Really disappointed with my MCAT, need advice on retake. Don't know what to do now...

[Doctor_Strange]

Hi,

I got a 497 (123, 123, 125, 126) from the 5/6 test day. I had spent about 450 hrs studying prior over 3 months, 5 days a week for 5 to 6 hrs daily. I took the online Princeton review course, and I scored a 499 on my first TPR, then followed with 495, 497, 498, and then 499. AAMC scored: 504, unscored a little bit higher. SBs were hard and I did not do that well admittedly.

On test day, I knew I did poorly in C/P and thought similarly in B/B, but I have never scored below a 125 in CARS--ever. I was expecting a 502 with CARS and P/S carrying me.

I feel so lost. I spent so much time studying. I know I can do better, but I do not know what to do. I want to retake in September. I am applying for DO schools only (3.44 s and cGPA).

Can anyone please advise me or offer what they think I should do. My dad suggested before 5/6 that I might need a tutor--he said if you are not scoring 125s then it could be content related. I think I agree because I was really calm on test day and felt fine afterwards within reason.

I honestly don't know how even to start back up. Start doing chem/physics passages again starting tomorrow? Then just go off from where I am weak in? I also lack heavily in physics as well.

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[theonlytycrane]

hey I'm sorry to hear that the May test didn't work out as planned but I know how much I saw you posting on here and studying- I don't want you to give up! I know you can hit 505 for DO on a retake. Let's light that fire back up!

Do you still have TPR practice tests available? In my opinion you should be able to score 505+ on those, otherwise it's a content issue. Focus on C/P and B/B and take a few CARS everyday. Grinding it out with you buddy! Turn the disappointment into part of your acceptance story.

 

[Gurby]

I'm sorry you're dealing with this. It sucks hard to put so much effort into something and not see results.

If nothing else, I think it's clear that whatever you have been doing is not working. I think jumping right back into passages is unlikely to help. No doubt content is part of the problem, but I think there must be some deeper issues if you put 450 hours in and are still performing like this. I don't think this is an issue of "not understanding physics" -- I think it's an issue with the way you approach learning and preparing in general.

Just to give some examples of what I mean:
How do you go about learning material? When you're going through review material, exactly what are you doing? Do you read straight through without stopping, do you re-read if you don't understand something, do you proactively make up questions (what if X happened?) to make sure you fully understand, do you make flashcards of important topics, do you space out without realizing it, etc?

When reviewing a set of practice problems, how much detail do you go into? Do you just glance at the answers? Do you work through the problems again to make sure you got them right? If you had trouble with something, do you go search out even more questions about that topic to make sure you actually understand it? Once you've figured something out, do you then forget about it forever or do you go back to it a week later to make sure you retained the information?

It might be valuable to have somebody just watch you do your normal studying for 30 minutes, to see what your thought process is like. I did something like this when I was struggling with Orgo and hired a tutor. Rather than saying "I don't understand X concept", I said, "watch me work through this problem and see what you think". He was able to quickly identify that I was thinking about things the wrong way, approaching them inefficiently, etc.

 

[Doctor_Strange]

hey I'm sorry to hear that the May test didn't work out as planned but I know how much I saw you posting on here and studying- I don't want you to give up! I know you can hit 505 for DO on a retake. Let's light that fire back up!

Do you still have TPR practice tests available? In my opinion you should be able to score 505+ on those, otherwise it's a content issue. Focus on C/P and B/B and take a few CARS everyday. Grinding it out with you buddy! Turn the disappointment into part of your acceptance story.

Thanks for the kind words. I believe I can score over a 500, and you are right--at this moment I feel like it is impossible to start studying again. I am asking around to how I should start studying again? Do you recommend that I do a TPR this weekend just to get me going again and work from there. If it is beloew 500, then I will spend more dedicated time reviewing the FL. What I think I do wrong is that I review the FL too literally--I try to memorize or remember trends in the passages. I don't usually open my book and go to the chapter that the passage was related to because well i have no real good reason. i was low on time with reviewing my FLs and doing the TPR online course...

 

[theonlytycrane]

It may depend on how you're feeling about each subject. How do you feel about each section? Here's how I personally feel about each:

C/P: There are high-yield equations / concepts to know + being able to apply these broadly

CARS: Timing and approach (not getting bogged down by dense passages, getting used to the types of questions asked, ignoring unrelated answer choices, etc).

B/B: There are high-yield concepts to know + being able to interpret data / understand experiments

P/S: There are high-yield terms / concepts to know + being able to interpret experiments

 

[Doctor_Strange]

I'm sorry you're dealing with this. It sucks hard to put so much effort into something and not see results.

If nothing else, I think it's clear that whatever you have been doing is not working. I think jumping right back into passages is unlikely to help. No doubt content is part of the problem, but I think there must be some deeper issues if you put 450 hours in and are still performing like this. I don't think this is an issue of "not understanding physics" -- I think it's an issue with the way you approach learning and preparing in general.

Just to give some examples of what I mean:
How do you go about learning material? When you're going through review material, exactly what are you doing? Do you read straight through without stopping, do you re-read if you don't understand something, do you proactively make up questions (what if X happened?) to make sure you fully understand, do you make flashcards of important topics, do you space out without realizing it, etc?

