27 (1st try) to 35 (re-take) - What I did

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CavsFan2016

CavsFan2016

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Hey guys,

I always thought it was really helpful when I saw other user's study schedules for the MCAT, so I thought I would share my story as well.

I took the old MCAT in January 2014 and got a 27 (10/9/8) 60th percentile. I was a little depressed, thinking my chances of getting into an MD program were over. Plus with the switch to the new MCAT, I was feeling overwhelmed. However, I dug deep and slowly began preparing for the new MCAT, eventually pulling off a score of 517 12 months later.

Here was how I studied:

EK set of Review Books (Complete)
~ went through each book and typed up the important information that I didn't understand
~ reviewed the notes I wrote daily

PR (just the Biology/Biochemistry Review Book and Psyc/Soc Review Book)
~ Just to nail down the topics that I was a little weak on

EK 101 Passages
~ a couple passages (TIMED! Very important) every week

Khan Academy
~ Great help for studying for Psych/Soc section

As you study and review the material, try to make connections with everything you are studying - don't think "I'm just studying chemistry right now". Think how this relates to biology/the human body, etc.

Began going through AAMC Practice material and NextStep Practice Exams 2 months before my exam.
~ Make sure you complete EVERYTHING of the AAMC material and understand every question - ESPECIALLY THE SECTION BANKS --> these are your best guide and the most difficult material AAMC releases - if you can get these down, the actual MCAT will feel much more comfortable to you.
~ go through practice questions 2 or 3 times - even if you know the answer, make sure you understand WHY it's the right answer - that's critical.
~ Do not worry about how many questions you are missing or what your scores are on the practice tests (especially NextStep exams) - its meaningless. Seriously. As long as you know that you are improving and becoming more comfortable with how to navigate through a passage and answer questions, you will be fine.

Take the AAMC Practice Exam 1 (unscored) 4-6 weeks before your exam.
~ again, don't worry about the percentages too much - make sure that you spend 1-2 weeks going through the exam again and you understand everything on the exam

Take the AAMC Official Exam (scored) 1-2 weeks before your exam.
~ this will give you a BROAD range of where you are at/what score you can expect to get on the real thing. But still don't read into the score. Just go over the material and understand what you missed and WHY you missed it.

DO NOT study the 2-3 days leading up to the exam. Relax.

Day of exam: Go in confident. You should be ready by now. Go in and kill it.


Hope this helped someone out there. Let me know if you guys have any other questions.
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AccessoryNavicular said:
I've heard word from many people who thought the new MCAT was easier. What did you think?


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I wouldn't say easier - just different. The range of material covered on the new MCAT is greater obviously with the addition of biochemistry, psychology and sociology. However, the complexity and depth of the questions may have been a little more shallow on the new MCAT to compensate for that. To me, it seems as if this new MCAT is a work in-progress that they are still adjusting and trying to figure out. It's hard to completely revamp the MCAT and expect everything to run smoothly the first couple of years.
 
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Thanks for your two cents!
I've been self-studying using Kaplan - doing a chapter a day for all subjects (physio, biochem, chem, physics) and using princeton review for CARS. I also have EK complete set that I haven't touched yet.

My MCAT is Sept. 10. I feel like there's so much material, how do you guys retain everything throughout content review?
 
toddgurley said:
Thanks for your two cents!
I've been self-studying using Kaplan - doing a chapter a day for all subjects (physio, biochem, chem, physics) and using princeton review for CARS. I also have EK complete set that I haven't touched yet.

My MCAT is Sept. 10. I feel like there's so much material, how do you guys retain everything throughout content review?
Click to expand...


Remember, your goal is not to KNOW the material, but to UNDERSTAND the material and apply it on the exam. If the MCAT was just a test of regurgitating information, it would be a much easier test to study for. Thats the challenge.

The best advice I can give you is to write your own notes and constantly review them. If you just read through a review book, you won't absorb much. You have to stay active and honestly ask yourself "do I understand this?" as you go through the material.

The AAM questions that you miss will give you an idea of where your weaknesses are - focus on those subjects.
 
How did you study for the old MCAT where you got a 27? What was different in your studying skills / mindset? What changed that you were able to get a 35 the second time around?
 
