Advice requested: How to proceed with MCAT studying

[AlphaStudent]

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I just took my first TPR MCAT full length exam after doing 2 months of pure content review and a few practice passages occasionally. I scored a 499 (123/123/127/126). The content review was mainly just taking the TPR online classes and reading through the TPR book set. All practice passages that I did were also from TPR. I have access to all the AAMC material but I figured I'd do those last. I have signed up to take the actual MCAT in september, so I have approximately 2 more months of study time. How should I proceed with my studying to improve this score during this time? Any advice/tips/motivation would be great! (especially for improving CARS/Chem&Phys!)

Thanks!

 

[faerie62]

Imo it sounds like you have focused on content review a little too much, so it might be a good idea to shift your priority to practice passages from now until your test. I would not wait to use the AAMC material, do the practice test 1 immediately so you can get a more accurate representation of where your score is at and whether you want to reschedule, etc. Also the section banks were way more helpful for me than watching lectures/reading the review books. The other thing is to make sure you adequately review your tests/section banks (I feel like this is where a lot of people fall short). Not just the questions you got wrong, but the questions you were unsure/guessed, or questions that took you a long time to get. Address any topics you were fuzzy on or "roundabout" thinking that cost you time, and figure out how you're going to do better next time you see a similar question.
I'd also definitely take TPR scores with a grain of salt and focus on improvement only; for actually predicting your score, use the AAMC tests. I know this is anecdotal, but my friend was scoring in the 505-508 range on her TPR practice tests and got a 520+ on test day. They are definitely harder.

Those are just 2 cents from someone who took the MCAT recently and did quite well, ofc what worked for me might not work for you. But if you have any questions feel free to PM! Good luck.

 

[AlphaStudent]

Imo it sounds like you have focused on content review a little too much, so it might be a good idea to shift your priority to practice passages from now until your test. I would not wait to use the AAMC material, do the practice test 1 immediately so you can get a more accurate representation of where your score is at and whether you want to reschedule, etc. Also the section banks were way more helpful for me than watching lectures/reading the review books. The other thing is to make sure you adequately review your tests/section banks (I feel like this is where a lot of people fall short). Not just the questions you got wrong, but the questions you were unsure/guessed, or questions that took you a long time to get. Address any topics you were fuzzy on or "roundabout" thinking that cost you time, and figure out how you're going to do better next time you see a similar question.
I'd also definitely take TPR scores with a grain of salt and focus on improvement only; for actually predicting your score, use the AAMC tests. I know this is anecdotal, but my friend was scoring in the 505-508 range on her TPR practice tests and got a 520+ on test day. They are definitely harder.

Those are just 2 cents from someone who took the MCAT recently and did quite well, ofc what worked for me might not work for you. But if you have any questions feel free to PM! Good luck.

Thanks for your response! I'm definitely going to start doing passages from now on and try to get better through them. Hopefully 2 months can be enough for some solid improvement haha

 

[Shotapp]

Also the section banks were way more helpful for me than watching lectures/reading the review books. The other thing is to make sure you adequately review your tests/section banks (I feel like this is where a lot of people fall short). Not just the questions you got wrong, but the questions you were unsure/guessed, or questions that took you a long time to get.

I was experiencing the same thing. Reading was a waste of time for me so I stopped and went straight into practice problems (reading was really boring and I was not learning anything. Actively doing problems forced me to think and look for patterns. I only watch short lecture videos if I'm still fuzzy on a certain topic. Good luck with your studies OP.

 

[DrDumbDrum]

With focused studying, 2 months can make a world of difference. As the folks above mentioned, practice tests and section banks are your friends. Review them carefully, find any topics with which you might've struggled, and focus on those topics. Also, think about your thought process with questions you answered incorrectly. As Shotapp mentioned, look for patterns!

I also agree that you shouldn't use TPR scores to predict your actual MCAT performance. I scored 505 on a TPR practice test less than 2 weeks before my actual MCAT, which absolutely terrified me. However, I ended up performing much better on test day.

Best of luck!

 

[ArteryStudyPainting]

I'll start off with this: TPR is, IMO, very difficult and deflating because it is so hard. And not a good hard. I only used the questions as a way to get more experience with the most questions I could get my hands on without caring so much for the score in the end.

I did a 3 month jam.

2 months of pure studying, then the last month was dedicated to a 3 day cycle with as many questions as I could get my hands on sprinkled in.

First day: a FL. Second day: study the FL. Third day: Break.