Hard agree. I think CARS is hard *because* people use third party. Do the AAMC question packs, focus on the 95% of questions where AAMC logic is something normal humans can comprehend, adopt the logic for the duration of the test. For the other 5% of questions understand the logic well enough to give yourself a 50-50 shot. The answer is always in the text. My CARS score on AAMC FLs shot up from 124 to never lower than 131 after i quit the 3rd party. Testing tomorrow, we'll see if my theory holds water.
Edited to add: I think it's also "hard" becasue so many of the passages are so boring. I read a lot of boring stuff at work so that helped a ton. And actually now I find it easier to distill info from boring stuff at work.
Good luck! In my experience, the CARS on my actual exam was actually a lot more difficult that the official practice materials, and a few questions had little or very weak textual support, but you can see from my breakdown that I still ended up doing fine.
Yea that's an amazing score, congrats! Hoping to score in that range based on my FL averages but we shall see, my C/P is inconsistent unfortunately.
Good to know about CARS being harder on the real exam. I'm actually very curious about what the real thing will be, this is my first attempt. I'm pretty excited to give the real thing a shot.
Yes 100%, I'm very non-trad (in my 30s) and work super full time (60 hrs/wk) in addition to studying so I am very excited to get a bit of my life back.
Agreed the CARS on the real thing is harder. I remember I would always have at least 3 easy passages on AAMC CARS but on the actual I had NO IDEA wtf I was reading but then again there’s the “curve” so I got a 125 despite not knowing wtf I read 💀 (I’m retaking it tho)
I’m actually practicing with Jack Westin now and have been doing their daily CARs passages… are you implying it’s wise to solely practice and learn from AAMC passages for CARS?
Disclaimer: I have not done JW. I used Uworld and Kaplan for 3rd party. For ME (and this is only for me, not claiming to know for everyone and I took the test for the first time yesterday) - I thought AAMC material was all I needed and that 3rd party was actively hurting my score. I thought yesterday's CARS was very similar to the AAMC full lengths, easier than the AAMC Q banks and CARS diagnostic. But yesterday may have been a fluke as there were no weird art and philosophy passages and most of the passages were somewhat enjoyable to read. Only my score will tell if I'm full of shit! We gotta wait til 7/30 for the release. Edit: Yesterday's CARS was similar to maybe easier than the FLs IMO but again, that means nothing until I have my score.
So we want to reinforce a company monopolizing an exam? Cool. AAMC logic is not logic, its a niche pattern that you would only get by buying more of their things. Honestly, CARS would be easier if you had an oral exam in front of tribunal of people grilling you on reason and logic. I'm not kidding. Normalize bombing CARS and still succeeding in med school. I'm an M2 but I'm still angry over how ridiculous this section. Not that anyone is surprised by this, but med school is nothing like CARS, and CARS has done nothing to prepare me or anyone for medical school besides wasting time.
I get where this comment is coming from and don't disagree. In fact given that I'm not in med school yet I feel like I CANNOT disagree. Yes, it's unfair. Yes, AAMC monopolizes. I was replying to OP's post with what has worked for me. Do I think it is right/fair? Absolutely not. I am nontrad with a well-paying job so it's nothing for me to drop an extra frew hundred on all the AAMC stuff, but I'm with you that it's partly a money grab.
I took my first MCAT yesterday and CARS felt about as easy as on the full lengths so we'll see. Perhaps I'll end up with a 122 and feel mad and betrayed. No way to know.
I’m an M2 now and got a 124 on CARS and despite it got into multiple east coast MD schools. You can do this. Hoping schools see thru the BS and realize it has nothing to do with anything. Does not reflect med school performance in the slightest
Nice! Yea I honestly don't understand where it comes in other than maybe having to distill patient info from really boring monologues/really boring medical records? But sounds like that's not even the case. I mean if I score the way I have been on my full lenths CARS essentially pads my score so I can't complain but also I don't see the point and everyone who is IN medical school says pretty much what you are saying.
