The 18 Marks Everyone Skips — English and Reasoning

The usual objection is that 5% each is too small to justify time. That reasoning compares the sections against Biology's 45% and concludes they are unimportant. The correct comparison is marks per hour of preparation — and by that measure these are the best-value questions on the paper, precisely because so few people prepare them.

Every other section maps onto an FSc subject that you have studied for two years. Logical Reasoning does not. There is no textbook chapter, no school teacher who covered it, and no academy that spends real time on it.

• The question types are finite and repeat. Series, analogies, logical deduction, cause and effect, course of action — recognising the type is most of the work.
• Method beats speed. Each type has a mechanical approach that works reliably once you have practised it a dozen times.
• They are fast when you know the type and enormous time sinks when you do not. That difference alone is worth the practice.
• Work real past-paper reasoning questions, not generic aptitude sets from other exams — the style differs. Practise the real ones.

MDCAT English is not literature and not comprehension-heavy essay work. It concentrates on the formal and lexical mechanics of the language — the parts that are testable in a single sentence.

1. 1

   Do not give them study blocks

   They do not need hours. They need frequency.

2. 2

   Use the dead time

   Ten reasoning questions while commuting, ten English questions before bed. This is where the sections fit without displacing Biology.

3. 3

   Log the type of every error

   "Missed a series question" is actionable; "got English wrong" is not.

4. 4

   Attempt them first in a full paper

   They are the fastest questions on the paper. Clearing them early banks 18 marks and leaves the remaining time for Biology, where the hard thinking is.

5. 5

   Never leave one blank

   There is no negative marking. An unanswered reasoning question is a certain zero; a guess is not.