500 MCAT score. How should I improve my score?

[TheRandomKitten]

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks guys!

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[JimKimSlim]

Your C/P and B/B look pretty decent, which means you're doing a good job with memorizing at least. You should keep reviewing concepts and weak points with Anki.
For CARS, you should start doing at least 2 CARS passagaes every day. You can start with JW or other 3rd party to practice timing but sowly transition to AAMC logic.
With P/S becoming more like CARS, I'm not surprised that P/S is your second lowest. I believe if you at least know all the definitions, you can score above 125. It is crucial you identify your weakest type of problems by analyzing your AAMC FL data.

I'm certain that you can definitely make good improvement. Wish you the best of luck.

 

[TheRandomKitten]

Your C/P and B/B look pretty decent, which means you're doing a good job with memorizing at least. You should keep reviewing concepts and weak points with Anki.
For CARS, you should start doing at least 2 CARS passagaes every day. You can start with JW or other 3rd party to practice timing but sowly transition to AAMC logic.
With P/S becoming more like CARS, I'm not surprised that P/S is your second lowest. I believe if you at least know all the definitions, you can score above 125. It is crucial you identify your weakest type of problems by analyzing your AAMC FL data.

I'm certain that you can definitely make good improvement. Wish you the best of luck.

Thanks for your input! But what do you mean I start with JW and transition to AAMC logic?

 

[JimKimSlim]

Thanks for your input! But what do you mean I start with JW and transition to AAMC logic?

JW = jackwestin passages that are free and good for practice timing. However, no third party CARS can match the rationale/logic of AAMC materials, so around 5-6 weeks from test day, you should transition to using only AAMC materials.

 

[goodtime]

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks guys!
View attachment 314193

How much/how long content review did you do for BB?

 

[TheRandomKitten]

How much/how long content review did you do for BB?

I spent more time on BB than anything else because I just like biology. But just overall didn’t spent that much time studying for the MCAT.

 

[GreenDuck12]

I spent more time on BB than anything else because I just like biology. But just overall didn’t spent that much time studying for the MCAT.

Can you be more specific about what you did to study? It helps folks give more specific feedback.

 

[KnightDoc]

I spent more time on BB than anything else because I just like biology. But just overall didn’t spent that much time studying for the MCAT.

So, you overall didn't spend much time studying for the MCAT, you scored at the 50%-ile, and you don't know what you need to do to improve your score? Really?

 

[KnightDoc]

Can you be more specific about what you did to study? It helps folks give more specific feedback.

What's the difference? Whatever it was, it didn't take much time!!!

 

[GreenDuck12]

What's the difference? Whatever it was, it didn't take much time!!!

I try to give genuine advice whenever possible.

 

[KnightDoc]

I try to give genuine advice whenever possible.

Fair enough. The genuine advice here is that, as OP learned the hard way, the MCAT is not a test that anyone can get away with half-***ing. Maybe I'm just in a mood tonight, but I honestly think anyone claiming to need advice on how to improve a 50%-ile score when they admittedly "just overall didn’t spent that much time studying for the MCAT" is trolling us.

Specifics really don't matter. OP demonstrated that he has at least average intelligence and aptitude, and received exactly the type of score one would expect when they "just overall didn’t spent that much time studying for the MCAT." What else is there to say?

 

[TheRandomKitten]

S

I try to give genuine advice whenever possible.

So I had Kaplan PS book, Kaplan physics book, kaplan biochem book. With biology and organic chemistry, I studied with the books that I already had. I honestly didn’t spend any time studying for CARS. With PS just went over important terms ( the bolded ones)
When I was studying with these books, I just read through them.
Overall I think I spent less than 200 hours studying for the MCAT.

 

[GreenDuck12]

S


So I had Kaplan PS book, Kaplan physics book, kaplan biochem book. With biology and organic chemistry, I studied with the books that I already had. I honestly didn’t spend any time studying for CARS. With PS just went over important terms ( the bolded ones)
When I was studying with these books, I just read through them.
Overall I think I spent less than 200 hours studying for the MCAT.

