What is wrong with my scores? (6's and 7's .. Oh dear god)

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lunchmonkey29

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I've been studying non-stop, bought every EK 1001 subject book (and all the kaplan books) and have been taking practice questions over and over, but I still can't seem to bring my scores up. I'm doing the whole " focus on your weakness " thing, but apparently the whole test is my weakness. Today I was able to get my verbal to an 8, but my PS and BS are still stuck around 6-7 and it's been quite a while. I'm running out of AAMC tests, what do I do? (i'm seeing overall scores of like...15-17's)

Best part is, I'm taking the test july 16th, and I can't move it back anymore (I've pushed it back like 4 times already). Also, if you void your exam, does it still show up to medical schools that you've attempted it?

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Is there a limit to how many times you can reschedule? Why don't you just cancel? If you truly do feel unprepared and have consistently been scoring low on practice tests do NOT take the MCAT, especially if it's in just a couple weeks. Better to lose some money and reschedule than to take it, do poorly, and then have to take it again anyway.

You are all stressed out now anyway, so the chances of something big changing in the next two weeks, especially if you already have been studying as much as you say you have, is not too high.

Cancel, delay the test, calm down, take a little break, and change your strategy. Have you done any sort of structured review course? If not you may want to think about it. If you really feel like you have been studying as much as you could have been on your own and just are not improving then maybe it's time to change things up.
 
I've been studying quite a bit for the same test date, and am in the same predicament but my scores have risen drastically, and while content review is important it seems most information can be found in the passages even for PS. Review your answers and concentrate on critical reading of passages. I find in my tests, when I go over them, 9/10 times I eliminate 1/2 the wrong answers and am stuck between two choices one of which is right. Sometimes I make the wrong choice but picking from 2 is better than picking from 4. If you really pay attention and read the passage critically you'll know what can't be the answer or what answers clearly contradict others. It's not the best strategy but it can make your scores jump.

Content review wise in such a short time I would concentrate on those principles that come up time and time again. A good example of this IMO is Le Chatelliers Principle, I find every test I take have at least 3 questions that directly involve understanding this alone.

Good Luck pal lets both hope we do well :). It's a stupid test anyway for so many reasons, but lets not go there haha.
 
I am kind of in the same sht hole - i used to get 7s on my verbal - but after taking two aamc it's gone to an 8 (so not much improvement). My only suggestion is to stop doing studying the books - I've noticed that an even an idiot who has not taken any science ever can do well on the mcat if they read the passages (it has all the answers you need) - i SUCK at critical reading, which is why i'm doing so horrible - ask me any factual question from a science textbook, and I will recite it like poetry.
 
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I am kind of in the same sht hole - i used to get 7s on my verbal - but after taking two aamc it's gone to an 8 (so not much improvement). My only suggestion is to stop doing studying the books - I've noticed that an even an idiot who has not taken any science ever can do well on the mcat if they read the passages (it has all the answers you need) - i SUCK at critical reading, which is why i'm doing so horrible - ask me any factual question from a science textbook, and I will recite it like poetry.

WOW that is EXACTLY whats been going through my mind, I have the same problem!!! Well, when are you expected to take the test? Not as soon as I am I hope? I def. think my critical reading skills/stamina are seriously low, which is also probably why I'm doing so badly.

In relation to the above posts, I def. see how some of the answers are directly stated out of the passages, it's a big more difficult with the VB because I have a difficult time predicting things, not so much answering "according to the passage" questions.

Ugh..Why do I feel like I forgot how to read..
 
I've been studying quite a bit for the same test date, and am in the same predicament but my scores have risen drastically, and while content review is important it seems most information can be found in the passages even for PS. Review your answers and concentrate on critical reading of passages. I find in my tests, when I go over them, 9/10 times I eliminate 1/2 the wrong answers and am stuck between two choices one of which is right. Sometimes I make the wrong choice but picking from 2 is better than picking from 4. If you really pay attention and read the passage critically you'll know what can't be the answer or what answers clearly contradict others. It's not the best strategy but it can make your scores jump.

Content review wise in such a short time I would concentrate on those principles that come up time and time again. A good example of this IMO is Le Chatelliers Principle, I find every test I take have at least 3 questions that directly involve understanding this alone.

Good Luck pal lets both hope we do well :). It's a stupid test anyway for so many reasons, but lets not go there haha.

Everything you said here is right, I feel like in the past few days I've been focusing on understanding the material better than I ever have before, my issue is learning to improve my reasoning skills, I seem to fall in that trap of deciding between two things instead of 4 (its not really a "bad" trap, but I'd rather just be confident with one answer instead of guessing) Like how you mentioned. Anyway, best of luck, I'm glad your scores are improving - lets hope mine do too somehow ...soon!
 
i'm taking my mcat on august 5th - so far i've finished taking 3-4-5 aamc - got a 26-25-26 - Even if i get a 25 - I pray to god my 4.0 GPA gives me a chance...

don't worry dude - just do sht loads of practice and practice and practice - day and night every second of your life until the mcat - do practice - that is the ONLY way to improve - i'm hoping i can get mine up to 27 by aug 5th - good luck!!!! You can do it!!!!!!!!!!!!

