Assessment package Vs AAMC exams? Advice please?

[LuminousTruth]

My exam is August 17. Although I had a great upward trend in my TPR exams (13->25) from my previous post, I took the AAMC 3 to see where I'm at and scored 23, lower than my TPRs.

Right now, I have around exactly 4 weeks to prepare. Should I finish the assessment package before moving to AAMC 4? My plan is to do a max of 2 AAMCs a week (since I find that the best for retention and reviewing) starting next week. Should I spend all this week doing the assessment package?

I'm not sure how to incorporate the assessment package in my studying. I don't want to rush through it since it's valuable practice but if I do not finish and review by the end of this week (week of 7/16), I will be behind in my AAMCs. I'm planning on doing AAMC 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11.

Any suggestions?

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[V5RED]

According to your previous post, you will not be done with content review for another 3 weeks.

This will only give you one week of study in which you have all content reviewed and can finally begin to focus properly on weaknesses. Post content review is also the only time you should start taking practice exams because then they can help find areas where you need further study as opposed to simply showing you what you have yet to study.

You also said that you have been studying for 2 months and are taking a TPR course. Has that 2 months been spent doing the TPR course or did you begin studying prior to the course? I ask because it seems incredibly slow to take ~3 months to get through content review, and I would have thought that TPR would be more efficient than that.

You also said that you are aiming for a 34+ on the MCAT.

I think postponing will probably be a good idea.

 

[LuminousTruth]

According to your previous post, you will not be done with content review for another 3 weeks.

This will only give you one week of study in which you have all content reviewed and can finally begin to focus properly on weaknesses. Post content review is also the only time you should start taking practice exams because then they can help find areas where you need further study as opposed to simply showing you what you have yet to study.

You also said that you have been studying for 2 months and are taking a TPR course. Has that 2 months been spent doing the TPR course or did you begin studying prior to the course? I ask because it seems incredibly slow to take ~3 months to get through content review, and I would have thought that TPR would be more efficient than that.

You also said that you are aiming for a 34+ on the MCAT.

I think postponing will probably be a good idea.

I may try to finish content by the end of this week or next week. But I had an AAMC planned... so I don't know anymore.

Yes, the TPR course started 5/14 and will end 7/31. I found it annoying how they do they up 3 months to review content. I tried to read ahead but I'm still swamped by all the science workbook questions.

I finished reviewing AAMC 3 but I still get lost in the VR passages. I've scored ~5 questions lower on AAMC VR than on TPR's, which is really odd but I think it's because I've gotten used to the TPR's verbal format. Maybe partly burnout?

What if I take a few more AAMCs, I will get used to the format and do better on verbal? Since that was how I improved on TPR verbal section (from a 3 to 7). I don't know because I don't want to waste them either. Everything feels so time crunched. Sometimes it's like I can not even identify why I got questions wrong in verbal anymore and the AAMC explanations are starting to look random and trivial. I feel they're not as well justified as the TPR ones.

Is it just me or is AAMC 3 VR's questions and explanations a lot more vague and convoluted? Or maybe it's just due to burn out? Comments or suggestions are appreciated.

 

[Nandrolone]

I found the assessment package to be much much better than any of the AAMC practice exams 3-11.

 

[LuminousTruth]

I found the assessment package to be much much better than any of the AAMC practice exams 3-11.

Do you think it's worth to do it before all the AAMCs?

Also, about how many AAMC exams in should I stop if I'm not scoring in a decent score range?

 

[Nandrolone]

i would do the self assessment as practice passages, and do all the AAMC exams as timed exams mimicking real test conditions (yes, even doing the writing section, because it wears you out for the BS) Do all the AAMC material you can get your hands on, so don't stop just because you did well on a few tests...

 

[LuminousTruth]

i would do the self assessment as practice passages, and do all the AAMC exams as timed exams mimicking real test conditions (yes, even doing the writing section, because it wears you out for the BS) Do all the AAMC material you can get your hands on, so don't stop just because you did well on a few tests...

What I mean was if I don't do well and don't see much improvement (23, 25, 24, etc) would I keep taking them just solely for practice? Or is there a limit whenI should stop and keep myself from wasting the AAMCs? According to my current schedule, I would do one per week and soon have to do 2 per week.

Also, if anyone has any comments or suggestions on my reply above, please let me know.

 

[Nandrolone]

Well, having finished all your content review, you can def. try out the practice AAMCs...if you still feel weak on a topic like gases or optics, I would just do BR, TBR passages and maybe even some of the EK 1001's until you get the topic down...then resume with the AAMCs...that is, if you have time.