Any practice mcat exams prior to the test?

 

[TheRandomKitten]

Fair enough. The genuine advice here is that, as OP learned the hard way, is that the MCAT is not a test that anyone can get away with half-***ing. Maybe I'm just in a mood tonight, but I honestly think anyone claiming to need advice on how to improve a 50%-ile score when they admittedly "just overall didn’t spent that much time studying for the MCAT" is trolling us.

Specifics really don't matter. OP demonstrated that he has at least average intelligence and aptitude, and received exactly the type of score one would expect when they "just overall didn’t spent that much time studying for the MCAT." What else is there to say?

Chill bro. You don’t need to get upset over MY test score lol

 

[GreenDuck12]

Fair enough. The genuine advice here is that, as OP learned the hard way, the MCAT is not a test that anyone can get away with half-***ing. Maybe I'm just in a mood tonight, but I honestly think anyone claiming to need advice on how to improve a 50%-ile score when they admittedly "just overall didn’t spent that much time studying for the MCAT" is trolling us.

Specifics really don't matter. OP demonstrated that he has at least average intelligence and aptitude, and received exactly the type of score one would expect when they "just overall didn’t spent that much time studying for the MCAT." What else is there to say?

Just saying that one did not study very long doesn’t describe much about the effectiveness of their underlying approach.

 

[KnightDoc]

Chill bro. You don’t need to get upset over MY test score lol

Point well taken! But what advice are you seriously looking for if you admittedly didn't spend a lot of time and aren't happy with your score? Do you think anyone has a magic bullet that doesn't involve a lot of time?

 

[KnightDoc]

Just saying that one did not study very long doesn’t describe much about the effectiveness of their underlying approach.

True, but I am unaware of ANY effective, successful approach to this test that doesn't involve a significant amount of time.

 

[TheRandomKitten]

Any practice mcat exams prior to the test?

I did go over the questions that come with the book I studied with but I didn’t do any full length practice tests.

 

[GreenDuck12]

True, but I am unaware of ANY effective, successful approach to this test that doesn't involve a significant amount of time.

Having additional information about one’s approach allows someone to say “you were on the right track you just need to stay the course.” Or, it allows you to say “you might want to reconsider x, add in y resource, try z strategy” for example. That’s what I’m trying to do...

 

[KnightDoc]

I did go over the questions that come with the book I studied with but I didn’t do any full length practice tests.

...and, you really need us to tell you, after receiving your score, that taking full length practice tests might be a good idea?

 

[KnightDoc]

Having additional information about one’s approach allows someone to say “you were on the right track you just need to stay the course.” Or, it allows you to say “you might want to reconsider x, add in y resource, try z strategy” for example. That’s what I’m trying to do...

Yup. Just keep reading his posts. He knows what he didn't do. He's trolling us. Feel free to tell him AAMC materials are useful.

 

[TheRandomKitten]

Point well taken! But what advice are you seriously looking for if you admittedly didn't spend a lot of time and aren't happy with your score? Do you think anyone has a magic bullet that doesn't involve a lot of time?

Well obviously I didn’t have that much resources to begin with. I don’t know that much about what kind of study materials should I be using or how should I be studying for the test. I’m also fairly new to SDN.

 

[KnightDoc]

Well obviously I didn’t have that much resources to begin with. I don’t know that much about what kind of study materials should I be using or how should I be studying for the test. I’m also fairly new to SDN.

Well, you somehow managed to figure out how to register for the test. Did you notice that the nice folks who administer the test make all sorts of helpful material available for sale to assist in your preparation to take the test?

In any event, you presumably have some college under your belt. I therefore find it a little disingenuous for you to come here with a subpar section score (CARS) where you "honestly didn’t spend any time studying for CARS," and seriously be asking how you could improve. I would think the obvious answer would be to spend some time studying. I honestly don't know whether or not you are serious, but @GreenDuck12 is a great resource who really knows this stuff, so just do what he says.

