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2 months til test date, 17 on first practice exam
- Thread starter supernovagirl79
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You have to be able to handle that amount of information. You need to go over, multiple times, everything in an MCAT review book, and have a very solid understanding of all of the material. There's no other way. Quit your job, spend 50 hours a week for the next two months studying, and take the test. Once you begin to master sections of the material, you should see big improvements in your score.
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The first time I took a diagnostic I scored a 17. I have been scoring up to 31 on the kaplan tests. It makes no difference what you get on the diagnostic or the first test cause you dont know how to take the exam yet. It will just show you your strength and weakneses. The only way to succeed is to keep practicing the material as well as the practice tests. the more you practice the better. this exam is all about knowing how to take the exams. Dont be discouraged you can do it!!!!
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Don't read one book a day...you won't retain much.
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I completely agree. I bought each one of the EK 1000 questions in bio/physics/chem/ochem and 101 verbal. I also recommend the instructional books that divide the subject matter into smaller chunks with practice questions at the end of each section.
What's great about the EK books is the topics are broken down into manageable bits with practice questions at the end to reinforce what you've learned. I recommend supplementing these practice questions with a few from the 1000 questions books (but don't do all of them right away). Come back a week or two later and do the rest of the practice problems in a given subject area to make sure you've retained the knowledge. You don't want your hard work to go to waste!
I only took a few biology courses in college, for example, but was able to learn the material on my own and you can definitely do it too.
Best of luck!
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LOL one EK book in a day? are you reading it or are you just looking at the words?
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haha! thats crazy that means you'll be done prepping for the mcat content-wise less than a week...how wonderful would that be...
You need to kinda stop freaking out. You have two months left.
Go through material slowly. Doing problems will help you understand the information. Also, review what you have already gone over.
If you are having trouble retaining information, I suggest you get MCAT audio osmosis. I found that Jordan and John helped me learn some boring ass subjects.
Go through material slowly. Doing problems will help you understand the information. Also, review what you have already gone over.
If you are having trouble retaining information, I suggest you get MCAT audio osmosis. I found that Jordan and John helped me learn some boring ass subjects.
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yes i thought that it was awesome! don't know if the orgo was AS helpful as the other 3 subjects, but still very helpful.
actually i strongly suggest getting down content. if you know the content, you can easily get half or more questions right by using your knowledge on the content and/or eliminating the WRONG answers on questions that ask you to reason from the passage.
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First of all (and this is not intended to instill false confidence by ANY means!--you still have a lot of work ahead of you), what practice test was this?
Kaplan and the AAMC freebie both undershot my score by 7 points (23 on those, 30 on the real thing with no dif in preparation at that point). The Barrons MCAT book was most suggestive of my actual score, ranging from 29 to 32.
For VR, its hard to get the score up in a short period of time but do try by using a practice book. If I were you, I'd focus most of my efforts on BS and PS (especially BS if your background is in bio) and really pound that info into your head.
If money is an issue, get used books, can be from a few years back, from a cheap site like Better World Books.
Topics of note: bremsstrahlung (man they love that bremsstrahlung), REALLY basic endocrine, aromatic stuff for o chem, acid/base is a MUST so don't scrimp on it.
Hope this helps. I am a second year med student so its been awhile for me but I still remember some stuff.
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Doesn't sound like you know your content at all.
I don't think 2 months will be enough time for you to prepare. It might be better for you to look at nooshie's (sp?) guide and go back to the basics and work your way up again.
Unless it was a diagnostic, a 17 with 2 months to go shows that you haven't really been studying right at all.
I don't think 2 months will be enough time for you to prepare. It might be better for you to look at nooshie's (sp?) guide and go back to the basics and work your way up again.
Unless it was a diagnostic, a 17 with 2 months to go shows that you haven't really been studying right at all.
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If you are not doing anything else or doing something else very part time, I would not freak out too much. I started with a 20 and improved into the 30's after maybe an equivalent of a month of hardcore studying.
- In terms of biology, I would get a thorough review book (I had TPR and liked it) and outline 2 chapters/day. TPR Biology has questions all throughout the chapter, so it's active reading whether you like it or not. Maybe do one chapter for a topic you like less and one for a topic you like more to reward yourself 🙂
- In terms of verbal, you need to understand where you are falling through the cracks. I know I would re-read sections I didn't understand before going to the questions, but you can't afford to do that, time wise. If your reading speed is up to par, then maybe you are falling for the trick answers. This is usually corrected by going back to the part of the passage they are talking about and understanding it for yourself within the context of the question, but before looking at the answers.
- In terms of biology, I would get a thorough review book (I had TPR and liked it) and outline 2 chapters/day. TPR Biology has questions all throughout the chapter, so it's active reading whether you like it or not. Maybe do one chapter for a topic you like less and one for a topic you like more to reward yourself 🙂
- In terms of verbal, you need to understand where you are falling through the cracks. I know I would re-read sections I didn't understand before going to the questions, but you can't afford to do that, time wise. If your reading speed is up to par, then maybe you are falling for the trick answers. This is usually corrected by going back to the part of the passage they are talking about and understanding it for yourself within the context of the question, but before looking at the answers.
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