After content how should I go about practice

[deleted421268]

after content review should one take a practice test once a week leading up to exam day?

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[Spectar]

Yeah that's generally how people do it (and how I did it).

One full length every week + 1 day to review thoroughly. Then I would do section banks/ q packs/ passages throughout the week and review them along with content review anything I was iffy on. Repeat.

 

[Isoval]

Yes, and don’t slack on practice passages during the mean time.

Seriously, do passages until your eyes bleed. It’s more than just practice - I found myself learning some minutiae that I missed during content review in the middle of some of those passages or question stems.

 

[aldol16]

Depends on one's timeline. If you're compressed, do practice exams more frequently. If you have more time, space it out more so that you don't burn out.

 

[Siromas]

Don't underestimate the importance of practice exams! I was taking about 1-2 exams per week up until a week before I sat for the real deal.

Definitely take a break for the few days leading up until your actual exam.

 

[DetroitDoc1993]

I would do at least 2 practice exams a week, of course depends on how many you have available. 3-4 weeks before my MCAT I was actually doing more like 3 practice exams a week. And practice passages is a must almost better than doing content review.

 

[Zenabi90]

There's a reason they are called practice passages and practice exams.

That's what they're for.

Do 1 practice exam a week, but if at all possible, try to schedule it on the day of the week your actual MCAT exam falls on. For example, if your exam date is March 24, that is a Saturday so do your practice exams on Saturday. Go through your morning routine, pretend to drive to your testing center, turn off your phone. Sit at your computer at 8 to load up the practice FL, have your two sheets of paper and a pencil, put in your earplugs, and start your 10 minute tutorial timer. Use the time to right down whatever information you would on your scratch papers. Do your practice exams timed with appropriate breaks, include the appropriate length lunch break. Act as if you're in a real exam. Don't touch your phone, your review materials, etc. Once you finish your practice exam, I would finish the day with 2-3 of your Daily practice CARS passages. The next two days are your review days where you thoroughly review every single question and every single answer choice on your FL exam. Not just the wrong ones, but the right ones too.

One day is your break day. I recommend setting your break days on the day of the week before your actual MCAT, if possible. So again, if your MCAT exam date is March 24, your test day is a Saturday, so your break day is Friday. Don't do anything MCAT related on that day, which is advice that applies as well for the day before your actual MCAT.

This leaves 3 days for miscellaneous practice passages.

Two weeks before your test date, I would escalate to two practice exams a week, with two days of review per practice exam, plus one day for rest.

This means work your schedule backwards.
Exam date: March 24
Break Day: March 23 and all Fridays.
Practice Exam Days + Review: Saturday + Sun/Mon
Week of Exam: Sat AAMC FL1, Sun/Mon Review, Tues AAMC Sample Exam, Wed/Thurs Review, Friday Break, Saturday MCAT
Week before exam: Sat Third Party FL, Sun/Mon Review, Tues AAMC FL 2, Wed/Thurs Review, Friday Break,
Weeks leading up to, but not including, the last two weeks: Sat Third Party FL, Sun/Mon Review, Tues -Thurs Practice Passages, Friday Break. Do this for as many weeks as you have practice exams beyond 4.
Weeks leading up to but not including FL weeks: Sat-Thurs Practice Passages, Friday Break.

I would do AAMC FL 3 as your first practice exam, fill with NextStep/Altius/Whatever, and do FL2/FL1/Sample Exam last.

 

[Chromium Surfer]

There's a reason they are called practice passages and practice exams.

That's what they're for.

