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MCAT Test Verbal Reasoning Section
The MCAT test consists of four primary sections that are designed to evaluate an individual's basic reading and writing skills as well as the individual's basic scientific knowledge. These sections include a physical sciences section, a verbal reasoning section, a writing sample section, and a biological sciences section. The verbal reasoning section of the exam is primarily designed to assess an individual's basic reading skills. This section consists of 40 multiple-choice questions that are designed to test the individual's ability to comprehend and apply the information that the individual reads. The exam-taker will be presented with a series of written passages that are approximately 500 - 600 words long and each passage may be related to a wide range of different topics from a variety of different academic fields, including the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. Each of the reading comprehension question sets included in the verbal reasoning section consists of approximately 5 - 10 questions that relate specifically to one of these passages and examines the individual's understanding of the passage, the individual's ability to apply the information found in the passage, and/or the individual's ability to relate key concepts of the passage.
For example, if the individual was required to read the above paragraph, he or she might be asked to identify the main topic of the passage. The choices provided might be:
- ( A ) General Medical Topics
- ( B ) The Essay Questions on the MCAT
- ( C ) Humanities Questions on the MCAT
- ( D ) Verbal Reasoning Questions on the MCAT
- ( E ) General Science
The answer for this particular example would be choice "D" as the passage is describing the Verbal Reasoning Questions on the MCAT. The passages on the actual exam will usually be longer and may be somewhat more complicated than this example, but the verbal reasoning questions on the exam will be setup in a similar format. The exam-taker will have 60 minutes to complete the verbal reasoning section of the exam.
Reading Comprehension Questions
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Last Updated: 04/23/2012