🎯 2.4 Concept and Strategy Summary

Chapter 2 Reading the Kaplan Way

Chapter 2

Reading the Kaplan Way

MCAT reading is unlike any other reading that you have done in the past. In the same way that one reads a novel differently than a textbook, MCAT reading requires its own unique approach. At its core, the MCAT is a critical-thinking exam. In fact, one section is even titled Critical Analysis and Reasoning Skills (also called the CARS section). Whether in a science section or the CARS section, to be successful on the MCAT, you must read passages actively. Active reading consciously considers how and why passage information is presented, which then provides insight on how the information is tested. This chapter, Reading the Kaplan Way, is a strategic framework that facilitates active reading and helps you avoid common pitfalls such as accidentally glazing over text or forgetting what you had read. In this chapter, you will learn the Kaplan Method for Passages (Preview, Choose, Read, and Distill) and how to apply it on all sections of the MCAT.

2.2 How to Critically Analyze Passages

2.2 How to Analyze Passages Critically

The Kaplan Method for CARS Passages

The Kaplan Method for critically reading CARS passages consists of four steps: Preview, Choose, Read, and Distill.

• Preview: Spend approximately 10 seconds noting the presence or absence of key passage patterns. Use these patterns to determine passage difficulty and whether you should do the passage now or later.

• Choose: Using the patterns noted in the Preview step, Choose an appropriate Distill approach for the passage (Interrogate, Outline, or Highlight).

• Read: Use keywords and the three reading modes to read strategically.

• Identify Relation keywords (to connect different ideas in the text), Logic keywords (to reveal the ­passage’s arguments), and Author keywords (to offer glimpses of the writer’s intentions).

• Don’t reread text excessively.

• Distill: While reading the passage, your aim is to distill the major takeaway of each paragraph using one of the following approaches.

• Interrogate: Thoroughly examine each major idea presented in the paragraph by asking interrogative questions, such as, why did the author include this piece of information and how does it connect to the surrounding text.

• Outline: Create a brief label for each paragraph that summarizes the major takeaway of the paragraph.

• Highlight: Highlight one to three terms per paragraph that capture the major takeaway.

Before moving onto the questions, consider what was the author’s goal when writing the passage.

Preview

A lot can happen in 10 seconds, especially when Previewing a passage! Although 10 seconds may seem incredibly short, with practice you will be able to spot key passage patterns that will set you up for a successful passage read through.  Look out for the following fixed patterns in your Preview step to help you establish the difficulty of a passage.

• Passage type: Is the passage type humanities or social sciences?

• Passage language: Is the terminology familiar? Is the passage written in a clear voice? Is the author’s voice academic or social?

• Passage structure: Does the passage follow a clear argument structure or does it wander? Can the purpose of individual paragraphs be determined at a glance from their first sentence?

• Sentence structure: Is the author’s sentence structure clear? Does the author include many complicated/long sentences or unusual punctuation?

These patterns can be seen by glancing at the first one to two sentences of the passage and the first several words of the later paragraphs. Using the patterns found, determine the difficulty of the passage and decide whether you will attack the passage now or later.

Choose

Perhaps it goes without saying that choosing which Distill approach you use for a passage is ultimately up to you. However, avoid simply defaulting to the approach you find most comfortable as this can limit your growth as a critical reader. Instead, let the passage patterns revealed in your Preview step influence your choice.

• Interrogation is the most thorough of the Distill approaches and therefore requires a major time investment, taking up to six minutes to complete. When choosing to Interrogate a passage, you should be confident that your time investment will be rewarded with a deeper understanding of the passage.

• Consider interrogation for passages with clearer sentence structure, as it is likely that spending the extra time interrogating will provide a deeper passage understanding.

• Consider interrogation for passages that cover more abstract topics, as these ideas must often be explored through interrogation to be fully understood.

• Avoid interrogation for passages that are exceptionally difficult to read, as the extra time spent interrogating may not result in a deeper understanding.

