💡CARS Tips and Practice Question!📝

Kendra Solis · January 22

The CARS (Critical Analysis and Reasoning Skills) section of the MCAT can be a real challenge😵‍💫. It tests your ability to comprehend, analyze, and reason through complex passages. But fear not, future doctors!🥼🩺 With the right strategies, you can boost your CARS score and confidently tackle this section.📝

Passage Analysis:🧐

👀Engage Actively: Don't just passively read the passage. Actively engage with the text by highlighting key points, identifying the main idea, and noting the author's tone and purpose.
🎯Focus on Structure: Pay attention to how the passage is organized. Look for transitions, supporting evidence, and counterarguments.
📝Summarize: After reading each paragraph, try to summarize it in your own words. This will help you retain the information and identify the key takeaways.

Question Types:❓

Foundations of Comprehension: These questions test your understanding of the main idea, supporting details, and inferring the author's meaning.
Reasoning Within the Text: You'll need to analyze relationships between ideas, draw inferences, evaluate arguments, and identify assumptions.
Reasoning Beyond the Text: These questions require you to apply the information from the passage to new situations or assess the impact of new information on the author's arguments.

Time Management:

⏳Pace Yourself: You have 90 minutes to complete 9 passages with a total of 53 questions, which means spending about 10 minutes per passage set.
🔢Prioritize: If a passage seems particularly challenging, consider skipping it and coming back to it later.
🧠Don't Overthink: Go with your gut instinct and avoid getting bogged down in the details.

Practice Question:

Passage:

The rise of social media has ushered in an era of performative authenticity, where the curated self reigns supreme. Every filtered selfie, every meticulously crafted caption, every perfectly posed vacation photo contributes to the construction of an online persona that often bears little resemblance to the messy reality of lived experience. In this digital realm, where likes and followers serve as the currency of social validation, individuals become increasingly adept at presenting a polished, idealized version of themselves, their flaws airbrushed away, their vulnerabilities carefully concealed. This pursuit of online perfection can lead to a sense of alienation, as the gap between the curated self and the authentic self widens, leaving individuals feeling trapped in a plastic existence, perpetually performing for an invisible audience.

Question:❓

In the context of the passage, the word “plastic” most nearly means:

inexpensive and easily replaceable.
malleable and adaptable to change.
lacking in genuine emotion or depth.
relating to the visual arts or sculpture.

✅Answer: (C)✅

Explanation:👀

When a CARS question asks you for the meaning of a word, don’t immediately jump to the most common definition, but look at how the word is used in context. The author states in the passage that “individuals [are] feeling trapped in a plastic existence” and suggests this is a consequence of the widening “gap between the curated self and the authentic self.” Thus, “plastic” indicates a lack of authenticity and emotional depth, making (C) correct. (A) is incorrect because the passage doesn’t discuss the cost or disposability of online personas. (B) is incorrect because the passage describes people as “trapped in a plastic existence,” which implies a lack of malleability and adaptability, not the reverse. (D) is incorrect as the passage doesn’t directly relate “plastic” to visual arts; the focus is on the artificiality of online self-presentation.

Keep Practicing!

The key to success in CARS is consistent practice. Read a variety of texts, analyze arguments, and answer practice questions regularly. With dedication and the right strategies, you can conquer the CARS section!