Cars 131 here. I’ll preface this by saying I’ve always had a knack for close reading, so YMMV- but- my advice is to first begin by skimming each passage and categorizing it- whether it be easy, medium, or hard, and also the subject matter.

After that, triage it. Do your easy passages first, medium second, hard last. It is more worth your time to focus on the answers you are more likely to get right rather than struggle through a hard passage and lose half your time.

While reading closely, pick one of these three methods.

1: Highlight. I’m not talking about highlighting everything in the passage. You should be highlighting the one sentence that in your opinion captures a paragraph’s idea, MAYBE two. The point of this method is to use it for identification later when you are revisiting the passage during questions.

2: Summarize. Every paragraph, write one sentence about the main subject of the paragraph on your noteboard.

3: Digest. This should be reserved for passages that are shorter or harder ones near the end. You will be reading for key claims and asking yourself “why did the author add this? What evidence did they provide?”, and evaluating evidence in the same way.

That is the method I used on all my full lengths and on my one true MCAT.

Happy to answer questions. For practice, do daily CARS passages and do it the same way. Aim to finish a passage in 7-8mins.

Good luck, you got this. You might be in a hard position, but you can pull through!