My advice is:
Talk about the difficulty of the verbal score whenever you have the opportunity.
Ask what the student's SAT verbal score was as that is an indication of trouble
if it was below 650 and English is a first language.
Advise humanities students not to take their verbal ability for granted and to
prepare to be challenged by the MCAT.
Tell all students to take a practice MCAT verbal section timed as soon as
possible in college (freshman year is not too early) and expect to get an actual
verbal score on the actual exam that is one number lower than the practice
score.
Ask if the student has trouble recognizing vocabulary and, if so, recommend
flash cards.
From freshman year on, encourage students to read such publications as "The
Times Literary Supplement," "The New York Review of Books," "The New Yorker,"
"The Economist," "Atlantic," and to tear out articles to read while waiting for
their laundry, waiting on line, etc.
I also developed a reading list, with tremendous input from Columbia University
faculty and postbacc premeds, that I give out.
Query the student as to what kinds of mistakes s/he's making to try to identify
the problem. Common problems are:
*over thinking the answers because they are not definite, as science answers can
be
*slow reading speed and/or poor time management
*particular anxiety about verbal work, akin to math phobia
*falling for the distracter
*not being precise in the reading of the question
For many students, reading the questions (but not the answer choices) first,
circling key words or references to specific lines in the text, etc. before
reading the passage, works very well.
If you have the resources, hire a tutor (a graduate student is often good) to
work run a verbal section prep course, beginning in early February. I have seen
excellent results with students for whom English is a second language, who have
learning differences, or who come from extremely disadvantaged backgrounds.
Early identification of a verbal section problem means the student has enough
time to improve. Some improvement can be made with intensive work between April
and August, but a self-diagnosis and a junior year start is much preferred.
Thea Volpe
Dr. Thea Volpe, Director
Undergraduate Academic Advising, Wilf Campus
Yeshiva University
500 West 185 St.
NY NY 10033
Verbal vs Humanities vs Science
Education - the entire pipeline