• Outlining aims to Distill the major takeaway of a paragraph into a briefly written label. Implicit in this action is that each paragraph has a clear defined takeaway, but this is not always the case.

• Consider outlining for passages that have a clear passage structure as seen in the Preview step.

• Consider outlining for passages that are heavy in details or evidence, as they can often be distilled to a key takeaway or conclusion.

• Avoid outlining for passages that have unusual passage structure. These include passages with paragraphs that differ greatly in length, passages with oddly few but very long paragraphs, or passages with an absurd amount of very short paragraphs.

• Highlighting spends a minimal amount of time distilling the passage and thus only provides the most shallow level of passage understanding. However, this is offset by allowing most of your passage time to be spent on the passage questions.

• Consider highlighting for difficult passages where you are unsure whether a more thorough read through will provide deeper understanding. Often these are passages with unclear sentence and passage structure.

• Avoid highlighting passages that may be better suited for outlining or interrogation, such as passages with clear passage structure or abstract concepts, respectively.

Read and Distill

Earlier in this chapter, we explored the three modes of reading (content, purpose, and reasoning). Each of the three Distill approaches (Interrogate, Outline, and Highlight) uses all three modes of reading. Therefore, no matter which Distill approach is chosen, readers should be looking to leverage keywords while they read.

The difference between the Distill approaches is depth of understanding. Each approach distills the major takeaway of the paragraphs and passage, but they do so to varying degrees. As such, the time investment of the approaches greatly differs. Interrogation may take up to six minutes. Outlining may take up to four minutes. Highlighting should take no more than two to three minutes.

Interrogation

This approach borrows its name from the learning science term elaborative interrogation, which describes the process of asking why and how questions to deepen one's understanding and strengthen one's memory of a concept (or a passage). In the CARS section, this takes the form of asking in-depth questions aiming to understand the author's intent and purpose in his or her writing as well as how the author chose to structure the passage. If done properly, interrogating a passage should provide not only a deeper understanding of the author's perspective and passage, but also stronger recall of the major ideas in the passage. In many cases, a strong interrogation means questions can be answered without returning back to the passage.

At its core, interrogation is all about asking yourself the right questions about each passage to deepen your understanding. For many, the hardest part of this process is not answering these questions but, rather, generating the interrogative questions in the first place. Below presents a series of steps you can use to generate interrogative questions and develop your interrogation skills.

Interrogative Questions through Chunking

In learning science, chunking is the process of breaking down a complex set of information into smaller pieces or chunks for easier digestion, such as remembering the number 3710 as two chunks, "thirty-seven and ten." When applied to the Interrogation approach, chunking means to parse a paragraph into chunks based on purpose. For example, if the next sentence serves a different purpose from the previous sentence, the next sentence can be seen as a new chunk. If a paragraph defines a moral theory and then provides an example, the paragraph could be parsed into two chunks. Most paragraphs can be parsed into two to three chunks.

The very task of parsing a text into its chunks demands the interrogator to ask the first type of interrogative question, why did the author include this? This can be taken further by asking, how does the current chunk connect to the chunk before it and how does it predict what will come after? Finally, the interrogator can take advantage of the self-referencing effect and ask, how can the ideas in this chunk be applied to my life or the real world?

Key takeaway

The most useful interrogative questions fit into one of the following three templates:

• Why did the author include this chunk? What is its purpose?

• How does this chunk relate to the chunks around it?

• How can the concept explored in the chunk relate to the real world?

Outlining

Outlining aims to capture the major takeaway of a paragraph and write it down in a succinct manner. This act of paraphrasing is the secret behind outlining, as it demands the reader to think actively about what he or she just read in the paragraph in order to generate a label for each paragraph.

Although the goal is always to capture the major takeaway in the outline, this can be achieved in several different ways. The three modes of reading can serve as guidelines for the kind of material to include in each label.