I tried to cram for it the first time over winter break. Studied right up until the exam, was exhausted and my mind was shot. Don't make the same mistakes I did - allow sufficient time to study!


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CavsFan2016 said:
I tied to cram for it the first time over winter break. Studied right up until the exam, was exhausted and my mind was shot. Don't make the same mistakes I did - allow sufficient time to study!


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Click to expand...

Did you just focus on content first time around rather than practice passages? Did you do way more practice passages on your next try?
 
Grats on your success. Probably better suited for the MCAT forum.
 
The moment you finished taking the exam, did you feel like you made a 517?
 
How well do you think next step practice tests represented the actual test? I'm retaking the mcat too bc I did worse than I was doing on princeton tests, which was a bummer cuz I've heard that people usually score more than what they're getting on those practice tests :/
 
peenut_butter said:
Did you just focus on content first time around rather than practice passages? Did you do way more practice passages on your next try?
Click to expand...

Yes practice passages are essential. The first time around I just read through the books and didn't have enough time to do a lot of practice passages - that definitely hurt me.
 
MilaKunisDoe said:
The moment you finished taking the exam, did you feel like you made a 517?
Click to expand...

Its impossible to know how well you did walking out of the exam. But I did know that I gave my best effort and I was going to be happy with whatever score I got at that point.
 
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GCS-15 said:
How well do you think next step practice tests represented the actual test? I'm retaking the mcat too bc I did worse than I was doing on princeton tests, which was a bummer cuz I've heard that people usually score more than what they're getting on those practice tests :/
Click to expand...

NextStep Practice Tests are much more difficult than the actual exam. But thats what makes them good practice. If you can get used to those kind of passages, the actual AAMC will be much easier. DO NOT worry about how you score on these practice exams, NextStep, Kaplan or Princeton Review. Just focus on understanding the material and learning from your mistakes.
 
So the new one is broader, but less in depth - interesting.
 
AccessoryNavicular said:
I've heard word from many people who thought the new MCAT was easier. What did you think?


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It is not easier, by any stretch of the imagination.

Not only is it a significantly longer test now, at 6 h total, but it also covers 4 more subjects that were not covered in depth on the old exam: Biochemistry, Psychology, Sociology, and Research Methods/Statistics.

Additionally, much more of the test is related to experimental analysis and reasoning.

The old MCAT was not a piece of cake in comparison to this one, but it was a hell of a lot easier to do well on.

musclebro said:
So the new one is broader, but less in depth - interesting.
Click to expand...

It isn't less in depth. There are just more topics covered.


____________

Standardized tests get harder as time goes on because people have better resources and students are more intelligent as time goes on.
(Yes, the IQ scores, standardized on the same level of difficulty, of your parent's generation are less than your generation's, and your children's generation will have scores better than ours)
 
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CavsFan2016 said:
Hey guys,

I always thought it was really helpful when I saw other user's study schedules for the MCAT, so I thought I would share my story as well.

I took the old MCAT in January 2014 and got a 27 (10/9/8) 60th percentile. I was a little depressed, thinking my chances of getting into an MD program were over. Plus with the switch to the new MCAT, I was feeling overwhelmed. However, I dug deep and slowly began preparing for the new MCAT, eventually pulling off a score of 517 12 months later.

Here was how I studied:

EK set of Review Books (Complete)
~ went through each book and typed up the important information that I didn't understand
~ reviewed the notes I wrote daily

PR (just the Biology/Biochemistry Review Book and Psyc/Soc Review Book)
~ Just to nail down the topics that I was a little weak on

EK 101 Passages
~ a couple passages (TIMED! Very important) every week

Khan Academy
~ Great help for studying for Psych/Soc section

As you study and review the material, try to make connections with everything you are studying - don't think "I'm just studying chemistry right now". Think how this relates to biology/the human body, etc.