But, for the record, tons of people never stumble onto SDN and are still able to figure out that it's pretty important to adequately prepare for a professional school entrance examination before taking it. That 500 is going to be with you forever, no matter how well you do on a retake. Good luck.

 

[GreenDuck12]

I did go over the questions that come with the book I studied with but I didn’t do any full length practice tests.

Cool, this helps.

Kaplan is a solid resource in that it presents most material in a concise and efficient manner. The challenge with Kaplan’s books is they are designed to work in concert with their more expensive programs: classes, online question bank, and exams. This means that we need to supplement with additional materials and resources.

As a preface, when I first start working with my students I tell them that the mcat is not as much a content test as it is a reasoning exam rooted in chemical, physical, and biological concepts. For that reason, content review only gets us so far. We can’t simply memorize our way to a 528. To that end, I recommend supplementing with additional resources. The resources I most commonly recommend are:
1. All AAMC full length exams, question banks, and section packs. As a minimum, these materials are required.
2. UWorld: this is a program with simulated mcat questions and passages. I recommend this for practice with passages, timing, and identifying content gaps.
3. The Berkeley Review: IMO these are the strongest review books as they are designed with end of chapter passage based exams modeled after the mcat. Using their schedule, you will encounter a spaced repetition method that helps a lot of students retain material.
4. Next Step mcat exams 1-5. Important for identifying content gaps and to practice timing and strategies before using AAMC exams, which are used to gauge your preparation prior to the real mcat.

A common schedule I recommend is as follows:
1.
2 months of content review using TBR and Kaplan. Note TBR is not required, you can use other resources but you need practice with passages. Khan Academy has free passages but I am not a fan of their presentation. Use this time to thoroughly go through all sections of the exam. Start practicing cars using free jack Westin passages.
2.
4-6 weeks of intensive simulated mcat practice. Use next step exams at 1 week intervals, review for content gaps and to guide studying. During the week, use UWorld to simulate full length mcat sections (59 questions in 95 minutes). I personally like simulated half mcats two-three times per week.
3.
4-6 weeks of intensive AAMC review. Take all 5 AAMC full length exams, section banks, and qpacks. The section bank and cars qpack are worth doing twice during your prep. Once early on is ideal but also during this final phase. The goal of this is to really get inside the structure and logical of how the AAMC writes the mcat.

Hope this helps, let me know if you have any questions.

 

[GoPenguinsGo]

I did go over the questions that come with the book I studied with but I didn’t do any full length practice tests.

There's your problem right there. You need to get comfortable with Biochem experimental techniques (siRNA, Western Blot, Southern Blot, Northern Blot etc), go over P/S MUCH more indepth than you did, and you must get comfortable answering questions based on a science experiment rather than getting ready to regurgitate info from a prep book. End thread.

 

[TheRandomKitten]

Cool, this helps.

Kaplan is a solid resource in that it presents most material in a concise and efficient manner. The challenge with Kaplan’s books is they are designed to work in concert with their more expensive programs: classes, online question bank, and exams. This means that we need to supplement with additional materials and resources.

As a preface, when I first start working with my students I tell them that the mcat is not as much a content test as it is a reasoning exam rooted in chemical, physical, and biological concepts. For that reason, content review only gets us so far. We can’t simply memorize our way to a 528. To that end, I recommend supplementing with additional resources. The resources I most commonly recommend are:
1. All AAMC full length exams, question banks, and section packs. As a minimum, these materials are required.
2. UWorld: this is a program with simulated mcat questions and passages. I recommend this for practice with passages, timing, and identifying content gaps.
3. The Berkeley Review: IMO these are the strongest review books as they are designed with end of chapter passage based exams modeled after the mcat. Using their schedule, you will encounter a spaced repetition method that helps a lot of students retain material.
4. Next Step mcat exams 1-5. Important for identifying content gaps and to practice timing and strategies before using AAMC exams, which are used to gauge your preparation prior to the real mcat.