When reviewing a set of practice problems, how much detail do you go into? Do you just glance at the answers? Do you work through the problems again to make sure you got them right? If you had trouble with something, do you go search out even more questions about that topic to make sure you actually understand it? Once you've figured something out, do you then forget about it forever or do you go back to it a week later to make sure you retained the information?

It might be valuable to have somebody just watch you do your normal studying for 30 minutes, to see what your thought process is like. I did something like this when I was struggling with Orgo and hired a tutor. Rather than saying "I don't understand X concept", I said, "watch me work through this problem and see what you think". He was able to quickly identify that I was thinking about things the wrong way, approaching them inefficiently, etc.

Well, to answer your questions:

• I used the Pomodorro technique so I would study uninterreupted for 55 minutes. I will admit I became very OCD about timing myself--I wanted to get in 5 hrs a day. Maybe I focused on the quantity of time and not the quality of study time.
• I would read a chapter and move on. I did not do problems right away. I would try to do two or three passages a day near the end of my study time.
• Now I will admit one thing I did religiously: on my TPR online course, once I saved the PDF of the presentation I would spend the next day going over it and trying to memorize the high yield information, i.e. meiosis and mitosis; I did this for all my lecture slides. I stopped reading the books at a certain point because a) too much info that seemed too detailed b) not enough time to read the book and do the TPR objectives
• I did not re do a passage problem ever maybe once or twice but often times one I did it, in my mind I thought if I did this again in 30 minutes I would get all the answers right because I looked at the explanations (same with the AAMC SB--I did it once and tried to do it again but I knew the answer to many problems before I even finished the question)
• My TPR material and AAMC material was like night and day. I felt, initially, that the AAMC material I was doing was easier, at least evidenced by my scored 504 adn unscored approx 507. I scored a 129 on the unscored for God sake
• I made a large Anki deck but I did not review the cards a lot because a) I felt like it was not helping that much b) I realized late I needed to do more passages
• I downloaded Anki decks from others but never used them because I felt like it was not the right way to approach it.
• I agree--I have content deficits with C/P and B/B material. I don't know how to re approach them--should I read chapter again, glaze over them?
• I am gonna look into a tutor for the next two months or so....

 

[Teioh]

Hi,

I got a 497 (123, 123, 125, 126) from the 5/6 test day. I had spent about 450 hrs studying prior over 3 months, 5 days a week for 5 to 6 hrs daily. I took the online Princeton review course, and I scored a 499 on my first TPR, then followed with 495, 497, 498, and then 499. AAMC scored: 504, unscored a little bit higher. SBs were hard and I did not do that well admittedly.

On test day, I knew I did poorly in C/P and thought similarly in B/B, but I have never scored below a 125 in CARS--ever. I was expecting a 502 with CARS and P/S carrying me.

I feel so lost. I spent so much time studying. I know I can do better, but I do not know what to do. I want to retake in September. I am applying for DO schools only (3.44 s and cGPA).

Can anyone please advise me or offer what they think I should do. My dad suggested before 5/6 that I might need a tutor--he said if you are not scoring 125s then it could be content related. I think I agree because I was really calm on test day and felt fine afterwards within reason.

I honestly don't know how even to start back up. Start doing chem/physics passages again starting tomorrow? Then just go off from where I am weak in? I also lack heavily in physics as well.

Sorry to hear you underperformed. You should have paid closer attention to the consistency of your TPR FL's as an indication of not being ready to take the test. No longer are the days of doing 5-10 points better on the real thing compared to your TPR FL's. I also took the TPR course and only ended up doing 2 points better on the real thing than my best FL (FL #4). I thought the TPR exams were much harder than the real thing.

What's done is done, so all you can do now is focus on the future.

Give TPR a call and try to enact their score improvement guarantee. This will at least give you continued access to all of their resources. For chem and physics, you need to at the very least have every single equation memorized. I learned that even the most conceptual questions can be answered by looking at the relationships in the formulas. This helped me get a 128 in the section, which I was more than happy with.

A September retake is kind of pushing it, even though the DO cycle is longer. You won't get your score back until late October and you'll probably need to get your application verified (the "rate-limiting" step in the process) well before that and have secondaries pre-written. Even then, November is kind of late and is only advised for stronger applicants (3.5+/504+) as AACOMAS will most certainly be flooded by MD rejects at that point. I recommend studying your butt off everyday for the next 2 months (50-60 hours a week pace) and instead sit for a late August exam. Although I must caution, do not take the exam again until you are ready.

Getting a 505+ the second time around will get a lot of ADCOM's to forget about your first score. Don't screw up this opportunity.

PM me if you want to talk some more.

 

[bisonbison]

It may depend on how you're feeling about each subject. How do you feel about each section? Here's how I personally feel about each:

C/P: There are high-yield equations / concepts to know + being able to apply these broadly

CARS: Timing and approach (not getting bogged down by dense passages, getting used to the types of questions asked, ignoring unrelated answer choices, etc).

B/B: There are high-yield concepts to know + being able to interpret data / understand experiments

P/S: There are high-yield terms / concepts to know + being able to interpret experiments

That's a perfect summary!

 

[Doctor_Strange]

It may depend on how you're feeling about each subject. How do you feel about each section? Here's how I personally feel about each:

C/P: There are high-yield equations / concepts to know + being able to apply these broadly

CARS: Timing and approach (not getting bogged down by dense passages, getting used to the types of questions asked, ignoring unrelated answer choices, etc).

