Abysmal practice MCAT, need advice. Should I postpone?

[ihatebluescrubs]

Hi all,

To keep things short, I've been studying for the MCAT over the past 4 months in addition to a full time job. It's been pretty tough - I roughly have 4 or so hours to study on work days and weekends I try to study the entire day but full studying days are not as efficient as I hoped. I've gone over all content (using Kaplan's online content), taken Kaplan's course and in the past two weeks, I've been doing a couple of practice test. All my scores are bad:

Kap FL 6: 10BS, 8VR, 7PS
Kap FL 7: 10BS, 7VR, 8PS
AAMC11: 10BS, 7VR, 8PS

The problem I think is this: I'm having a lot of trouble retaining information. The stuff I've covered two weeks ago becomes alot harder for me to remember or apply. Even for the stuff that I thought I knew well, I'm having trouble applying the concepts to the passages. Some passages (almost all passages in PS) are tough for me to understand and comprehend even when I understand the concepts.

I'm scheduled to take the January MCAT and have roughly 40 days left. Should I postpone? If so, the only nearest available date for all locations near me is late April. The downside (or upside) is that it's 4 months from now.

Thanks for your help!

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[aspiring20]

Hi all,

To keep things short, I've been studying for the MCAT over the past 4 months in addition to a full time job. It's been pretty tough - I roughly have 4 or so hours to study on work days and weekends I try to study the entire day but full studying days are not as efficient as I hoped. I've gone over all content (using Kaplan's online content), taken Kaplan's course and in the past two weeks, I've been doing a couple of practice test. All my scores are bad:

Kap FL 6: 10BS, 8VR, 7PS
Kap FL 7: 10BS, 7VR, 8PS
AAMC11: 10BS, 7VR, 8PS

The problem I think is this: I'm having a lot of trouble retaining information. The stuff I've covered two weeks ago becomes alot harder for me to remember or apply. Even for the stuff that I thought I knew well, I'm having trouble applying the concepts to the passages. Some passages (almost all passages in PS) are tough for me to understand and comprehend even when I understand the concepts.

I'm scheduled to take the January MCAT and have roughly 40 days left. Should I postpone? If so, the only nearest available date for all locations near me is late April. The downside (or upside) is that it's 4 months from now.

Thanks for your help!

what score are you shooting for? if you are satisfied with a 30, i would work full time during these last 40 days and really go bonkers with the MCAT. if you are shooting for a 35+, then i would definitely postpone until April. in fact, i am leaning towards postponing regardless. dont take this exam until you are 110% ready for it.

as for studying, have you tried branching out from kaplan and trying other materials such as EK 1001, TBR, etc?

you said you finished kaplan's course. did you do all (or at least most) of their online problems (topical tests, section tests, etc.)?

i would postpone your exam, ask kaplan for an extension, and dedicate more than 4 hrs a day to the MCAT. and if you are weak on content, always refer to other sources or even your textbooks. Your BS seems strong atm, so focus more on the PS and VR sections. Kaplan isn't known for having strong VR passages, so for this section, i recommend picking up EK 1001 verbal, which has over 14 full-length verbal test worth of passages for you the chew through.

don't give up!

 

[ihatebluescrubs]

Thanks a bunch for your advice!

I had been planning on taking the mcat since July, so I've actually taken Kaplan's course two times (first time was for the class, second time was to keep the online access) and have done around 60% of their offered materials (the topical, section tests). I took two Kaplan FLs after the first class. For Kaplan FL1 and 2, I scored 27. So I'm actually doing much more poorly now than before.

I have alot of resources but I just never had the time to use all of it: BR, Princeton Hyperlearning, EK. I'm guessing one reason I did so poorly on my practice test is that I focused way too much on content review. Mainly because I would always refer back to my notes/books and re-review.

Also, I'm still not sure how to prep for verbal because I've read all the SDN posts regarding verbal strategies but it never pans out. On average, I get at least two questions wrong on each passage. If I do end up deciding to postpone, I think I know how to improve on BS and PR (basically by doing more practice tests) but I don't know how I can improve on verbal. Any ideas?

 

[Gauss44]

Hi all,

To keep things short, I've been studying for the MCAT over the past 4 months in addition to a full time job. It's been pretty tough - I roughly have 4 or so hours to study on work days and weekends I try to study the entire day but full studying days are not as efficient as I hoped. I've gone over all content (using Kaplan's online content), taken Kaplan's course and in the past two weeks, I've been doing a couple of practice test. All my scores are bad:

Kap FL 6: 10BS, 8VR, 7PS
Kap FL 7: 10BS, 7VR, 8PS
AAMC11: 10BS, 7VR, 8PS

The problem I think is this: I'm having a lot of trouble retaining information. The stuff I've covered two weeks ago becomes alot harder for me to remember or apply. Even for the stuff that I thought I knew well, I'm having trouble applying the concepts to the passages. Some passages (almost all passages in PS) are tough for me to understand and comprehend even when I understand the concepts.

I'm scheduled to take the January MCAT and have roughly 40 days left. Should I postpone? If so, the only nearest available date for all locations near me is late April. The downside (or upside) is that it's 4 months from now.

Thanks for your help!

AAMC score will probably be the score you get plus or minus 2 points. I think you have until mid January to reschedule. Wait a while and see how you are scoring in 25 days or so.

Seats available will come and go. Even though they're booked until April, there's always a chance someone else will reschedule freeing up a seat.