Advice needed for retaking MCAT

[blastokine]

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I got my scores back from the Sep. 10 test today and scored a 499 on it which means I need to retake this thing. I was using Kaplan to study and I find it awesome how they have the higher score guarantee program which means I can basically get all the features back for another go around. The thing is I've already exhausted a lot of Kaplan's practice materials (qbank, like 6-7 FL tests, passage based questions, AAMC material). Even though the review videos and the books will still help me greatly I know doing the same questions again will inflate my results even if I don't fully remember them.

Does anyone know if Kaplan (or AAMC) will release new material for this next cycle of MCAT's? Is there another party that has good tests that I can just buy a set of tests from?

Also, I graduated from uni this past summer with a B.S. in Chemistry. I took minimal bio courses, one about cells(freshman year) and one about plants and animals (junior year), those didn't help very much when it came down to studying for the MCAT. My school also taught 2 different biochem I courses, one that is chemistry concentrated and one that is bio concentrated, since I was a chem major I took the first one. I'm not going to lie this was a though semester for me and I barely learned and retained any information from that class. As a result a good portion of my studying for this MCAT consisted of me teaching my self all of the biology and biochem concepts from scratch, I feel like I did a pretty good job of that, and I ended up getting my highest score in the bio section. Now I was wondering if it would be a good idea to go back to my uni and take courses in anatomy, the bio biochem, molecular bio, genetics, and other higher level bio classes.

One last note, I have been offered a full time job in clinical research and am not sure what to do now that I need to retake the MCAT. Does anyone have any experience studying for the MCAT while working full time, if so any advice?

Any advice will be much appreciated, thank you all.

 

[FMDoge2020]

-What were your sub scores?
How did you do on the practice exams?
-Did you use the AAMC practice exam? If you did, how did you do?
-How did you prepare for the test? How long?
-Did you fulfill the prerequisites of the schools you plan to apply to?

1)practice tests are abundant. princeton review, next step all have FL.

2)499 is extremely low for MD school and it'll be hard to pull a 9point increase without some serious effort.

3) I would not retake any prerequisites related course unless my GPA is not good enough. MCAT's materials are not that in-depth but you do need to have certain amount of knowledge going into the tests.

4)in my opinion, MCAT prep is almost like a full time job that lasts anywhere from 1-5months. So it'll be bad to do a full time job and focus on studying for it.



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[AnatomyGrey12]

What is your GPA?

 

[blastokine]

-What were your sub scores?
How did you do on the practice exams?
-Did you use the AAMC practice exam? If you did, how did you do?
-How did you prepare for the test? How long?
-Did you fulfill the prerequisites of the schools you plan to apply to?

1)practice tests are abundant. princeton review, next step all have FL.

2)499 is extremely low for MD school and it'll be hard to pull a 9point increase without some serious effort.

3) I would not retake any prerequisites related course unless my GPA is not good enough. MCAT's materials are not that in-depth but you do need to have certain amount of knowledge going into the tests.

4)in my opinion, MCAT prep is almost like a full time job that lasts anywhere from 1-5months. So it'll be bad to do a full time job and focus on studying for it.



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- c/p: 125, cars: 123 (pretty disappointed as I was getting 127/128 on kaplan sections days before the test), bio: 127, psych 124 (also disappointed because I was scoring >80% on most of the practice FL's and felt really good about this section coming out of the actual test)
- got a 501 on AAMC scored
-I prepared for the test by reading most of the chapters from the Kaplan review books, went over a lot of videos on kaplan, made a ton of good flash cards, took 7 FL's, did most of the AAMC practice material (looking back I know I should've done everything AAMC offered), did a lot of other passages and questions provided by kaplan, I also reviewed all the FL's that I took, made a list of concepts that I got wrong, then went back and reviewed those concepts. I studied from late May- test date, but in hindsight I know now that I could've taken it more seriously. Now that I know what it takes I'm fully prepared to give it my all for another go. Also all the Kaplan FL's that I took ranged from 502-504.
-I have fulfilled med school pre reqs at my undergrad

And that is what I feared about taking the full time job, its a job I really wanted and in a city I love, I have some serious thinking to do on what I want to do here.