2-3 days before the exam, review all the exams you did again (in fact take them again - u should get a lot higher score since u've already taken it before and understood the answers - this will improve your self confidence - that will help a lot - i promise)
 
I'm on the same boat as you actually. I was scheduled for the 7/8 MCAT but I decided to cancel it (ie. not show up) because I've been averaging 22-24 on my AAMC...and that's not a good sign for me. I decided that I'll have to do a better studying strategy than taking the test prematurely because I want to take this test only once, and get a 30+ on it instead of taking it and knowing that I'll probably score mid-20s since that's what I'm averaging right now.

But if you improve your score within a week and you see an upward trend, then you should be confident on taking it. If not, I suggest you cancel it and take a better studying plan. The MCAT is a beast, you need to take the right weapons with you on the day you battle it.
 
I am kind of in the same sht hole - i used to get 7s on my verbal - but after taking two aamc it's gone to an 8 (so not much improvement). My only suggestion is to stop doing studying the books - I've noticed that an even an idiot who has not taken any science ever can do well on the mcat if they read the passages (it has all the answers you need) - i SUCK at critical reading, which is why i'm doing so horrible - ask me any factual question from a science textbook, and I will recite it like poetry.

Yea I heard undergrads majoring in humanities instead of sciences actually do better on the mcat...well not all the time, but this is what i've heard. I'm going to start reading journals and newspapers just to get me used to the critical-reading part...which is basically what the MCAT is about. Practice reading...READ READ and READ MORE. :D:thumbup:
 
Yea I heard undergrads majoring in humanities instead of sciences actually do better on the mcat...well not all the time, but this is what i've heard. I'm going to start reading journals and newspapers just to get me used to the critical-reading part...which is basically what the MCAT is about. Practice reading...READ READ and READ MORE. :D:thumbup:

This may be true for some but in my particular experience it wasn't. I was a history major and I nailed the writing section without even trying. I got an S but I'm sure I could have gotten a T if I had practiced a few times(I never did any writing sections). I thought VR would be easy for me as well because I was a history major but I couldn't have been more wrong :( . It comes down to this with VR for me...if it interests me I do good haha. I'm hoping come test day I just get all the passages I am interested in then I can get a 13+...but it won't happen I'm sure and I'll hit a 8-9 or if I'm lucky 10.

I also did fine in my sciences, and my sGPA is higher than my cGPA, but you tend to forget the sciences after taking them 3-4 years ago and without a classroom setting it's even harder. I think my history major actually hurt me though, because I knew that I needed to be "good" at History. for the sciences I got the grades and moved on largely forgetting 50% of the material. I would say at least 50% of pre-meds were the same way.

My best piece of advice for Pre-Meds would be sacrifice a year of your life, and take Gen. Chem, Biology, and Physics all at once and take your MCAT in June after your done (also learn the 20% of O.Chem you actually need). It will literally be a sacrifice of a year if you wanna make good grades, but it'll be worth it and you won't be here like me sitting at home studying for the MCAT day to day rather than being on the beach, or dare I say "working" :scared:.

There isn't a subject on the MCAT I didn't learn in those classes save O.Chem stuff. With those fresh in your brain and after 1-2 practice tests you'd do fine, but the longer you wait the more you forget and the harder it is to study IMO. I also wish I was a science major so all this would have been fresh in my brain for 4 years.
 
Yea I heard undergrads majoring in humanities instead of sciences actually do better on the mcat...well not all the time, but this is what i've heard. I'm going to start reading journals and newspapers just to get me used to the critical-reading part...which is basically what the MCAT is about. Practice reading...READ READ and READ MORE. :D:thumbup:

Reading a lot does work... only if one has a lot of time to practice ones reading (you need at least 4 months for it to work). If the test is in 2 months time, it does not really make a difference. The best option in this situation (or even if you have a lot of time before your test) is to do passages "with questions!"

Half the battle is understanding passages but the other half is understanding the questions. One could be superb at knowing the passage; main theme, author's point of view etc. However, one could be "scoring" really badly because he or she does not understand the question given or even the answer choices.

This is just my two cents on the issue. I would read my butt off and when I did the passages I understood them but my mind went blank on the question portion (especially on the detailed questions). This is why mapping helps and the other thing is "repetitively doing practice questions" is extremely helpful. And then going over why one got those questions wrong.

So remember don't "just" READ, READ, READ but actually do QUESTIONS!
 
