MCAT Critical Analysis and Reasoning Skills: Strategy and Practice: Timed Practice for the New MCAT Verbal Section

Purchased the book for my April 2015 test after I could not get a Jan date. I have the psych book too. Neither book has any color or cool illustrations but for these subjects it doesn't matter.As for the content, the strategy is great. They make it pretty clear what is and is not changing for the new test. My favorite has to be the passages and explanations. The passages are pretty tough and seem almost exactly like what the AAMC released in October so that is a good sign. I'll know more as I study.Only 4 stars due to the rather drab setup, no color, etc...

So I was recently hired by a major test prep company to tutor the LSAT and they wanted me to look into tutoring the MCAT-CARS as well because it uses a lot of the same skill set. In my undergrad I studied psychology and tutored psychometrics (the people who go on to get PhDs in psychometrics are the ones who write these tests.) My thoughts are this:The book has a function. The function is to get more reading practice with passages similar to what's on the MCAT. If you're looking for extra reading material, this might be worth it depending on the price point (I bought a used copy.)You can even go as far as reading the questions, and thinking critically about how YOU might respond to them.The issue that I have is this: the question responses aren't really that good, and they're not tested material. There's a lot of science behind what questions go on these exams, and the answer options that the author attempts to provide fall short of that.The author does do a GOOD job at outlining different reading strategies and inviting you to test them on passages to see what works best for you. I think that's a better approach than a "one size fits all" method that other companies use.(I did deduct one star because my "Used-Like New" copy was bent and had writing in it, but it was in pencil so not a huge deal. But the writing stops after the first couple passages despite the owner getting questions wrong, so I'm going to assume they didn't get much benefit from the questions.)INSIDER TIP: If you're looking for actual tested products, you can buy every single LSAT ever published here on amazon. Their reading comprehension section is almost identical to CARS. If you struggle with the logic of arguments, the LSAT has 2 sections per exam on logical reasoning. If you're looking for reading material on strategy, the LSAT Trainer by Mike Kim (~$40 on amazon) and Powerscore's Reading Comprehension Bible (~$30 on amazon) are fantastic.

Finding study materials for the MCAT2015 has proven to be incredibly difficult in my preparation for the new exam, so the volume of practice questions and passages that NextStep has been able to supply for the new verbal section with this textbook is immensely helpful. I've taken the MCAT once before, and the way the questions were written felt much more like I was reading actual AAMC questions than some other testing companies that I've used materials from. I particularly like NextStep's "Panic Mode!" chapter -- I struggle with timing on the verbal section sometimes, so this was exactly the kind of chapter I needed to help me learn how to proactively use remaining time in a verbal section if I have an entire passage left and only 4 minutes to do it in. Sure, I can try to skim passages in the remaining time, but I think my problem has been that I still try to read the entire passage. Therefore, the way they set up their Panic Mode! exercises will be extremely helpful as I try to perfect my timing on the verbal section. Thanks NextStep!

I really appreciate the depth of knowledge and expertise in this study book - CARS is a new section on the MCAT and it's awesome to have a book with so many practice passages inside it. Things I really like about this book:- As just mentioned, there is a *huge* amount of quality new CARS passages to go through, and the explanations provided are focused and clear. That second part is really important for me because I've used other books whose explanations are either supremely complicated or so sparse that I don't really learn anything after getting it wrong.- The book includes *multiple strategies* for addressing CARS passages. This is super cool. I get to try out different strategies rather than just try to figure out or wrestle with one single way of doing a passage.- The tone is very colloquial, but at the same time professional and knowledgeable. I feel like the author is talking directly to me which is cool considering typical "textbooks" can feel very impersonal.

It’s great practice for the CARS section which is probably the worst! I also read research articles and summarized them in conjunction with this book. Good luck to those preparing for the MCAT!

This is a great book for pre-med students who may have difficulty with the verbal section. What I personally found most helpful was the clear way that in the explanations portion, key words are bolded and underlined to help guide me through what terms I should be highlighting when going through the passage. In addition, there is a very clear analysis of the meaning of the passage to break down some of the hard-to-understand ideas presented in the passage. It also helps me understand what types of things I should be thinking about after each paragraph to summarize the main points and to look for key opinions, contrasts, and cause-and-effect relationships. Overall, I think this book has great content that is very similar to the feeling of the real AAMC tests, and it provides a unique format of explanations that is more useful than some of the other books I have used in the past.