Am I making a mistake?

[MCATalysis]

I'm studying for the April MCAT, but I haven't taken any of the AAMC practice exams and am not planning on it until I have worked through most of the review books (I'm using Examkrackers). Is this a mistake? It's been a while since I've taken the pre-req courses so I know I need a lot of review and I can't help but feel like taking a full practice exam would be a waste of time at this point. Any advice?

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[stoleyerscrubz]

save the AAMC exams for the end. You sohuld take an exam now as a diagnostic though. 3R is what most people recommend since they say it is the easiest of the AAMC exams. TPR and kaplan both have free full length exams available online as well. I took AAMC 3R already. I will take TPR and kaplan in the next 4 weeks and then save AAMC 4R-7 for the weeks directly before the exam

 

[liverotcod]

I took only AAMC practice tests: 3R before I started seriously studying, and then 1 every few weeks until the April exam. I used the detailed analysis of each exam to guide my studying for the next practice exam; things I was strong in got reviewed, and things I was weak in got hammered.

 

[topworm]

I'm studying for the April MCAT, but I haven't taken any of the AAMC practice exams and am not planning on it until I have worked through most of the review books (I'm using Examkrackers). Is this a mistake? It's been a while since I've taken the pre-req courses so I know I need a lot of review and I can't help but feel like taking a full practice exam would be a waste of time at this point. Any advice?

You really need to get your endurance up to take a 6 hour test. Whether or not you get the questions right, I think the hardest part about the mcat is concentrating that hard for that long. The first practice one I took, I completely zoned out and couldn't concentrate, but it got better and easier to deal with each time. You might want to get ahold of some extra tests from kaplan or PR somehow and just get a feel for it!

 

[MeowMix]

I recommend doing AAMC tests along the way instead of saving them. Intersperse with TPR or EK or Kaplan or whatever you like.

Why? Because you need to identify your weaknesses in strategy as much as your content weaknesses. Strategy weaknesses take a lot longer to address, esp. in VR technique. VR techniques that work perfectly on non-AAMC tests often are not optimal for the real thing.

Also, you need the practice of getting used to the timing, endurance, etc.. Having more weeks to get this down will help build confidence. Figuring out that you have a major timing problem (for example) two weeks before the MCAT is a big stressor.

In addition, you need to know where you stand score-wise. Doing tests from multiple sources is not absolutely reliable, but it's a good indicator (i.e. if you are consistently scoring below 20 2 weeks before the MCAT, you might consider postponing).

There's a reason that all the test prep companies do full-length tests right from the start - it's because it's the best way to prepare.