Began going through AAMC Practice material and NextStep Practice Exams 2 months before my exam.
~ Make sure you complete EVERYTHING of the AAMC material and understand every question - ESPECIALLY THE SECTION BANKS --> these are your best guide and the most difficult material AAMC releases - if you can get these down, the actual MCAT will feel much more comfortable to you.
~ go through practice questions 2 or 3 times - even if you know the answer, make sure you understand WHY it's the right answer - that's critical.
~ Do not worry about how many questions you are missing or what your scores are on the practice tests (especially NextStep exams) - its meaningless. Seriously. As long as you know that you are improving and becoming more comfortable with how to navigate through a passage and answer questions, you will be fine.

Take the AAMC Practice Exam 1 (unscored) 4-6 weeks before your exam.
~ again, don't worry about the percentages too much - make sure that you spend 1-2 weeks going through the exam again and you understand everything on the exam

Take the AAMC Official Exam (scored) 1-2 weeks before your exam.
~ this will give you a BROAD range of where you are at/what score you can expect to get on the real thing. But still don't read into the score. Just go over the material and understand what you missed and WHY you missed it.

DO NOT study the 2-3 days leading up to the exam. Relax.

Day of exam: Go in confident. You should be ready by now. Go in and kill it.


Hope this helped someone out there. Let me know if you guys have any other questions.
Click to expand...

How long did you study for your retake?
 
What was key in scoring higher - Do you think the first time the problem was content, or do you think you just needed more practice? Any advice for improving scores on difficult research/experimental passages?
 
Would you recommend section banks before the FLs (regardless of what company the FLs are from?) I am nearing the end of "fluff" material (i.e. not AAMC).

Thanks and congrats on a great score!!
 
CavsFan2016 said:
Hey guys,

I always thought it was really helpful when I saw other user's study schedules for the MCAT, so I thought I would share my story as well.

I took the old MCAT in January 2014 and got a 27 (10/9/8) 60th percentile. I was a little depressed, thinking my chances of getting into an MD program were over. Plus with the switch to the new MCAT, I was feeling overwhelmed. However, I dug deep and slowly began preparing for the new MCAT, eventually pulling off a score of 517 12 months later.

Here was how I studied:

EK set of Review Books (Complete)
~ went through each book and typed up the important information that I didn't understand
~ reviewed the notes I wrote daily

PR (just the Biology/Biochemistry Review Book and Psyc/Soc Review Book)
~ Just to nail down the topics that I was a little weak on

EK 101 Passages
~ a couple passages (TIMED! Very important) every week

Khan Academy
~ Great help for studying for Psych/Soc section

As you study and review the material, try to make connections with everything you are studying - don't think "I'm just studying chemistry right now". Think how this relates to biology/the human body, etc.

Began going through AAMC Practice material and NextStep Practice Exams 2 months before my exam.
~ Make sure you complete EVERYTHING of the AAMC material and understand every question - ESPECIALLY THE SECTION BANKS --> these are your best guide and the most difficult material AAMC releases - if you can get these down, the actual MCAT will feel much more comfortable to you.
~ go through practice questions 2 or 3 times - even if you know the answer, make sure you understand WHY it's the right answer - that's critical.
~ Do not worry about how many questions you are missing or what your scores are on the practice tests (especially NextStep exams) - its meaningless. Seriously. As long as you know that you are improving and becoming more comfortable with how to navigate through a passage and answer questions, you will be fine.

Take the AAMC Practice Exam 1 (unscored) 4-6 weeks before your exam.
~ again, don't worry about the percentages too much - make sure that you spend 1-2 weeks going through the exam again and you understand everything on the exam

Take the AAMC Official Exam (scored) 1-2 weeks before your exam.
~ this will give you a BROAD range of where you are at/what score you can expect to get on the real thing. But still don't read into the score. Just go over the material and understand what you missed and WHY you missed it.

DO NOT study the 2-3 days leading up to the exam. Relax.

Day of exam: Go in confident. You should be ready by now. Go in and kill it.


Hope this helped someone out there. Let me know if you guys have any other questions.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the Great tips! Definitely helpful.

Quick question, so you used multiple resources (PR, EK, Khan, AAMC, etc.) and studied different sections using them. Obviously a smart move.
How were you able to decide which sections to study using which study texts? Ex: you studied Biochem and Psyc/Soc section using PR.
Do you recommend just running through all the sections with one complete set and then buying specific study texts from a different source focusing on sections that you need more practice in?

