mtb2011 Posted January 20, 2010 Report Share Posted January 20, 2010 Hi, I am signed up for the mcat on jan 28th, and i am starting to panic. I have been studying since the 2nd week of september (3-4 hours daily). I started the practice exams last week. I started off with the old kaplan ones, the ones which are 100 min for bio/phys. My scores were good so I got excited. However, since last friday, I have taken 2 aamc tests (free one and #5), and I got absolutely destroyed on both of them. Did anyone who did well on the real mcat also do really well on the practice exams? It seems as though I cannot get past a 22. Please help. I am getting really discouraged Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Law Posted January 20, 2010 Report Share Posted January 20, 2010 Hi there, It's my experience, if this is the case... then you need more time. Perhaps someone else might have more optimistic news to bear. I don't like Kaplan tests because I don't find them to be indicative. Virtually all of my score gains have come from practicing using the online tests (I start off with TPR, and then switch to AAMCs). On the bright side, I started off, after reviewing the concepts @ a 6 in PS last year. I worked really hard and brought it up to an 11. So don't let your poor scores discourage you. My one piece of advice, however, is to not go into the exam unless you actually feel ready for it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Ace of Spades Posted January 20, 2010 Report Share Posted January 20, 2010 I did 4 AAMC practice tests before I took the real thing, and I got roughly the same scores in each section, +- 2. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mtb2011 Posted January 20, 2010 Author Report Share Posted January 20, 2010 thanks:confused: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
discworldheavylight Posted January 20, 2010 Report Share Posted January 20, 2010 Hi, I am signed up for the mcat on jan 28th, and i am starting to panic. I have been studying since the 2nd week of september (3-4 hours daily). I started the practice exams last week. I started off with the old kaplan ones, the ones which are 100 min for bio/phys. My scores were good so I got excited. However, since last friday, I have taken 2 aamc tests (free one and #5), and I got absolutely destroyed on both of them. Did anyone who did well on the real mcat also do really well on the practice exams? It seems as though I cannot get past a 22. Please help. I am getting really discouraged it probably would've helped if you'd started doing practice tests earlier. i know for princeton, they recommend you do the practice tests throughout the course to track your progress. there's a difference between a test and studying. test is more applying your studying + endurance + time management. unfortunately, ur performance on practice tests is an indicator of ur actual performance. if you are not getting past 22, first of all, don't panic. take a break and try again. maybe you are just stressed. but if it still doesn't get better, maybe you should consider rescheduling your test for later, so you have some more time to go through a few more tests. it's only january so you have plenty of time before you need to have ur scores in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
discworldheavylight Posted January 20, 2010 Report Share Posted January 20, 2010 Hi there, It's my experience, if this is the case... then you need more time. Perhaps someone else might have more optimistic news to bear. I don't like Kaplan tests because I don't find them to be indicative. Virtually all of my score gains have come from practicing using the online tests (I start off with TPR, and then switch to AAMCs). On the bright side, I started off, after reviewing the concepts @ a 6 in PS last year. I worked really hard and brought it up to an 11. So don't let your poor scores discourage you. My one piece of advice, however, is to not go into the exam unless you actually feel ready for it. i noticed this too when using princeton tests then switching over to aamc the week before my mcat. with princeton, i was getting 12 consistently in verbal, but once i switched over to aamc, i dropped to an 11 and stayed there. part of it might be the format is changed slightly. because i wasn't used to roman numerals and a couple of other things i dont remember, it was harder to gauge time. honestly, i think it's better to start with aamc tests. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
janny_jan Posted January 20, 2010 Report Share Posted January 20, 2010 I never broke a 30 in practice tests and got a 30 on the real thing...then again I was getting consistent 28-29s. I agree with another poster that you can expect a + or - 2 from your real score on the practices. Then factor in stress and anxiety of the real thing...yuck. dont go until you're ready! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
terryann Posted January 20, 2010 Report Share Posted January 20, 2010 If you are not getting scores you are happy with postpone writing, I changed my date to write twice. the practice exams were needed for me...and I think I did them all..perhaps a little excessive but I started out with a 4 in physics. You learn alot going over the questions you got right and the ones you got wrong the day after you write the test. Everyone is different, but the marks you get on the practice don't lie..and if you are happy with those marks write otherwise wait Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Poindextrose Posted January 20, 2010 Report Share Posted January 20, 2010 I agree with everyone above - don't write the test until you feel comfortable. Going into the test not being happy with how you've done in practice will only mess with your head. That being said, I found the AAMC tests to be the most useful (in terms of relation to the actual MCAT) and were closest to my actual score (+1 on the real deal). I was getting absolutely destroyed on the Princeton pratice verbal sections (I really hated those things!) but did well on AAMC ones and the MCAT. Good luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mtb2011 Posted January 20, 2010 Author Report Share Posted January 20, 2010 thanks all. i have about 14 more to do before next week. hopefully things will improve before then. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