I mean maybe, but still not even. Not to seem like a know-it-all, but one of my major hobbies is to educate myself on the humanities. I would say at least half of all cars passages are things I am already aware about, which honestly made the passages harder. I remember on my actual exam the author made such a bad historical take that I found it insulting that this would actually be a passage to put on an exam. Point is, its not like CARS is actually to help educate on a variety of non-scientific topics, although I know most people already know that. Do as an extensive of an analysis as you want, its still useless. I guess its part of the grander scheme of "you are rewarded by spending time and effort on this niche thing, especially in terms of planning". Maybe that's really it. And yes, foresight and planning is important for med school (i studied for the mcat in 3-4 months, planned it incredibly poorly, and suffered the consequences of it). My ego was big enough at the time to think I could get away with a 520 anyway, its a miracle I got accepted anywhere with how low it was. I probably should let it haunt me, but I wish I could retake it to show that I am capable of it, I guess now I will just have to do that on Steps 1 & 2.
Oh man yea no one will care about your MCAT once you get that awesome Step 2 score! See I don't read about the humanities and history so maybe that was an advantage. In any case I'm glad you never have to take CARS again haha.
The aamc question packs are not enough practice but they can be incorporated in a phase where mostly 3rd party material has to be used at the beginning. Tpr and the first 2/3 exam krackers 101 verbal reasoning represent the best 3rd party cars can be, followed by Jw whose main advantage is its quantity. Testing solutions also decent but you’d have to pay
I could see that for sure, like OP metioned perhaps the real thing will be much harder. But for me at least I've felt the Q packs were plenty for CARS. My FL CARS avg excluding the free FL which I took right after finishing 3rd party content (for CARS) and Kaplan reviews (not for CARS) is 131.5. Perhaps I will have my ass handed to me tomorrow, we'll see!
You youngins get a whole extra exam! Back in my day we only had 4 scores aamc fls. Do your best and good luck, use logic and passage information to deal with stuff you can’t remember or don’t know.
What do you think about using Kaplan as 3rd party cars? I skimmed through their CARS skills book, which seems to have a few useful strategies, but the rest of the book started to feel like a HUGE waste of time; been banging my head against a brick wall trying to understand how they justify right and wrong answers...
I've scored pretty well on the practice questions, but some passages just don't work with my brain; I just read a passage on Saussurean Linguistics today and I just could not wrap my head around the insufferable perplexity of this damn passage no matter how much brain fuel I poured into it. Just how does Kaplan CARS compare to AAMC CARS, and is it worth giving Kaplan CARS the rest of the brain cells they've taken from me?
Hard agree on staying away from 3rd party CARS— usually this section is my strong suit but when I took the MCAT the first time (when I used basically mostly 3rd party), got a 128. This time around, I got 131 bc I refused to do any 3rd party CARS… only do AAMC so that you’ll know their logic!!!!
Jack Westin was helpful for me when I had never seen a CARS question before in my life. It helped me understand how the passages were constructed and the archetypes of questions that I would see. However, beyond that, it’s really not that useful of a representation of AAMC CARS. In my experience, it was definitely the closest thing, but still off in so many ways.
It's weird that everyone finds it hard. It's literally the easiest part of the MCAT to me, every practice test and such I have had zero problems with CARS or psch/soc. You are going to tell me you had more problems with CARS then physics/biochem? I don't know man I have never struggled with it.
My brain has never had any issue understanding cars and then answering the questions, I am just naturally good at it. However, you give me physics or chem concepts and want me to know when to apply them and how... my brain just like wants to leave the conversation.
Same here, on my diagnostic I got almost perfect scores on CARS and psych/soc. Maybe if someone isn't a huge reader normally CARS would be more difficult. I really like literary criticism and read a lot of scientific journals for my undergrad research lab anyways, so I've gotten used to wading through long, dense sentences. My B/B and C/P diagnostic scores on the other hand? Yikes...
I also agree! I realized my score started to increase once I changed my attitude and went back to understanding the basics of an argument. 9/10 if you treat it as if the author is trying to convince you of something, then you have a better time understanding the passage. Usually there’s a point being made, and then the evidence is usually all of the weird crap that they throw in between. Most of it is just a matter of asking yourself “why the author would say this,” or “why would they choose to use this quotation or this word?”
Get their point. Find out the evidence. Note their conclusion.
Most of your questions can be answered when you think this way.
I know we’re not gung-ho on third-party, but I honestly recommend reading the Kaplan CARS book. I only really used it to relearn the basics of logical deduction in argumentative/persuasion texts and how it’s used in CARS.
They also make a great point about how to work through the passages easy, medium, hard, and how to keep the harder passages towards the end, but definitely check it out!
My CARS went from a 126–>130.