Thank you!

What is your GPA?

overall GPA is a 3.66, science/math GPA is either right there or a bit higher. Thanks!

 

[Dr. Jan Itor]

Now I was wondering if it would be a good idea to go back to my uni and take courses in anatomy, the bio biochem, molecular bio, genetics, and other higher level bio classes.

One last note, I have been offered a full time job in clinical research and am not sure what to do now that I need to retake the MCAT. Does anyone have any experience studying for the MCAT while working full time, if so any advice?

Any advice will be much appreciated, thank you all.

The only other class I would recommend, if you really wanted another class, is physiology. But you don't need to go back to your university for it. I used Coursera for a physiology course which took me maybe 20 hours total between lectures, studying, and tests. Technically, you don't need physiology pre-MCAT, and it's fairly low yield, but I had a passage on my test that I wouldn't have understood otherwise. All of the other bio stuff I needed was covered in Bio 1.

I prepped for the MCAT with a full time job, three kids, and a deployed husband. I used ExamKrackers and TBR for extra practice passages. They have at least 4 FLs that are fairly representative of the real thing. I loosely followed the schedule @mcatjelly made.

Basically, I'd read a chapter in the morning before the kids woke up, do a 30 min EK exam over lunch, then spend 2 or 3 hours doing TBR passages once kids were asleep. I studied about 4 hours a day, M-F, for 12 weeks. Saturdays were for FLs. The absolutely most helpful thing was reviewing the FLs. I went through every question, even the ones I got right.

Overall, it was unpleasant and I wish I had the luxury of not working and spending all day everyday studying, but I did very well, nonetheless. It's completely doable despite what the Internet says.


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[libertyyne]

I don't know what to tell you OP. 499 is not going to open a lot of doors for you. How seriously did you study? Did you take the fl exams under timed conditions? You need to improve your test taking and critical thinking skills . I am unsure if there is a class that does that.

 

[blastokine]

I don't know what to tell you OP. 499 is not going to open a lot of doors for you. How seriously did you study? Did you take the fl exams under timed conditions? You need to improve your test taking and critical thinking skills . I am unsure if there is a class that does that.

I understand what you're saying, but I know I can get it done this second time around. I'm a smart kid.

 

[blastokine]

The only other class I would recommend, if you really wanted another class, is physiology. But you don't need to go back to your university for it. I used Coursera for a physiology course which took me maybe 20 hours total between lectures, studying, and tests. Technically, you don't need physiology pre-MCAT, and it's fairly low yield, but I had a passage on my test that I wouldn't have understood otherwise. All of the other bio stuff I needed was covered in Bio 1.

I prepped for the MCAT with a full time job, three kids, and a deployed husband. I used ExamKrackers and TBR for extra practice passages. They have at least 4 FLs that are fairly representative of the real thing. I loosely followed the schedule @mcatjelly made.

Basically, I'd read a chapter in the morning before the kids woke up, do a 30 min EK exam over lunch, then spend 2 or 3 hours doing TBR passages once kids were asleep. I studied about 4 hours a day, M-F, for 12 weeks. Saturdays were for FLs. The absolutely most helpful thing was reviewing the FLs. I went through every question, even the ones I got right.

Overall, it was unpleasant and I wish I had the luxury of not working and spending all day everyday studying, but I did very well, nonetheless. It's completely doable despite what the Internet says.


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Thanks! Its nice to hear from people that it can be done. Just gotta be dedicated.

 

[Lawpy]

I understand what you're saying, but I know I can get it done this second time around. I'm a smart kid.

Hmm. Improving test taking skills and analytical reasoning ability isn't something readily achievable. I think in your first attempt, you spent too much time on content review. How did you review your full length exams? Did you categorize your mistakes and reviewed your weaknesses? This is especially key in verbal/CARS. How was your timing there? Were you rushing? Did you understand what you read but messed up because questions were tricky? Were you reading correctly (passive does nothing; you need to critically evaluate what you read; mapping/taking notes is stupid and a waste of time, don't do it).

