What am I doing wrong? MCAT S.OS. Chem/Physics

[kms8480]

hello everyone,

So I took the mcat a year ago and got a 22 (yikes I know okay). I'm obviously retaking. Throughout my studying I always struggled with the physics/chem section. I have been studying really hard over the past 2-2.5 months because I wanted to take the exam this month but I realize now that is a bad idea because I'm still sucking at phys/chemistry. When I do the AAMCs practice exam and question packs I get about 50-60% of the questions right, and when I do TPR I get like 20% maybe even less....

obviously I'm not ready to take the test this month so I'll be pushing it back. I have gone through the entire TPR book and taken notes and completed all the sections questions at this point. I've also finished the AAMCs practice exam and large number of the questions packs.

I'm wondering what the general consensus is on the best review books/practice questions for this section in particular, or if anyone has a recommended study program I can do until the next test. It's just kind of tough because I already studied pretty much everything I could for psychology and biology and have been scoring well in those sections 70-85% (and 85% on CARS).

Let me know what you think!

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[GrapesofRath]

Physical sciences more so than other sections is a true test of mastery and understanding of basic concepts. In particular, the problems you see in TPR and other practice sets aren't really testing conceptual thinking; they are simply testing if you grasp basic concepts and can do calculations that are rather learnable. If you are having these kind of struggles its indicative of not understanding the material well enough. The good news is a) content review is a fixable and learnable thing b) physical sciences is the easiest section to see real improvement in. In this case its simply putting in the time to really master the content and thoroughly know and understand it.

What I would recommend going through next is Berekley Review. That is your best for truly learning and understanding physical sciences. It'll see overboard at first and maybe throughout all the time you spend on it, but in your case I think that's what will make the difference.