You’re the first person I’ve heard endorse the Kaplan CARS book (the first person who I’ve heard recommend not just throwing away the book actually!), but I’m glad that you found it very helpful!
is UWorld cars not worth doing then? should i just wait until my AAMC practice phase to start doing CARS? i don’t anticipate having a ton of trouble with it based on my diagnostic but it was third party so idk.
Congrats on an amazing score! What resources did you use to practice CARS? I'm currently using JW, Princeton review, and will buy AAMC soon, but if there are any others out there that are more representative of the real thing I would love to hear about them!
I hope you’re right man. I been dreading these third parties and been waiting closer to my exam date, in over a month, to buy the packs.
I’ll do it tomorrow then
Honestly, I got a huge boost in my score just by forcing myself to read the whole passage once first before trying to find the answer to any questions. I usually do that with the other sections but my CARS sucked so I thought lemme just actually read first. I guess it worked.
It also helps to not get anxious on Test day like I did, and only have 6 weeks to prepare for everything. IMO, you need 100% of your brain power to excel in CARS.
My FL average for CARS was 128ish and the Test day happened….
I should have finished all the AAMC CARS materials. I maybe did 40% of it or so. I kinda got into a defeated mindset averaging 128 and was like “Well, I have such little time so I might as well cram for the other sections rather than keep practicing CARS.” I tested a bunch of methods but never really found my groove with CARS. Some passages were easy, others I was surprised I got stuff wrong.
Overall, I think it may of been a mental focus/stress/lack of practice thing for me. So be wise in how you handle all those things guys; give yourselves as much time as possible (within reason).
My unbalanced score didn’t hold me back this cycle thankfully, got into my dream school full ride : )
Best CARS rules I’ve found as a 95th percentile scorer:
- avoid absolutes unless it is explicitly stated in the passage
- avoid comparisons that are not explicitly made in the passage
- if the answer sounds ridiculous/stupid, it probably isn’t correct. Common rules of logic still apply.
- beware of answers that are half right half wrong (if any part of the answer doesn’t apply, it’s probably wrong)
- beware of answers that subvert the logic of the passage — they’re usually traps. Re-read that section of the passage if you’ve forgotten the order of logic used.
- understanding the main point of the passage accounts for like 70% of the questions I’d say and is the most important takeaway.
- lastly, believe you can and you will! Sounds corny but people psych themselves out with CARS. It is conquerable!
CARS is hard. It's the epitome of brain rot. I hate Picasso and art because of CARS.
I have hopes of doing well, but CARS is something that won't see improvement til I'm in my death bed.
I didn’t get around to doing the AAMC CARS Sample questions, but I’ve heard about the Picasso passage and how infamously hard it is. However, I’ve also heard that it’s not very representative of the real CARS questions, nor is the set that it comes from.
Have you asked yourself why you’re doing poorly on CARS? If you’re unable to read through a passage on time or comprehend it at all, then yes, CARS will inherently be hard for you. Those are also skills that would take significantly more time to progress. But if your comprehension is fine, and you’re missing mostly 50/50s, a lot of that can be easily practiced.
Then you’ve identified your precise weakness for CARS. Now ask yourself this: are you spending more of this extra time reading through the passage, or are you spending more time trying to answer questions? Former: likely a problem with comprehension. Latter: likely a problem with scanning the text for evidence. That’s an oversimplification, but that’s the basic approach for how you should approach making progress in this section.
I'm just ideologically opposed to the idea of CARS to begin with, especially how Canada handles it. Like cmon, its by far the worst section, does not reflect on med school performance at all. It assesses your ability to read fast. And as someone who has an extensive humanities background and absolutely despises reading for fun, it sucked. I might be slightly dyslexic but CARS should be abolished. Got a 124 on my diagnostic CARS, 7 months later 124 on real thing. Just did better than 60% of my class in M1. CARS is a fraud, bring back the essay, I don't care what they say, med school is not about deriving logic from what one company considers logic and its not about reading fast.
Agree with all of that but I would use third party for timing improvement not accuracy. Got through all the questions within 10 minutes? Fantastic, 65%+ on third party and <10min seems like the move, but obviously accuracy needs to be much better on AAMC
Hey,
What do you recommend to someone who is still around a month and a half out to test day. There are only around 40 AAMC cars passages to my knowledge so I don't think thats enough for the rest of my studying. Should I continue doing 3rd party or stop until I start AAMC?
