Question regarding strictness to passage

[GraemeMatt8033]

I've noticed that in some questions and answers an answer was not correct because it wasn't word for word from the passage, or not entirely accurate with the idea presented in the passage, but I've also had it where you get an answer right, even though it has the same attributes.
Also in the past I've found where the question asks for you to find what was implicitly stated, and then in the answer choices they have something that is explicitly stated, and that's the answer they want.

So in general for the MCAT, should I follow my gut on these things and stay extremely strict to the passage contents, or could there be places where i get in trouble for this. I've found this to be very inconsistent on all verbal reasoning exams, whether it be aamc, mcat prep, kaplan, so on.

[mcat_premed3832]

You are correct to suggest that following your "gut" is the most reasonable option. But I would not suggest that to everyone.

In medicine, we call this "gut thing" (!!): pattern recognition. It's not really instinct. It's that you have been exposed to clear cases, ambiguous cases from many sources (or different situations) and thus have a sense of certain patterns. Sometimes you can describe it clearly but occasionally you can't.

Given that you have completed alot of material as you suggested (of course The Official AAMC manual, all their CBTs and the Silver Bullet's analysis should be among your weapons), now you can go with your "gut" when presented with the problem type that you described. So if you get 4 like that in a test, you'll likely get most of them correct. You will most likely NOT get all of them correct but I guess you know that already.