Final Retake..

[legacydoctor]

Brief history: I took the MCAT in May 2014 and scored badly so I went all out studying for a retake (which I took yesterday, September 10th) using the entirety of TPR's Science & Verbal Workbooks, EK's 101 Verbal Workbook, and 18 Full-Length exams (Kaplan 1-9 & AAMC 3-11).

My question: while waiting 30-35 days for my retake scores I was thinking about studying during the entirety of this month in the case that I will need to retake it again; should I simply review the 400+ flashcards I made or would it be wiser to continue taking full-lengths, and if so, then which full-lengths would you recommend since I've already burned through the majority of the good ones?

Any other general advise would be appreciated.

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[justadream]

@legacydoctor

Do you have significant content deficiencies? If you are scoring <10 on either of the sciences, you probably have some content deficiencies to address. In this case, you should work on those topics. Improving your scores on the sciences is generally doable if you put in the time.

FLs cover a bunch of random topics that may or may not expose your weaknesses. If you already know your weaknesses, go attack those first.

 

[legacydoctor]

@legacydoctor

Do you have significant content deficiencies? If you are scoring <10 on either of the sciences, you probably have some content deficiencies to address. In this case, you should work on those topics. Improving your scores on the sciences is generally doable if you put in the time.

FLs cover a bunch of random topics that may or may not expose your weaknesses. If you already know your weaknesses, go attack those first.

Would you recommend the EK 1001 books or The Berkeley Review (TBR) for attacking weaknesses?

 

[FireRedYoshi]

Would you recommend the EK 1001 books or The Berkeley Review (TBR) for attacking weaknesses?

Hey,

I did something similar after my first mcat! I decided to go through The Berkeley Review for the Physical Sciences section and EK for biological sciences, just for some extra practice. I reviewed VR passages and went over the passages in TPR verbal hyperlearning workbook again. I thought Berkeley really helped me solidify some concepts which was really helpful for physics!

 

[justadream]

Would you recommend the EK 1001 books or The Berkeley Review (TBR) for attacking weaknesses?

Never used EK. Finished TBR today.

I agree with the SDN consensus on TBR. It's hard. It's demoralizing. But in the end, it's the main reason I'm scoring well on my AAMC FLs.

 

[legacydoctor]

Never used EK. Finished TBR today.

I agree with the SDN consensus on TBR. It's hard. It's demoralizing. But in the end, it's the main reason I'm scoring well on my AAMC FLs.

Did you end up using TBR for Bio as well? If so, did you think their end-of-chapter passages were useful?

 

[BestDoctorEver]

Brief history: I took the MCAT in May 2014 and scored badly so I went all out studying for a retake (which I took yesterday, September 10th) using the entirety of TPR's Science & Verbal Workbooks, EK's 101 Verbal Workbook, and 18 Full-Length exams (Kaplan 1-9 & AAMC 3-11).

My question: while waiting 30-35 days for my retake scores I was thinking about studying during the entirety of this month in the case that I will need to retake it again; should I simply review the 400+ flashcards I made or would it be wiser to continue taking full-lengths, and if so, then which full-lengths would you recommend since I've already burned through the majority of the good ones?

Any other general advise would be appreciated.

Continue doing FLs... You can use TBR FLs... If you are finding concepts that are difficult to understand, you can review them while doing FLs... If you have done content review for more than 2 months, it is not wise to continue doing that unless you were scoring less than 9 on the science sections...

TBR bio is too much, though you can do it to do passages... Use TBR physics, chem and organic (book #2).

 

[justadream]

Did you end up using TBR for Bio as well? If so, did you think their end-of-chapter passages were useful?

Not for content. I used TPR.

The passages (except for those in the metabolic pathways section) are useful. Also, if anything, it helps you deal with unfamiliar passages.

No matter how hard the AAMC passages are, I know I've seen worse in TBR Bio.