Critical Analysis and Reasoning Skills: Skill 3

Critical Analysis and Reasoning Skills: Skill 3

The final skill within the Critical Analysis and Reasoning Skills section of the MCAT is titled Reasoning Beyond the Text. You can treat this section as if it were opposing sides of a coin. In the first set of skills, questions will challenge your ability to apply or extrapolate information and/or ideas in a passage to a new and/or novel situation. For instance, you will be asked to extend the information the author presents beyond the actual context included in the passages.

In the second set of skills, questions will challenge your ability to consider new information presented in test questions. You will also be asked to mentally integrate the new information into the passage content, then asses what may happen by adding the new information into the passage. Through reasoning about new, hypothetical elements, you should be able to synthesize content within passages and change your interpretation of them.

Integration and application will prompt you to think along the same lines. Each way of thinking will test your mental flexibility, as well as your ability to deal with combinations and comparisons. Still, they are different in the way in which you are required to react on a mental level.

As you go through each question, only use the content and information included in the passages to determine your answers. Avoid using any of your outside knowledge or personal opinion. Answers will be graded solely on the information provided to you and your answers based on that information.

According to the Association of American Medical Colleges, the Reasoning Beyond the Text portion makes up 40% of the Critical Analysis and Reasoning Skill section of the new MCAT test. Passage content is split down the middle between humanities and social sciences content.

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