing that the verbal reasoning score is a good measure for how well a student will do in medical school/board exams, and that makes me nervous. I didn't read a lot when I was a child, and my high school had the worst English department.. we literally sat everyday in class doing nothing. I got an A in my college English course from hard work. I still remember getting a C on my first essay and freaking out. Do you agree that verbal reasoning is a good measure? And what can I do to prepare for medical school? Thanks!

You've been hearing wrong. The total MCAT score is a weak-moderate predictor of med school performance and Boards. I have yet to be convinced that any subsection in and of themselves are good predictors.

I have tons of ESL or 1st gen American students who struggled with CARS, and they're fine as med students.

The CARS/VR sections are somewhat perverse. People score well on the other sections and do well in college too, despite a low VR score. Go figure.