EDIT: Please read through this entire thread because I have went into further details about how I improved my score by responding to those asking questions.
After PMing the following information to several people, I figured I should just post this in a new thread so more people can hopefully benefit from it. Plus, SDN has been an excellent resource for me and I would like to pay it forward.
I took the MCAT for the first time in April,2011. My score was a 22 (7 vb/7 phys/8 bio). I retook it the following January and got a 32 (10,11,11).
First I am just going to tell you a little about how I studied the first time around. I studied during my senior year, which was a terrible mistake as I didn't devote my time fully to MCAT prep. I used TBR books and TBR FLs. I made the mistake of spending 80% of my study time doing content review and the little practice I did do, I hardly spent any time reviewing my answers. My low score wasn't due to using TBR but due to not studying the correct way. However, I do think that SDN over-hypes TBR books a tad bit too much, but more on that later.
After getting 22, I was very depressed, but decided to pick myself back up and enrolled in a TPR hyperlearning course right after graduation. I loved, loved TPR books for content review. They are, in my opinion, much better written than TBR books. The same chapter in TBR book would be 50 pages long whereas TPR would cover the same concepts in 20 without leaving any important facts out. I also am a fan of TPR science workbook because it provides excellent practice material. Now, as for TPR FLs, I didn't like these at all, but still took them all since I had paid for them.
After my TPR course ended , I was scheduled to take the MCAT in September, but as my luck would have it, I ended up in the emergency room a week before my exam so had no choice but to postpone it until January.
Now, I had almost 4 months until January but had no more practice material to use as I had utilized everything from my TPR course. So, I bit the bullet, and purchased a Kaplan online course http://www.kaptest.com/MCAT/Prep-for-the-MCAT/On-Demand/mcat-on-demand.html . I credit my ability to raise my score by 10 points mostly to Kaplan's practice material. The online course comes with so much practice (subject tests, tropical tests, section tests, chapter quizzes, 11 FL tests) that after pretty much practicing with all this material, I felt more than ready to retake the MCAT. Kaplan also sent me their books, which I absolutely hated and made me glad I still had my TPR books. I believe the reason why Kaplan has such a bad rep. on SDN is their terrible books and instructors.
To sum up, this is what helped me the most: For my January retake, I spent 1 month reviewing all the content using TPR books and the remaining months practicing with Kaplan's practice material (mentioned above). For the last 2 months, all I was doing was taking kaplan FL exams and alternating them with AAMC exams. I had this scheduled in a way so I would have 2 days in between each FL. So say if I took kaplan FL #1 on Day 1, then on Day 2, I would spend hours reviewing this FL. On Day 3, I would do practice questions on the topics I missed questions on. Then the following day I would take a AAMC exam and repeat what I mentioned above. Having these 2 days in between each FL really helped me not get burned out (partially the reason for my emergency room visit in Sept).
For every single practice material I did, everything in addition to the FLs, I used this strategy to review: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=786361
If you are doing this the right way, it should take you hours to post-phrase. Doing this, REALLY helped me spot my weaknesses and not make the same mistakes again.
During the last month of my prep, I started taking Kaplan PS and BS Section tests on the 2 days I had in between each FL. These section test are incredibly difficult, but having taken MCAT once before, I knew that AAMC exams are way too easy and not a good representation of the MCAT, so I wanted to practice with difficult material. These section tests, especially the BS ones, are what I believe really helped me score +30. All the passages on the BS section tests are experimental based which require less memorization and more critical thinking, which was EXACTLY how my MCAT BS was. The PS section tests are a little too difficult, but I still did few of them just in case.
For verbal, this is how I raised my score: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=894010
I took about 6 kaplan FL exams and almost all of AAMC exams. My average on Kaplan FLs was 31-32. My average on AAMC was around 28-29. I only got a +30 on AAMC 11.
The biggest difference in my retake studying strategy was the following:
-Spent 80% of my study time doing practice
-Post phrase every practice material, not just the FLs
-Devote my time and energy fully to MCAT prep
-Use TPR books for content review and Kaplan for practice
Some finals thoughts:
-In the end, I did ended up spending a ton of money towards MCAT but the 10 point increase made it all well worth it.
-TBR Physics and G-Chem books are great for those who don't remember much from their pre-med course work and need to learn from scratch. I would not recommend TBR Biology or O-Chem books to anyone as they are filled with unnecessarily details, especially the two biology books. The practice passages at the end of each chapter in these books are golden.
-EK books are good for content review only for those who remember a lot of the material from their pre-med classes and just need something concise to refresh their memory. EK 1001 books are only OK. They are most definitely not enough practice to do well. They are good to use while you are doing content review, but the Kaplan subject tests and tropical test were much better.
-TPR hyperlearning books provided me with a happy median between the too-detailed TBR books and the too-concise EK books for content review.
-If you are doing practice passages and taking FL exams without post-phrasing, you are wasting your time and valuable practice material
-I consider myself someone of average intelligence and if I can increase my score by 10 points, I genuinely believe anyone can.
-I know a 32 isn't the best score according to SDN standards, but I know many of you out there are in a similar position that I was once in.
