Don't even know what to ask. MCAT 1/23. How do I motivate myself to restudy for new mcat...sigh

[kobe-in-a-labcoat]

So here it is...Took the 1/23 mcat.

Was averaging a 37.6 practice. Took aamc and princeton review exams.Pretty confident I could do well.

If i get lucky:

Physics: I don't know what the hell I was thinking. Missed 3 FSQ's. I was hoping to get a 14-15 in this section. The 3 missed questions I know I missed puts me at a 13 max at this point. Looks likely that since I usually miss 1-4 (with 3 and 4 most common) in my practice exams, this section will be a 10-11

Verbal: Practice I went up to a 12 even. This one felt good. Really good. But I think I overthought some answers. In a way that usually is different to normal. Maybe I got em right or I didn't. Was great but I messed up with timing and had only 5 minutes for the last passage of 5 questions. Expecting to miss 8-10 and get a 10.

Bio: Got killed here. So sad. Missed a orgo question. thought about and pretty sure I ended up missing 5/7 questions on the infamous orgo passage. Know I missed a FSQ. This alone puts me at minus 7. Pretty sure I'm gonna miss 10-12. and go home with a 9

I know there were too much passage based questions compared to AAMC's for me not to mess up somewhere at least a little.

worst case:
10, 8, 8

HOW the hell did this happen. I learned so much material. I.m not trying to brag. but i feel crippled. I'm praying I got lucky and somehow got even a 32. But how do I even study for the new test. What if this happens again?

Was my mistake not taking a commercial test prep class?

I did all the princeton hyper learning second hand, kaplan, some berkley, all the aamc stuff. sigh.

End of rant. Sorry but I needed to post this somewhere. couldn't tell my parent's or friends or anyone who has put so much faith and hope in me. I feel like i let everyone down.

I guess this is more for me than for getting advice. But if anyone has experienced this and had the courage to study for the next one, how do i do it and move on.

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[efle]

Dude. Chill. Everyone thinks their actual MCAT was their worst ever compared to practices. Like I've shared before: I had a buddy put down a deposit for a retake because he felt so bad and knew he got so many wrong...turned out he got a 39.

You averaged a 38 on practices and should realistically expect that, even if you did perform well below your average, you'll end up with a solidly competitive score. Do NOT get yourself into a paranoid depressed fit over the MCAT2015 before receiving your score.

 

[the rhymenoceros]

I'm really sorry you're feeling that way. It's definitely hard talking to family and friends about the test. When I'm feeling down about it everyone just says "oh I'm sure you did fine!" which just makes me feel worse about the prospect of not doing fine. Still, you're definitely jumping the gun – unless you straight up skipped a couple passages or had a total meltdown mid-test, you have no way of predicting your score and no reason to think this will be drastically different from your practice scores. The real exam isn't scaled exactly the same way as the practice tests and contains experimental questions, so there's no use in speculating based on how many you think you got right and what that would translate to.

You'll notice that pretty much everyone who took the 1/23 exam thought it was hard, which means the scale will reflect that. The reason it takes a month to get our scores is that AAMC works really hard to standardize the test and ensure that no one gets screwed. I really think you need to have a little more faith in yourself and in the fact that you did great on the practice tests. I'm saying this to myself as much as to you because I also feel really awful about the test, but I honestly think it's true. There's no reason at all to think you scored nearly 10 points below your average. Almost no one does. If you look through the forums you can find a zillion people who thought they bombed the test and ended up doing fine. I spent a while looking through old threads to assuage my own nerves and was quite relieved that I didn't find a single person averaging 37-38 who scored below a 30. It's going to be a tough month, but you're going to be okay!

 

[kobe-in-a-labcoat]

I hope you guys are right. It definitely makes sense. Not very religious but honestly might become it during this month of praying. I guess I'll focus on my application and hope for the best.

I think you're right, I haven't seen anyone drop that much. If there is a curve, and it makes sense for there to be one given what you've said, we should conceivably be okay.

I guess I was being overly neurotic, but I'm glad I was able to vent a little. Thanks guys.