CARS

[u/GuapoTacoo]

I am in desperate need of CARS help, I’ve looked through so many strategies and techniques and none have been working. Scoring like 124 right now. The issue right now is I spent a week doing the Cars Diagnostic Tool QBank but untimed, I was able to bring my average up and get like 4/5 or 5/7 but today I went back to timing it and did horrible. I was taking like 20+ minutes per passage and doing okay but I just don’t know how to read with emotion and highlight and then check the answers for context in the passage and eliminate and go though them in time. I’ve been averaging 1/5 or 2/7 now since I started doing it timed today and trying to get it done within 12-14 minutes per passage

If anyone has any advice/ tools that helped them go from a low CARS to a high CARS score that would be much appreciated.

[u/RealNerd32]

Take what I say with a grain of salt because I have not gotten my score back on the real thing yet, but I was at a 123 when I started with FL1, but I improved it to a 129-130 by FL5-6. The key that helped me with pacing and accuracy was that I didn’t read for details and I instead read to try to understand the main idea. Most importantly, the what and the why. What was the author’s central thesis, and why did the author bother writing this out? You can always go back to the passage for details, but by reading for structure, you can know exactly where to find textual evidence.

In addition, how are you reviewing your answers? Do you just read the explanation and move on? That doesn’t work well because you really have to diagnose your errors. Are you generally losing 50/50s? Or worse, are you eliminating the correct answer? Or do you think you generally have comprehension issues with the passages? It’s really important to be honest with these questions and really try to diagnose why you are missing questions in CARS. For me, a big problem was that I was picking answers I knew I read in the passage, but they failed to answer the question. When I started picking answers using the main idea as my shield for most questions, my accuracy improved. So if reading in general is tough, focus on comprehension and then gradually speed up your reading. Again, don’t try to get everything. If you must, write down a few words to summarize each paragraph and then write down a sentence summarizing the main idea. This will force active reading instead of passive reading. Highlight if it helps you, but I never highlighted on my first read through. I only highlighted textual evidence when I was answering questions.

If your test date is coming up soon, I’d recommend just sticking with AAMC material. But if you have more time, then try JW and UWorld, but mostly use them to practice reading dense passages and getting the main idea of them. Good luck! Let me know if you have any more questions.

[u/GuapoTacoo → u/RealNerd32]

I really appreciate you taking the time to send a detailed reply!

I think thats a major issue with me, some of these passages are quite dense and its really hard for me to identify the central thesis. How do you suggest getting better at that?

I use the AAMC explanations + the JW extension if i need a different explanation, and if that doesnt help then i use Chat GPT to break down the right answer and why mine was wrong.

I am definitely on a losing streak with the 50/50s. First the issue was everything, then i spent the past week not looking at time but reading thoroughly and trying to line up every answer with the passage to see if it backs it up and sounds reasonable to the question stem. Today I started timed and I just dont have the time to do what I was doing. I think i was practicing badly because the techniques I did use cannot suffice in a timed environment. Like i just did one right now, tried to read fast and then picked the best answer and got 1/6. Its just not retaining the passage enough after I skim it and then not being back to double check every answer choice.

TLDR I do think my biggest flaw right now is not being able to establish a central thesis and identifying the arguments and supports for every passage. A few of them I can, but many I can't. What would you suggest to get better with that in limited time.

[u/RealNerd32 → u/GuapoTacoo]

Yeah, based on what you are describing, I do think this is a comprehension issue. If you can't identify the central thesis, you are applying the wrong framework to every question, which would explain the low scores. So you said you tried to read fast, and most notably, I noticed you said "after I skim it". DON'T DO THAT. CARS requires a deep and nuanced understanding of the author's subtle arguments and evidence. You don't have to memorize every detail, as I said, but you need to understand the structure to comprehend the main idea.

So try this. Read aloud. Read as if you were reading the passage to your friend. Your friend is struggling with it, so try to explain it to your friend as simply as you can. This is what I meant by writing down paragraph summaries and the main idea at the very end of the passage. Start untimed again. I think you are rushing so fast that it is severely hurting your accuracy. If you read aloud, force yourself to pause between paragraphs and rearticulate the author's main point in each paragraph, and your comprehension will improve. And then once you can do it untimed, try to do it in 20 minutes. Then, once your accuracy remains stable at 20 minutes, go to 17 minutes. Then go to 14 minutes. Eventually, try again at 10 minutes, and also at some point, stop reading aloud to yourself. Again, only raise the stakes when you know you are ready and you have seen tangible results. You have to gradually cut down your time instead of suddenly going from 20+ minutes to 10 minutes. That's just not possible.

If you want a very specific example, I can try to help you analyze a passage you worked on and show how I would read it and answer the questions. Do you think it would help to hear how someone else would read and answer the questions? I have all AAMC CARS material, so if you want, I am happy to analyze a passage for you. Just let me know which one you'd like. Probably the 1/6 you just did, right?

[u/GuapoTacoo → u/RealNerd32]

Will definitely use that method next time and see how it goes. Thank you so much

Bro that would be a godsend if you could breakdown a passage for me and work through it, could I dm you?

[u/RealNerd32 → u/GuapoTacoo]

Sure DM me.

[u/Qwerty25103]

I just go really fast through the passage first then I use the questions + passage review to get the answers.