Question for Kirsteen!

[Guest pinkbonkers]

Hi Kirsteen,

I noticed on the boards that you wrote the MCATs more than once. I was wondering if you felt like you improved each time, or, if the studying was easier each time you did it? Did you use different practice material for it?

 

The reason why I'm asking is that I retook the August 2005 MCAT again due to a low verbal mark last year but I left the test feeling like sections of the test were harder than I have ever thought it would be...Thus, I really feel like I did much worse in all sections than last year...How did you feel?

[Guest Kirsteen]

Hi there,

 

Yes, yes and yes. That is, I did improve when I re-wrote the test (the first time around I did alright, but scored a 9 on VR and I really wanted a 10, hence the re-write); the studying did get easier; I did use difference practice materials and approaches for the last exam.

 

When I first wrote the exam I hadn't been exposed to basic chemistry nor physics in years, so a lot of my study time was consumed by re-learning basic physical science concepts. That time around, I took the Kaplan course. Subsequently, in order to snag a higher verbal score, I decided to tackle it with the help of a Princeton Review course. For my last exam I took a different study approach, both, of my own making and using PR's approach. Studying was easier in many ways because I was already familiar with the physical sciences material plus I was simultaneously taking an organic chemistry course, so I didn't need to formally study any of that for the MCAT. Also, I was happy with the PR course as the passages seemed to be of a level of difficulty that mirrored those on the MCAT (which were pretty tough). Overall, my performance was better, and although I was focusing primarily on boosting my VR score, my score in one of the other sections jumped by 2 points too.

 

Overall, it's easy to bury yourself in old study patterns and not improve your score too much on a subsequent exam sitting. However, it is possible to increase your exam-taking skills, approach and knowledge base enough to improve your scores.

 

Good luck to you,

Kirsteen

[Guest pinkbonkers]

Hi Kirsteen,

So you wrote them three times? Did you find that you improved in each section every time you wrote the exam? Were you ever worried that you would go down in a section by taking the exam again?

Thanks so much,

[Guest Kirsteen]

Hi there,

 

Yep, I wrote them three summers in a row, but I would recommend a different approach given my experience. For the second write I wanted to bump my VR score up by one point, so I concentrated pretty hard on doing so, but probably neglected my physics a bit as, although my VR score did jump up, as did my WS score, my PS score fell by one point. The last write, I decided to make sure that the knowledge remained at a solid baseline in all of the sections, and studied to do well on the whole exam instead of cherry-picking the sections on which to concentrate. That time around my score jumped by 2 points over the previous write and I managed to maintain an "S" in the WS section, so I was fairly pleased. In retrospect though, the approach that I took for the last exam is what I should have done the second time around, that is, it's not worth wasting an extra summer to study for the exam if you can put in maximum effort and smash it the first time around. Och well, you learn.

 

Good luck to you.

 

Cheers,

Kirsteen