I hope this helps. Feel free to ask any questions.
After PMing the following information to several people, I figured I should just post this in a new thread so more people can hopefully benefit from it. Plus, SDN has been an excellent resource for me and I would like to pay it forward.
I took the MCAT for the first time in April,2011. My score was a 22 (7 vb/7 phys/8 bio). I retook it the following January and got a 32 (10,11,11).
First I am just going to tell you a little about how I studied the first time around. I studied during my senior year, which was a terrible mistake as I didn't devote my time fully to MCAT prep. I used TBR books and TBR FLs. I made the mistake of spending 80% of my study time doing content review and the little practice I did do, I hardly spent any time reviewing my answers. My low score wasn't due to using TBR but due to not studying the correct way. However, I do think that SDN over-hypes TBR books a tad bit too much, but more on that later.
After getting 22, I was very depressed, but decided to pick myself back up and enrolled in a TPR hyperlearning course right after graduation. I loved, loved TPR books for content review. They are, in my opinion, much better written than TBR books. The same chapter in TBR book would be 50 pages long whereas TPR would cover the same concepts in 20 without leaving any important facts out. I also am a fan of TPR science workbook because it provides excellent practice material. Now, as for TPR FLs, I didn't like these at all, but still took them all since I had paid for them.
After my TPR course ended , I was scheduled to take the MCAT in September, but as my luck would have it, I ended up in the emergency room a week before my exam so had no choice but to postpone it until January.
Now, I had almost 4 months until January but had no more practice material to use as I had utilized everything from my TPR course. So, I bit the bullet, and purchased a Kaplan online course http://www.kaptest.com/MCAT/Prep-for-the-MCAT/On-Demand/mcat-on-demand.html . I credit my ability to raise my score by 10 points mostly to Kaplan's practice material. The online course comes with so much practice (subject tests, tropical tests, section tests, chapter quizzes, 11 FL tests) that after pretty much practicing with all this material, I felt more than ready to retake the MCAT. Kaplan also sent me their books, which I absolutely hated and made me glad I still had my TPR books. I believe the reason why Kaplan has such a bad rep. on SDN is their terrible books and instructors.
To sum up, this is what helped me the most: For my January retake, I spent 1 month reviewing all the content using TPR books and the remaining months practicing with Kaplan's practice material (mentioned above). For the last 2 months, all I was doing was taking kaplan FL exams and alternating them with AAMC exams. I had this scheduled in a way so I would have 2 days in between each FL. So say if I took kaplan FL #1 on Day 1, then on Day 2, I would spend hours reviewing this FL. On Day 3, I would do practice questions on the topics I missed questions on. Then the following day I would take a AAMC exam and repeat what I mentioned above. Having these 2 days in between each FL really helped me not get burned out (partially the reason for my emergency room visit in Sept).
For every single practice material I did, everything in addition to the FLs, I used this strategy to review: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=786361
If you are doing this the right way, it should take you hours to post-phrase. Doing this, REALLY helped me spot my weaknesses and not make the same mistakes again.
During the last month of my prep, I started taking Kaplan PS and BS Section tests on the 2 days I had in between each FL. These section test are incredibly difficult, but having taken MCAT once before, I knew that AAMC exams are way too easy and not a good representation of the MCAT, so I wanted to practice with difficult material. These section tests, especially the BS ones, are what I believe really helped me score +30. All the passages on the BS section tests are experimental based which require less memorization and more critical thinking, which was EXACTLY how my MCAT BS was. The PS section tests are a little too difficult, but I still did few of them just in case.
For verbal, this is how I raised my score: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=894010
I took about 6 kaplan FL exams and almost all of AAMC exams. My average on Kaplan FLs was 31-32. My average on AAMC was around 28-29. I only got a +30 on AAMC 11.
The biggest difference in my retake studying strategy was the following:
-Spent 80% of my study time doing practice
-Post phrase every practice material, not just the FLs
-Devote my time and energy fully to MCAT prep
-Use TPR books for content review and Kaplan for practice
Some finals thoughts:
-In the end, I did ended up spending a ton of money towards MCAT but the 10 point increase made it all well worth it.
-TBR Physics and G-Chem books are great for those who don't remember much from their pre-med course work and need to learn from scratch. I would not recommend TBR Biology or O-Chem books to anyone as they are filled with unnecessarily details, especially the two biology books. The practice passages at the end of each chapter in these books are golden.
-EK books are good for content review only for those who remember a lot of the material from their pre-med classes and just need something concise to refresh their memory. EK 1001 books are only OK. They are most definitely not enough practice to do well. They are good to use while you are doing content review, but the Kaplan subject tests and tropical test were much better.
-TPR hyperlearning books provided me with a happy median between the too-detailed TBR books and the too-concise EK books for content review.
-If you are doing practice passages and taking FL exams without post-phrasing, you are wasting your time and valuable practice material
-I consider myself someone of average intelligence and if I can increase my score by 10 points, I genuinely believe anyone can.
-I know a 32 isn't the best score according to SDN standards, but I know many of you out there are in a similar position that I was once in.
I hope this helps. Feel free to ask any questions.
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