B/B: There are high-yield concepts to know + being able to interpret data / understand experiments

P/S: There are high-yield terms / concepts to know + being able to interpret experiments

Should I look to my TPR books to find these, or the Kaplan High Yield book? I had the same mindset with 1.5 months before the exam--I cant memorize everything, so focus on the high yield stuff.

Would it be a sound idea to do the AAMC SBs next week, and then start from there. That is, even if I got the question right or wrong use the passage and find the related info in my books? I am still unsure on how to reapproach studying this time around...

 

[Gurby]

Well, to answer your questions:

• I used the Pomodorro technique so I would study uninterreupted for 55 minutes. I will admit I became very OCD about timing myself--I wanted to get in 5 hrs a day. Maybe I focused on the quantity of time and not the quality of study time.
• I would read a chapter and move on. I did not do problems right away. I would try to do two or three passages a day near the end of my study time.
• Now I will admit one thing I did religiously: on my TPR online course, once I saved the PDF of the presentation I would spend the next day going over it and trying to memorize the high yield information, i.e. meiosis and mitosis; I did this for all my lecture slides. I stopped reading the books at a certain point because a) too much info that seemed too detailed b) not enough time to read the book and do the TPR objectives
• I did not re do a passage problem ever maybe once or twice but often times one I did it, in my mind I thought if I did this again in 30 minutes I would get all the answers right because I looked at the explanations (same with the AAMC SB--I did it once and tried to do it again but I knew the answer to many problems before I even finished the question)
• My TPR material and AAMC material was like night and day. I felt, initially, that the AAMC material I was doing was easier, at least evidenced by my scored 504 adn unscored approx 507. I scored a 129 on the unscored for God sake
• I made a large Anki deck but I did not review the cards a lot because a) I felt like it was not helping that much b) I realized late I needed to do more passages
• I downloaded Anki decks from others but never used them because I felt like it was not the right way to approach it.
• I agree--I have content deficits with C/P and B/B material. I don't know how to re approach them--should I read chapter again, glaze over them?
• I am gonna look into a tutor for the next two months or so....

Just from reading this, I feel like I see red flags all over the place.

I would read a chapter and move on. I did not do problems right away. I would try to do two or three passages a day near the end of my study time.
Extremely important to do problems to reinforce what you learned, and make sure that you actually learned the material. There is a reason that almost any text book has "are you getting it?" questions built into the text every few pages. EXTREMELY important, IMO.

It sounds like you are trying to get through the material quickly, and in doing so you aren't devoting enough time and energy to learn/retain the information in much detail. This is why I think it's a bit silly when people plan to cover a certain amount of material in a set period of time. You just have no way of predicting how long a given topic will take you to truly figure out. If, when studying, you ever think to yourself "I need to hurry up", you are doing it wrong. Again, IMO.

once I saved the PDF of the presentation I would spend the next day going over it and trying to memorize the high yield information, i.e. meiosis and mitosis; I did this for all my lecture slides.
After you memorized the information, what did you do? How did you review it to keep it fresh in your head? Seems like a job for Anki!

I made a large Anki deck but I did not review the cards a lot because a) I felt like it was not helping that much b) I realized late I needed to do more passages
What are the 1-letter abbreviations for Tyrosine, Glycine, Glutamine, Glutamic Acid, and Threonine? Which amino acids can act as phosphomimics? Name the structures in the brain are involved in olfaction / memory / emotion? What hormones does the anterior pituitary release? What is aldosterone's mechanism of action?

Could you answer all of those questions quickly without looking them up? If not, you should do more Anki!

I agree--I have content deficits with C/P and B/B material. I don't know how to re approach them--should I read chapter again, glaze over them?
I would recommend re-reading chapters slowly, making Anki flashcards for all important topics. Review Anki cards EVERY DAY. Do practice problems as you go along, to make sure that you actually understand what is going on.

For any content issues, I think Anki is the most important thing. As long as you made a card for a topic, the program will never allow you to forget it.

 

[tiffxp]

Hi,

I got a 497 (123, 123, 125, 126) from the 5/6 test day. I had spent about 450 hrs studying prior over 3 months, 5 days a week for 5 to 6 hrs daily. I took the online Princeton review course, and I scored a 499 on my first TPR, then followed with 495, 497, 498, and then 499. AAMC scored: 504, unscored a little bit higher. SBs were hard and I did not do that well admittedly.

On test day, I knew I did poorly in C/P and thought similarly in B/B, but I have never scored below a 125 in CARS--ever. I was expecting a 502 with CARS and P/S carrying me.

I feel so lost. I spent so much time studying. I know I can do better, but I do not know what to do. I want to retake in September. I am applying for DO schools only (3.44 s and cGPA).

Can anyone please advise me or offer what they think I should do. My dad suggested before 5/6 that I might need a tutor--he said if you are not scoring 125s then it could be content related. I think I agree because I was really calm on test day and felt fine afterwards within reason.

I honestly don't know how even to start back up. Start doing chem/physics passages again starting tomorrow? Then just go off from where I am weak in? I also lack heavily in physics as well.

Hey man I am sorry to hear about your MCAT result. But from what I seen in your posts you seem to be really dedicated. Based on that I believe you can do well on your next attempt.

