6 Essential MCAT CARS Tips

I would not consider myself a good reader. In fact, the reading section of the ACT was my lowest score section. When I started practicing for CARS on the MCAT, I would always run out of time. EVERY TIME. Ultimately, I had to throw some previously recommended strategies out the window and focus on becoming a better reader, or more realistically, becoming a better reader within the context of AAMC logic. In this week’s study tip, I will explain the six MCAT CARS tips that are game-changers for improving your CARS score. For more CARS strategy, I highly recommend our FREE CARS Strategy Session with Andrew.

MCAT CARS tips for speed: Essential MCAT CARS tips

MCAT CARS Tips for timing

1. Read the CARS Passage First

When I started CARS I would always run out of time because I initially pre-read the questions before the passage. I would read them, then go back to the passage now pressed for time, had to read faster than I was comfortable with because I was behind, then go BACK to the questions (by this time I had already forgotten them) and then because I read the passage too quickly I would need to go BACK to the passage to find the answer again! This was horrible for me in every way.

Then I heard from a friend that I should try to read a passage in 3-4 minutes. They said to spend more time on the questions to really understand them (some even suggested practicing writing their own questions) to be confident in their choices. This is, I believe, the fundamental reason why most people do poorly on CARS. We are taught to spend time combing the questions and answers, going back to the passage to double-check our answers and identify the specific question type/flavor/subcategory etc. Trust me, my friends. This will only add to hatred of CARS if you try to psychoanalyze the questions.

MCAT CARS tips for pacing: Essential MCAT CARS tips

MCAT CARS Tips for reading

2. Take. Your. Time.

Read carefully. If you’re a slow reader, read at your normal pace. If you are a fast reader, you may even need to slow down. For my final FLE’s I would think to myself “woah I am spending too much time reading this passage” but then have a private chuckle as I blew through the questions. Try this. It may take a dozen passages to retrain your brain, but I hope it changes your life. The reason being is because everyone you “iT’s aLL aBoUt ThE mAIn IdEA” but it’s really not. Reading slowly helps you digest their subtle arguments.

You may miss questions right now because the AAMC throws in subtle differences in answer choices. Reading fast will leave you frustrated at the question because it seems like both of your final potential answers are correct!! But if I am reading slow? You will have a good laugh with me when you don’t even need to read the options twice. Again this isn’t foolproof, but message me in two weeks when your scores start climbing.

MCAT CARS tips for improvement: Essential MCAT CARS tips

MCAT CARS Tips for passages

3. Crack The Two Types of Tricky CARS Passages

After fixing my timing issue, I still had issues with certain passages. For me, there were two types of tricky MCAT CARS passages:

1. The CARS passage argument is so dense and complex and uses language from 14th-century Finnish thesauruses.

2. The CARS passage is so BORING and you are half asleep reading about the dust on a painting of some Russian architecture in 1672.

Let’s start with the second type of problematic CARS passage. If you are bored to tears… take a 5-second break and let your eyes have a rest. Look at the wall in front of you. Don’t even focus your eyes. Clear your head. These 5-second pauses were huge for me. I would do them every time I ended a passage. Not only would it give me a microbreak, but it allowed me to let go of all that pointless info that I just learned about Portuguese literature under Napoleon. It didn’t carry over and I would stop worrying about it.

For the first type of problematic passage (the dense and complex), the strategy is to calm your expectations. If you find yourself thinking “what does this word/sentence mean?” just relax. Every premed who has ever read this sentence/paragraph is probably thinking the same thing. But here’s the secret. That’s THE POINT. You aren’t supposed to know what it means. Just get any piece of info that any normal person could get from it and move on.

Only worry about a hard word if the question specifically asks you for it. If they ask you, that guarantees that a normal person would be able to make a reasonable inference from context to the correct definition. DON’T TRY TO BUILD YOUR VOCAB (unless English is not your first language). THAT’S A WASTE OF TIME. Everyone else will get hung up by these insane sentences, and AAMC actually wants you to get stuck too. Move on. I can almost promise you that you won’t be tested on understanding that insanely complex sentence on the actual test.

MCAT CARS tips for AAMC: Essential MCAT CARS tips

MCAT CARS Tips for answering questions

4. Simplify the Main Idea

For MCAT CARS questions, have a rough idea of what is going on before you get there. You don’t need to write anything down (I never did for CARS), but have a one-sentence summary floating around. If the passage was too complicated to be summarized in one sentence, that’s fine. It doesn’t work for every passage. You also want to have a good idea of the author. You don’t need to picture in your head what they look like, but that type of thinking goes a long way. Are they overly judgmental? Are they a hippy who loves the expression of emotions through bodily dance? Would they vote as a libertarian or a progressive?

As we all know, CARS answers are frustrating in terms of how vague the right answer can be. So you don’t need to form a perfect image of them. Allow some room for ambiguity. This is a key starategy you can practice with the Ultimate CARS Strategy Course provided by MCAT Self Prep.

MCAT CARS Tips to remember

5. Understand the Author

When I first started and would get destroyed by CARS, I would lose confidence in myself and need to go back to the passage for every question to make sure I was right. This was hard. It also sucks time away and only adds to your stress. By the end of my studying, I would only go back to the passage for one question each passage. Again, it would mostly be because I was nervous and didn’t trust myself because I would rarely need to change my answer.

The most important part is understanding the author. The AAMC rarely asks you about what was in the passage, they often ask what the author would think if A, B, or C happened. Often times you will need to embody the author’s views that are totally contradictory to your own. Maybe they love eugenics. Maybe they supported colonialism. Maybe they’re more progressive in their cultural views and you’re more conservative. What they would think about a given topic is the right answer, what you’d think about it will be the wrong answer.

Again, if you read slow and focus on the author, 90% of questions will be so clear to you. You’ll have a good laugh with us because CARS actually is manageable. CARS is still very challenging, but at least it’s not impossible. You should be thinking about the answers like… “no, A is the opposite of what he said, B is irrelevant, C is kinda weird but not necessarily wrong, D is the opposite of what the author said. Must be C.” There are lots of CARS strategies that we would love to teach you.

MCAT CARS Tips. How long does it take?

6. Know How Long You Need to Study

Based on our analysis of top CARS scorers, there is no set amount of time that will guarantee you a high CARS score. Some high scorers only studied 50-75 hours or less while others needed to study more than five hundred hours. The reason why there is so much variability is that every student is extremely unique. For instance, students who have a strong natural ability for reading comprehension, students who had amazing pre-med professors that pushed them, and students that took their pre-med coursework seriously will likely need to study for fewer hours than their peers.

Because there is so much variability, it is crucial that your approach to CARS is unique to your needs. This is why MCAT Self Prep offers the Create-your-own Study Plan Course, which will help you approach your CARS studying in an individualized manner. Although it is impossible to know exactly how much time you will need to set aside for your MCAT studying, it is still a good idea to have a rough estimate. From my experience helping students study for the MCAT, I believe it takes 50 to 75 hours of studying to improve your score by a single scaled score point. The Create-your-own Study Plan Course will walk you through taking a diagnostic exam, providing you with a detailed estimate as to how many hours you personally need to study in order to attain your goal score.

MCAT CARS tips for perfect score: Essential MCAT CARS tips

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Warm regards,

Theo Bennett

Theo Bennett is a medical student at UCLA and a Premium Elite Tutor who scored a perfect 528 on the MCAT. He was accepted to 6 top 10 medical schools including both programs at Harvard Medical School. He’s helped almost 100 students improve their MCAT scores so far, especially in the CARS section. 

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