• Content: Write down the key ideas of each paragraph.

• Purpose: Write down how the paragraph functions within the larger whole of the passage.

• Reasoning: Write down how the paragraph relates to those around it. Identify whether each paragraph bolsters or objects to an argument.

In a single passage, you may find that specific paragraphs lend themselves to be outlined based on content while others must be outlined based on reasoning. This is fine, as each label still captures the major takeaway of the paragraph. However, be sure to keep labels concise. Generally, five to seven words are ideal, but labels of up to ten to twelve words are acceptable for more complex passages.

When answering passage questions using the Outline approach, you will most likely need to refer back to the passage more frequently than if you had interrogated the passage. Fortunately, your written outline in your noteboard should allow you to identify quickly which paragraph contains the information needed to answer the question.

things to watch out for

With the aim of Outlining being to write a brief label that describes a paragraph, a common mistake is to hyperfocus on the text within the paragraph itself and thereby never consider the paragraph's role in the context of the passage. To fix, or simply avoid, this oversight, consciously ask yourself, how does this paragraph relate to the previous paragraphs?

Noteboard Strategy

Once you've chosen to Outline a passage, begin to construct your outline. Each paragraph should be numbered using a brief notation, such as P4. For instance, you could set up your noteboard for a five-paragraph passage as follows:

P1.

P2.

P3.

P4.

P5.

Highlighting

In comparison to the other Distill approaches, the Highlight approach can be the most passive due to the ease of using the highlighting tool available on the MCAT testing interface. However, you never want to read a CARS passage passively! Because of this, the Highlight approach may seem the easiest at a first glance. However, it is deceptively hard to master and thus should be practiced regularly.

The Highlight approach aims to capture the major takeaway of a paragraph by thoughtfully highlighting specific terms or phrases. This method of highlighting is different from how it is typically used in academia: to highlight important facts or items you wish to remember. This practice can result in paragraphs being oversaturated with yellow ink. To avoid this, let's consider the purpose of highlighting in CARS, which is to pull your attention back to relevant information when needed for a question. To achieve this effect, you must be thoughtful in selecting what to highlight. When put another way, to highlight terms that capture the major takeaway of the passage, you must first find the major takeaway. This leads us an important realization: when reading CARS passages, highlight terms after you read and understand the paragraph, not while you are reading.

Aggressively Leveraging Keywords

One aspect of the Highlight approach that we haven't discussed yet is its short time allotment of two to three minutes to Read and Distill the passage. This is very aggressive timing. In order to fit your Distill step within this time limit, aggressive use of keywords must be a crucial part of your reading.

Most paragraphs in a passage have only one or two key ideas that make up a relatively small portion of the paragraph. The remaining text supports, elaborates, or provides context for the key ideas. When reading aggressively, your goal is to spend time identifying these key concepts while skimming over the supporting text. Reading for purpose and reasoning play a role in this task, but more directly, your application of keywords actually achieves this goal.

Keywords indicating a major takeaway:

• Contrast

• Conclusion

• Author

• Comparison

Keywords indicating supporting details:

• Continuation

• Evidence

How to Highlight

On Test Day, the testing interface will have an array of computer-based testing tools, including a highlight function. To highlight text:

• Ensure the Highlight option is selected in the top left corner, indicated by a yellow box (this is the default setting).

• Use the cursor to left-click and hold while dragging over the desired text.

• Press Alt + H or, alternatively, left-click on the Highlight button at the top left of the screen.

The Kaplan Method for Science Passages

The Kaplan Method for critically reading science passages consists of  the same four steps: Preview, Choose, Read, and Distill.

• Preview: Spend approximately 10 seconds to determine the passage topic and whether the passage is information or experiment. Use these patterns to determine passage difficulty and whether you should do the passage now or later.

• Choose: Using the patterns noted in the Preview step, Choose an appropriate Distill approach for the passage (Interrogate, Outline, or Highlight).

