CARS Fundamentals/Learning Theory
“Four Step Foundation For Maximum CARS Growth ”
Great for learning the fundamental components that drive student growth in CARS. This material is often not taught to students aiming for high CARS scores. It is likely that one of the four factors is stopping your from scoring as high as you possibly can.
“Why is CARS Impossible to Study For? ”
CARS is possible to study for. This lesson goes into detail regarding how common approaches to CARS can often be ineffective.
“Everything You Learned About CARS is WRONG! ”
Unfortunately most of the CARS material available is made to sell practice passages not teach students how to get better at CARS. Here we explore how changing your learning approach to CARS can have huge benefits.
The Four Column Theory is how test writers are taught to build answer choices. Its important for students to be aware of this build style so they can be prepared for its familiar format on test day.
“How to Increase Accuracy in CARS ”
CARS accuracy is super tough to consistently maintain. If you find that your performance is fluctuating it would be a good idea to explore additional passage review tactics to increase your performance.
It sounds super funny but it’s true. MCAT CARS is actually closer to a sport than the other three sections. If we change the way we train, we can actually benefit a ton. This material is super helpful if you have been stuck in a CARS rut for awhile and are looking for a fresh perspective to get things going again.
CARS Question Answering Skills
“Picking the Wrong CARS Answer for the RIGHT Reasons? ”
It's beyond frustrating in CARS when we pick the wrong answer but our logic/reasoning process was sound. This lesson helps show why that’s the case and what we can do to increase our CARS accuracy. Sometimes we can just disregard those “broken” third party questions.
“MCAT CARS is a Casino with FAKE 50/50 questions! ”
CARS tends to have more 50/50 questions than the other sections. Unfortunately, unlike B/B or C/P these questions aren’t actually 50/50. The odds are against you every single time so make sure you use our strategy to keep your testing time intact.
“The Myth that More CARS Practice Directly Equals Higher Scores ”
We are often told that to get better at CARS we need to do more practice. This is true…to a degree. Growth in CARS comes from a combination of many factors which we discuss in detail. Ignoring them and simply compensating with high volume practice often leaves scores stagnant.
“HELP! My CARS Score has Fallen and can’t Get Up!! ”
It can be tough when we hit a CARS plateau and, despite proper practice, fail to improve at all. Here we discuss common causes and how we can break the stalemate.
“Are All CARS Answers HOT GARBAGE? ”
CARS answers choices SUCK. That’s actually not an accident. AAMC has designed the choices that way for a very specific reason. Once you grasp the logic it becomes easier to avoid their trick in the future.
“Doing the CARS Questions in Order is WRONG! ”
Among the many psychological tricks the AAMC uses on MCAT, question order is one of the worst. The order of the questions is not random and is actually designed to drain our time. With our simple strategy hopefully you will be able to see the trick and avoid their nonsense.
CARS Passage Based Skills
“ MCAT CARS Has a Speed Limit: and AAMC Wants to Hit It ”
Why does AAMC want you to rush through the exam? It’s because accuracy and speed are inversely related for the majority of students. The faster passages are read the lower your comprehension gets and the harder it is to answer questions. Let’s explore how to avoid their trap in this lesson.
“A Simple 10 Second Trick for Controlling MCAT CARS ”
Simple timing errors can be FATAL on MCAT CARS. Here we illustrate how much one minute can throw off your test experience. Be sure to watch out for the clock on test day.
“What's Worse than Philosophy Passages? ”
Since 2015 philosophy passages have largely been phased out. In their place AAMC prefers to use “hybrid style” passages. These are hard/harder than philosophy but are on unrelated topics. This lesson gives you a few tricks to see them coming.
“ How Does the AAMC Rig the Passage Order? ”
Remember nothing on the test is an accident. The passage order has been built to maximize time drain and exhaust students. Being aware this is occurring gives us a ton of options to combat it.
“How Does the AAMC Build MCAT CARS Passages? ”
AAMC is a professional test creation company. They have to be consistent and repeatable so their passages actually have a certain creation standard. Once students learn that standard it becomes much easier to decipher passages quickly.
“What IDIOT Wrote These CARS Passages and Questions? ”
Who actually writes your CARS prep material? (Hint I did and so did several of the MCATSavior staff). Knowing who creates practice materials is incredibly important because it helps explain the inherent variability within passages and helps us avoid the discrepancies.
C/P, B/B, and P/S Strategy/Skills
“ Cheat Code for AAMC’s 50/50 Questions ”
50/50 questions are the WORST. AAMC knows this and they stack the test full of them. They do a lot more damage to us on test day than we would think. Make sure you implement our strategy to keep yourself above the AAMC’s nonsense.
“The C/P Section is a Psychological Attack ”
The order of the sections on the test is also not a mistake. AAMC purposefully placed C/P first since it is arguably the toughest. Having a good strategy in place before tackling this section will be key to surviving test day.
“” How I got to 521 from 508 in 3 weeks!!” and Other Lies You Can Read On Reddit ”
Insane score jumps are not typical for most students. Although the internet likes to make it seem like magical score boosts are possible, these only work for a very small subset of individuals. Read on to see why the “magic” study methods these people use don’t work for average test takers.
“More MCAT Content Doesn’t Always Lead to Higher Scores ”
Unfortunately, more content doesn’t always lead to higher scores. The way content is utilized in the knowledge based sections tends to vary and sometimes we need a different way of learning content to maximize our potential.
“Full Length Tests are a Waste of Time ”
When used improperly nothing is more of a PITA than a FL MCAT test. FLs have a ton of use but they need to be implemented appropriately into a student’s study schedule to be effective. We want to explore some of the pitfalls of overdoing Fls and how students can use them in the best way possible.
“Spending More than One Minute Per Question on the MCAT is FATAL for Average Students ”
It’s not an exaggeration. The test is actually designed so that the majority of questions can be done in a minute or less. AAMC might try to hide this fact with confusing passages and weird questions but it is still bound by the rules of a TIME based test. Knowing these rules can help us navigate its challenges.
“ 129 On a Practice FL but 125 On Test Day? Why?!? ”
Our real test score can look pretty different from our practices. Sometimes we do better but usually it's the opposite. There are a ton of reasons for this and by knowing some of the common issues, hopefully we can avoid them on test day.
AAMC Secrets
“How Does the AAMC Manipulate the Exam Curve? ”
The MCAT is graded on a curve. While this is common knowledge how that grading scale affects student’s scores is not. Having a good grasp of how you are being graded is essential for maximizing test day scores and avoiding burnout.
“ Why Does the AAMC Artificially Deflate Scores? ”
Besides manipulating the curve, there is a ton the AAMC can do to ruin student’s scores. Here we explore some of their most inane tactics. Student’s need to be aware of these going into test day and make sure they use strategy to protect themselves.
“Who is a Naturally Intelligent Test Taker in CARS? ”
Not every student has the same ability. CARS is unique because it requires NO outside knowledge in order to do well. Students that have higher innate capacity can often do better than their average peers. This lesson is relevant for all students because we need to realize that we can’t simply copy their methods to beat CARS.
“ Why Don’t Naturally Intelligent Students Need MCAT Test Taking Strategy? ”
The top 10th%ile of MCAT test takers often don’t use test taking strategy. This is because they use a combination of content knowledge and skill to break through questions much faster than average students. Since they solve questions so fast, they never have to implement a lot of timing strategies. For average students, timing strategy is a life saver so make sure you use it on test day.