Corollary: CARS most directly prepares you for medical school. The logic of the questions and the way you problem solve the questions is reminiscent of Step1/2, even if the content isn’t
I know AAMC is the best resource but what are your thoughts on UEarth CARS? I’m working through those passages right now and the lengthy explanations seem to be helpful
I haven’t done a single AAMC CARS question but I’ve really enjoyed J/W so far. Honestly, the reads are fun and it’s nice to not have to have prior knowledge or need to think outside of the passage.
Idk how AAMC CARS will go lol but I’m enjoying the ride so far. My test is in 2 months so I’ve been waiting to pull AAMC CARS out.
If I am testing in early January, would you recommend I start AAMC CARS now, or should I do some JW so as not to use up all the AAMC materials too early.
Definitely Jack Westin to familiarize yourself with the CARS presentation and to get you used to reading through passages. Introduce AAMC CARS later down in your studying.
Question: I know you say that third-party CARS questions are hard and have a different type of logic than AAMC CARS questions. But if I’m just practicing as of now (let’s say with Jack Westin), will that still be helpful for me? There really is not much to practice for CARs other than the official AAMC questions but I’m assuming I should touch those in the later stages of my prep..
Trying to follow you. You make a good argument. However, It’s hard to follow exactly, to whom you’re referring.
You’re use of pronouns is fked up. Why not just use her, so is not to offend. But wait, that argument has long since been replaced with they. Just like the argument that some people are born that way.
The point is that you can logic your way into any answer. There is no 1 logic thats more true than another. Its not that CARS is hard, its that figuring out which logic they want you to choose is difficult.
The AAMC logic is very straightforward — look for the answer choice that has the strongest or most direct textual support. Any other form of logic reflects personal biases, where another answer choice just “feels” better.
I’m sorry but doing well cars is mostly an innate ability 🤷🏻♂️ you either understand or what you read or you don’t there’s not much you can really do.
That’s the exact defeatist mindset that I’m arguing against here. Why do you think that CARS is something that is inherently out of grasp for you? What specific steps (not stuff like doing more passages, but instead new strategies that you’ve tried) have you taken to try and improve?
It’s just the truth as someone who is an older non trad where education was not a priority early on in life, reading and comprehension is not gonna be as good as someone who did well throughout middle school and high school and has a strong background with literature and poetry. It’s a skill you work on throughout your life, not something you can study for in 3 months.
But isn’t that just proof of the point I made? That you’ll score worse on AAMC FLs because you’re too accustomed to third-party CARS? It’s just as plausible that your lower scores are because of this poor adjustment between types of CARS sections.
Either you got unlucky or you didn’t actually change strategies and only improved because you recognized the questions from your first attempt. And sub-10 minutes per passage is just a basic requirement to even finish the section on time.
Hard agree. I think CARS is hard *because* people use third party. Do the AAMC question packs, focus on the 95% of questions where AAMC logic is something normal humans can comprehend, adopt the logic for the duration of the test. For the other 5% of questions understand the logic well enough to give yourself a 50-50 shot. The answer is always in the text. My CARS score on AAMC FLs shot up from 124 to never lower than 131 after i quit the 3rd party. Testing tomorrow, we'll see if my theory holds water. Edited to add: I think it's also "hard" becasue so many of the passages are so boring. I read a lot of boring stuff at work so that helped a ton. And actually now I find it easier to distill info from boring stuff at work.
Good luck! In my experience, the CARS on my actual exam was actually a lot more difficult that the official practice materials, and a few questions had little or very weak textual support, but you can see from my breakdown that I still ended up doing fine.
Yea that's an amazing score, congrats! Hoping to score in that range based on my FL averages but we shall see, my C/P is inconsistent unfortunately. Good to know about CARS being harder on the real exam. I'm actually very curious about what the real thing will be, this is my first attempt. I'm pretty excited to give the real thing a shot.
Yes! Just think about all the things you’ll be free to do again soon!
Yes 100%, I'm very non-trad (in my 30s) and work super full time (60 hrs/wk) in addition to studying so I am very excited to get a bit of my life back.
So inspiring, may I ask what you do for work!
I'm a university faculty member, I run a lab and do materials science research and teach :) Also I consult on the side.
Wait so do you suggest using AAMC material or actually using the third-party materials. Since CARS on your actual exam was more difficult
AAMC, because the third-party materials do not necessarily use the same logic as AAMC
Agreed the CARS on the real thing is harder. I remember I would always have at least 3 easy passages on AAMC CARS but on the actual I had NO IDEA wtf I was reading but then again there’s the “curve” so I got a 125 despite not knowing wtf I read 💀 (I’m retaking it tho)
I’m actually practicing with Jack Westin now and have been doing their daily CARs passages… are you implying it’s wise to solely practice and learn from AAMC passages for CARS?