• Interrogation should be chosen for experiment passages.

• Outlining should be chosen for information passages that are dense or detail heavy.

• Highlighting should be chosen for information passages that are light on details.

• Read: Use keywords and science terms to identify the most important and testable content.

• Identify passage information that can be applied or connected to your MCAT science content.

• Note causal relationships between terms or processes, indicated by words such as increases, inhibited, and required.

• Distill: While reading the passage, your aim is to distill the major takeaway of each paragraph using one of the following approaches.

• Interrogate: Thoroughly examine the experiment passage by identifying the key components of experimental design. Interrogate why specific procedures were done and how they connect to the overall purpose of the experiment.

• Outline: Create a brief label for each paragraph that summarizes the contents of the paragraph and allows you to return quickly to the passage when demanded by a question.

• Highlight: Highlight one to three terms per paragraph that can pull your attention back to testable information when demanded by a question.

Preview

Similar to CARS, your first 10 seconds or so of a passage should be spent noting key passage patterns to determine your ideal choice using the Distill approach and whether to attack the passage now or later.

• Passage type: Is the passage information or experiment?

• Passage topic: What science topic is the passage discussing? What is your comfort in the topic?

• Passage structure: Is the passage primarily text? Does it have a figure or graphic?

Choose

Choosing an appropriate Distill approach in the sciences is considerably more clear-cut than in the CARS section.

• Interrogation, which is the most thorough Distill approach, is best utilized for experiment passages where one must consider the experimenter's purpose in writing and the reasoning behind experimental conclusions.

• Outlining aims to Distill the major takeaway of a paragraph into a briefly written label. Information passages that are dense in detail can be summarized into clear and succinct labels. Therefore, outlining should be done for these passage.

• Highlighting spends a minimal amount of time distilling the passage and thus provides only a shallow level of passage understanding. Information passages that are brief in detail or passages where you are confident in your content knowledge can be highlighted.

Read and Distill

In the sciences, the overarching goal in the Read and Distill step is to identify test-worthy information. Although this sounds like a lofty goal, there are a couple MCAT patterns to notice that can make this goal more attainable.

• Passage concepts that relate or can be applied to your MCAT science knowledge often appear in passage questions.

• Passage information that can be directly used to answer MCAT questions or information that you've previously used to answer MCAT questions will likely be needed in a passage question.

• Passage information that describes experimental setups, or experimental design as a whole, are highly testable.

Each of these patterns will be expanded upon below in our discussion of the Distill approaches.

Interrogation

Recall that the Interrogation approach includes stopping to ask why and how the author included passage information. For many science passages, these questions lead to the unremarkable conclusion of the author included this information to explain a concept. On Test Day, this is not very helpful. However, for experiment passages specifically, exploring the why and how of passage information is vital as this will lead to a deeper understanding of the experiment, which is needed for passages on Test Day.

Key Components of Experimental Design

Like the MCAT, scientific studies and experiments follow specific patterns. If you've read any scientific papers or articles, whether for course credit or just general interest, you've probably noticed that it gets easier the more often you do it! With a little experience, you begin to anticipate what will come up next in the article and begin to look out for results and subsequent discussion. The patterns in these articles have their analogs in the experiment passages on the MCAT as both follow the steps of the scientific method. Although the scientific method is not explicitly tested on the MCAT, having a thorough understanding of the scientific method and experimental design will better equip you to Read and Distill experiment passages on Test Day.

Experiments are done with a purpose in mind, often one clinical in nature. For instance, experiments can be done to gain a deeper understanding of disease pathology, to evaluate the efficacy of treatments, or to understand a novel regulatory pathway. No matter the case, on Test Day once the purpose of the experiment has been distilled, identifying the remaining experimental components will be easier as they can be related back to the experimental purpose. Experiment purposes are often found in or near the beginning of a passage.

