How bad of a start is this for AAMC 3 Diagnostic score?

[WesternRedCedar]

_____________ Estimated Score
Composite: 106/144 ________ 28

PS: ____ 42/52 ___ 10
VR: ____ 34/40 ____ 11
BS ____ 30/52 ____ 7

This is with very minimal studying, and between 30-40% of the questiosn were marked, meaning i wasn't sure and educated guess, or narrowed down, or thought it was definitely a topic to review. It was properly timed using the e-mcat website, I had 8 mins remaining in BIO, for alot of the factual based questions, i either knew it or didnt. For ones where I could infer from the passage and think, i tended to do better. I hear BS nowadays is more like VR and less reliant on factoid type questions stemming from passages..

I did do VR prep by doing the VR self-assesment and got 81% correct.

I know AAMC 3 is the easiest, so I am worried. A 28 on AAMC 3, is probably closer to a low 20 on the real MCAT? Clearly I need to work the most on BIO and PS; while keeping up VR.


My target score on the real thing is 30+, but would be fine with 28+. I am only applying DO schools and my state MD schools.

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[Saxappeal1]

Uhh AAMC 3 isn't necessarily the easiest. It is all perspective. And as a diagnostic it seems fine

 

[mrh125]

It's better than my AAMC score (26) and you're really close to 30. Just do a lot of content review and practice and you shouldn't have many problems getting over 30 if you keep at it dude. You're doing great

 

[WesternRedCedar]

I read and was told on multiple occasions that AAMC 3 was the easiest and not representative of the current exam, because it is quite old?

Now i'm confused :S

Obviously I am going to work my **** off, but i want to gauge if i'm fighting an uphill battle to 30, or if its doable with determination...

 

[WesternRedCedar]

Sorry meant *** not ****, 4 stars would be castration...

 

[Saxappeal1]

Certain AAMCs are easier to certain people. I know a lot of people who said 3 was the hardest for them

 

[WesternRedCedar]

Okay, so I guess I shouldn't even worry about my 28 potentially being equivilant to a 22, since that it varies between people.

All I can do then, is review AAMC 3 thoroughly, go over weak spots and then rinse and repeat with AAMC 4 and onwards..hoping that by doing more and more practice tests I will get a better idea of where I stand etc.

Aim high, work hard everyone!

 

[dutchie000]

I wish I had your diagnostic score if that makes you feel better! That's a great score especially without much prep, and I think a lot of people would be jealous of your verbal score

 

[dutchie000]

And please don't castrate yourself....

 

[WesternRedCedar]

Yeah, I practiced verbal alot for last few weeks, and then took the AAMC-Self Assement for Verbal. I knew that it would be my weakest section over the long run, so now I need to do content review and keep practicing to get PS and BS to be more solid.

I'd be happy if I got a more balanced version of 28, but the thing is, for BS, even getting a 7, 50% of my questions were "marked" - as in i wasnt sure about it. So clearly I need content review big time!

 

[TheAnonymous]

that VR

 

[WesternRedCedar]

Any other opinions on how reflective aamc 3 is...?

 

[Rhino1000]

From a [random]* sample of 40+ scorers, I listed each person's lowest early AAMC practice test, followed by how many points higher their actual score was. So the first guy had a early low AAMC score of 39, and improved to a 43. Many people improved by very significant margins, and this should give you at least hope in your lack of a lack of potential for a high score.

39 +4
39 +3
33 +7
32 +8 (32 on AAMC3 before legit studying, 4 higher than yourself)
26 +17 (probably not AAMC, but idk)
37 +4
35 +7
34 +8
32 +8 (32 on AAMC3)
33 +7
33 +7 (33 on AAMC3, after review)
37 +5
32 +8
34 +6
38 +2
36 +7
41 +1
37 +3
29 +12
36 +5
36 +6
38 +6
32 +8
31 +9
32 +8
35 +5
37 +5
35 +6
35 +7
38 +2
36 +6
37 +4
32 +8

*As pointed out in a below post, I shouldn't have said random.

 

[BeachBlondie]

From a random sample of 40+ scorers, I listed each person's lowest early AAMC practice test, followed by how many points higher their actual score was. So the first guy had a early low AAMC score of 39, and improved to a 43. Many people improved by very significant margins, and this should give you at least hope in your lack of a lack of potential for a high score.