These are the questions you should be asking yourself when you work on practice passages and exams. A 499, as you know, is a bad score that suggests a combination of poor content knowledge and poor test taking skills. The latter is more difficult to improve and requires a lot of time and effort spent doing a lot of passages under strict time condition and reviewing the passages.

Hope this helps and good luck.

 

[blastokine]

Hmm. Improving test taking skills and analytical reasoning ability isn't something readily achievable. I think in your first attempt, you spent too much time on content review. How did you review your full length exams? Did you categorize your mistakes and reviewed your weaknesses? This is especially key in verbal/CARS. How was your timing there? Were you rushing? Did you understand what you read but messed up because questions were tricky? Were you reading correctly (passive does nothing; you need to critically evaluate what you read; mapping/taking notes is stupid and a waste of time, don't do it).

These are the questions you should be asking yourself when you work on practice passages and exams. A 499, as you know, is a bad score that suggests a combination of poor content knowledge and poor test taking skills. The latter is more difficult to improve and requires a lot of time and effort spent doing a lot of passages under strict time condition and reviewing the passages.

Hope this helps and good luck.

That's the thing I didn't find myself struggling with the time on my practice FL's except for CARs, I was struggling mightily with the timing for CARs passages up until like 2 weeks before the test when I really got it together. However, other than taking timed FL's, I wouldn't time myself on practice sessions that I was doing something that I'm going to change this time around in hope that it will help me with my test taking skills. Thank you!

 

[libertyyne]

Hmm. Improving test taking skills and analytical reasoning ability isn't something readily achievable. I think in your first attempt, you spent too much time on content review. How did you review your full length exams? Did you categorize your mistakes and reviewed your weaknesses? This is especially key in verbal/CARS. How was your timing there? Were you rushing? Did you understand what you read but messed up because questions were tricky? Were you reading correctly (passive does nothing; you need to critically evaluate what you read; mapping/taking notes is stupid and a waste of time, don't do it).

These are the questions you should be asking yourself when you work on practice passages and exams. A 499, as you know, is a bad score that suggests a combination of poor content knowledge and poor test taking skills. The latter is more difficult to improve and requires a lot of time and effort spent doing a lot of passages under strict time condition and reviewing the passages.

Hope this helps and good luck.

Here is the thing. My usual advice is to take all the exams you can under timed conditions. I took close to 21 of them. Op did 7 and still landed in the middle of the pack. Lots of smart motivated people take the test and being in the middle of them is not a bad place to be. I don't know what else to tell OP. You can try a different class? It will be difficult working fulltime and prepping. It's doable but it will make you miserable.

 

[Lawpy]

Here is the thing. My usual advice is to take all the exams you can under timed conditions. I took close to 21 of them. Op did 7 and still landed in the middle of the pack. Lots of smart motivated people take the test and being in the middle of them is not a bad place to be. I don't know what else to tell OP. You can try a different class? It will be difficult working fulltime and prepping. It's doable but it will make you miserable.

But this is assuming OP reviewed his exams thoroughly and did targeted review to focus on strengthening his weaknesses. I don't think he did that honestly despite taking seven exams.

 

[libertyyne]

But this is assuming OP reviewed his exams thoroughly and did targeted review to focus on strengthening his weaknesses. I don't think he did that honestly despite taking seven exams.

I don't know, OP needs to have a come to Jesus moment. Taking more classes is not going to solve that.OP needs a 10+ point increase in mcat scores. I think spinach on the mcat forum has done something like the on the old exam.

 

[Lawpy]

I don't know, OP needs to have a come to Jesus moment. Taking more classes is not going to solve that.OP needs a 10+ point increase in mcat scores. I think spinach on the mcat forum has done something like the on the old exam.

I agree there. But it's more possible to go from a 499 to a 509 than a 509 to a 519 (where nuances begin to matter), so I think it's doable. This requires a fundamental change in OP's test taking strategy, although maybe not as drastic as Spinach's 30-to-40 increase (which is rare).

