From 125 --> 129 in less than a week: My CARS Strategy

CARS was always my hardest section. I would consistently score 125 or lower every time I did a practice section. This is how I increased that 125 to a 129 in the span of a few days with a last minute change to my strategy, as well as what I could have done better.

First off, shoutout to Ahmad Shahin for this video that helped me change my strategy:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gg2ZRcLLz34&t=64s&ab_channel=AhmadShahin

What was holding me back was answering the questions based on my own judgement. I sort of changed my mindset to start answering questions not based on what i thought was correct but what the passage and the test makers deemed correct. Doing this, CARS was really able to click for me and I started becoming able to read passages while keeping in mind the possible questions they could ask and what answers they would be looking for. I would keep 2 thoughts in the back of my mind when addressing each question: Why are they asking this question? and What answer are THEY looking for?

Prior to changing my strategy, I would often find myself torn between 2 answers that seemed fitting and would usually select the wrong one. How I avoided this, is I covered up the answers after reading the question and tried to predict the answer based on what I read. This definitely comes with practice but it was able to help me as I selected the answer that best matched my prediction. It is important to select your answer based on your mental framework rather than adjust your mental framework based on the answer options.

I did not waste time ranking passages based on difficulty or anything like that, I simply went in order from passage 1 to passage 9. I would try to spend about 4 minutes reading each passage. For passages with less than 6 questions I would spend a little less than 10 minutes (total: reading and answering questions), and for passages with more than 6 questions I would spend a little more than 10 minutes. I would highlight proper nouns and important dates or concepts that I felt would be of relevance once answering questions (usually anything with a capitalized letter, names, etc). I did not look at questions before reading the passage. For most questions I would not go back to the passage unless the question specifically references the passage with a need to go back (i.e. "In paragraph 3...").

When actively reading the passage, I would make sure to stay locked in (this usually comes with practice) because losing focus during critical reading time is dangerous. After every paragraph I would recite to myself the purpose of that paragraph in my mind to make sure I was gaining the author's perspective and that I was actually understanding the material as I read it.

Lastly, one of the most important things that helped me, was knowing when to move on. I would try not to get dragged on by one tough passage/question because that would detract from the opportunity to get points from potentially easier questions/passages that were up ahead. Thus, every time I finished a passage, I took a 5 second break to clear my head of everything associated with that passage before I moved on. This sounds crazy but it truly did help and I think it is worth it. Having employed this and all of my previously mentioned strategy, I was even able to finish CARS with 4 minutes to spare even though I used to be milking the clock until its last second every time.

Resources I used and what I could have done better:

I used Jack Westin daily passages and the AAMC Official CARS Materials (I would say only start the AAMC Materials once you are about a month out from your test date to really get into that ~AAMC mindset~). I did not practice CARS as much as I should have but I definitely think the more practice the better, but make it meaningful practice. Do not just think doing 6 passages a day is going to help unless you are willing to pinpoint your weaknesses and fix them. I did not realize that my strategy needed change until it was too late and I had 4 days until my actual exam. Although the strategy change paid off for me, you all can do much better. I would say firstly, make sure you can answer questions correctly. Turn the timer off and take all the time you need to answer questions correctly. If you cannot answer questions correctly, that should be the first thing you should fix before trying to answer questions quickly. Once you have that down, practice with a timer and work your way down to 10 minutes per passage. The more time you have for your study schedule, the better. What took me so long to realize was that my issue was not timing alone, but that it was answering questions accurately. So in that 4 days going from a 125 to a 129, I ran through like 20 AAMC CARS passages working on accuracy first (I went from getting 2+ questions wrong per passage to only getting 0-1 wrong per passage) and then fixing timing with the remaining CARS passages after.

Sorry for the long post, I hope this helps!!!