Somebody told me to start reading to practice for the Critical Analysis and Reasoning Skills section. Will outside reading help?

Answer 1

Short answer: No it doesn't. MCAT CARS section requires a very specific type of reading that needs intentional practice by doing the questions on CARS. I have attached my long response below, if you are interested:

MCAT CARS section is much more subtle than ACT/SAT reading sections in its ask: it asks its readers to summarize how the main idea changes as the passage develops—requiring the reader to focus on how each sentence or paragraph adds to/negates/complicates the passage’s initial main idea. As torturous as that sounds, however, I have found that in most MCAT passages its proposed “main idea” rarely changes more than once (i.e. the passage will complicate its main idea only once).

This type of reading required by the MCAT is hyper-focused and reductive—sometimes to a bizarre extent. Considering that most passages in the MCAT are excerpts drawn from academic texts where the author is developing complex and nuanced arguments over several pages, this type of reading reduces the text down to one or maybe two main arguments. Furthermore, at times, it coerces the text to be internally consistent when, in reality, it is clear that the author is trying to nuance his arguments beyond simple logical statements (i.e. he is for/against X because Y). However, this is NOT to say that the MCAT doesn’t test one’s ability to read into nuances—it is very obvious when it does want you to—but the key is to not let little nuances detract you from accurately summarizing the main ideas.