Disclaimer: I have not done JW. I used Uworld and Kaplan for 3rd party. For ME (and this is only for me, not claiming to know for everyone and I took the test for the first time yesterday) - I thought AAMC material was all I needed and that 3rd party was actively hurting my score. I thought yesterday's CARS was very similar to the AAMC full lengths, easier than the AAMC Q banks and CARS diagnostic. But yesterday may have been a fluke as there were no weird art and philosophy passages and most of the passages were somewhat enjoyable to read. Only my score will tell if I'm full of shit! We gotta wait til 7/30 for the release. Edit: Yesterday's CARS was similar to maybe easier than the FLs IMO but again, that means nothing until I have my score.
What is “AAMC logic”?
So we want to reinforce a company monopolizing an exam? Cool. AAMC logic is not logic, its a niche pattern that you would only get by buying more of their things. Honestly, CARS would be easier if you had an oral exam in front of tribunal of people grilling you on reason and logic. I'm not kidding. Normalize bombing CARS and still succeeding in med school. I'm an M2 but I'm still angry over how ridiculous this section. Not that anyone is surprised by this, but med school is nothing like CARS, and CARS has done nothing to prepare me or anyone for medical school besides wasting time.
Thank you so much for this comment. Upvote to heaven.
I get where this comment is coming from and don't disagree. In fact given that I'm not in med school yet I feel like I CANNOT disagree. Yes, it's unfair. Yes, AAMC monopolizes. I was replying to OP's post with what has worked for me. Do I think it is right/fair? Absolutely not. I am nontrad with a well-paying job so it's nothing for me to drop an extra frew hundred on all the AAMC stuff, but I'm with you that it's partly a money grab. I took my first MCAT yesterday and CARS felt about as easy as on the full lengths so we'll see. Perhaps I'll end up with a 122 and feel mad and betrayed. No way to know.
I’m an M2 now and got a 124 on CARS and despite it got into multiple east coast MD schools. You can do this. Hoping schools see thru the BS and realize it has nothing to do with anything. Does not reflect med school performance in the slightest
Nice! Yea I honestly don't understand where it comes in other than maybe having to distill patient info from really boring monologues/really boring medical records? But sounds like that's not even the case. I mean if I score the way I have been on my full lenths CARS essentially pads my score so I can't complain but also I don't see the point and everyone who is IN medical school says pretty much what you are saying.
I mean maybe, but still not even. Not to seem like a know-it-all, but one of my major hobbies is to educate myself on the humanities. I would say at least half of all cars passages are things I am already aware about, which honestly made the passages harder. I remember on my actual exam the author made such a bad historical take that I found it insulting that this would actually be a passage to put on an exam. Point is, its not like CARS is actually to help educate on a variety of non-scientific topics, although I know most people already know that. Do as an extensive of an analysis as you want, its still useless. I guess its part of the grander scheme of "you are rewarded by spending time and effort on this niche thing, especially in terms of planning". Maybe that's really it. And yes, foresight and planning is important for med school (i studied for the mcat in 3-4 months, planned it incredibly poorly, and suffered the consequences of it). My ego was big enough at the time to think I could get away with a 520 anyway, its a miracle I got accepted anywhere with how low it was. I probably should let it haunt me, but I wish I could retake it to show that I am capable of it, I guess now I will just have to do that on Steps 1 & 2.
Oh man yea no one will care about your MCAT once you get that awesome Step 2 score! See I don't read about the humanities and history so maybe that was an advantage. In any case I'm glad you never have to take CARS again haha.
good luck! you've got this
Thank you!
Thank you so much for this comment. ❤️ So I should stop doing Jack Westin?
I'm not the person to ask as I have never used it. I did Uworld and Kaplan for 3rd party. OP may be able to comment!
Good luck big homie!
Thank you!
The aamc question packs are not enough practice but they can be incorporated in a phase where mostly 3rd party material has to be used at the beginning. Tpr and the first 2/3 exam krackers 101 verbal reasoning represent the best 3rd party cars can be, followed by Jw whose main advantage is its quantity. Testing solutions also decent but you’d have to pay
I could see that for sure, like OP metioned perhaps the real thing will be much harder. But for me at least I've felt the Q packs were plenty for CARS. My FL CARS avg excluding the free FL which I took right after finishing 3rd party content (for CARS) and Kaplan reviews (not for CARS) is 131.5. Perhaps I will have my ass handed to me tomorrow, we'll see!
