I improved my verbal reasoning score from 70% to a 99.9% by changing my strategy and then practicing that strategy.

To appreciate this feat and to understand why it applies to you, you should understand my background. I am not a fast reader. The average reading speed in the US is around 225 words per minute. I am average in this respect. They say that there are verbal people and math people. If this were true, I would certainly be a math person. I have struggled in English classes all my life.

In my initial attempt at a real MCAT, I used a strategy borrowed from a large prep company, which resulted in the previously stated unimpressive result. On my second attempt, I decided to trust in my own strategy. I practiced extensively for less than 90 days and scored a 99.9% on a real MCAT. Years later, I started my own MCAT preparation course and learned through lengthy discussions with students who had scored similarly high scores that their strategy was invariably similar to my strategy. Everyone whom I know for certain to have scored well on the verbal sections of any standardized exam has used the same straight forward approach.

A strong CARS score requires a practical strategy using a few insightful ideas backed by intense practice over a short period of time. I wrote a short book laying out this strategy, which has sold hundreds of thousands of copies.

I have taught MCAT for thirty years. My published verbal strategy changed how the entire MCAT prep industry approached the CARS section. My strategy holds a few insightful ideas with very few surprises. It has been copied imperfectly by several of the big boys in the industry. Alternatively, I have seen popular, so-called CARS experts on the internet giving advice that is so odd that I believe that they either don’t use their own advice or they have never scored well on a real CARS section.

To find out my strategy, you can either purchase my book or you can simply find someone who has scored very high on the CARS section and ask them their approach. One caveat: Be certain that they are telling you how they scored well and not some alternative strategy that they think might work even better for you. In my 30 years of working with premeds from top schools across the country, I have never met a genius (someone who can think so much better than the rest of us). You are just as smart and skilled as anyone else. If someone else can accomplish something, so can you.

Jonathan Orsay

Examkrackers