onamountain Posted January 20, 2010 Report Share Posted January 20, 2010 thanks all. i have about 14 more to do before next week. hopefully things will improve before then. Careful, don't burn yourself out. 14 full-lengths in one week is pretty intense. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mtb2011 Posted January 20, 2010 Author Report Share Posted January 20, 2010 hm. good point. but i dont think it will be too bad. its only 5 hours a day to do everything. and on weekends i can do 2 each day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mtb2011 Posted January 21, 2010 Author Report Share Posted January 21, 2010 i have done my diagnostics and realized these questions are fair. my two main problems are that i am getting calculations wrong (adding exponents instead of subtracting) and i am not reading the questions properly (interchanging delta H and free energy). I think I am rushing. Does anyone have advice on how to overcome these dumb mistakes? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Law Posted January 21, 2010 Report Share Posted January 21, 2010 i have done my diagnostics and realized these questions are fair. my two main problems are that i am getting calculations wrong (adding exponents instead of subtracting) and i am not reading the questions properly (interchanging delta H and free energy). I think I am rushing. Does anyone have advice on how to overcome these dumb mistakes? Hi there, That was my problem in PS last year. Even now, I recently did a test and saw almost all the questions I got wrong was from rushing. My strategy to fix this is: 1. Start by reading q carefully 2. Work methodically - before you start your question, look carefully to make sure you're trying to solve exactly what is being tested. If there are figures you need to look at to answer, check carefully to make sure you interpret the figure correctly (look @ labels, y-axis, x-axis... don't assume anything). 3. For easy questions, TAKE YOUR TIME. Get these right. These are worth just as hard as the difficult ones. 4. If a question is brutal, mark it AND MOVE ON. Don't waste time on hard ones, the easy ones are worth just as much. 5. Take your time with calculations. For non-math inclined ppl like myself, it's so easy to make mistakes. Just be patient and don't freak out while doing it. Practice will help get these things up-to-speed. GOOD LUCK. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Delusionofreality Posted January 21, 2010 Report Share Posted January 21, 2010 hmm.. i also agree with the above posters. I totally changed my date for writing the mcat more than once as well (until I felt comfortable going in). Just a quick question though, you found the kaplan's easier than the AAMCs? it's always been the other way for me, kaplan being the hardest, aamc the easiest, and the real mcat somewhere inbetween. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
discworldheavylight Posted January 21, 2010 Report Share Posted January 21, 2010 hmm.. i also agree with the above posters. I totally changed my date for writing the mcat more than once as well (until I felt comfortable going in). Just a quick question though, you found the kaplan's easier than the AAMCs? it's always been the other way for me, kaplan being the hardest, aamc the easiest, and the real mcat somewhere inbetween. i think it's like $50 for a date change? it's better than paying the full price to rewrite a bad score. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Delusionofreality Posted January 21, 2010 Report Share Posted January 21, 2010 that and (although some schools don't care), you don't want to accumulate a bunch of bad scores. some schools do care, and it's never healthy for ones morale in my opinion Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Law Posted January 21, 2010 Report Share Posted January 21, 2010 i think it's like $50 for a date change? it's better than paying the full price to rewrite a bad score. I think you have to do it at least 2 weeks before your test day, otherwise you're not allowed to switch. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bj89 Posted January 21, 2010 Report Share Posted January 21, 2010 i ended up getting +1 higher in every section of the real MCAT than i got on the AAMC ones, so it is possible to do better on the real MCAT. but i wasn't scoring 22 on the AAMC, more like 28-29 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mtb2011 Posted January 21, 2010 Author Report Share Posted January 21, 2010 yeah i got the email from aamc saying the deadline to modify the test date was coming up. i made sure i did some practice exams before that deadline just to see. i did well on them (kaplan). After the deadline, i started aamc and started to suck. but things have actually improved in the last 24 hour. not at 28-29 yet but my 50 sec per question strategy is working. i think i was spending too much time staring at hard questions and rushing through easy ones & getting them wrong. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Law Posted January 21, 2010 Report Share Posted January 21, 2010 yeah i got the email from aamc saying the deadline to modify the test date was coming up. i made sure i did some practice exams before that deadline just to see. i did well on them (kaplan). After the deadline, i started aamc and started to suck. but things have actually improved in the last 24 hour. not at 28-29 yet but my 50 sec per question strategy is working. i think i was spending too much time staring at hard questions and rushing through easy ones & getting them wrong. I was doing the same thing and went up from 7/8 in PS to 10/11 after I fixed the problem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.