My biggest suggestion for you is to take the in-person prep classes (in this case princeton review since you will have all the books). The lectures make you engage more and by writing notes down you are helping your brain to absorb the materials better. Secondly, the course has a strict reading schedule that you have to read specific chapters before each class. This way you can force yourself to read those long chapters and then go to class to relearn everything again. From my interpretation I think you may need to strengthen your content knowledge and then focus on passages. Active studying is key! You can do this

 

[tiffxp]

As for the FL TPR...I scored between 502 and 504 for 5 of them. I believe people do way better than the TPR scores. For me I got 11 points higher on the real thing. I'd say go to the Reddit spreadsheet where people compile all their practice exam scores and the real thing. Looking at how others do holistically can give you a better understanding of where you are.

 

[theonlytycrane]

@Doctor_Strange Do you have any sort of deck / notebook / place where you keep equations / concepts that you need to know? If not, start an anki deck and divide up the sections into C/P, B/B, and P/S.

Take a TPR full length, then take 2-3 days to review it. Add concepts to the deck as needed. Examples might be things like "Q=VC", the difference between peptide / steroid hormones, or what Erikson's 8 stages are. Mix in CARS practice as well. That's week 1.

Do one of the section banks untimed with solutions on. Review each question as you go and check your approach. Add items to your deck as needed, mix in CARS, and review parts of your deck too. You want to be cycling through your deck on a normal cadence. That's week 2.

Repeat this process with more practice tests and additional section bank / question packs and use your review books as reference material. Dedicating a day to reviewing content is okay if needed, but don't plan on weeks of pure content review. The content review will come as you practice.

Ask every question that you have on here and spam the q/a board- if you think deeply about everything you're learning you will remember it better and can save money on a tutor. Build that fluid intelligence and self-efficacy. Obtain that internal locus of control! Ignore the cognitive dissonance you may feel between the May test and how you want to be a doctor. I'm just being silly, but keep it simple and work hard

 

[Doctor_Strange]

Just from reading this, I feel like I see red flags all over the place.

I would read a chapter and move on. I did not do problems right away. I would try to do two or three passages a day near the end of my study time.
Extremely important to do problems to reinforce what you learned, and make sure that you actually learned the material. There is a reason that almost any text book has "are you getting it?" questions built into the text every few pages. EXTREMELY important, IMO.

It sounds like you are trying to get through the material quickly, and in doing so you aren't devoting enough time and energy to learn/retain the information in much detail. This is why I think it's a bit silly when people plan to cover a certain amount of material in a set period of time. You just have no way of predicting how long a given topic will take you to truly figure out. If, when studying, you ever think to yourself "I need to hurry up", you are doing it wrong. Again, IMO.

once I saved the PDF of the presentation I would spend the next day going over it and trying to memorize the high yield information, i.e. meiosis and mitosis; I did this for all my lecture slides.
After you memorized the information, what did you do? How did you review it to keep it fresh in your head? Seems like a job for Anki!

I made a large Anki deck but I did not review the cards a lot because a) I felt like it was not helping that much b) I realized late I needed to do more passages
What are the 1-letter abbreviations for Tyrosine, Glycine, Glutamine, Glutamic Acid, and Threonine? Which amino acids can act as phosphomimics? Name the structures in the brain are involved in olfaction / memory / emotion? What hormones does the anterior pituitary release? What is aldosterone's mechanism of action?

Could you answer all of those questions quickly without looking them up? If not, you should do more Anki!

I agree--I have content deficits with C/P and B/B material. I don't know how to re approach them--should I read chapter again, glaze over them?
I would recommend re-reading chapters slowly, making Anki flashcards for all important topics. Review Anki cards EVERY DAY. Do practice problems as you go along, to make sure that you actually understand what is going on.

For any content issues, I think Anki is the most important thing. As long as you made a card for a topic, the program will never allow you to forget it.

Thanks for the breakdown. Regarding Anki, I have a deck that is I think actually quite good. I guess I should really commit to reviewing it each day. My problem was I made almost a dozen mini decks and got so flustered that I stopped with 1.5 months to go basically. But now I have reorganized them into C/P, B/B, and P/S decks. Do you think it would be worthwhile to download a deck from the Anki list (in the back of my mind I feel like although my deck is large it has stuff not relevant to the MCAT, and I trust someone out there that has had there deck downloaded thousands of times to be at least legit?) It sounds like your deck is legit, have you made it available to SDN before?

And I could answer half of those Anki questions 4 weeks ago, but now I cannot. This is what worries me--I already need to re study to do better but I also need to return to my baseline before the test.

You are right about how I read the chapter. I think to be honest I did not do that initially because I was afraid I would miss all the questions right away. I will now improve upon that for sure.

 

[Doctor_Strange]

@Doctor_Strange Do you have any sort of deck / notebook / place where you keep equations / concepts that you need to know? If not, start an anki deck and divide up the sections into C/P, B/B, and P/S.

Take a TPR full length, then take 2-3 days to review it. Add concepts to the deck as needed. Examples might be things like "Q=VC", the difference between peptide / steroid hormones, or what Erikson's 8 stages are. Mix in CARS practice as well. That's week 1.

Do one of the section banks untimed with solutions on. Review each question as you go and check your approach. Add items to your deck as needed, mix in CARS, and review parts of your deck too. You want to be cycling through your deck on a normal cadence. That's week 2.

