Transcript Charles Chaney’s VR Mastery •Curriculum for Increasing Verbal Reasoning Scores Chaney’s VR Strategies • Symptoms of poor reading comprehension. – Work to diagnose why.

Charles Chaney’s VR Mastery
•Curriculum for Increasing Verbal Reasoning
Scores
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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.
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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.
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Chaney’s VR Strategies
• Symptoms of poor reading comprehension.
– Do you forget what you’ve just read?
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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.
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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.
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Chaney’s VR Strategies
• Symptoms of poor reading comprehension.
– Memory building activities.
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Practice paragraph recall.
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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.
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Chaney’s VR Strategies
• Two steps to active reading.
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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).
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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?
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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?
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Chaney’s VR Strategies
• Symptoms of poor reading comprehension.
– Do your eyes move too slowly?
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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.
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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.
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Chaney’s VR Strategies
• Symptoms of poor reading comprehension.
– Do you daydream?
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Disinterest or anxiety or fatigue often lead passive
readers into thinking about more exciting things.
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Use clutch reading strategies to help you overcome this
problem.
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Chaney’s VR Strategies
• Symptoms of poor reading comprehension.
– Do you lose interest in the material?
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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?
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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.
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