Half the battle is understanding passages but the other half is understanding the questions. One could be superb at knowing the passage; main theme, author's point of view etc. However, one could be "scoring" really badly because he or she does not understand the question given or even the answer choices.

This is good advice. The questions if you breeze through them trick you with their stems. I've taken 6 practice exams and a good number of mistakes consistently fall to misreading the questions.
 
Exactly, Smmossey. This was happening to me constantly because I did not pay attention to detail. I would lose points because I would totally miss words like "implicit" or "inferred" and even be tricked into picking an answer choice that was never stated in the passage.

With this knowledge, I pushed my scores from the 6-7 range on my AAMCs to the 9-10 range. I still have a ways to go though.
 
I'm in a similar predicament. I'm also scheduled for the July 16th date right now, and I've pushed it back around three times. I've been averaging 25-27 on the AAMCs, and around 22-24 on TPR tests (I guess they're harder??).

For me, the verbal is my worst section. It's the one section that I just CAN'T hit a freakin' 10 in!!! Idk, I'm seriously considering postponing to the 30th now. I'm just too scared I'll get a 6 on VR on the real thing, and my GPA is only a 3.6, so I really can't afford to get a low MCAT...

As for PS and BS, are you using only EK and Kaplan? I used EK at first for physics/bio/ochem/gchem because I was hearing so many good things about it. I did some research on SDN and found a lot of posts about TBR and decided to get their physics/bio/ochem/gchem books. Needless to say, they're SO GOOD. I read one chapter from TBR in the physics book and I felt like I understood so much more and gained a better understanding of physics in that chapter alone than I did reading through the whole EK physics book. In short, the physical sciences used to be my crappiest section, but now if I'm focused, I can get a 10; same with the bio section. EK's still really good for bio though. But yeah, I would def. recommend TBR if you haven't checked it out, and if you're considering postponing (which I REALLY think you should if you're averaging 15). They're pretty big books and go into a lot of detail, which actually helps you understand stuff better. I think the reason why EK didn't click for me as well was because it kinda just gave u the bare bones of concepts...., but that's just me.
 
As for PS and BS, are you using only EK and Kaplan? I used EK at first for physics/bio/ochem/gchem because I was hearing so many good things about it. I did some research on SDN and found a lot of posts about TBR and decided to get their physics/bio/ochem/gchem books. Needless to say, they're SO GOOD. I read one chapter from TBR in the physics book and I felt like I understood so much more and gained a better understanding of physics in that chapter alone than I did reading through the whole EK physics book. In short, the physical sciences used to be my crappiest section, but now if I'm focused, I can get a 10; same with the bio section. EK's still really good for bio though. But yeah, I would def. recommend TBR if you haven't checked it out, and if you're considering postponing (which I REALLY think you should if you're averaging 15). They're pretty big books and go into a lot of detail, which actually helps you understand stuff better. I think the reason why EK didn't click for me as well was because it kinda just gave u the bare bones of concepts...., but that's just me.

For the chemistry and physics I am using TBR which is a really really good resource (definitely worth the money I paid for). For the verbal I used examkrackers. For the biology and orgo chem I used kaplan (but I think examkrackers is good for bio and TBR good for orgo chem). Hope this helps.
 
As for PS and BS, are you using only EK and Kaplan? I used EK at first for physics/bio/ochem/gchem because I was hearing so many good things about it. I did some research on SDN and found a lot of posts about TBR and decided to get their physics/bio/ochem/gchem books. Needless to say, they're SO GOOD. I read one chapter from TBR in the physics book and I felt like I understood so much more and gained a better understanding of physics in that chapter alone than I did reading through the whole EK physics book. In short, the physical sciences used to be my crappiest section, but now if I'm focused, I can get a 10; same with the bio section. EK's still really good for bio though. But yeah, I would def. recommend TBR if you haven't checked it out, and if you're considering postponing (which I REALLY think you should if you're averaging 15). They're pretty big books and go into a lot of detail, which actually helps you understand stuff better. I think the reason why EK didn't click for me as well was because it kinda just gave u the bare bones of concepts...., but that's just me.


I've been kinda flipping between the too, both Kaplan and EK. I use Kaplans subject tests to see where I am material wise, and I use EK to practice against the real test. The 1001 bio book has some really good passage based questions that are really similar to the AAMC. I find Kaplan's full lengths to be unrealistic however.

Update: today was the first day i scored an 8 on the bio section, im sortve thrilled cus its improvement, but terrified cus I have a week left. I believe I can defy all the rules and somehow get a good score by the 16th, but I'm no super human. Just a girl with no life. sigh.

I'm thinking 8's on bio/Verbal/Ps = 24? Might as well try right? i mean, I'm trying osteopathic, isn't their min. like around there anyway? I have like...2 hours to decide if I want to push this test back or not..jesus
 
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