Repeat this process with more practice tests and additional section bank / question packs and use your review books as reference material. Dedicating a day to reviewing content is okay if needed, but don't plan on weeks of pure content review. The content review will come as you practice.

Ask every question that you have on here and spam the q/a board- if you think deeply about everything you're learning you will remember it better and can save money on a tutor. Build that fluid intelligence and self-efficacy. Obtain that internal locus of control! Ignore the cognitive dissonance you may feel between the May test and how you want to be a doctor. I'm just being silly, but keep it simple and work hard

Terrific advice. I will start on this this weekend. And I am going to utilize the Q&A more since there are a lot of willing and smart people out there!

 

[Gurby]

My problem was I made almost a dozen mini decks and got so flustered that I stopped with 1.5 months to go basically.

"There is too much to learn, I'm not going to do this anymore!"

Do you think it would be worthwhile to download a deck from the Anki list (in the back of my mind I feel like although my deck is large it has stuff not relevant to the MCAT, and I trust someone out there that has had there deck downloaded thousands of times to be at least legit?)
For me, actually making the cards is a big part of the learning process. You have to understand something pretty well to figure out how to condense it into an effective flash card. Making cards as I read through chapters also helps keep me focused.

It sounds like your deck is legit, have you made it availableto SDN before?
I actually don't have an Anki deck - I use a program called Supermemo which I think is much better than Anki, but is not free. I have around 10,000 flashcards at this point, with 1400 that I made specifically for the MCAT. Most people would probably say I have too many low yield cards, but I just enjoy knowing things. Since I keep up with reviewing every day, I only need to go through 50 or so daily.

And I could answer half of those Anki questions 4 weeks ago, but now I cannot.
Case in point for why spaced repetition is important... All of those questions I asked are SUUUUPER high yield pieces of information that you should be able to rattle off without hesitation. They should be ingrained in your head, but clearly they aren't if you forgot them so soon. I imagine they're also taken for granted as common knowledge once you get to medical school, so you may as well not just forget them as soon as you finish the MCAT...

You are right about how I read the chapter. I think to be honest I did not do that initially because I was afraid I would miss all the questions right away. I will now improve upon that for sure.
I think this statement reveals the root of all your academic troubles. Do you see what I'm getting at?

 

[Doctor_Strange]

"There is too much to learn, I'm not going to do this anymore!"

Do you think it would be worthwhile to download a deck from the Anki list (in the back of my mind I feel like although my deck is large it has stuff not relevant to the MCAT, and I trust someone out there that has had there deck downloaded thousands of times to be at least legit?)
For me, actually making the cards is a big part of the learning process. You have to understand something pretty well to figure out how to condense it into an effective flash card. Making cards as I read through chapters also helps keep me focused.

It sounds like your deck is legit, have you made it availableto SDN before?
I actually don't have an Anki deck - I use a program called Supermemo which I think is much better than Anki, but is not free. I have around 10,000 flashcards at this point, with 1400 that I made specifically for the MCAT. Most people would probably say I have too many low yield cards, but I just enjoy knowing things. Since I keep up with reviewing every day, I only need to go through 50 or so daily.

And I could answer half of those Anki questions 4 weeks ago, but now I cannot.
Case in point for why spaced repetition is important... All of those questions I asked are SUUUUPER high yield pieces of information that you should be able to rattle off without hesitation. They should be ingrained in your head, but clearly they aren't if you forgot them so soon. I imagine they're also taken for granted as common knowledge once you get to medical school, so you may as well not just forget them as soon as you finish the MCAT...

You are right about how I read the chapter. I think to be honest I did not do that initially because I was afraid I would miss all the questions right away. I will now improve upon that for sure.
I think this statement reveals the root of all your academic troubles. Do you see what I'm getting at?

I do. I think what I did was begin my day with passive learning, i.e. read the chapters, go online to maybe look up something. I had my TPR course from 630 to 930 3x a week and 6 hrs on Saturday. I would often leave the active learning, i.e. passage problems till the end of the day. I am going to correct that for sure. I will also keep up with my Anki deck starting tomorrow.

Do you think it would be safe to focus the large amount of studying on C/P and B/B and leave CARS and P/S alone? Maybe not alone, but like only once a week focus on those two since m P/S was solid, and well my CARS I know 123 was an outlier. As I said I had never scored below a 125 on any of my practice FLs...

 

[Gurby]

You are right about how I read the chapter. I think to be honest I did not do that initially because I was afraid I would miss all the questions right away. I will now improve upon that for sure.
I think this statement reveals the root of all your academic troubles. Do you see what I'm getting at?

With this, I wanted to highlight "I was afraid I would miss all the questions right away."

If you were afraid you would miss the questions, then you weren't very confident in your knowledge. If you weren't very confident in your knowledge, you should have gone back and reviewed immediately to try to figure the material out better. But instead you pressed on, giving yourself the illusion of making progress when really you were pretty much just wasting time.

It sounds like deep down you knew that you weren't truly "getting it", but you kept going anyways. Being able to consciously recognize when this is happening is super important to success in school and also in the real world, IMO.

It's not just about doing the questions right away... It's a mindset you need to cultivate. Whenever you're reading a chapter, you should always be asking yourself, "did I understand that? Could I explain that concept to someone else?" The questions textbook writers insert into chapters basically force you to do this, but you should also just be doing it on your own as well.

