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Podcast 2 Overview:

MCAT Verbal Strategies

In this episode, we will be giving a basic intro to strategies that work well and don’t work well for the verbal section of the MCAT. We discuss:

• highlighting
• mapping the passage
• timing
• skipping sections

For most of us, verbal is the hardest subject on the MCAT and will continue to confuse us even after studying and practicing for so long. Hopefully with these test taking strategies you will be able to effectively increase your score.

How long should I take for each passage on MCAT verbal?

Roughly speaking, we suggest to limit yourself to 1 min per question and 2 min for reading the passage. MCAT verbal section consists of 40 questions and you are allotted 60 minutes on the exam. So a 5 question passage should probably be done in 7 minutes, 6 questions in 8 minutes and 7 questions in 9 minutes.

Should I skip passages on the MCAT Verbal section?

If you are shooting for a 10+ on the MCAT, I would strongly suggest against this. You are most likely going to want to only skip a few questions here and there to secure a higher score on the verbal section. However, if you are shooting for a 7, 8 or 9, skipping a passage and guessing would be an effective strategy.

Should I highlight on the MCAT Verbal section?

This is entirely up to you. For me personally, I chose no to do this due to the difficulty in using the online highlighting system. However, this is entirely up to your discretion.

Should I use the skip/mark button on the MCAT Verbal section?

Definitely! This is definitely going to be your friend. However, for the verbal section you should mark questions and come back to them once you have finished this particular passage. You should not come back to these marked questions at the end of the test like we suggest with the science passages.

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Link to download the podcast MP3 file: http://ia600909.us.archive.org/4/items/Podcast2VerbalStrategies/Podcast_2_VerbalStrategies.m4a
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