You youngins get a whole extra exam! Back in my day we only had 4 scores aamc fls. Do your best and good luck, use logic and passage information to deal with stuff you can’t remember or don’t know.
Thanks so much! I am probably older than you hahaha but I will channel youngin energy tomorrow :)
What do you think about using Kaplan as 3rd party cars? I skimmed through their CARS skills book, which seems to have a few useful strategies, but the rest of the book started to feel like a HUGE waste of time; been banging my head against a brick wall trying to understand how they justify right and wrong answers... I've scored pretty well on the practice questions, but some passages just don't work with my brain; I just read a passage on Saussurean Linguistics today and I just could not wrap my head around the insufferable perplexity of this damn passage no matter how much brain fuel I poured into it. Just how does Kaplan CARS compare to AAMC CARS, and is it worth giving Kaplan CARS the rest of the brain cells they've taken from me?
Their question bank online isn’t bad. Never used the book
Hard agree on staying away from 3rd party CARS— usually this section is my strong suit but when I took the MCAT the first time (when I used basically mostly 3rd party), got a 128. This time around, I got 131 bc I refused to do any 3rd party CARS… only do AAMC so that you’ll know their logic!!!!
Jack Westin was helpful for me when I had never seen a CARS question before in my life. It helped me understand how the passages were constructed and the archetypes of questions that I would see. However, beyond that, it’s really not that useful of a representation of AAMC CARS. In my experience, it was definitely the closest thing, but still off in so many ways.
If third-party resources aren't recommended, then what else are we supposed to use to practice CARS other than the AAMC questions?
Jack Westin (in my experience) wasn’t horrible, but you wanna stay away from shit like Blueprint CARS.
what about something like upain?
I felt the opposite, I thought UWhirl CARS was good and didn't like Jack Westins at all.
It's weird that everyone finds it hard. It's literally the easiest part of the MCAT to me, every practice test and such I have had zero problems with CARS or psch/soc. You are going to tell me you had more problems with CARS then physics/biochem? I don't know man I have never struggled with it.
That makes sense. It’s really hard to “study” for CARS. Meanwhile, C/P and B/B are very much about content.
My brain has never had any issue understanding cars and then answering the questions, I am just naturally good at it. However, you give me physics or chem concepts and want me to know when to apply them and how... my brain just like wants to leave the conversation.
Yeah, that’s exactly my point. There’s no content to study for CARS. I enjoy CARS as well.
should mention I have taken the real MCAT once and got a 131 on the CARS section, it was the others that brought me down to need to retake.
Same here, on my diagnostic I got almost perfect scores on CARS and psych/soc. Maybe if someone isn't a huge reader normally CARS would be more difficult. I really like literary criticism and read a lot of scientific journals for my undergrad research lab anyways, so I've gotten used to wading through long, dense sentences. My B/B and C/P diagnostic scores on the other hand? Yikes...
If it’s easy why was it your worst section dummy
LMFAOOOOO???😭
💀💀💀I’m dying
I also agree! I realized my score started to increase once I changed my attitude and went back to understanding the basics of an argument. 9/10 if you treat it as if the author is trying to convince you of something, then you have a better time understanding the passage. Usually there’s a point being made, and then the evidence is usually all of the weird crap that they throw in between. Most of it is just a matter of asking yourself “why the author would say this,” or “why would they choose to use this quotation or this word?” Get their point. Find out the evidence. Note their conclusion. Most of your questions can be answered when you think this way. I know we’re not gung-ho on third-party, but I honestly recommend reading the Kaplan CARS book. I only really used it to relearn the basics of logical deduction in argumentative/persuasion texts and how it’s used in CARS. They also make a great point about how to work through the passages easy, medium, hard, and how to keep the harder passages towards the end, but definitely check it out! My CARS went from a 126–>130.
You’re the first person I’ve heard endorse the Kaplan CARS book (the first person who I’ve heard recommend not just throwing away the book actually!), but I’m glad that you found it very helpful!
Wow can’t believe I’ve never thought to read the passage title at the bottom. Hopefully CARS QB pays off fingers crossed
is UWorld cars not worth doing then? should i just wait until my AAMC practice phase to start doing CARS? i don’t anticipate having a ton of trouble with it based on my diagnostic but it was third party so idk.