Just my opinion anyways!

Do you think it would be safe to focus the large amount of studying on C/P and B/B and leave CARS and P/S alone? Maybe not alone, but like only once a week focus on those two since m P/S was solid, and well my CARS I know 123 was an outlier. As I said I had never scored below a 125 on any of my practice FLs...

Seems reasonable.

 

[NeuroPA]

Record yourself reteaching the content. Buy a whiteboard and go to town. Re-watch the video. If you were a student could you learn from what you see?

 

[Doctor_Strange]

Record yourself reteaching the content. Buy a whiteboard and go to town. Re-watch the video. If you were a student could you learn from what you see?

So can someone give me their 2 cents regarding whiteboards? In college, I always so people write a ton and then erase it after they wrote it. In my mind, it would make more sense to write it on a blank piece of paper so you could review it later...? I am totally willing to get a whiteboard, but what I am realizing today after some thought is that the hardest part for me is deciding how to do it different from what I did before.

I am getting all kinds of advice--my friend told me to do a FL and schedule your studying around those. Each question and concept go review. Spend a week on each FL. But then I know those on this thread said it may be more content problems regarding Physics and Orgo especially.

I know I gotta man up and choose something and start soon, but I want to do this right.

Right now this is what I am thinking and I would like some feedback:

• Spend 1 hr or 2 hrs today reviewing my Anki deck to refresh my mind and get me back into MCAT study mode.
• Do Anki each day--no skipping.
• Start reviewing Physics from chapter 1 in my kaplan book. Do the problems in the book right away no skipping. I won't time myself with the passages for the first couple of weeks. Instead of placing timeholders on me , i.e. finish physics in 1 week. Just don't fret about the time devoted, at least initially.
• Do my TPR FL 1 (timed or untimed?) from January either this weekend, or next Monday. Review this for the entire week. Review means: read the answer, but before moving on go to the chapter in the prep book and read more. Should take a week of dedicated time.
• Start doing one FL every other week. The weeks I don't do the FL, do content review in topics related to Chem/Physics.
• Spend 1 day a week reviewing content from P/S and do 5 CARS passages in one sitting or 2 and 2 separately
• I want to restart the AAMC material in the beginning of August. This includes SBs, Bio q packs, and physics q pack (i never did the physics q pack since it was from old aamc).
• Re do the scored and unscored AAMC tests within 2 weeks before the exam (I am paranoid I will do the same or even worse to be honest....)
• Meet with my tutor who I will pay for only 15 hrs total (I think this is a good number to pay for, the other package is 9 hrs)
• Study 4 to 5 hrs a day, including anki. But incorporate active learning, passages from my science workbook and online materials not at the end of the day but in between reading chapters.

My question now which may be stupid: I am worried of spending too much time on Physics as opposed to brushing up or refining my Bio Gen chem and orgo skills? Any thoughts on this?

I am also a visual learner so what I did before (and depending on feedback will do again maybe) is I like to look up images from Google and save them in a folder. Should I continue doing this? This is how I remembered that during Bernoulli equation the velocity is faster in a lower total area of a tube and with a lower P2. The image is ingrained in me...

Thank you everyone for your advice--since finding out yesterday my score I feel a lot better today and my internal locus of control is more stable than it was beforehand!

 

[theonlytycrane]

The following is just my opinion. I am in no way offended if you completely disregard it:

You have good ideas, but this is too content review heavy. Don't waste time on kinematics equations and review of low yield physics. The C/P section has physics + g.chem, orgo, biochem. Know your electricity, waves, and fluids and review the rest as it comes up. Mix in chemistry.

How is your biochem? Do you know the main pathways by heart? If not, add this to your plan.

I would do a FL every week and not worry about strictly referring to the content review book for every problem that you go over. Doing a week's worth of content review is almost worthless unless you are engraining the high-yield equations into your head. Because once you see a C/P passage with an experiment, all of the cookie-cutter review book questions are irrelevant.

Don't waste time on a whiteboard or memorizing images unless you have a photographic memory. You need to know the relevant equations: continuity equation and bernoulli's equation for fluids > relying on iconic memory recall.

Spread out the P/S and CARS practice throughout the week rather than on just one day.

I like the idea of redoing AAMC stuff, but that's later near the end.

Lastly, review lab techniques. No one mentions this enough but it's super important. Know the general purpose for doing things like gel electrophoresis, PCR, TLC, centrifugation, GC-MS, ELISA, blotting, and all the random methods that I never actually did in college (I wish I did) but I learned for the MCAT.

 

[Doctor_Strange]

The following is just my opinion. I am in no way offended if you completely disregard it:

You have good ideas, but this is too content review heavy. Don't waste time on kinematics equations and review of low yield physics. The C/P section has physics + g.chem, orgo, biochem. Know your electricity, waves, and fluids and review the rest as it comes up. Mix in chemistry.

How is your biochem? Do you know the main pathways by heart? If not, add this to your plan.

I would do a FL every week and not worry about strictly referring to the content review book for every problem that you go over. Doing a week's worth of content review is almost worthless unless you are engraining the high-yield equations into your head. Because once you see a C/P passage with an experiment, all of the cookie-cutter review book questions are irrelevant.

