July MCAT exam advice - new member

[ChooseWisely1]

Hey guys

I'm taking the July 18th MCAT (or planning on it) & need some advice.

Currently I am a sophomore going into my junior year, and am planning on graduating a year early because AP credit is awesome. I've been studying for the MCAT since February when I saw a feasible path to graduation - I got the full $2300 pocket book destroying Kaplan course, and planned to do so much review & do so many problems and this and that and this and that.

Well, I'm sitting here having tried my best, but I have only take 4 FL Kaplan exams (501, 501, 501, 502! trending upward) - I tell my friends I have a 501k because I've gotten a 501 on the MCAT 1000 times. I don't have a preliminary AAMC score to share yet unfortunately. I don't have a clue what I'm going to do considering I'm scoring just barely above average. My goal is to get into my state school, which has an average MCAT on the old scale of 31. I've rambled enough -my questions to you seasoned veterans are as follows:

1) Should I postpone until August or sit around for a year?
2) What is the best way to sure up content knowledge at such a late stage? Its like I'm missing the details within the details on the tests. Stuff like what does it mean to freeze funding - it turns out it means to stop increasing funding to something rather than to stop funding. I didn't even know that was a psych/soc concept until that answer showed up on a FL.
3) How to you prevent yourself from being discouraged on test day when you are getting killed on the FLs?

If I'm violating some policy that I don't know about please let me know.

Thanks!

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[bee17]

The general consensus is that practice test company scores (including Kaplan) have a tougher scoring scale than the actual thing. Lots of people scoring in your range ended up doing very well on the new MCAT. Personally, I took 3 Kaplan tests, scoring 498, 499, and 503. I ended up scoring 98th% on the actual exam. If you check out the compilation of scores thread on this forum, you can look at lots of other examples like that. You are probably doing just fine.

That being said, take the practice AAMC ASAP! Do it tomorrow! If you come back with percentages from the AAMC FL, we can give you a more accurate idea of whether or not you are ready to test.

 

[bee17]

Here's that thread: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/thr...percentiles-and-practice-exam-scores.1143965/

 

[ChooseWisely1]

Alright - I took the exam. I felt good on the CARS & Psych sections, but felt very rushed on the Chem/Phys & Bio/Biochem. The passages are much more complex, but the questions seem easier.

46/59 - 78%: Chem/Phys
43/53 - 81%: CARS
43/59 - 73%: Bio/Biochem
48/59 - 81%: Psych/Soc

 

[jhg1232]

The general consensus is that practice test company scores (including Kaplan) have a tougher scoring scale than the actual thing. Lots of people scoring in your range ended up doing very well on the new MCAT. Personally, I took 3 Kaplan tests, scoring 498, 499, and 503. I ended up scoring 98th% on the actual exam. If you check out the compilation of scores thread on this forum, you can look at lots of other examples like that. You are probably doing just fine.

That being said, take the practice AAMC ASAP! Do it tomorrow! If you come back with percentages from the AAMC FL, we can give you a more accurate idea of whether or not you are ready to test.

98?!?! got any advice lol?
and how did u do on the aamc fl? l i took the AAMC FL today got
81% on chem/phys
79% on cars
71% bio
73%psych

also did the bio 1 question pack with 120 questions and got 75%

 

[ChooseWisely1]

Here's that thread: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/thr...percentiles-and-practice-exam-scores.1143965/

paging bee17 - what do you think? Are the scores enough to get a 512

 

[bee17]

If you scroll through the thread that I linked to, @EverStriving ran some regressions with data from the practice full length and actual exam scores. Keep in mind that n=22, but it's the best estimate we have at this point.

Alright - I took the exam. I felt good on the CARS & Psych sections, but felt very rushed on the Chem/Phys & Bio/Biochem. The passages are much more complex, but the questions seem easier.

46/59 - 78%: Chem/Phys
43/53 - 81%: CARS
43/59 - 73%: Bio/Biochem
48/59 - 81%: Psych/Soc

Your overall percentage would be 78%, which would put you around 513 according to the regression. That by no means guarantees you a 513, but I think you should be in good shape for your July exam. Ultimately, you know yourself much better than I know you.

98?!?! got any advice lol?
and how did u do on the aamc fl? l i took the AAMC FL today got
81% on chem/phys
79% on cars
71% bio
73%psych

also did the bio 1 question pack with 120 questions and got 75%

Your overall percentage would be 76%, which would put you around 510-511 according to the regression. Again, this is just an estimate based on what little data we have. I scored 81% overall on the aamc FL two months prior to my test.

 

[judb16]

Just here to agree with everything that @bee17 said, and add my two cents.

My Kaplan FL's were similar to yours (504 was my highest). AAMC practices were high 80's - low 90's. Took June 19 exam and got 90-100% - waiting for Tuesday for exact scores. I also found that the AAMC practice was more indicative of where you stand. General SDN consensus is that Kaplan are much harder than they need to be. I personally felt like they tested specific equations, formulas, random facts, etc. much more than actual MCAT.

I'd suggest finding a better way to study psych/soc than Kaplan books. I've heard Khan Academy is good. I'm a neuroscience grad, with a strong emphasis on psychology (research, extra classes, conferences, publication etc), and spent a lot of time with the Kaplan books and it was still my lowest section. The AAMC predicted nearly spot on what my score was.

Just don't get sucked into Kaplan's "everything you'll ever need for the MCAT is in these books". There were a few terms I'd never seen on real MCAT. I'm sure you'll be fine. I was freaking out the week before my test thinking I was going to have to bust my butt to get 50%tile.