Thanks! Hopefully i made sense ....
 
GCS-15 said:
What was key in scoring higher - Do you think the first time the problem was content, or do you think you just needed more practice? Any advice for improving scores on difficult research/experimental passages?
Click to expand...

The first step in doing well on the MCAT is knowing the content in my opinion. Without the content, you simply won't be able to do well. That was my problem the first time I took the exam. Although the difficult research/experimental passages may seem overwhelming, a lot of the passages are only testing basic fundamental concepts - if you can identify the theme of the passage and the basic underlying concepts, you can answer most (if not all) of the questions right.
 
frosted2 said:
Would you recommend section banks before the FLs (regardless of what company the FLs are from?) I am nearing the end of "fluff" material (i.e. not AAMC).

Thanks and congrats on a great score!!
Click to expand...

I would recommend doing the section banks (each of them multiple times) before doing the full lengths - and then doing the section banks again afterwards. They are the best material to prepare you for the exam in my opinion by a long shot.
 
CavsFan2016 said:
I would recommend doing the section banks (each of them multiple times) before doing the full lengths - and then doing the section banks again afterwards. They are the best material to prepare you for the exam in my opinion by a long shot.
Click to expand...

Are the section banks as difficult as the real mcat? Or were the section banks harder?
 
PATSmedicalFAN said:
Thanks for the Great tips! Definitely helpful.

Quick question, so you used multiple resources (PR, EK, Khan, AAMC, etc.) and studied different sections using them. Obviously a smart move.
How were you able to decide which sections to study using which study texts? Ex: you studied Biochem and Psyc/Soc section using PR.
Do you recommend just running through all the sections with one complete set and then buying specific study texts from a different source focusing on sections that you need more practice in?

Thanks! Hopefully i made sense ....
Click to expand...

I believe you should tailor your study guide and the source material to fit your strengths/weaknesses. I was weak in biology (scored an 8 on the old MCAT) and had never taken a sociology class in college - therefore, I reviewed the Princeton Review Biology/Biochemistry and Psych/Soc books in addition to the complete EK set. Yes, a lot of this material will be covered in EK as well, but reviewing something a second/third time is just as important as reviewing it once.
 
MilaKunisDoe said:
Are the section banks as difficult as the real mcat? Or were the section banks harder?
Click to expand...

Section banks were harder - thats why if you can get used to those kind of passages, you will be very comfortable with the real MCAT.
 
lexswift said:
How many practice exams did you take?
Click to expand...

I took 3 NextStep Full length Practice Exams and the two AAMC full length exams. That's all you really need in my opinion - taking dozens of practice exams is not going to help you if you do not thoroughly review the exams afterwards.
 
acetylmandarin said:
9 months is a long time, so were you studying for those first 6 months pretty sparingly?
Click to expand...

I work a full-time job as a scribe, so I spent those first 6 months reviewing at night when I could. By the end of those six months, I had completely reviewed all of the material and had begun focusing solely on practice questions/exams.
 
CavsFan2016 said:
I took 3 NextStep Full length Practice Exams and the two AAMC full length exams. That's all you really need in my opinion - taking dozens of practice exams is not going to help you if you do not thoroughly review the exams afterwards.
Click to expand...

Can you share your strategy for thoroughly reviewing a practice exam?
 
lexswift said:
Can you share your strategy for thoroughly reviewing a practice exam?
Click to expand...

Finish the exam and don't look at the score or start reviewing until the next day. Then, begin reviewing each section and write down the concepts that tripped you up (electronegativity, the nervous system, etc.) - then I would spend a week or so going through all of those concepts making sure that I understood all of them extremely well.

Make sure you understand why you missed a question - did I not understand the concept? did I misread the question? etc.

DO NOT focus on the score - its irrelevant. Especially with the NextStep exams - I was getting 504-505's on them and could care less. What is important is improving your understanding of the material. Only you can know that for sure.
 