Do 1 practice exam a week, but if at all possible, try to schedule it on the day of the week your actual MCAT exam falls on. For example, if your exam date is March 24, that is a Saturday so do your practice exams on Saturday. Go through your morning routine, pretend to drive to your testing center, turn off your phone. Sit at your computer at 8 to load up the practice FL, have your two sheets of paper and a pencil, put in your earplugs, and start your 10 minute tutorial timer. Use the time to right down whatever information you would on your scratch papers. Do your practice exams timed with appropriate breaks, include the appropriate length lunch break. Act as if you're in a real exam. Don't touch your phone, your review materials, etc. Once you finish your practice exam, I would finish the day with 2-3 of your Daily practice CARS passages. The next two days are your review days where you thoroughly review every single question and every single answer choice on your FL exam. Not just the wrong ones, but the right ones too.

One day is your break day. I recommend setting your break days on the day of the week before your actual MCAT, if possible. So again, if your MCAT exam date is March 24, your test day is a Saturday, so your break day is Friday. Don't do anything MCAT related on that day, which is advice that applies as well for the day before your actual MCAT.

This leaves 3 days for miscellaneous practice passages.

Two weeks before your test date, I would escalate to two practice exams a week, with two days of review per practice exam, plus one day for rest.

This means work your schedule backwards.
Exam date: March 24
Break Day: March 23 and all Fridays.
Practice Exam Days + Review: Saturday + Sun/Mon
Week of Exam: Sat AAMC FL1, Sun/Mon Review, Tues AAMC Sample Exam, Wed/Thurs Review, Friday Break, Saturday MCAT
Week before exam: Sat Third Party FL, Sun/Mon Review, Tues AAMC FL 2, Wed/Thurs Review, Friday Break,
Weeks leading up to, but not including, the last two weeks: Sat Third Party FL, Sun/Mon Review, Tues -Thurs Practice Passages, Friday Break. Do this for as many
weeks as you have practice exams beyond 4.
Weeks leading up to but not including FL weeks: Sat-Thurs Practice Passages, Friday Break.

I would do AAMC FL 3 as your first practice exam, fill with NextStep/Altius/Whatever, and do FL2/FL1/Sample Exam last.

why would you do AAMC FL3 as your first practice exam as opposed to 3rd party's first and then AAMC Sample/FL1/FL2/FL3 ? This is not an attack I'm genuinely curious because I will be starting to take practice exams in two months. Thanks for your input!

 

[NextStepTutor_1]

Hi all --

In general, practice exams are great but remember that reviewing them carefully to identify action points for next time is key. Everyone varies but usually I've found that it's really hard to push beyond 2 practice exams per week (towards the end of studying) w/out getting to the point of it being overload. One practice exam per week is probably the most standard schedule -- that gives you a day to take it, a day to review it carefully and identify lessons from it, and the rest of the week to handle anything else you may have going on in life and to keep pushing forward w/ other aspects of studying.

@Chromium Surfer, I can't speak for @Zenabi90 but I do think it's a good idea to use some AAMC material early on in the study process so that you can get inside the head, so to speak, of how the AAMC tends to ask questions. I often suggest that students use the AAMC Official Guide for this purpose. It's not technically a half-length practice exam because of some slight formatting issues, but it can serve a similar function. It can be really helpful to work through those questions carefully -- take your time, don't worry too much about timing (you'll have plenty of other practice for that), but try to really analyze the questions carefully and figure out how they're testing the material, how the questions are set up, how they relate to the passage, and so on. You can also come back and re-review them closer to Test Day.

The issue (from my perspective anyway) w/ saving the AAMC material for last is that although yes, they're the most predictive and that's important, it can also be a problem not to see the most authentic practice materials until almost the end of your study process, if that makes sense. So there's a tradeoff to be made, and at least personally I think the Official Guide questions can offer an elegant solution to the issue.

 

[Chromium Surfer]

Hi all --

In general, practice exams are great but remember that reviewing them carefully to identify action points for next time is key. Everyone varies but usually I've found that it's really hard to push beyond 2 practice exams per week (towards the end of studying) w/out getting to the point of it being overload. One practice exam per week is probably the most standard schedule -- that gives you a day to take it, a day to review it carefully and identify lessons from it, and the rest of the week to handle anything else you may have going on in life and to keep pushing forward w/ other aspects of studying.

