What score is reasonable to shoot for?

[RTchill]

So I took AAMC 3 yesterday as a diagnostic and scored a 26, PS-7 VR-12 BS-7

I will be starting a prep course today, and haven't done any content review yet which I'm hoping is why my science scores are so low (took bio, chem, and physics 1 about 6 years ago).

So now with a baseline of 26, I'm wondering if my initial goal of 35 is out of reach? I'll be taking this prep course for 2 months, and then spending 1.5 months doing TPRH workbooks and EK. Sitting for the exam in January 2015.

Any insight? How much are people typically able to raise their score from a diagnostic?

Thanks all, and goodluck!

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[Doctoblast]

I improved by 11 points from my initial diagnostic aamc 3 practice test after 2 months of studying on my own. Your goal is definitely reachable! Don't underestimate the worth of practice passages. I wish I would've done more passages than content review, but ohh well. I would say don't do any more aamc full length tests until you're at least 75% done with content review. Also, the aamc self assessments are a great tool. If you have the $$ I definitely recommend them after your content review or just for extra practice passages.

 

[RC4L]

The only person that can tell you what is in reach is you! Please do yourself a favor and do not set limits on yourself based upon what others have experienced with the MCAT. A 26 is fantastic to begin with and there is no reason you can't get where you want to be. The best thing to do is set your goals above what you want and work tirelessly to get there. Look at your goals/progress with the mentality of what you have not yet achieved rather than what you can achieve.. Your scores will stop improving the moment you tell yourself you've maxed out and trust me, there is no such thing.

 

[bunnyg]

Your verbal score is awesome which is the most difficult to improve.

You will be fine after your course/content review for PS/ BS

 

[brood910]

Your VR score tells me that you have test taking + logical thinking skills.
Science sections are very easy to improve. You can get at least 10 by just doing content review.

 

[DielsAlder]

So I took AAMC 3 yesterday as a diagnostic and scored a 26, PS-7 VR-12 BS-7

I will be starting a prep course today, and haven't done any content review yet which I'm hoping is why my science scores are so low (took bio, chem, and physics 1 about 6 years ago).

So now with a baseline of 26, I'm wondering if my initial goal of 35 is out of reach? I'll be taking this prep course for 2 months, and then spending 1.5 months doing TPRH workbooks and EK. Sitting for the exam in January 2015.

Any insight? How much are people typically able to raise their score from a diagnostic?

Thanks all, and goodluck!

I took AAMC #3 on my first day of prep and also got a 26 (I forget the distribution). Fantastic verbal by the way! You can definitely improve a lot in the sciences by the time you take the exam. In my example, I went up by about 10 points when I took the exam.

 

[RTchill]

Thanks everyone for the advice and encouragement, good stuff to hear as I enter my first real day of mcat studying

 

[bambam92]

I got 22 on diagnostic (AAMC #3) …with 5PS/12VR as well/and 5BS. Lmao. Terrible science scores, but I had no review at this point and was way removed from the pre-reqs and kind of just rushed it. I think you can get a 35+ pretty readily honestly--your breakdown for a diagnostic is the MOST favorable it could be in my eyes for scoring high---science scores are very correlated with time put in, and practice…i.e. they come up readily provided you put in the work. Verbal, not so much. So your 12 on verbal as a diagnostic is VERY good. Verbal is what screws most takers--having that innate ability to not worry about verbal is a huge advantage in my opinion.

 

[justadream]

So I took AAMC 3 yesterday as a diagnostic and scored a 26, PS-7 VR-12 BS-7

I will be starting a prep course today, and haven't done any content review yet which I'm hoping is why my science scores are so low (took bio, chem, and physics 1 about 6 years ago).

So now with a baseline of 26, I'm wondering if my initial goal of 35 is out of reach? I'll be taking this prep course for 2 months, and then spending 1.5 months doing TPRH workbooks and EK. Sitting for the exam in January 2015.

Any insight? How much are people typically able to raise their score from a diagnostic?

Thanks all, and goodluck!

Definitely within reach. Even a 40+ is within reach given your good VR score.

The most important score in the diagnostic is your VR. Everything else can be improved. VR scores are extremely hard to improve over 3 months.

 

[TheAnonymous]

So I took AAMC 3 yesterday as a diagnostic and scored a 26, PS-7 VR-12 BS-7

I will be starting a prep course today, and haven't done any content review yet which I'm hoping is why my science scores are so low (took bio, chem, and physics 1 about 6 years ago).

So now with a baseline of 26, I'm wondering if my initial goal of 35 is out of reach? I'll be taking this prep course for 2 months, and then spending 1.5 months doing TPRH workbooks and EK. Sitting for the exam in January 2015.

Any insight? How much are people typically able to raise their score from a diagnostic?

Thanks all, and goodluck!

Just as others pointed out, given you very high VR score, a very high score is easily within reach given you put in the time and effort. Aim high.