1 Charles Chaney’s VR Mastery Curriculum for Increasing Verbal Reasoning Scores

2 Chaney’s VR Strategies Symptoms of poor reading comprehension. – Work to diagnose why you have trouble with reading comprehension in order to be a great reader rather than an amateur reader. Difficulties emerge when your mind and your eyes are NOT in agreement. Being a PASSIVE reader instead of an ACTIVE reader can spell disaster on the VR section of the MCAT.

3 Chaney’s VR Strategies Symptoms of poor reading comprehension. – Do you forget what you’ve just read? Forgetting what you’ve read is the result of a weak memory, distracted mind, or a lack of interest in the material (passive reading). Memory building activities. – Practice sentence recall. » For 15 to 30 minutes a day, read a sentence, then try to state it word-for-word. » Look back at the sentence and compare. » Then move on to the next sentence.

4 Chaney’s VR Strategies Symptoms of poor reading comprehension. – Memory building activities. Practice paragraph recall. – For 30 minutes each day, stop after reading a paragraph and then summarize its main ideas. – Look back to catch any ideas that you missed. – Continue to the next paragraph and repeat.

5 Chaney’s VR Strategies Two steps to active reading. Clear your mind of distractions and focus on the page before you by becoming interested in the material you’re about to read. Create a curiosity about the material you’ll be reading and ask questions (clutch reading). – What is the author saying here? – Is the author convincing? – What can I learn? – What do I find interesting? – Why was this article published, or what makes it special? – Who would care to read this?

6 Chaney’s VR Strategies Two steps to active reading. Clear your mind of distractions and focus on the page before you by becoming interested in the material you’re about to read. Create a curiosity about the material you’ll be reading and ask questions (clutch reading). – What is the author saying here? – Is the author convincing? – What can I learn? – What do I find interesting? – Why was this article published, or what makes it special? – Who would care to read this?

7 Chaney’s VR Strategies Symptoms of poor reading comprehension. – Do your eyes move too slowly? Untrained readers are tempted to look at each word. Try to look at every second or third word, instead of every word for the first two weeks of your training. – Aim for reading at 250 words per minute comfortably with full comprehension by the time you take the test. » Use a stopwatch to time yourself when you practice.

8 Chaney’s VR Strategies Symptoms of poor reading comprehension. – Do you daydream? Disinterest or anxiety or fatigue often lead passive readers into thinking about more exciting things. – Use clutch reading strategies to help you overcome this problem.

9 Chaney’s VR Strategies Symptoms of poor reading comprehension. – Do you lose interest in the material? You do not have a choice regarding the topics of the VR passages. Your inability to generate some interest in the material will hamper your efforts to be more active and focused when you read for maximum comprehension. What “tricks” can you play to force yourself to find passages interesting? – Pretend you’ll be rewarded for your focus. – Engage in positive visualization. – Develop a positive attitude. – Avoid reading leisurely during your training for the test.