@Chromium Surfer, I can't speak for @Zenabi90 but I do think it's a good idea to use some AAMC material early on in the study process so that you can get inside the head, so to speak, of how the AAMC tends to ask questions. I often suggest that students use the AAMC Official Guide for this purpose. It's not technically a half-length practice exam because of some slight formatting issues, but it can serve a similar function. It can be really helpful to work through those questions carefully -- take your time, don't worry too much about timing (you'll have plenty of other practice for that), but try to really analyze the questions carefully and figure out how they're testing the material, how the questions are set up, how they relate to the passage, and so on. You can also come back and re-review them closer to Test Day.

The issue (from my perspective anyway) w/ saving the AAMC material for last is that although yes, they're the most predictive and that's important, it can also be a problem not to see the most authentic practice materials until almost the end of your study process, if that makes sense. So there's a tradeoff to be made, and at least personally I think the Official Guide questions can offer an elegant solution to the issue.

Thank you very much for your input!!

 

[Zenabi90]

I can't speak for @Zenabi90 but I do think it's a good idea to use some AAMC material early on in the study process so that you can get inside the head, so to speak, of how the AAMC tends to ask questions.

That's an important point. I was assuming the poster would have used the official Guide as the very first resource. Is this not the standard?

I also assumed that the poster would use the AAMC Qbanks/Section Banks during their review, and thus have an exposure that way as well. My fault for not including that in my response.

 

[Zenabi90]

why would you do AAMC FL3 as your first practice exam as opposed to 3rd party's first and then AAMC Sample/FL1/FL2/FL3 ? This is not an attack I'm genuinely curious because I will be starting to take practice exams in two months. Thanks for your input!

It's a perfectly reasonable question, I am sorry I didn't make it clear in the first place.

I want your the first FL exposure to be an AAMC licensed product. This is so that you have a frame of references for the subsequent third party FLs. If something in those third party FLs seems inordinately easy or difficult compared to your experience FL 3, then you don't have to worry because you know what you should expect. Especially after having done the Official Guide questions and the Section Banks.

I use FL 3 as your first exam, as opposed to FL 1 and FL 2, because I am not yet comfortable in the predictive value of FL 3. FL 1 and FL 2 have consistently shown them to be very good indicators of your performance on the actual MCAT, provided you take them within a few weeks of the exam. Getting a good score on FL 1 and 2 a few weeks before the MCAT can be a great confidence booster going into your MCAT, and if you find your score to be severely deficient, you can decide to implement emergency protocols (reschedule, sign up for a new date and void the current take, cram harder, etc).

 

[skeptastic]

It's a perfectly reasonable question, I am sorry I didn't make it clear in the first place.

I want your the first FL exposure to be an AAMC licensed product. This is so that you have a frame of references for the subsequent third party FLs. If something in those third party FLs seems inordinately easy or difficult compared to your experience FL 3, then you don't have to worry because you know what you should expect. Especially after having done the Official Guide questions and the Section Banks.

I use FL 3 as your first exam, as opposed to FL 1 and FL 2, because I am not yet comfortable in the predictive value of FL 3. FL 1 and FL 2 have consistently shown them to be very good indicators of your performance on the actual MCAT, provided you take them within a few weeks of the exam. Getting a good score on FL 1 and 2 a few weeks before the MCAT can be a great confidence booster going into your MCAT, and if you find your score to be severely deficient, you can decide to implement emergency protocols (reschedule, sign up for a new date and void the current take, cram harder, etc).

Most people recommend taking the Sample Test right after content review wraps up. Do you think the official guide questions as a half-test would be better right after content review? I'm also curious a to why you'd leave the Sample Test in the final exam slot. Is that because it's reportedly easier and will serve as a confidence boost just before the real deal?

 

[skeptastic]

@Zenabi90 Just bumping this thread to see if you might be able to answer the question posed in my previous post (AAMC Sample Test first vs last among all practice exams).