1. Passage mapping is extremely helpful. A LOT of people will say it is stupid and a waste of time. However, it is extremely helpful in that it lets you synthesize what you read and FORCES you to analyze what the purpose of each paragraph is and subconsciously allows you to relate the paragraphs. This helps in an overall understanding of the passage, or at least an understanding necessary to your MCAT verbal section. Mapping also lets you find details more quickly. But more importantly, passage mapping helps in certain types of questions. To give you a clear, cut and dry explanation of WHY a passage map may help, notice this example.
The author probably mentions having "your organs harvested for the good of all" (line 63) in order:
A. to illustrate that society could make good use of your body after you have died
D. to provide an example of mandatory euthanasia
Imagine that you can eliminate choices B and C just because they are dumb.
If you read to the paragraph and the line, it will say, "given these pressures, it is not unreasonable to assume that at some point you would have no choice but to die and have your organs harvested for the good of all."
Naturally (at least if you're like me) you'd be inclined to pick choice A because the "for the good of all" pretty much speaks right to that answer choice. But that would be wrong. On my map, for that paragraph, I wrote "possibility of euthanasia becoming mandatory." Therefore, the reason the author wrote that paragraph was to pretty much say it is possible that euthanasia would become mandatory in the future. If you did NOT have a passage map, you would either need to recall that completely from memory OR you would need to reread the passage. Otherwise, you would have been lured into a false answer.
Answer choice D makes much more sense in light of why the paragraph was written. If the point is to address mandatory euthanasia, why would the author care about the fact that society could make good use of your body? Sure, it could. But that doesn't help his argument.
2. NO EXTREMES. Words like "only" and "never" and "always" are almost always wrong. Also, answer choices that show extremist views are almost always wrong. The MCAT tends to put wishy-washy topics on the MCAT purposely just to confuse you. Even if they're enticing, strong answer choices are probably wrong. Look for words like "can" or "potentially" or "could" or "possibly" or "somewhat." These answer choices indicate possibilities which the MCAT passages like to address.
3. Back up your answer choice with passage evidence. It's good to continually try to look for evidence in the passage to justify your answer. The MCAT writers are incredibly cunning in that they know exactly how to entice you with wrong answer choices. That said, when you choose an answer don't just choose it because it feels right. Make sure it IS right.
4. Don't second guess yourself. As a general rule, if you have to second guess yourself you will get it wrong. Your first instinct is a good one usually and if you're second guessing you're usually reading too much into an answer choice. This is not to say you shouldn't CHANGE answers you're unsure of. If you find a better answer choice that you're confident is better (because of passage evidence) then by all means change it. But don't change an answer from your original guess based only on a hunch.
Some thoughts for now. Like I said, my verbal score is only really a 9/10 but it's still better than the national average and I went up from being absolute crap in that section.
Two weeks until the exam.
Predicted score right now still sits around 33-35.