The next components of the experimental design to consider are the independent variable, dependent variable, and hypothesis. The independent variable (IV) is manipulated during the experiment in hopes of seeing an effect in the dependent variable (DV), which is measured in the experiment for this reason. A simple definition of a hypothesis is an idea that is to be tested in an experiment. For the MCAT experiment passages, though, we can get more specific. Here the hypothesis is a proposed connection between the independent and dependent variable. In other words, the hypothesis proposes that the dependent variable is dependent on the independent variable.

Some passages, typically biochemistry and psychology passages, include experimental procedures that explain how the IVs are manipulated and DVs are measured. The most difficult experiment passages have procedures that are incredibly information dense or require highly specific knowledge of biochemical assays. However, keeping the IV, DV, hypothesis, and purpose in mind while distilling the passage will allow you to understand the most important steps.

The last components of experimental design are the results and conclusion. The results are often given as data related to the dependent variables. If given experimental results on Test Day, be sure to analyze them for any clear trends. A conclusion takes the results a step further and connects them and their trends back to the experimental hypothesis and purpose. These final two components often go hand in hand in the passage; however, some passages may omit one of these components. In that case, expect questions to appear that demand you to reason about the omitted information.

Key takeaway

Key components of experimental design:

• Purpose: The purpose of the study/experiment, often clinical.

• Independent variables (IV): These are variables manipulated by the experimenters between the different study arms.

• Dependent variables (DV): These are the variables measured by the experimenters.

• Hypothesis: This is a proposed connection between the IV and DV that is tested by the experiment.

• Experimental procedures: The steps of the experiment that describe how the IVs are manipulated and how the DVs are measured.

• Results: The data from the dependent variables.

• Conclusions: The implicit findings that connect the independent and dependent variables, often relating back to the purpose of the experiment.

Outlining

Similar to the CARS Outline approach, in the sciences Outlining involves writing a succinct label of each paragraph while working through the passage. With the goal of the Read and Distill step being to identify test-worthy material, your labels should adequately capture what is found in the paragraph. However, be sure to not include every detail. For instance, if a paragraph describes a multi-step biochemical pathway producing prostaglandins, instead of labeling each step, simply label prostaglandin pathway. In this way, capturing what can be found in a paragraph is a mixture of reading for content and reading for purpose.

An effective Outline should allow you to return quickly to the relevant parts of a passage when demanded by a question. Therefore, it's unlikely in the sciences that your Outline will contain the needed information itself. As long as your Outline points you to the relevant paragraph, though, it's serving its function.

Highlighting

Similar to Outlining, Highlighting should allow you to return quickly to test-worthy information when demanded by a question. In order to achieve this, aim to Highlight the test-worthy material itself. Consider the previously mentioned example. If a paragraph describes a multi-step biochemical pathway producing prostaglandins, focus your highlighting on terms around the products or the steps that you deem important.

Of course, there are diminishing returns when it comes to Highlighting. The more you highlight in a passage, the less useful it becomes! If you find yourself needing to highlight more than one to three terms per paragraph in a science passage, perhaps Outlining would have been a better choice for the passage.

2.3 How to Attack Different Passage Types

2.3 How to Attack Different Passage Types

CARS Passages

The AAMC lists ten different fields in the humanities and a dozen different social sciences, as shown in Table 2.4. Quickly identifying the type of passage during the Preview step of the Kaplan Method can help shape your expectations about what the passage will include and what the accompanying questions will test.

Table 2.4. Humanities and Social Sciences Disciplines in the CARS Section

Humanities Social Sciences

Architecture Anthropology

Art Archaeology

Dance Cultural studies

Ethics Economics

Literature Education

Music Geography

Philosophy History

Popular culture Linguistics

Religion Political science

Theater Population health

Psychology

Sociology

Humanities

Passages in the humanities tend to fall into two broad categories. The first category, which includes most of the passages from architecture, art, dance, literature, music, popular culture, and theater, could be considered arts passages. The second category, philosophical passages, includes ethics, philosophy, and many religion passages.