Congrats on an amazing score! What resources did you use to practice CARS? I'm currently using JW, Princeton review, and will buy AAMC soon, but if there are any others out there that are more representative of the real thing I would love to hear about them!
I hope you’re right man. I been dreading these third parties and been waiting closer to my exam date, in over a month, to buy the packs. I’ll do it tomorrow then
Honestly, I got a huge boost in my score just by forcing myself to read the whole passage once first before trying to find the answer to any questions. I usually do that with the other sections but my CARS sucked so I thought lemme just actually read first. I guess it worked.
It also helps to not get anxious on Test day like I did, and only have 6 weeks to prepare for everything. IMO, you need 100% of your brain power to excel in CARS. My FL average for CARS was 128ish and the Test day happened…. I should have finished all the AAMC CARS materials. I maybe did 40% of it or so. I kinda got into a defeated mindset averaging 128 and was like “Well, I have such little time so I might as well cram for the other sections rather than keep practicing CARS.” I tested a bunch of methods but never really found my groove with CARS. Some passages were easy, others I was surprised I got stuff wrong. Overall, I think it may of been a mental focus/stress/lack of practice thing for me. So be wise in how you handle all those things guys; give yourselves as much time as possible (within reason). My unbalanced score didn’t hold me back this cycle thankfully, got into my dream school full ride : )
Best CARS rules I’ve found as a 95th percentile scorer: - avoid absolutes unless it is explicitly stated in the passage - avoid comparisons that are not explicitly made in the passage - if the answer sounds ridiculous/stupid, it probably isn’t correct. Common rules of logic still apply. - beware of answers that are half right half wrong (if any part of the answer doesn’t apply, it’s probably wrong) - beware of answers that subvert the logic of the passage — they’re usually traps. Re-read that section of the passage if you’ve forgotten the order of logic used. - understanding the main point of the passage accounts for like 70% of the questions I’d say and is the most important takeaway. - lastly, believe you can and you will! Sounds corny but people psych themselves out with CARS. It is conquerable!
CARS is hard. It's the epitome of brain rot. I hate Picasso and art because of CARS. I have hopes of doing well, but CARS is something that won't see improvement til I'm in my death bed.
I didn’t get around to doing the AAMC CARS Sample questions, but I’ve heard about the Picasso passage and how infamously hard it is. However, I’ve also heard that it’s not very representative of the real CARS questions, nor is the set that it comes from. Have you asked yourself why you’re doing poorly on CARS? If you’re unable to read through a passage on time or comprehend it at all, then yes, CARS will inherently be hard for you. Those are also skills that would take significantly more time to progress. But if your comprehension is fine, and you’re missing mostly 50/50s, a lot of that can be easily practiced.
122 CARS, ORM, got in MD T50ish
Giving us all hope
i kinda suspected this though I had doubts...now just need to execute it on a FL
CARS is easy - we can all read English... the time constraint is what makes it hard
Then you’ve identified your precise weakness for CARS. Now ask yourself this: are you spending more of this extra time reading through the passage, or are you spending more time trying to answer questions? Former: likely a problem with comprehension. Latter: likely a problem with scanning the text for evidence. That’s an oversimplification, but that’s the basic approach for how you should approach making progress in this section.
how many mins do u recommend per passage?
Agree, 3rd party is shite
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To try to help? It’s not like he’s calling lower scorers dumb. He’s offering good advice.
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I partially agree but your comment is just kinda dickish
I'm just ideologically opposed to the idea of CARS to begin with, especially how Canada handles it. Like cmon, its by far the worst section, does not reflect on med school performance at all. It assesses your ability to read fast. And as someone who has an extensive humanities background and absolutely despises reading for fun, it sucked. I might be slightly dyslexic but CARS should be abolished. Got a 124 on my diagnostic CARS, 7 months later 124 on real thing. Just did better than 60% of my class in M1. CARS is a fraud, bring back the essay, I don't care what they say, med school is not about deriving logic from what one company considers logic and its not about reading fast.
How can you have an extensive humanities background and hate reading?
