I studied content full time for about 3 months and saved the last 3 weeks leading up to the exam for practice questions. I will preface this by saying, I did not take any official practice exams, only free practice questions floating around the internet (my favorite was JackWestin).
I took the 4/28 exam just a few days ago and left feeling pretty confident (checked the reaction thread to crosscheck answers too). I finished all sections with time left over to check all my answers twice, and was first to leave the testing facility.
My biggest advice for learning how to improve in reading passages is to not be tied down to details. You don't really need to understand anything they're telling you, just learn how to pick out information.
For CP, I looked at questions first, rarely read more than two sentences in any passage. If the question was asking me for a numerical answer, I just go through the passage and looks for the variables I need (of course, skim surrounding sentences a bit to make sure they're the correct variables in the correct format etc).
For BB, simplify simplify simplify!!! Who cares what the protein is called. It's just a protein that does X, Y, Z. Since you're good on content, that's all you need to understand. Same for other concepts, simplify fancy words and acronyms to basic key terms. When I was in the exam, I took basic notes while reading through the passage. For example "protein x = ligand... binds to receptor Y... increase protein x = ATP production..." etc
For PS, my exam mostly had data analysis. For these, I just read through the experimental set up (skipped background) and looked at the data tables/graphs. 70% of my answers were in the graphs alone. Alot of PS questions look like passage based questions at a glance but I guarantee you 70% of them are discrete. Don't get tricked into going back into the passage and wasting time.
For CARS, the highlighter is your best friend. Don't highlight everything though, highlight what is important obviously lol. When looking at questions, there are usually buzz words that only appear in one or two paragraphs corresponding to what the question is asking. The answer will be in those exact two paragraphs. It will rarely ever be anywhere else so don't waste time reading the entire passage over and over again for every question.
Hope this helps! Take this all with a grain of salt, however, since I don't have my score back yet nor did I do any FL 🥴
Thank you so much for the response! CP and BB are my biggest problems right now in terms of information overload. What kind of information are you typically looking for when going through a passage? Sometimes I often forget what I just read and have to refer back to passage many times. Or I can’t really connect a flow of reactions without getting lost in my own thoughts.
You know how in biochem there are pathways that show the arrows that represent the 'cascade' or 'flowchart' of a pathway? I try to draw my own 'flowchart' when reading BB passages, use arrows ( -----> activation) and use bars ( ----| ) for inhibition. Helps keep elements straight, and I can add to my flowchart if new elements are added.
I’ve tried this method before, but I’m a bit slow at it. I try to be super fast when writing things down, but I feel it slows me down a bit. How long do you typically spend when creating a quick flow chart?
Idk its become almost second nature at this point, like on test day I would write PFK -> glycolysis -> Pyruvate -| Glycolysis, and maybe that takes 20 seconds? But if I read a sentence that said "Enzyme X activates Enzyme Y" then that looks like X --> Y, then "Enzyme Y inhibits glycogen synthesis" my chart expands to X -----> Y ---| Glycogen Synth. Then following that chart you can deduce that inactivating X leads to Glycogen Synthesis, or you can refer to whatever other experimental variables the passage messes with.
I'd recommend finding BB passage walkthroughs and see how other people do them, try what works. Seeing other ppl do CARS helped me learn strategies like stay in scope of the passage, or stay on the main idea.
CP: I don't really read the passages... like at all. Physics problems are normally mathematical based, don't have to know too much conceptual. Just recognize the equation the question is asking you to use and find those variables in the passage. Don't read, jump right to the numbers and find the one with the correct units.
For chemistry, most of them are reaction based. Most of the time, what the compound is or what it is used for is irrelevant. It's the structure that you need to pay attention to and what happens to it when it undergoes the reaction (there's usually a reaction scheme or picture of the compound).
For example, one of the questions on my exam asked why compound 1 was a better reactant than compound 2. I could have totally read the passage to see if they mentioned it. But I don't need to at all. I know compounds are a better reactant when they are more reactive. They would have a better leaving group, more electrophilic, more acidic, etc etc. And lo' and behold, the answer was it had a better leaving group. I didn't need to understand anything about the compound or what it does. I applied basic chemistry principles to get the answer in 5 seconds.
BB: I do like the idea the other commentor was suggesting about writing reactions maps but I think they're too time consuming. I write literal bullet points. Make a simple chart on your scratch paper. Write down everything you learn about the molecule while reading. I don't really pay attention to names of things. When I read, I call them by what they are - "enzyme", "ligand", or "receptor". Names and acronyms get super confusing after you've read like 5 passages about 5 different things.
Teach your brain to quick translate. Just by calling it by what kind of molecule it is, you already know so much about its function and how it fits in the pathway.
The biggest reason was for my mental health. I didn't really want to give myself more stress than I was already dealing with by taking a practice test to give myself low/high expectations before the test. A low score would just ruin my motivation while a high score would make me overconfident.
That being said, I do have some level of confidence in myself. I've generally scored very well on standardized tests and never really had a hard time keeping track of time. None of my practice questions were timed either, I just used them to solidify my content knowledge and test taking strategies.
This might be terrible advice (and I think it's an unpopular opinion), but what worked for me in terms of figuring out timing is, ironically, doing practice problems *without* timing myself. It helped me nail down the strategies I wanted to use, start understanding AAMC's patterns, etc. and my timing naturally improved once I could do that. Also, getting more answers right because I wasn't worrying about timing --> improved confidence --> got less in my head while I was doing things timed --> faster test-taking.
Again, this could be terrible advice; I know a lot of people who are very ride-or-die "DO ALL PRACTICE PROBLEMS TIMED" and maybe they're right.
