35+ scorers, feelings after real exam vs practice MCAT

[nugang]

Hey I know this thread has been done but this is specifically for people scoring 35+. Did you feel a lot worse coming out of the real deal compared to the moments before submitting your AAMC practice tests?

Did you think you did well?

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[Mad Jack]

I felt like I bombed my MCAT, came back as a 12/11/12, which was perfectly in line with my official AAMCs.

 

[F.Underwood]

I took it a few months ago. Felt like I did well. However, I got 6 points lower than what I got on AAMC FL 11 and 4 point lower than what I got on FL's 8-11. All-in-all, I thought the real thing was a lot trickier.

 

[mysdnhandle]

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[gettheleadout]

Hey I know this thread has been done but this is specifically for people scoring 35+. Did you feel a lot worse coming out of the real deal compared to the moments before submitting your AAMC practice tests?

Did you think you did well?

Just understand that your post-test feelings aren't necessarily reliable. That said, I felt that my test was easy (as I felt about the AAMC FL's), and my score confirmed my impression. Other people have come out of the test feeling that it was unusually difficult and scored very highly as well.

 

[IL Pre Med]

I felt like I did bad, thinking around 27-28, was telling myself I'd be happy with a 30. Ended up with a 13/10/12.

 

[BrCo]

I thought I failed miserably. Don't go with your initial feelings

 

[CrimsonKing]

Exactly what @gettheleadout said. Felt like my test was easy and walked out feeling great. Ended up w/a 14/13/15.

Friend of mine felt god-awful w/a rough test and ended w/a 13/13/13.

Post-test feelings aren't reliable for MCAT or USMLE. Everyone feels awful coming out of Step 1.

 

[Dr Turkelton]

I felt I absolutely bombed the PS and rocked the other 2. Ended up with a 12/13/13

 

[avivace]

I felt worse after the real test than the practice tests, but I suspect that was just crashing after all the adrenaline. The practice tests just didn't have the same importance. I was unsure about roughly as many answers on the real test as on the practice tests, and ended up scoring slightly higher than my practice average.

 

[phunky]

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[Lamel]

I thought the test was a bit more difficult than the average AAMC, and my official score was ~1 point lower than my average.

Though my mind was freaking out regardless because it is so high stakes.

 

[p53apoptosis]

Thought I did terribly and expected a 32-33. Got a 38.

 

[ace12345]

If you're consistently scoring above on 35 on practice tests, you'll do the same on the real thing. You want to take enough where the real one is just another walk through

 

[Tappinfool66]

Hey I know this thread has been done but this is specifically for people scoring 35+. Did you feel a lot worse coming out of the real deal compared to the moments before submitting your AAMC practice tests?

Did you think you did well?

I wouldn't say I felt a lot worse, but I definitely felt more nervous, more anxious and less confident after the real thing than I did after taking my practice tests. I think the nervousness was partly due to the fact that it was the real deal and not just another practice test. I ended up with a 37 (14PS, 10VR, 13BS), which was within about 0.5 points of my practice test average.

Bottom line, I think it's really hard to tell how you did based on your feelings and, by and large, your practice test average is the best indicator, though there are obviously exceptions.

 

[InsertUsername]

I agree with the above. I didn't feel worse necessarily but I felt more anxious because this score mattered whereas the practice test ones really didn't. I went in averaging about 40 and I got 39 (14/11/14).

Do as many practice tests as possible and remember that the test you take is (overall) not going to be any harder or easier than the practice tests. Don't let one or two hard questions freak you out or bother you during or after the test.

 

[davisfenos]

Felt pretty good about everything except our PS section. Walked out feeling... decent, because I knew there would probably be a curve for PS, and I felt good about the other two sections. Figured I'd get around 30-32, got 14/10/14.

Compared to the one practice test I did (AAMC 11), which I got 12/10/12 on, I felt my real one was harder. So who knows.

 

[ConsultantMD]

I predicted pretty much exactly what happened, the PS section was a little rough, as one of the passages didn't click with me. The rest of the test seemed on par, BS way better than usual. I ended up getting below average in PS, average in VR, and above average on BS.

I did 18 practice tests, so I had a lot of practice, so maybe it's because I had an excess of practice.

 

[Abstractions]

Extremely frustrated at 2 very simple/straightforward freestanding questions I botched at the end; but other than that I was confident I did well (Including Verbal, which was perplexing given that I normally feel like garbage after that section). Ended up scoring within 1 point of my AAMC average.

 

[Pacna]

I never practice tested more than a 34, and I ended up with a 36, and I felt the exam was incredibly hard.

 

[FutureOncologist]

Felt okay. The test was a little harder than the AMCAS versions, IMO. Was freaking out a few days before I got the email. My first attempt was a 29 and my goal was a 33. Ended up with a 36

 

[911 Turbo]

Thought I did terribly and expected a 32-33. Got a 38.

And statements like this are why people visiting SDN think it's full of neurotic premeds who have no perspective.

 

[Ace Khalifa]

I did all the AAMC practice tests and averaged 32-33 on most of them. Felt the real thing's bio section was super hard. Got 12 phys/13 verb/11 bio. Don't trust your post-exam feelings. And remember that it takes more than a good MCAT score to get into medical school!

 

[Promethean]

Hey I know this thread has been done but this is specifically for people scoring 35+. Did you feel a lot worse coming out of the real deal compared to the moments before submitting your AAMC practice tests?

Did you think you did well?

AAMC practice tests are excellent prep for the real thing. The question types mirror the real very well, so that it is easy to learn how the test writers think. Understanding what kinds of tricks they will try to play is at least as important as knowing the material.

So, I didn't take the tests once and move on.. I would take one, examine my results to see what I had missed, and why. I focused study on those areas, and then I would take the next AAMC. I cycled through them, and once I'd taken them all, I started over. By that time, although the questions were somewhat familiar, I still had to think about the answers.

All that drilling and drilling and drilling on practice questions let me raise my scores on the real test from the low 30s to the high 30s over a few months. And it meant that when I walked out of the real exams, I felt pretty calm and certain that my score was going to be adequate. Both times, I accurately predicted my score based on my sense of how I had done.