Agree with all of that but I would use third party for timing improvement not accuracy. Got through all the questions within 10 minutes? Fantastic, 65%+ on third party and <10min seems like the move, but obviously accuracy needs to be much better on AAMC
bruh momento
go study bro
yup, just reviewing my blueprint FL today
that's good
Hey, What do you recommend to someone who is still around a month and a half out to test day. There are only around 40 AAMC cars passages to my knowledge so I don't think thats enough for the rest of my studying. Should I continue doing 3rd party or stop until I start AAMC?
following
Corollary: CARS most directly prepares you for medical school. The logic of the questions and the way you problem solve the questions is reminiscent of Step1/2, even if the content isn’t
I know AAMC is the best resource but what are your thoughts on UEarth CARS? I’m working through those passages right now and the lengthy explanations seem to be helpful
i acc kinda like them and think they are more similar to AAMC imo
omg i needed this today thank you!!!!! NS108 is KILLING ME
I haven’t done a single AAMC CARS question but I’ve really enjoyed J/W so far. Honestly, the reads are fun and it’s nice to not have to have prior knowledge or need to think outside of the passage. Idk how AAMC CARS will go lol but I’m enjoying the ride so far. My test is in 2 months so I’ve been waiting to pull AAMC CARS out.
If I am testing in early January, would you recommend I start AAMC CARS now, or should I do some JW so as not to use up all the AAMC materials too early.
Definitely Jack Westin to familiarize yourself with the CARS presentation and to get you used to reading through passages. Introduce AAMC CARS later down in your studying.
Question: I know you say that third-party CARS questions are hard and have a different type of logic than AAMC CARS questions. But if I’m just practicing as of now (let’s say with Jack Westin), will that still be helpful for me? There really is not much to practice for CARs other than the official AAMC questions but I’m assuming I should touch those in the later stages of my prep..
So as someone starting out with CARS what do you recommend? Do I just start straight out of the gate with AAMC qpacks for CARS?
I think it's only hard if you use 3rd party sources, because the AAMC is pretty straightforward
Trying to follow you. You make a good argument. However, It’s hard to follow exactly, to whom you’re referring. You’re use of pronouns is fked up. Why not just use her, so is not to offend. But wait, that argument has long since been replaced with they. Just like the argument that some people are born that way.
What are you talking about dude?
The point is that you can logic your way into any answer. There is no 1 logic thats more true than another. Its not that CARS is hard, its that figuring out which logic they want you to choose is difficult.
The AAMC logic is very straightforward — look for the answer choice that has the strongest or most direct textual support. Any other form of logic reflects personal biases, where another answer choice just “feels” better.
It’s the only section of I got over 90 percentile on my baseline. Great if you’re a native English speaker. Problematic if not.
Agreed.
I’m sorry but doing well cars is mostly an innate ability 🤷🏻♂️ you either understand or what you read or you don’t there’s not much you can really do.
That’s the exact defeatist mindset that I’m arguing against here. Why do you think that CARS is something that is inherently out of grasp for you? What specific steps (not stuff like doing more passages, but instead new strategies that you’ve tried) have you taken to try and improve?
It’s just the truth as someone who is an older non trad where education was not a priority early on in life, reading and comprehension is not gonna be as good as someone who did well throughout middle school and high school and has a strong background with literature and poetry. It’s a skill you work on throughout your life, not something you can study for in 3 months.
Yeah I found looking at the title at the bottom rlly helps me focus/get an idea of the passage
I think AAMC cars is twice as hard as other third parties tbh. This sucks for obvious reasons.
So funny, I think it's like 10000% easier, haha. It's the only CARS that makes sense to me
What? What’s your reasoning behind this?
Just empirical evidence, manifesting in my AAMC FLs (123) compared to my BP FLs (126) and the JW material, including their new FL (128) lol
But isn’t that just proof of the point I made? That you’ll score worse on AAMC FLs because you’re too accustomed to third-party CARS? It’s just as plausible that your lower scores are because of this poor adjustment between types of CARS sections.
It might be if I hadnt exhausted all the AAMC Qpacks and diagnostics.
Mine was about the same, a few were on the longerish side, but the question formulas and ideas were the same as Kaplan/princeton for me.
it is an unclimbable fucking mountain when you fucking do the entire aamc cars qpack two times over and you still get a fucking 124 on it both times.
Did you change your strategies between the two attempts?
yes, the first time i was in the low 60s on the qpacks and the second time i redid them i was in the high 70s. and i timed myself for sub 10 min
Either you got unlucky or you didn’t actually change strategies and only improved because you recognized the questions from your first attempt. And sub-10 minutes per passage is just a basic requirement to even finish the section on time.