The MCAT Verbal Reasoning section tests a candidate’s critical thinking and critical reasoning skills. It checks how well candidates can comprehend the meaning of a passage, whether they are able to draw inferences and conclusions from it, relate data and apply information gathered from a given passage.
Structure
- The MCAT Verbal Reasoning section consists of seven passages which are all around 600 words in length.
- Approximately, 5-7 questions will be based on each passage which makes a total of 40 multiple-choice questions to be completed in one hour.
- Each question has four answers out of which you must choose one. Unlike in other exams, there is no negative marking in the MCAT.
ExamFocus’ Practice Support
Do ensure that you have practiced this section well before you decide to take the test. After all, a perfect score can be achieved only if you practice and prepare well. Use Exam Focus’ sample practice questions to get your skills sharpened. Click on the following links to make the best out of our practice questions:
Testing & Scoring Scheme
- The passages are based on topics relating to humanities (art, music, literature, theatre, culture, religion, etc), social sciences (psychology, sociology, education, history, political science, etc) and natural sciences & technology (zoology, botany, astronomy, computers, etc).
- Although no special knowledge of these fields is required to attempt the passages, prior preparation for them wouldn’t hurt your chances of acing this section.
- The section is first assigned a raw score which is a sum-total of the number of correctly answered questions.
- This score is further converted to a number on a scale of 1 to 15 (called the scaled score), where 15 is the highest score.
Types of Questions
- Identifying the main idea or central theme of the passage.
- Comprehending the meaning of the passage.
- Identifying the points which support an argument and those that contradict it.
- Forming relevant conclusions.
- Inference-style questions.
- Questions that test your vocabulary.
- Identifying the relationship between the information and/or ideas presented in the passage.
- Judging whether certain pieces of information were relevant or necessary for reaching a particular conclusion.
- Application style questions (mostly concerning hypothetical situations).
Number of Questions
The MCAT Verbal Reasoning section consists of seven passages which are all around 600 words in length. Approximately, 5-7 questions will be based on each passage which makes a total of 40 multiple-choice questions to be completed in one hour.
How to Improve Your Skills
The passages are based on topics relating to humanities (art, music, literature, theatre, culture, religion, etc), social sciences (psychology, sociology, education, history, political science, etc) and natural sciences & technology (zoology, botany, astronomy, computers, etc). No special knowledge of these fields is required to attempt the passages but a general idea about them will benefit you nonetheless.ExamFocus brings to you hundreds of passages that are designed with questions of competitive level of difficulty to help you enhance upon your skills. On clicking the following five links, you shall get to the page that offers hundreds of sample questions for your practice.