We are pleased to announce that we will be hosting our free Critical Analysis and Reasoning Skills (CARS) Workshop again this spring. Mason Bartman, a second-year medical student, will be your instructor for the workshop.
Here are the details, it is important that you read all information carefully.
We hope that many of you will take advantage of this workshop. While both the MCAT and the DAT have content (science/math) sections, there are classes you can take to prepare for those sections. However, mastery of verbal analysis, reasoning, and comprehension are also tested on both the MCAT (CARS) and the DAT (Reading Comprehension), and there are no formal classes you can take to prepare yourself for this section. That is the goal of this workshop, to provide you with tips, strategies, and techniques you can learn and practice to improve your speed and performance on this section.
This workshop should be useful to students at any stage of preparation. Junior and senior level students planning to take the MCAT or DAT soon should be particularly interested in this workshop and are strongly encouraged to participate. We offer this workshop every semester, thus freshmen and sophomores might want to wait to take the workshop in the future.
The workshop is composed of three parts:
1) Classes where different strategies are introduced and explained.
2) Practice sessions designed to let you practice the strategies you learned.
3) Real, full-length practice CARS passages to let you test how you are doing.
[Pre-dental students – we are working with the MCAT because multiple practice MCAT materials are available and this is not the case with the DAT. CARS and Reading Comprehension
are similar in structure, so we believe this workshop will benefit you as well.]
You are expected to participate in all workshop sessions. We have scheduled the workshop for a single weekend, and we expect a commitment on your part to participate fully. If your schedule this semester is such that you cannot participate in all sessions, wait until we offer the workshop again. This workshop is free for Texas State students. We will cover the cost of the instructor and all materials.
Adherence to safe COVID practices is expected (masks on, staggered seating if possible, etc)
It is advised that you bring a laptop to all workshop section, however it is particularly essential that you bring one for the pre-test and post-test.
The workshop schedule is as follows:
Pre-Test: Friday, March 25th: 4pm-7pm in Supple 257 **BRING LAPTOP**
Workshop session 1: Saturday, March 26th 11:00am-1:30pm – 30-minute lunch break – 2:00-4:30 pm (lecture and practice passages) in Supple 153
Workshop session 2: Sunday, March 27th 11:00am-1:30pm (lecture and practice passages) – 30-minute lunch break – Post-Test 2:00pm-5:00pm in Supple 153 **BRING LAPTOP**
If you are serious about participating in the workshop, please complete this brief form to register. The deadline to register is MARCH 10 https://forms.gle/1MWmGXtk33kviiJP9
To encourage perfect attendance – we will reward you with bonus MCAT practice materials from the AAMC if you attend ALL portions of the workshop.
This workshop is designed to be held face-to-face. If you require special accommodations due to COVID-19 please email the workshop leader Mason Bartman (mason) and copy Dr. Pesthy on the email (cp22). We will do our best to make it possible for all interested to attend and benefit from this workshop.
We need everyone who participates to agree to attend all sessions so we can compile reliable statistics to track the effectiveness of the workshop.
Contact Dr. Pesthy with any questions.
Carolyn Pesthy, Ph.D.
Pre-Health Advisor, JAMP Director
Senior Lecturer
Department of Biology
Texas State University
601 University Drive
San Marcos, TX 78666
(off) 512-245-9761
(fax) 512-245-8713
cp22
Pre-Health Advising website
www.bio.txstate.edu/prehealthadvising
Click HERE to schedule your
pre-health advising appointment!