Reading in Preparation for the MCAT

People often ask what they should be reading to get used to the style and topics they’ll encounter on the Verbal Reasoning section.

In General

The standard advice, which is good, is to read magazines like The Economist, The Atlantic, and The New Yorker. These magazines generally have good writing in essay format. There are, of course, other magazines that work as well. Don’t use Time or Newsweek for this purpose, although you may enjoy them to keep up on current events; they’re not written at a very high level.

The Atlantic has a recurring feature called "A Close Read," which examines good writing in detail. While it focuses on fiction, it’s useful for the MCAT student because it does a lot of analysis of tricks authors use to convey the desired effect (which can be missed if you’re not reading closely enough).

While you’re reading, be practicing the strategies in this thread: look for the author’s viewpoint; analyze his/her argument; understand why the article is put together the way it is.

Specific Subjects: Social Sciences

Malcolm Gladwell, who’s an economist, writes for the New Yorker, and his stuff is very good. Actually, you can read many of his essays on his website, www.gladwell.com , and I would recommend doing so.

Specific Subjects: Philosophy

Philosophy is easily the topic my students have had the most trouble with. While particular knowledge of philosophy is certainly not required for the MCAT, it can be very difficult to understand the philosophy passages if you’re not familiar with the way philosophers tend to argue.

I have been recommending primarily Steven Pinker and Daniel Dennett, because I think their writings are generally interesting to pre-medical students. Pinker is actually a cognitive scientist, so a lot of his work is more life sciences than philosophy, but he’s a pretty good introduction to the way philosophers write and argue, and he’s very readable. (Also, on my MCAT there was a passage from one of his books.)

Dennett is a philosopher who writes a lot about the intersection between biology and philosophy. For example, one of his books is called Darwin’s Dangerous Idea. So he is also pretty readable for people who are into biology, but he DEFINITELY writes like a philosopher. If you can get into the habit of following his arguments and anticipating what comes next, you will be well on your way for reading philosophy passages.

If you’re interested in an introduction to philosophy in general, a very readable book is Sophie’s World by Jostein Gaarder. It’s the history of philosophy told in novel form, written by a former high school teacher. While it is not the best introduction to philosophy out there, it is almost certainly the easiest to follow and most pleasant to read.

I want to emphasize that I’m not suggesting that you need to read all of these books! Only pick them up if you feel you need more practice, and don’t think you have to read the entire book unless you want to.