Don't waste time on a whiteboard or memorizing images unless you have a photographic memory. You need to know the relevant equations: continuity equation and bernoulli's equation for fluids > relying on iconic memory recall.

Spread out the P/S and CARS practice throughout the week rather than on just one day.

I like the idea of redoing AAMC stuff, but that's later near the end.

Lastly, review lab techniques. No one mentions this enough but it's super important. Know the general purpose for doing things like gel electrophoresis, PCR, TLC, centrifugation, GC-MS, ELISA, blotting, and all the random methods that I never actually did in college (I wish I did) but I learned for the MCAT.

• Biochem I am comfortable with, especially enzyme kinetics. The Krebs Cycle is the only one I did not really study, and by that I mean the individual steps. In fact, I knew the big idea with the PPP pathway, gluconeogensis, etc. but never stopped to memorize specific stages, other than those that were irreversible. So yeah, relative to the other topics, I feel good about biochem. The laboratory steps I need some work on. And DNA/genetics related stuff I need work on as well (genetics did not show up on my Bio section probably why I got away with a 125). I will learn the pathways by heart.
• Otherwise, I will add you advice to my sheet. It makes sense to spread out P/S and CARS -- I suppose I usually like to compartmentalize stuff, but that is what I did before. I should not repeat the same mistakes.

 

[Gurby]

I am also a visual learner so what I did before (and depending on feedback will do again maybe) is I like to look up images from Google and save them in a folder. Should I continue doing this? This is how I remembered that during Bernoulli equation the velocity is faster in a lower total area of a tube and with a lower P2. The image is ingrained in me...

One thing I love to do is turn images and diagrams into flashcards. Look into the Image Occlusion Anki add-on.

 

[Doctor_Strange]

So to update (not really good news):

Because of family issues, I have only been able to put in around 15 hrs since June to study. Starting today I can begin studying in earnest.

I mean, my very first TPR FL I got a 499 and then after 3 months I get a 497 on the real thing? The scary part was that I was not nervous on test day, but days afterwards I felt that I was gonna get a 499 to 502 type score so a 497 I guess should not have been a total surprise. I think I can improve, but with one month left, I need to just get back to my baseline that I had reached before May 6th.

Thoughts? I am applying to DOs this cycle, have one interview this Friday actually, otherwise everything else I have yet to hear back. Today is the deadline for the refund, so i am really stressed. I am gonna do the e practice version of the MCAT (basically the 3 hr version) and see what that yields...

Personally, if I can get a 500, I would be in fantastic shape considering my GPA, etc.

I do feel really ****ty that I was not able to actually study like 3 hrs a day over the past month, but I had some pretty serious stuff going on in my life. It was quieted down now though.

I mean I am not sure if I will get any more IIs, and I really cannot say for sure if studying and getting a 498 makes a world of a difference. On the same token, taking it again and getting a 496 or 497 would, in my opinion, would have a negative net effect. Again, I personally need to get a 500 to 502 to increase my chances based off dozens and dozens of PMs I have had and research in general.

Thanks

 

[misterwiggles]

Me and you are very very very similar situations. Took TPR as well was scoring 498-499 every time, at the time only the unscored was available but it was something around 71% overall (78% CARS but i got a 122 on the real thing) and got a 497 on my MCAT as well.

In my opinion this time around I redid the way I learned the material, and stopped using most of TPR's content. It seemed too detail heavy and well I switched over to EK stuff and already noticed a jump in my scores. This time around taking my first FL after content (no focusing on my weak points yet) yielded a 501 on TPR. I will move away from using there stuff and plan to buy EK FL 4 as well as do TBR passages. There 30m exams after each chapter was a really good way to figure out where you're hitting but I didn't do them the day I read that chapter. I would wait a few days, and see if I still had that chapter's content down.

Next, I take every wrong answer I have and find a way to form it into an objective fact: for example, "As volume increases, pressure decreases" and would use Anki cloze to be able to hide certain parts of that phrase so I new I got it down perfectly. (Not sure what that is, just Google it its a great way to increase your deck size fast but be able to test yourself the way the MCAT will test you with tricky increase, decrease like questions that should be easy chicken gravy).

Study a few of your decks everyday and earnestly try to answer them, dont just passively pass through it. Anki lets you rate how difficult the card was as it uses an algorithm to repeat harder cards more frequently.

I next plan to make a cheat sheet of all long lists of things I need to know. This includes, brain parts, hormones, organs, formulas, similar theories. Having these all in one place at least for me is a good thing to have instead of all over your notes. And make your OWN, don't find one online. You're much more likely to be more familiar with it all and know exactly where you wrote each hormone, each organ on your sheet. After this is all done and you're in the habit of reviewing them, practice passages all the way baby.

When reviewing passages, keep adding to your deck if think you missed FSQ's and try to redo some passages you really messed up on again after a week or so of studying again. Make lists after each FL of which topics need to be revisited and go back to your notes and try to add more to them in those areas. For me, this will include sticky notes, highlighting, adding more colors with ink pens to these sections.

Best of luck man, we are in this together. I, if anyone know exactly the mental fight you have going on. I was confused as ever as well because it seemed impossible given all these predictors online and what not. But as they say, the journey up a mountain isn't a constant slope, you have to go through up's and down's to get to the top.

