Well, I am back again. If you remembered from my previous posts, I didn't do so well on the verbal reasoning section of the MCAT. Here is a review:
Medical Schools find the following scores competitive:
Biological Science 10
Physical Science 10
Verbal Reasoning 9
This was my past results:
April 2001
Biological Science 10
Physical Science 9
Verbal Reasoning 6
Finished 7 out of 9 Passages
Did not photoread material. Just used Princeton Review's Method.
August 2001
Biological Science 9
Physical Science 8
Verbal Reasoning 5 OUCH!
Finished 7 out of 9 Passages
Had started the PR course two to three months before. PRed the exam, and rapid read and SR/dipped to find the answers. Not much success.
Afterwards, I received some guidance from the regulars on this forum and Learning Strategies on how to tackle this problem. I had a plan to PRed with a purpose, rapid read the passage, mind probe, try to answer the question and superread/dip to discover the answer if it did not present itself to me. I did over 100 practice verbal reasoning passages getting about 60-70% correct. That's about a 7 - 9 score.
The April 2002 MCAT came and went and I recently discovered my scores.
Biological Science 10
Physical Science 9
Verbal Reasoning 7
Finished 9 out of 9 Passages
I did finish all the passage to my delight but that was attributed to the absence of underlining important words as taught in Hyperlearning Princeton Review Course. The fact is that my scores did not significantly increase from the first time.
My VR score is still going to give me a problem in getting into medical school. I feel so embarrassed. I don't know what else I can do. It would be too late and risky to retake the MCAT and I honestly don't know what I could have done differently.
I have read about so many success stories and I wish I could be one of them. I have read a NASA study done on Photoreading (which could either be a well-designed study or not) in which a individual who took the PRing Seminar did not perform well on the MCAT (especially the verbal section). I don't know if this is a general phenomenon or an individual's result. Maybe some successful PRers and MCAT takers can shed some light on this.
Where am I now?
I still PR and activate my books on a weekly basis. I still believe that this process does work and it doesn't take to much time to perform it. However, with technical data, science or conceptual material (i.e. math, examples), I don't feel a connection between new information or "gelling". I usually have to slow down to regular reading to get anything out of it. With books that repeat the underline theme (i.e. Rich Dad Poor Dad, easy to read books), I do pick up on the information bits/trigger words and understand the main idea of the reading. However, I find myself superreading phases and picking up trigger words like "do... invest...gold coins" when the actual sentence may state "Do not invest in gold coins." Big difference which can be costly on an exam. When I activate the material, I feel no difference from the common form of skimming taught in school and superreading/dipping/skittering. I guess I am looking for the magically results that I read on this forum. I would be more optimistic if I discovered some results in my effort. I apologize for my whining, but I just haven't discovered the true potential of Photoreading. I don't know if it is my PRing or activating that is causing me a problem. I appreciate all of you that have tried to help me through this. I feel that I have a least a good support group which keeps me trying to tap the inner resources/potential of my mind.