CavsFan2016 said:
I tried to cram for it the first time over winter break.
Click to expand...
This is so important in these kinds of threads! Reading the title, it sounds like it might have advice in it to improve from a studied-up 27 to a studied-up 35. Really, it's a reminder that you need to legit study for the MCAT instead of cramming in a few weeks! If you haven't already, you should copy your opinions on study materials into the 510+ scorers thread.

To be MD said:
The old MCAT was not a piece of cake in comparison to this one, but it was a hell of a lot easier to do well on.
Click to expand...
Scores were/are assigned by percentile. The difficulty has always been in outperforming the other testers, not the questions. The typical question may be missed more often now than it used to be, but the test scoring must then also be more forgiving of errors (the old test was very unforgiving, you needed to be near perfect to get into the top few percentile).
 
efle said:
Scores were/are assigned by percentile. The difficulty has always been in outperforming the other testers, not the questions. The typical question may be missed more often now than it used to be, but the test scoring must then also be more forgiving of errors (the old test was very unforgiving, you needed to be near perfect to get into the top few percentile).
Click to expand...

Right.

But, it is more difficult to out perform a larger pool of test takers. Additionally, one would imagine that the test questions were 'easier' on past exams if more people were able to get near-perfect scores.
 
To be MD said:
But, it is more difficult to out perform a larger pool of test takers.
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This is not how percentiles work. If you scored 90th percentile and then had to re-test against a similar student pool ten times larger, there would be 9 new people below you for each 1 above you, and you'd remain at 90th percentile.

To be MD said:
Additionally, one would imagine that the test questions were 'easier' on past exams if more people were able to get near-perfect scores.
Click to expand...
Possibly, but if so then they are easier for every test taker, and so the difficulty of scoring Top X% remains the same.
 
efle said:
This is not how percentiles work. If you scored 90th percentile and then had to re-test against a similar student pool ten times larger, there would be 9 new people below you for each 1 above you, and you'd remain at 90th percentile.


Possibly, but if so then they are easier for every test taker, and so the difficulty of scoring Top X% remains the same.
Click to expand...

I know this is turning into an annoying argument, but I think it's interesting to think about. I'm not arguing against you; I'm just thinking through the numbers.

1) I think percentiles mean a lot more when the pool gets larger. If you win 5th in a race of 10 people, I can't say much about how you are ranked against everyone else; however, if you got 5000th in a race of 10000 people, I'd be able to much more clearly say in the second case, "that guy is an average runner." Having a larger pool of candidates taking the test increases the statistical power of the test.
* I know the change in pool of test takers isn't the drastic, but the truth remains.

2) As I wrote before, standardized tests get more difficult as time goes on. I heard about this through Yale's OpenCourse Psych class, but Dr. Bloom in a lecture explains that, as time passes, human beings get better and better at standardized tests--and they get more and more intelligent. Let's say you sit for an IQ test today and score 100 then hopped in a time machine and took the exact same IQ test 30 years from now. You wouldn't score 100 on the exact same test in the future. Why? The measured average intelligence level of test takers increases year by year. Education gets better as time progresses. The average student in parents' generation wasn't doing Calculus in Grade 12, and their parents' generation's average student may or may not have had an education in the first place.
 
To be MD said:
1) I think percentiles mean a lot more when the pool gets larger. If you win 5th in a race of 10 people, I can't say much about how you are ranked against everyone else; however, if you got 5000th in a race of 10000 people, I'd be able to much more clearly say in the second case, "that guy is an average runner." Having a larger pool of candidates taking the test increases the statistical power of the test.
* I know the change in pool of test takers isn't the drastic, but the truth remains.
Click to expand...
I love annoying arguments! The percentile assignment for the last old tests actually had the much larger n (almost 300,000). And even comparing between single years, it's true the population growth would be negligible (say, rank among 90,000 vs 100,000) and a tightened confidence band around your score is not the same as easier/harder.

To be MD said:
2) As I wrote before, standardized tests get more difficult as time goes on.
Click to expand...
I'd be pretty skeptical of the Flynn effect having any impact at the time of switch. You need something like a decade to pass per few points of IQ increase in the US. Now, I do agree that this will change things in the long run! Unless something happens to the field to make it much less competitive, I think scoring top X% will be harder for someone in forty years than it was for us.
 
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