A common schedule I recommend is as follows:
1.
2 months of content review using TBR and Kaplan. Note TBR is not required, you can use other resources but you need practice with passages. Khan Academy has free passages but I am not a fan of their presentation. Use this time to thoroughly go through all sections of the exam. Start practicing cars using free jack Westin passages.
2.
4-6 weeks of intensive simulated mcat practice. Use next step exams at 1 week intervals, review for content gaps and to guide studying. During the week, use UWorld to simulate full length mcat sections (59 questions in 95 minutes). I personally like simulated half mcats two-three times per week.
3.
4-6 weeks of intensive AAMC review. Take all 5 AAMC full length exams, section banks, and qpacks. The section bank and cars qpack are worth doing twice during your prep. Once early on is ideal but also during this final phase. The goal of this is to really get inside the structure and logical of how the AAMC writes the mcat.

Hope this helps, let me know if you have any questions.

This is amazing! Thank you so much! I guess I should prepare to spend more time on MCAT style problem solving than just reviewing the materials. I appreciate your help.

 

[JimKimSlim]

True, but I am unaware of ANY effective, successful approach to this test that doesn't involve a significant amount of time.

Not to stir into this conversation, but my closest friend took the test after studying for three weeks with no practice tests (<100 hours of studying) and still got a 518. He’s a great test taker tho (perfect score SAT, ACT, and GMAT), but imagine if he did spend more time studying..

 

[KnightDoc]

Not to stir into this conversation, but my closest friend took the test after studying for three weeks with no practice tests (<100 hours of studying) and still got a 518. He’s a great test taker tho (perfect score SAT, ACT, and GMAT), but imagine if he did spend more time studying..

Yup. And my annoyance had nothing to do with OP's score, which is actually pretty decent under the circumstances. The whole point of my snark was that OP knows what he did wrong, clearly knows the resources that are available that he did not use (FLs and AAMC material) and knows that he didn't put in the time, so the post just seemed like a troll. Still does.

You friend is clearly a great test taker, but if the MCAT turned out differently for him than his other standardized tests, would he really have come here to ask what he did wrong? (Come to think of it, since he had 100%-ile on the other tests and "only" a 96%-ile on the MCAT -- even he did not really get away with half-***ing this test, and now he's someone with perfect scores his whole life who will be applying to top schools with a MCAT below their medians!)

 

[JimKimSlim]

Yup. And my annoyance had nothing to do with OP's score, which is actually pretty decent under the circumstances. The whole point of my snark was that OP knows what he did wrong, clearly knows the resources that are available that he did not use (FLs and AAMC material) and knows that he didn't put in the time, so the post just seemed like a troll. Still does.

You friend is clearly a great test taker, but if the MCAT turned out differently for him than his other standardized tests, would he really have come here to ask what he did wrong? (Come to think of it, since he had 100%-ile on the other tests and "only" a 96%-ile on the MCAT -- even he did not really get away with half-***ing this test, and now he's someone with perfect scores his whole life who will be applying to top schools with a MCAT below their medians!)

Yeah, he realized he needed to study more to get a perfect score. He only took the test to write down his test scores on LinkedIn/CV. He’s not interested in medical school and just finished an MBA program somewhere.

 

[GoPenguinsGo]

@JimKimSlim @GreenDuck12 @KnightDoc Guys, OP is trolling. This MCAT is not even recent. The posted score's percentiles by section do not even match up with current percentiles since May 2020. Reporting OP.

 

[JimKimSlim]

@JimKimSlim @GreenDuck12 @KnightDoc Guys, OP is trolling. This MCAT is not even recent. The posted score's percentiles by section do not even match up with current percentiles since May 2020. Reporting OP.

But it did bring up an interesting dialogue about studying strategy. An old man once said “when you try to help someone, you always seem to find what you didn’t know you were looking for.”

 

[KnightDoc]

@JimKimSlim @GreenDuck12 @KnightDoc Guys, OP is trolling. This MCAT is not even recent. The posted score's percentiles by section do not even match up with current percentiles since May 2020. Reporting OP.

I had a feeling. Thanks for doing the legwork to confirm!!