• Arts passages often use quotations from both artists and critics, include strong opinions, and use descriptive language to illustrate artistic examples.

• Philosophical passages tend to be abstract and heavy on logic as well as focus on concepts and the relations between them.

Keep in mind that plenty of humanities passages mix characteristics of arts and philosophical passages.

Social Sciences

When it comes to the social sciences, some passages take what might be called a scientific form, such as passages in anthropology, education, linguistics, population health, psychology, and sociology. The counterpart to scientific form would be historical passages, which may include topics like archaeology, cultural studies, economics, geography, history, and political science.

• Scientific passages include heavy references to empirical studies. Usually the author’s opinion is subtle.

• Historical passages tend to draw on historical events and quotations from sources alive at the time of the events they discuss. Sometimes empirical studies are referenced.

Support in Passages

Because a majority of questions in the CARS section have some connection to logical support, it’s essential to understand the different kinds of support that can be found in CARS passages.

Categories of Support

• Unsupported claims: Not every assertion in a passage is backed up with evidence. Unsupported claims lack logical connections to other parts of the passage.

• Empirical evidence: Whenever the author appeals to experience, particularly in the context of scientific studies, he or she is using empirical evidence.

• Historical accounts and case studies draw on experience but are limited in value because they represent only single cases.

• Surveys, statistical analyses, and controlled experiments are more solid evidence because variables can be isolated and evidence can be gathered by examining a wide swath of experience.

• Logical appeals refer to the use of logic, claims, or evidence to argue for a point.

• Analogical reasoning: Two things known to be alike are declared to be alike in a different respect for which there may not be direct evidence.

• Reduction to absurdity is supporting a position by the elimination of alternative possibilities.

• Appealing to authority draws on another person or test to support a claim.

• The level of support depends on the credibility of the authority.

• Primary sources provide the most support.

• Secondary sources are dubious in value and vary based on the expertise of the authority being cited.

• Appeals to the reader: In this case, the author uses the reader to help ground an argument. Sometimes the author begins an argument with points that the reader is likely to agree with. Another possibility is that the author uses charged language and colorful descriptions to evoke particular responses from the reader.

• Faulty support involves backing up a controversial claim with another claim that is similarly controversial. This kind of assertion is extremely weak at best.

Anticipating Questions

While reading CARS passages, it is essential to anticipate the questions. Certain passage characteristics lend themselves to specific question types. The following are a few examples of passage types and what types of questions typically accompany each.

• Heavily opinionated passages lend themselves to questions that require understanding what the author would agree or disagree with.

• Passages that are abundant in detail are likely to have questions that necessitate combing through the passage while searching for particular bits from the text.

• Passages lacking in support probably have questions that incorporate new information.

• Passages that use numerous Logic keywords tend to have questions that ask about the author’s ­argumentative structure.

• When the author introduces new terminology or concepts, the questions likely test for ­understanding of the novel information.

• When passages offer two opposing viewpoints, expect questions that ask you to compare and contrast the viewpoints.

Science Passages

The science sections on the MCAT generally present content in two types of passages. The first type is best described as information passages, where you need to pay attention to definitions and relationships. The second—and most common—type are experiment passages. For these passages, your job is to pay attention to why the experiment was done and what the overall findings are. It is important to note that any figures or tables are also worth labeling for the science passages because they also contain testable information. More details on science passages are provided in Part Three of this book.

2.4 Concept and Strategy Summary

2.4 Concept and Strategy Summary

How to Read Strategically Using Keywords

• Passages on Test Day must be read actively, questioning the passage as it is read. Active reading can be facilitated by consciously reading via three modes.

• Read for content: Understand the ideas and concepts presented by the author by asking, what is the author saying?

• Read for purpose: Understand the perspective and motivations of the author by asking, why did the author write this text? Why did he or she include a specific piece of information?