 

[Doctor_Strange]

Me and you are very very very similar situations. Took TPR as well was scoring 498-499 every time, at the time only the unscored was available but it was something around 71% overall (78% CARS but i got a 122 on the real thing) and got a 497 on my MCAT as well.

In my opinion this time around I redid the way I learned the material, and stopped using most of TPR's content. It seemed too detail heavy and well I switched over to EK stuff and already noticed a jump in my scores. This time around taking my first FL after content (no focusing on my weak points yet) yielded a 501 on TPR. I will move away from using there stuff and plan to buy EK FL 4 as well as do TBR passages. There 30m exams after each chapter was a really good way to figure out where you're hitting but I didn't do them the day I read that chapter. I would wait a few days, and see if I still had that chapter's content down.

Next, I take every wrong answer I have and find a way to form it into an objective fact: for example, "As volume increases, pressure decreases" and would use Anki cloze to be able to hide certain parts of that phrase so I new I got it down perfectly. (Not sure what that is, just Google it its a great way to increase your deck size fast but be able to test yourself the way the MCAT will test you with tricky increase, decrease like questions that should be easy chicken gravy).

Study a few of your decks everyday and earnestly try to answer them, dont just passively pass through it. Anki lets you rate how difficult the card was as it uses an algorithm to repeat harder cards more frequently.

I next plan to make a cheat sheet of all long lists of things I need to know. This includes, brain parts, hormones, organs, formulas, similar theories. Having these all in one place at least for me is a good thing to have instead of all over your notes. And make your OWN, don't find one online. You're much more likely to be more familiar with it all and know exactly where you wrote each hormone, each organ on your sheet. After this is all done and you're in the habit of reviewing them, practice passages all the way baby.

When reviewing passages, keep adding to your deck if think you missed FSQ's and try to redo some passages you really messed up on again after a week or so of studying again. Make lists after each FL of which topics need to be revisited and go back to your notes and try to add more to them in those areas. For me, this will include sticky notes, highlighting, adding more colors with ink pens to these sections.

Best of luck man, we are in this together. I, if anyone know exactly the mental fight you have going on. I was confused as ever as well because it seemed impossible given all these predictors online and what not. But as they say, the journey up a mountain isn't a constant slope, you have to go through up's and down's to get to the top.

Appreciate the insight a lot. I am gonna study the next 4 weeks and take it and see how it goes. I agree 100% TPR is too detailed oriented. The actual MCAT was much broader in it's questions. I actually have the entire kaplan bookset so maybe I will look to those over the next 4 weeks.

edit: I wanna PM later on the weekend and maybe briefl pick your brain as well. Honestly, I feel like if I take it again I can do better even if marginally. I feel like 497 is my floor, and the ceiling is anything higher

 

[misterwiggles]

Likewise. Honestly, it took a lot of growing up for me this past year from my last sept MCAT vs this one. My personal feelings are if I need in-class help to be motivated, did I really want to be a doctor? That + actually finishing most of my academic courseload this past year helped A LOT. My last MCAT I didn't take half of ochem, one sem, physics, molecular bio, biochem lab, upper dive cellular bio, ochem lab, and these have definitely shown their impact. Physics definitely made a lot more sense and were second nature vs learning the stuff for the first time and thinking what the hell is a diffraction pattern and wave/particle duality? The only course that is not required for my major is physiology which is my definite weak spot for that reason. That's why I need to just muster up the courage to accept it's my weak point and work at it. Persistency in hitting your soft spots, that is the things you know you're weak in but are never really willing to admit enough to go back to it. I always brushed up FSQ's on physio thinking 'it'll never show up on the real thing, it's just this one question' and that's the wrong way to go about it.

Of course my method isn't predictive since I have yet to redo OG, Q-packs, and scored/unscored. I was scoring about 65-70% on EK which was 127-128. I definitely found EK CARS strategy to be the best of any other prep company. I jumped from 65% to 92% on some 30m sections. Particularly, chapter 3 had the best test taking strategy. This chapter alone proved results instantly. I would really look into EK and see if it fits your style. Kaplan IMO seems content heavy too. EK doesn't read like a textbook like TPR does, they give you relevant info for the MCAT and give you good mnemonics, summaries, and the main point in dense sections that really steer you in the right direction when you feel overwhelmed. And the illustrations really should be giving you a chuckle and lighten the stress that comes with prepping.

Do not neglect your health. As a person who volunteers at a clinic by advocating healthy behaviors leave time to enjoy yourself even in just a month prep. For me this was basketball and youtube videos. I will keep you updated on how I end up doing throughout this to see if you want to adopt some of this stuff. Above all, make MCAT studying "fun" and give yourself daily goals to complete. You'll feel much more accomplished this way.

 

[summergirl]

The MCAT is all about practice. Your scores indicate that you still need content review, but remember to spend a lot of time doing practice afterwards. Redo practice questions after a while also helps because you can rethink the questions through and really get how to approach these questions. Get your hands on TPR's Science workbook (pro tip: the old version of this book is different from the new version. Both versions are valuable imo) and practice the hell out of those questions. I refuse to believe someone can score below 127 if they completed all the science questions timed in that book at least twice and went over their answers carefully each time. As for CARS, just keep on practicing, using all passages from all sources. As for psych, I don't know because I was a psych major and didn't really study for that section, and it seems like you had the least problems with that section.

Source: two 95th+ percentile MCATs and employed as a MCAT instructor.