question on approaching practice exams

[faith hopelove]

How do you guys stay focused? How are you guys about to get sections done with 15 mins to spare??? I did my first practice exam and I was worn out by the end of it! I also had 3 passages left with just few mins left! Verbal was a drag! I get through the reading the passages but I realized I spend more time on answering questions! I do not know what I can do to improve my endurance! I did the AAMC R version which I am switching to CBT on my next go around because 100 mins felt like forever but at the same time I still didnt finish in time! Ok Im done venting but do anyone who is taking practice exams and what not have any advice to make better timing/focus better? Or how to approach answering the questions in better speed?

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[plainandsimple]

It's hard to stay focused for the full 70 minutes during PS/BS and I'll admit to spacing out here and there, which is okay. Since I was used to studying for hours during content review, sitting for 70 minutes at a time wasn't too bad. I also got used to having to stay focused for at least an hour at a time during content review.

If you need something to help you stay focused, sugar or caffeine can help. I started drinking a cup of green tea before each practice FL and 1/2 cup of green tea during each of my 10 minute breaks in between.

I timed my practice passages during content review before moving onto full length exams. This helped me get used to spending <8 minutes per passage. I would often do 4-5 passages at once so I could get used to doing multiple passages with the time pressure. Have you been timing your practice passages?

When I did full-lengths, I wrote 62-54-46-38-30-22-14 on my scratch paper for PS/BS. This helped me keep track of how much time I should have left after each passage and have me ~14 minutes at the end to check my answers. I usually stayed on track with this timing during practice FL's but on my actual MCAT, I was left with <5 minutes at the end of each section. Basically, practice is really important if you want to improve your timing and focus for the MCAT.

I struggled with verbal myself so I can't really be helpful there.

 

[faith hopelove]

that is great advice...I will try to drink green tea in between the sections during the 10 min breaks. I haven't done much timing during my practice passages since I wanted to make sure I knew how to answer the questions and get the content in my brain. But I will do that here on out. Thanks.

 

[Uafl112]

just practice. I use to finish with about a minute left in physical sciences. Over the course of practice, I finish with 15 minutes left over

 

[Jepstein30]

How do you guys stay focused? How are you guys about to get sections done with 15 mins to spare??? I did my first practice exam and I was worn out by the end of it! I also had 3 passages left with just few mins left! Verbal was a drag! I get through the reading the passages but I realized I spend more time on answering questions! I do not know what I can do to improve my endurance! I did the AAMC R version which I am switching to CBT on my next go around because 100 mins felt like forever but at the same time I still didnt finish in time! Ok Im done venting but do anyone who is taking practice exams and what not have any advice to make better timing/focus better? Or how to approach answering the questions in better speed?

How about not taking a test that is substantially longer than the actual test you're studying for?

I never understood why people bother with the R versions. Just take the regular AAMC and use the extra passages as practice passages. You wouldn't run a marathon and a half in training for a marathon, would you?

As for focusing, it's all about motivation for me. I made it into a game, a self-competition of sorts. If I was losing focus, I would take a five second break, close my eyes.. psyche myself up like I would if I were playing a sport.. and get right back to it, head down.. pedal to the metal. It's also probably a good idea to take such a break after each passage, I used to like being able to clear my mind of the passage before and get ready to attack the next one.

How long are you spending reading the passages vs. answering questions? Do you find yourself rereading passages alot? How far in your content review are you? Are you doing practice passages? All will also factor into this.

 

[faith hopelove]

How about not taking a test that is substantially longer than the actual test you're studying for?

I never understood why people bother with the R versions. Just take the regular AAMC and use the extra passages as practice passages. You wouldn't run a marathon and a half in training for a marathon, would you?

As for focusing, it's all about motivation for me. I made it into a game, a self-competition of sorts. If I was losing focus, I would take a five second break, close my eyes.. psyche myself up like I would if I were playing a sport.. and get right back to it, head down.. pedal to the metal. It's also probably a good idea to take such a break after each passage, I used to like being able to clear my mind of the passage before and get ready to attack the next one.

How long are you spending reading the passages vs. answering questions? Do you find yourself rereading passages alot? How far in your content review are you? Are you doing practice passages? All will also factor into this.

I figured I would start with the R versions to see how the AAMC ask questions and get a good understanding over that. Since I have the R versions I thought I would start there then waste money on all the CBTs from AAMC (well I wouldn't say waste but save). I will not do all of the AAMC like this just the first few. After doing the R versions it would feel like a breeze to do it in 72 mins. I am way past the content review stage and have nothing but practice questions. As for verbal I read the passages in 3-4 mins. It's answering the questions I feel I am psyching myself out on which causes me to lose time. I do use the 10 mins breaks in between which I think are great to refresh your mind.

 

[Jepstein30]

I figured I would start with the R versions to see how the AAMC ask questions and get a good understanding over that. Since I have the R versions I thought I would start there then waste money on all the CBTs from AAMC (well I wouldn't say waste but save). I will not do all of the AAMC like this just the first few. After doing the R versions it would feel like a breeze to do it in 72 mins. I am way past the content review stage and have nothing but practice questions. As for verbal I read the passages in 3-4 mins. It's answering the questions I feel I am psyching myself out on which causes me to lose time. I do use the 10 mins breaks in between which I think are great to refresh your mind.

Just take a normal sized AAMC using the R version and use the extra passages for practice. Again, there's no reason to overtrain here.. it's hard enough as is. No reason to buy the AAMCs but honestly, you're probably wasting good practice passages by losing focus after such a long test (and consider that some topics aren't even tested anymore in the R versions).

That's good for verbal time-wise. I would suggest taking a few second breather between each passage and if you psyche yourself out, do the same thing mid-question.