There is definitely a right and wrong way to approach CARS. Most students approach it the wrong way because most students from a Biological Science background assume you approach CARS the same way you approach reading a biology textbook. In addition, a lot of the strategies that some prep companies(Kaplan, Princeton) put out are not only not useful but would probably bring down your score. CARS is all about the argument not about absorbing information. Two very basic pieces of advice are focus on looking for the authors arguments/opinions while reading and focus on looking for flaws in the answer choices and eliminating flawed answer choices while answering questions. Your approach makes a huge differene, I went from consistently getting 11's to 14/15 by changing my approach. The Examkrackers and Berkeley Review guides do a good job of summarizing good MCAT CARS strategy. A very basic outline.

a. Read the Title at the bottom of the passage i. this helps you get focused on the passage before you start reading ii. the author wrote the title, it gives you an idea of what the author thought was important c. Read the Passage i. Read quickly, force your eyes to move forward by keeping the cursor of your mouse moving across the lines of the passage ii. Try to summarize the purpose of each paragraph of the passage. iii.Look for the author's argument and try to understand the structure of the author's argument, don't try to absorb all the details. iv. The Argument • all of the passages will be essays, and therefore the author is always trying to make an argument. Arguments sound like opinion, pay attention to the authors opinions. Supporting information sounds like facts, pay less attention to the facts • note the tone of the author v. Claims/Assertions/Arguments (understand meaning) vs. Evidence/Support (understand purpose &know location): Every passage basically consists of three kinds of clauses: background/scene setting, claims/assertions and evidence/support. The Claims/Assertions/Arguments are what are important. As you are reading, try to notice where the evidence (examples, lists, numbers, stats, quotes/expert testimony, illustrations/descriptions, anecdotes/analogies, details, indisputably factual information) is. It is generally not important to understand every little detail about the evidence. Instead, you want to remember where the evidence is located and why the evidence is presented (to support the associated claims/assertions). vi.While active reading, you should slow down for: •Transition words: These are words such as “but”, “yet”, “although”, “however”, “on the other hand”, “despite”, “rather”, “nonetheless”,“nevertheless”, “on the contrary”, “regardless”, “whereas”, “while”, “in spite of”, “except”, “in contrast”, “though”, and “Still,” that indicate a change in the direction in the passage. These words usually introduce an argument or a reansition in an argument. You must slow down when you see these words and try to determine carefully which “side” of the pivot the author is on. • Voice changes: In many passages, the author speaks for people other than himself and instead mentions what somebody else thinks. The author may then either refrain from giving his opinion (no voice change) or else either agree/disagree with what the other person he is discussing thinks (changing to his own voice). Sometimes the author presents the opposing views of two other voices. Again, he may then either refrain from giving his opinion or else side with one view against the other (changing to his own voice). You must take special care to notice when the author is speaking for himself vs. just describing what somebody else thinks. If and when the author expresses his own opinion on what others think, you must pay special attention as this informs the author’s point of view, which is fundamental to the passage’s bottom line. • Contrasts: Whenever two things are contrasted in a passage, getting the contrast straight will be the key to answering multiple questions.You must determine (1) how the two things contrasted are the same and (2) how the two things contrasted are different. vii.Highlight • Highlight sparingly, you don't get points for highlighting so don't get to fixated on the highlighting. • If the highlighting slows you down or detracts from your focus, avoid it. • Pivotal words • Names that do not appear in every paragraph • Years/Numbers • Contrast words as well as the two things being contrasted • Voice & Opinion indicators • Emphasis words • Example/list markers • Strong language • Any clause that represents the bottom line of the paragraph it is in. This is the only time you should be highlighting large swaths of text. d. Step Four: Take a few seconds to summarize the authors argument e. Answering Questions i. Read the question stem, and understand what the question is asking ii. Eliminate the wrong answer iii. don't look for the right answers, the test is very good at making the wrong answer look exactly like the answer you're looking for but the wrong answer will always have a flaw iv. read every word carefully and look for flaws in the answer choices v. eliminate flawed answer choices • is this answer factually correct given the passage? • does it answer the question? • The right answers may not be the answer you were originally looking for but it has no flaws. vi.Don't make any assumptions, don't bring in outside information, don't apply your own opinions, answer questions based on what was given in the passage.

g. Timing

i. You must be very disciplined with your timing, as all questions are worth the same amount of points. Time wasted on a hard question means points lost on easy questions. Guess, mark and move on. ii. Recommended timing • 3.5 minutes to read the title, question stems and passage • 1 min / question • if you spend more than 90 seconds on a question, guess, mark and move on. • 8.5 minutes on average per passage.