 

[libertyyne]

I agree there. But it's more possible to go from a 499 to a 509 than a 509 to a 519 (where nuances begin to matter), so I think it's doable. This requires a fundamental change in OP's test taking strategy, although maybe not as drastic as Spinach's 30-to-40 increase (which is rare).

I agree. The problem is that OP has no insight as to where things went wrong. He just said what classes should I take. I can offer meaningful advice to op without that insight on where he went wrong.

 

[jesie]

I'm gonna have to disagree here. MCAT prep is intensive but investing too heavily in it, in my opinion, is unhealthy, unuseful, and turns your mental concept of it away from a test and into a big, undefeatable monster. I doubt more than 8 hours a day could be all that productive for more than a few weeks, anyways, when we are talking about the MCAT (this isn't step we're talking about here). Learning over longer periods of time is much more effective and, for me, keeps the anxiety down.

Plus, you're going to want some kind of EC to report for the time you're taking to do this. I agree with the earlier statements about practice, not content, 100%. I'd say take the job.

(Just a heads up to temper this advice, I'm not accepted yet, I'm just a senior undergrad, so keep in mind that that's where I'm coming from on this. Got a 524, though, so figured I'd chime in).

@libertyyne dear god, 21?

 

[libertyyne]

Op are you urm or orm? Vet, non trad? What else you got going on?

 

[libertyyne]

I'm gonna have to disagree here. MCAT prep is intensive but investing too heavily in it, in my opinion, is unhealthy, unuseful, and turns your mental concept of it away from a test and into a big, undefeatable monster. I doubt more than 8 hours a day could be all that productive for more than a few weeks, anyways, when we are talking about the MCAT (this isn't step we're talking about here). Learning over longer periods of time is much more effective and, for me, keeps the anxiety down.

Plus, you're going to want some kind of EC to report for the time you're taking to do this. I agree with the earlier statements about practice, not content, 100%. I'd say take the job.

(Just a heads up to temper this advice, I'm not accepted yet, I'm just a senior undergrad, so keep in mind that that's where I'm coming from on this. Got a 524, though, so figured I'd chime in).

@libertyyne dear god, 21?

Yeah, ended up with a 518. I also worked fulltime while doing this.I have a sub par GPA so needed to show schools I was serious.

 

[blastokine]

But this is assuming OP reviewed his exams thoroughly and did targeted review to focus on strengthening his weaknesses. I don't think he did that honestly despite taking seven exams.

I agree. The problem is that OP has no insight as to where things went wrong. He just said what classes should I take. I can offer meaningful advice to op without that insight on where he went wrong.

Op are you urm or orm? Vet, non trad? What else you got going on?

I did go through every single question on the FL's, figured out why I got a question wrong, wrote down the concept and then went back and read, watched videos, made flash cards, etc. on those topics. I guess I am still in the process of trying to figure out what things exactly I need to change. There were definitely some gaps in content that I didn't know, my plan is to first go and review those concepts. While I was studying I did feel like I came a long way and learned a lot but I was stuck in the 502-504 block for the FL's and couldn't pass it. I'm going to work on reading the passages more actively and try and come up with a mental map of what all is going on in a passage in my head. I think once I'm more comfortable with some of the content that will be easier to do.

I was born in the middle east and moved over to the states when I was 2, I'm pretty sure we are well represented in med schools. I graduated uni this past summer and hope to be able to apply this next cycle so I guess that makes me non trad. I'm a certified EMT and have about 100 volunteer hours doing that, went on a medical trip to Panama for a club at my school over a spring break, volunteered some at a free medical clinic near my college, and other than that don't have much going on.

Another thing is, I didn't feel comfortable with most of the bio and biochem concepts until about a month before the test. I had to read, watch videos, do practice questions several times over and over on the same concepts before I started getting them down, it was like learning a new language for me at first. This hindered me from studying the other sections as much as I would've liked too. Now I don't want to solely blame it on that and be coming up with excuses, but I believe that also played a factor into my score.