39 +4
39 +3
33 +7
32 +8 (32 on AAMC3 before legit studying, 4 higher than yourself)
26 +17 (probably not AAMC exam, but idk)
37 +4
35 +7
34 +8
32 +8 (32 on AAMC3)
33 +7
33 +7 (33 on AAMC3, after review)
37 +5
32 +8
34 +6
38 +2
36 +7
41 +1
37 +3
29 +12
36 +5
36 +6
38 +6
32 +8
31 +9
32 +8
35 +5
37 +5
35 +6
35 +7
38 +2
36 +6
37 +4
32 +8

I'm finding this highly unrepresentative. "Random"? I'm getting the feeling that it's not.

 

[Rhino1000]

I'm finding this highly unrepresentative. "Random"? I'm getting the feeling that it's not.

I copied the posts of almost every single person (maybe I missed a couple out of carelessness, but unintentionally) in the 30+ thread who scored 40 or higher, and put them in an evernote file. Reported are the score improvements of every 40+ poster who explicitly stated their AAMC scores. You can have your doubts (pertaining to the likelihood that this is possible) if you want.

Perhaps "random" wasn't the best word. More like, a somewhat selected group of individuals who improved to a 40+ score and posted in the 30+ MCAT study thread, and especially made publicly known their AAMC scores.

 

[UoCfin]

I copied the posts of almost every single person (maybe I missed a couple out of carelessness, but unintentionally) in the 30+ thread who scored 40 or higher, and put them in an evernote file. Reported are the score improvements of every 40+ poster who explicitly stated their AAMC scores.

I did this too...but to my google drive.

 

[Rhino1000]

I did this too...but to my google drive.

Awesome. You know what they say about great minds.!

 

[Jepstein30]

Any other opinions on how reflective aamc 3 is...?

Let's see.. I ended up scoring 9 points higher than my AAMC 3 test and my last few practice scores were all in my actual score's range as well.

So let's say not necessarily very representative, especially if its your first one and its early in your prep.

People have different strengths/weaknesses topic wise so there is no universally 'hard' or 'easy' test. That being said, many people on SDN find AAMC 3 to be the hardest. There are likely several reasons for this. If it's your first test, you're not comfortable to the CBT testing environment so improvement is natural as you accustom to it by later practice tests. If you're early in your prep.. well.. you're early in your prep. I think a large part of it also is because the later AAMCs start trending more towards molecular biology than the early ones. Since most pre-meds are biology-related majors, there is a certain comfort level with those topics.

I personally found AAMC 3 to be fairly unrepresentative of the actual MCAT though. Not because of the topics tested (they are all still on the available topics to be tested list) but because the test was more detail-orientated and content-driven than it is now. There were more questions that simply required you to remember something you had memorized (so perhaps more like most people's college classes?). The test now is more critical thinking based so there's not many questions that are pure content-recall.

 

[radkat101]

If you got a 28 on your first practice MCAT, you are going to be fine. I got a 24 on it and ended up with a 31. And that honestly was with a LOT of extra prep. Plus, your verbal is good so you're in the clear.

If there's one thing I would do differently for mcat prep it would have been to stay off SDN during that time. Nothing is representative of anything and no test is harder than any of the others as they are all scaled with the same method. You will have ups and downs but just keep brushing up your weak areas (BIO) and hope a little luck is on your side come test day.

 

[WesternRedCedar]

If you got a 28 on your first practice MCAT, you are going to be fine. I got a 24 on it and ended up with a 31. And that honestly was with a LOT of extra prep. Plus, your verbal is good so you're in the clear.

If there's one thing I would do differently for mcat prep it would have been to stay off SDN during that time. Nothing is representative of anything and no test is harder than any of the others as they are all scaled with the same method. You will have ups and downs but just keep brushing up your weak areas (BIO) and hope a little luck is on your side come test day.

Thanks everyone for the feedback! I am definitely not going to read too much into things. I have a solid 4 weeks to prep of nothing but MCAT( i attempted to take the mcat last summer, so i went through a bit of TBR chem/phys and a bit of ek biol 1001 already) so hopefully I can pull a 30 at least.

Going to really work on Bio.