• Read for reasoning: Understand the relationships within the passage by asking, how do the sentences connect? How do the ideas relate?

• Keywords should be leveraged to read the passage actively for content, purpose, and reasoning.

• Relation keywords indicate how passage ideas are related to each other.

• Continuation keywords indicate that more of the same idea is coming in the text.

• Contrast keywords signify a change in the author’s focus or a direct contrast between two things.

• Author keywords indicate the author's opinions and motivations.

• Positive and negative keywords indicate the author's approval or disapproval of an idea, respectively.

• Extreme keywords indicate a strong opinion held by the author.

• Moderating keywords indicate a weaker opinion held by the author.

• Logic keywords indicate connections of support between passage claims.

• Conclusion keywords indicate a conclusion is being presented. Conclusions are statements or claims that are supported with evidence.

• Evidence keywords indicate evidence is being presented. Evidence involves statements, facts, or data that support a conclusion.

• Refutation keywords are the opposite of evidence and actually attack or weaken a conclusion.

How to Analyze Passages Critically

The Kaplan Method for CARS Passages

• Preview for difficulty.

• Look for passage patterns: topic, language, sentence structure, and passage structure.

• Determine the relative difficulty of the passage.

• Decide to attack the passage now or later.

• Choose your approach.

• Interrogation is ideal for passages where you are confident a larger time investment in the Distill step will deepen your understanding of the passage.

• Outlining is ideal for passages that have clear passage structure or are heavy in details.

• Highlighting is ideal for passages with difficult topics or structure where a larger time investment may not produce a deeper understanding of the passage.

• Read the passage strategically using the keywords.

• Distill the major takeaway of the paragraphs and passage.

• Interrogate: Read actively by questioning why the author included the information and how it relates to the information around it.

• Outline: Read actively by writing a brief label on your noteboard that captures the major takeaway of each paragraph.

• Highlight: Read actively by highlighting one to three key terms that capture the major takeaway of each paragraph.

The Kaplan Method for Science Passages

• Preview for difficulty.

• Determine the passage topic and whether the passage is information or an experiment.

• Determine passage difficulty and whether you should do the passage now or later.

• Choose your approach.

• Interrogation should be chosen for experiment passages.

• Outlining should be chosen for information passages that are dense or detail heavy.

• Highlighting should be chosen for information passages that are light on details.

• Read and Distill the passage to identify testable information.

• Interrogate: Thoroughly examine the experiment passage by identifying the key components of experimental design and by interrogating why specific procedures were done and how they connect to the overall purpose of the experiment.

• Outline: Create a brief label for each paragraph that summarizes the contents of the paragraph, thereby allowing you to return quickly to the passage when demanded by a question.

• Highlight: Highlight one to three terms per paragraph that can pull your attention back to testable information when demanded by a question.

How to Attack Different Passage Types

CARS Passages

• CARS passages fall into two general categories humanities and social sciences.

• Humanities can be further divided into two categories: arts and philosophical.

• Arts passages often use quotations from both artists and critics, include strong opinions, and use descriptive language to illustrate artistic examples.

• Philosophical passages tend to be abstract, heavy on logic, and focus on concepts and the relations between them.

• Social sciences can be further divided into two categories: scientific and historical passages.

• Scientific passages include heavy references to empirical studies. Usually the author’s opinion is more subtle.

• Historical passages tend to draw on historical events and quotations from sources alive at the time of the events they discuss. Sometimes empirical studies are referenced.

• Quickly identifying the passage type can shape your expectations of the passage and allow you to anticipate accompanying questions.

Science Passages

• Information passages require noting definitions, concepts, and relationships. Accompanying questions often require connecting passage information to your studied MCAT content.

• Experiment passages require understanding of the experimental procedure and its results. Accompanying questions often require understanding of the internal logic of the experimental procedure and drawing conclusions from presented data.