charty Posted August 11, 2011 Report Share Posted August 11, 2011 Sooooo, if I happen to get an 8/7/9 on AAMC 7 and an 8/8/9 on AAMC 8, and my mcat is Aug 19, should I be worried? I've heard these were the hardest, that's why I did them before any other AAMC's, but the result was completely unexpected. A slight panic has set in evidently haha. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leon Posted August 11, 2011 Report Share Posted August 11, 2011 There are many factors involved. I didn't find 7 and 8 to be significantly harder than the others. But people say 11 is hardest and its my highest AAMC so it depends on the individual too. I would do a few more AAMCs. However, 8/9 in PS/BS indicates a slight weakness in knowledge. You want to review thoroughly to fill in holes. Go back over the tests you did and identify the areas that knocked you off and review those topics. The absolute most useful thing about the AAMCs is they let you identify where you're weak. And leave at least 24 hours between AAMCs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gametime24 Posted August 11, 2011 Report Share Posted August 11, 2011 There are many factors involved. I didn't find 7 and 8 to be significantly harder than the others. But people say 11 is hardest and its my highest AAMC so it depends on the individual too. I would do a few more AAMCs. However, 8/9 in PS/BS indicates a slight weakness in knowledge. You want to review thoroughly to fill in holes. Go back over the tests you did and identify the areas that knocked you off and review those topics. The absolute most useful thing about the AAMCs is they let you identify where you're weak. And leave at least 24 hours between AAMCs. I agree that 7 and 8 weren't any harder, however, 11 was definitely not the hardest, I would go out and say it was the easiest of all tests personally.. Def do more tests, and the biggest things is to LEARN from your mistakes, find out what areas you got a lot of questions wrong in, then look at whether is was a lack of factual knowledge or a lack of problem solving ability. Once you've identified this, review specifically to fix it! You have enough time that I think you could get your PS and BS to 10s each if you work really hard. As for the verbal, take a look through some of the EK strategies if you have time, just make sure to focus on the main idea, I try to keep it in mind as I'm reading through each paragraph. Also, if you can't find an answer to the question right away, then eliminate the baddd choices and guess, mark the question and move on. That way you can come back to it if you have time, but if not at least you didn't waste time you could have been answering easy questions with. You might be able to add one point to your verbal score as well. I would imagine that, with a lot of hard work, it's possible to raise your score to a 9/10 PS, 8/9 VR, 10 BS in the time you have, for an overall score in the 27-29 range. Which is a significant increase from the 24-25 you scored on these past two tests. If those gains are acceptable to you, work your ass off and enjoy the mark you get back after the 19th! If you would still like to be higher than that, or to be 30+ then I would strongly suggest rescheduling, as raising 6 points in a week is pretty tough to do unless you really weren't trying on those tests or had some other crazy circumstance going on. Either way, good luck Let us know how it goes! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
charty Posted August 11, 2011 Author Report Share Posted August 11, 2011 Thanks a bunch for the advice. Seriously. I've been looking over all my areas in the past day and a half and it seems that my biggest deficiencies are not in the lack of knowledge, but in actual problem solving. So right now I'm going to focus on editing the way I'm thinking while working through some TPR passages, review the select gaps in knowledge I've found from reviewing the exams and try another AAMC tomorrow, possibly 11. I appreciate everything guys, thanks so much! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gametime24 Posted August 11, 2011 Report Share Posted August 11, 2011 Thanks a bunch for the advice. Seriously. I've been looking over all my areas in the past day and a half and it seems that my biggest deficiencies are not in the lack of knowledge, but in actual problem solving. So right now I'm going to focus on editing the way I'm thinking while working through some TPR passages, review the select gaps in knowledge I've found from reviewing the exams and try another AAMC tomorrow, possibly 11. I appreciate everything guys, thanks so much! Good luck! If you really work on it I'm sure you will see some improvement you mention that you're getting off track with your problem solving, is there a certain thing you keep doing? For example, trying to apply the wrong concept, or trying to rely on outside knowledge, getting hung up on manipulating equations or having troubles pulling concepts out of the passages? If you can pinpoint exactly what it is that you're doing wrong with the problem solving I'm confident you can get a 1-2 point increase in a couple of days just by focusing on it My biology scores were originally 8ish (after reviewing all the material in 3 days), so I went through the 3 tests I had done, found why I was getting questions wrong (mine was a mixture of forgetting small info for the FS questions, and not forming a "big picture" of the physiology in the passage questions) spent one day drawing out diagrams of all of the bodily systems and reading through fact sheets on areas I was forgetting most things in. Wrote test 6 the next day and scored an 11 in BS, followed by a 12 on test 7 later that night. In short, you will hit your goal, just don't stress, work hard, and make sure you target exactly what is going wrong Good luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mayerrr Posted August 11, 2011 Report Share Posted August 11, 2011 I just wrote 8 and didn't find it too bad, but I just wanna say the curve is absolutely retarded...I got 42/52 for a 10 in PS, meanwhile my friend got 45/52 on PS and scored 13 .... 1 questions = 1 point jump? really? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gametime24 Posted August 12, 2011 Report Share Posted August 12, 2011 I just wrote 8 and didn't find it too bad, but I just wanna say the curve is absolutely retarded...I got 42/52 for a 10 in PS, meanwhile my friend got 45/52 on PS and scored 13 .... 1 questions = 1 point jump? really? Yes. And it is the same thing on the real mcat. The scores are reflective of the real test and they account for the difficulty of the test. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vanillabear Posted August 12, 2011 Report Share Posted August 12, 2011 Whaaaa? I got 44/52 and only got an 11 for PS on AAMC 8 :S Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mayerrr Posted August 12, 2011 Report Share Posted August 12, 2011 Yes. And it is the same thing on the real mcat. The scores are reflective of the real test and they account for the difficulty of the test. If that is the case why do people say that you are not likely to score well on your MCAT (30+) or so, if you've only been targeting mid 20s? I mean,the difference is a matter of guessing right or wrong if 1 point = 1 question Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alchemist11 Posted August 12, 2011 Report Share Posted August 12, 2011 If that is the case why do people say that you are not likely to score well on your MCAT (30+) or so, if you've only been targeting mid 20s? I mean,the difference is a matter of guessing right or wrong if 1 point = 1 question He's talking about 12 or higher. The difference between a 15 and 13 in verbal is usually 2-3 questions. That's why people say above 12 in a section is a crapshoot, or luck based, because guessing right on a couple questions could take you from a 12 to a 14 while guessing incorrectly takes you from a 15 to a 12. Below 12, each number corresponds to several questions so how you perform isn't entirely luck anymore. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vanillabear Posted August 12, 2011 Report Share Posted August 12, 2011 If that is the case why do people say that you are not likely to score well on your MCAT (30+) or so, if you've only been targeting mid 20s? I mean,the difference is a matter of guessing right or wrong if 1 point = 1 question 1 point = 1 question only for the upper/lower extremes. For the middle range of scores its more than 1 question (more like 3-4) to raise your score by 1 point. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gametime24 Posted August 12, 2011 Report Share Posted August 12, 2011 He's talking about 12 or higher. The difference between a 15 and 13 in verbal is usually 2-3 questions. That's why people say above 12 in a section is a crapshoot, or luck based, because guessing right on a couple questions could take you from a 12 to a 14 while guessing incorrectly takes you from a 15 to a 12. Below 12, each number corresponds to several questions so how you perform isn't entirely luck anymore. Exactly. The scale is very tight at the top end. Hopefully you get those last few questions right based off of skill and not luck though! I scored 14 in PS and was almost as confident with by BS mark when I had left the test (was thinking 13ish, at least 12) happened to be a few questions wrong and that brought it down to an 11 pretty quickly. Obviously to get down to 11 I had a decent amount wrong but you get the point. Get your basic knowledge down and youll be around an 8, have good problem solving skills as well and youll get to a 10ish, maybe 11 depending on how you do on test day. To get beyond that requires luck or skill or both! 4 or 5 questions honestly can take you from a 15 down to an 11 in a heartbeat. So make sure youre comfortable with anything they can throw at you if you want to get above that 10-11 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
charty Posted August 14, 2011 Author Report Share Posted August 14, 2011 OMG! Guys, totally psyched. Just did AAMC 11 and got 31. 11/10/10. Thanks for all the advice, because it was so helpful. 3 more solid days of hard work ahead but I feel as though I can now get my goal of 30 on the exam. Gametime, you especially, thanks for the help Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gametime24 Posted August 14, 2011 Report Share Posted August 14, 2011 OMG! Guys, totally psyched. Just did AAMC 11 and got 31. 11/10/10. Thanks for all the advice, because it was so helpful. 3 more solid days of hard work ahead but I feel as though I can now get my goal of 30 on the exam. Gametime, you especially, thanks for the help Glad to hear it! Just keep doing what's working and keep calm on test day congrats on the improvement! What're your plans for the next 3 days? I would suggest taking the last day off of studying, or at least the last afternoon off just for a mini re-coup before you write! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
charty Posted August 14, 2011 Author Report Share Posted August 14, 2011 The plan is to do a lot of review tomorrow to cover off some weak areas, practice test in the am on tues, review in the pm, another practice test in am on wed, review in pm, thursday off to do SFA and friday morning real exam. Does that sound like a dece plan? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gametime24 Posted August 14, 2011 Report Share Posted August 14, 2011 The plan is to do a lot of review tomorrow to cover off some weak areas, practice test in the am on tues, review in the pm, another practice test in am on wed, review in pm, thursday off to do SFA and friday morning real exam. Does that sound like a dece plan? SFA?? Not sure what that is but your plan sounds good! Keep us updated on your progress! Hopefully you can get another 30 on those practice tests for some extra confidence Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
charty Posted August 14, 2011 Author Report Share Posted August 14, 2011 haha, sorry, maybe its a local term. a translation without swearing would just be do nothing. and yes, I'm hoping for another 30 before I write. Fingers crossed! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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