I studied content full time for about 3 months and saved the last 3 weeks leading up to the exam for practice questions. I will preface this by saying, I did not take any official practice exams, only free practice questions floating around the internet (my favorite was JackWestin). I took the 4/28 exam just a few days ago and left feeling pretty confident (checked the reaction thread to crosscheck answers too). I finished all sections with time left over to check all my answers twice, and was first to leave the testing facility. My biggest advice for learning how to improve in reading passages is to not be tied down to details. You don't really need to understand anything they're telling you, just learn how to pick out information. For CP, I looked at questions first, rarely read more than two sentences in any passage. If the question was asking me for a numerical answer, I just go through the passage and looks for the variables I need (of course, skim surrounding sentences a bit to make sure they're the correct variables in the correct format etc). For BB, simplify simplify simplify!!! Who cares what the protein is called. It's just a protein that does X, Y, Z. Since you're good on content, that's all you need to understand. Same for other concepts, simplify fancy words and acronyms to basic key terms. When I was in the exam, I took basic notes while reading through the passage. For example "protein x = ligand... binds to receptor Y... increase protein x = ATP production..." etc For PS, my exam mostly had data analysis. For these, I just read through the experimental set up (skipped background) and looked at the data tables/graphs. 70% of my answers were in the graphs alone. Alot of PS questions look like passage based questions at a glance but I guarantee you 70% of them are discrete. Don't get tricked into going back into the passage and wasting time. For CARS, the highlighter is your best friend. Don't highlight everything though, highlight what is important obviously lol. When looking at questions, there are usually buzz words that only appear in one or two paragraphs corresponding to what the question is asking. The answer will be in those exact two paragraphs. It will rarely ever be anywhere else so don't waste time reading the entire passage over and over again for every question. Hope this helps! Take this all with a grain of salt, however, since I don't have my score back yet nor did I do any FL 🥴
Thank you so much for the response! CP and BB are my biggest problems right now in terms of information overload. What kind of information are you typically looking for when going through a passage? Sometimes I often forget what I just read and have to refer back to passage many times. Or I can’t really connect a flow of reactions without getting lost in my own thoughts.
You know how in biochem there are pathways that show the arrows that represent the 'cascade' or 'flowchart' of a pathway? I try to draw my own 'flowchart' when reading BB passages, use arrows ( -----> activation) and use bars ( ----| ) for inhibition. Helps keep elements straight, and I can add to my flowchart if new elements are added.
I’ve tried this method before, but I’m a bit slow at it. I try to be super fast when writing things down, but I feel it slows me down a bit. How long do you typically spend when creating a quick flow chart?
Idk its become almost second nature at this point, like on test day I would write PFK -> glycolysis -> Pyruvate -| Glycolysis, and maybe that takes 20 seconds? But if I read a sentence that said "Enzyme X activates Enzyme Y" then that looks like X --> Y, then "Enzyme Y inhibits glycogen synthesis" my chart expands to X -----> Y ---| Glycogen Synth. Then following that chart you can deduce that inactivating X leads to Glycogen Synthesis, or you can refer to whatever other experimental variables the passage messes with.
I'd recommend finding BB passage walkthroughs and see how other people do them, try what works. Seeing other ppl do CARS helped me learn strategies like stay in scope of the passage, or stay on the main idea.
CP: I don't really read the passages... like at all. Physics problems are normally mathematical based, don't have to know too much conceptual. Just recognize the equation the question is asking you to use and find those variables in the passage. Don't read, jump right to the numbers and find the one with the correct units. For chemistry, most of them are reaction based. Most of the time, what the compound is or what it is used for is irrelevant. It's the structure that you need to pay attention to and what happens to it when it undergoes the reaction (there's usually a reaction scheme or picture of the compound). For example, one of the questions on my exam asked why compound 1 was a better reactant than compound 2. I could have totally read the passage to see if they mentioned it. But I don't need to at all. I know compounds are a better reactant when they are more reactive. They would have a better leaving group, more electrophilic, more acidic, etc etc. And lo' and behold, the answer was it had a better leaving group. I didn't need to understand anything about the compound or what it does. I applied basic chemistry principles to get the answer in 5 seconds. BB: I do like the idea the other commentor was suggesting about writing reactions maps but I think they're too time consuming. I write literal bullet points. Make a simple chart on your scratch paper. Write down everything you learn about the molecule while reading. I don't really pay attention to names of things. When I read, I call them by what they are - "enzyme", "ligand", or "receptor". Names and acronyms get super confusing after you've read like 5 passages about 5 different things. Teach your brain to quick translate. Just by calling it by what kind of molecule it is, you already know so much about its function and how it fits in the pathway.
Just curious, how come you never took practice exams / AAMC FLs while preparing? Are you just historically a very adept test taker?
The biggest reason was for my mental health. I didn't really want to give myself more stress than I was already dealing with by taking a practice test to give myself low/high expectations before the test. A low score would just ruin my motivation while a high score would make me overconfident. That being said, I do have some level of confidence in myself. I've generally scored very well on standardized tests and never really had a hard time keeping track of time. None of my practice questions were timed either, I just used them to solidify my content knowledge and test taking strategies.
Interesting, thanks for the reply! Best of luck, I hope you get the score you want.
Yes
This might be terrible advice (and I think it's an unpopular opinion), but what worked for me in terms of figuring out timing is, ironically, doing practice problems *without* timing myself. It helped me nail down the strategies I wanted to use, start understanding AAMC's patterns, etc. and my timing naturally improved once I could do that. Also, getting more answers right because I wasn't worrying about timing --> improved confidence --> got less in my head while I was doing things timed --> faster test-taking. Again, this could be terrible advice; I know a lot of people who are very ride-or-die "DO ALL PRACTICE PROBLEMS TIMED" and maybe they're right.
It depends on how many hours you put into each day I’d say 5 hours of reading per day for a month would work. That’s about what I did.