How do we jot down notes during the MCAT VR if the MCAT is computer based?

kristin5792
Thu, 08 Jul 2010 13:58:53 +0000

Highlighting is efficient because it’s easy to do (literally all you have to do is click and drag) and it saves you from having to write down more stuff. I took a Kaplan course, and they do suggest that you write down quick summaries of each paragraph of the passage (I found this to be helpful, rather than a time wasting hindrance). Summarizing with shorthand and then using highlighting effectively was a great way for me to work on the VR section.

My testing center used books of pink paper. We got 4 pages stapled together, giving you 8 sides’ worth of writing surfaces. If you ran out of scratch paper, all you had to do was raise your hand (there were only about 20 people in my testing room) and the proctor would take your old booklet and give you a new one. They provide your pencils too, and the same exchange process happened for those. You could also swap them out during breaks between sections, and 10 minutes was plenty of time to swap books, go to the bathroom, and chug some Gatorade.

I bet all testing centers are a little different, but from what I’ve heard from friends who took it the same time I did (but at different centers), their experiences were almost identical. MCAT’s kind of obsessed with controlling things.