MCAT Exam - Verbal Reasoning

Afraid of reading on the MCAT Exam? Don’t be, there are several ways to improve your MCAT scoring.

The Verbal Reasoning Tests portion of the MCAT exam assesses your ability to:

• Understand
• Evaluate
• Apply information and arguments

from material presented in reading passages.

Basic Directions

The Verbal Reasoning Tests consist of several passages ranging from 500 to 600 words with approximately 5 to 10 questions based on information presented in the passage. There are a total of 40 multiple-choice questions which must be completed in 60 minutes.

It is impossible to study in advance the material presented on this section of the MCAT exam but you should be familiar with general passage topics. The passages presented in Verbal Reasoning are drawn from:

• Humanities
• Social sciences
• Natural sciences (not tested elsewhere on the MCAT).

Tips and Advice

You should be able to answer the multiple choice questions based solely on the information presented in the passage. There is no set way to study for Verbal Reasoning, it most likely will be a process of trial and error until you find the method which works best for you. My advice is to practice, practice, and practice under timed testing conditions.

The passages presented on the Verbal Reasoning Tests are presented from easiest to hardest.

Do not feel pressured to complete the Verbal Reasoning section in order, skim through all passages and find the one which you are most comfortable with and start this one first. Use this process to rank all of the passages, spending no more than 3 minutes on this task.

Your goal is to answer all the questions as accurately as possible and if you can get through the easier passages initially, it will give you more time to concentrate on the harder ones.

There is no penalty for guessing so if time is running out just choose any one response for each question.

Since this section of the exam is reading intensive it may be helpful to increase the amount of material that you read and the breadth of content. For starters, begin to read the newspaper.

If you are constantly struggling to do well on particular passage types I advise picking up a book on the topic and read it to become more familiar with the prose, structure, etc.

Boosting Your Verbal Reasoning Average MCAT Score

If you are unable to complete the Verbal Reasoning section within 60 minutes or your score on practice tests are not as good as you like you may wish to try the following approaches:

• Read the passage and then read and answer the questions. Consulting the passage as needed.
• Skim the passage to get a general understanding and then read it. Read and answer the questions. Consult the passage as needed.
• Skim the passage to find out what it is about. Read the questions to get a sense of what you will be asked. Read the passage. Read and answer the questions. Consult the passage as needed.
• Read the questions to get an idea of what you will be asked. Read the passage. Read and answer the questions. Consult the passage as needed.

There are no hard and fast rules to guarantee success in the Verbal Reasoning section of the MCAT exam. It will be difficult for some while others will not need to devote a lot of time to this section. Just continue to evolve your test taking strategies until you find what works best for you and continue to read to enhance your MCAT scoring.