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MCAT Verbal Tips
Looking for helpful tips and strategies to improve your verbal section score? Here are sample tips taken from our unique online MCAT verbal reasoning guide.
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Our verbal guide and 21 practice passages
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As part of the learning process, each question type we introduce is followed by sample questions, which are modeled precisely after real MCAT exams.
A one-paragraph passage is given upon which the question is based. After the correct answer is given, the paragraph is reprinted, highlighting all of the clues in the passage that you should have noted and supplying you with important MCAT verbal reasoning tips.
Question Type #1:
1. Defining a sophisticated phrase, often a figure of language, in the text:
Forms the question could take:
* The term x in the discussion of…refers to…
* In terming certain neurons x the author means those that…
* As the word is used in the passage, an x is best described as…
* As used in the passage, the term x is closest in meaning to…
This type of question asks that you choose the correct definition or meaning of a word or phrase from the passage, where the phrase can only be understood on the basis of the context. That is, even if you know the dictionary meaning of the word/s, the question will still challenge you. The good news is that even if you don't know the dictionary meaning of the word/s, you stand a good chance of guessing the meaning by reading and understanding the context in which the phrase appears. To answer a question of this type, first, find the place of the quote in the passage. Reread that section of the passage, starting preferably at the beginning of the paragraph. Second, look carefully for words or phrases that are synonymous with the phrase in the question. Sometimes, two or three synonymous phrases will be used. By the end of the paragraph, you are sure to understand the question phrase.
Sample question:
The author concludes paragraph three with the assertion, "It is inarguably hard to monetize a familiarity with Homer or an intimacy with Shakespeare." By this she means:
A) It is impossible to determine the money value of a study of classical authors.
B) Many students today find the study of classical literature boring and irrelevant.
C) To fully understand the ancient writers, their language and their culture, is no longer
possible.
D) A liberal-arts education cannot be justified because of its cost and its basic uselessness.
First, skim the passage, looking quickly for the quote. Once you find it, reread the question quickly so as to remember exactly what it asks of you. In this case, it asks simply that you point to the correct meaning of the quote. Now, reread the paragraph from the beginning, looking for clues:
Belief in liberal-arts colleges like Sewanee, however, is about more than sentiment. As I sat listening to McCardell accept his election, I thought, not for the first time, about the difficulty of making the case for something so expensive and so seemingly archaic—an undergraduate liberal education—in an economic and cultural climate that favors efficiency and tangibility. [It is inarguably hard to monetize a familiarity with Homer or an intimacy with Shakespeare].
You should have noticed that sentence two is synonymous with the sentence you are asked to define: "the difficulty of (= hard to) making the case for something so expensive (= to monetize; and here you realize that "to monetize" is the verb form of money, or to put a money value on something) and so seemingly archaic—an undergraduate liberal education—in an economic (= a second clue that we are talking about money) climate…". Therefore, A is the correct answer.
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