August 28 Test Date. Should I postpone?

[mysticaloasis]

Hello everyone,

As my MCAT comes closer and closer, I am becoming more and more restless. I'm excited at the prospect of being done with this monster, but nervous because I do not feel that I will be ready by my test date. I know, there is never really a time when you do feel ready for such a test, but let me explain

I am going into my junior year at UCLA as a Neuroscience major; I feel like the pressure is on for my MCAT cause my GPA is 3.38. I know I can get my GPA up in the next two years, and I want a solid MCAT score to go with it. I decided to do my content review by signing up for a course with TPR - 5 days a week, 2.5 hours a day. The course started 6/24/13 and ends on 8/21/13. I follow their homework schedule pretty diligently, which usually entails a specific chapter of content review, 4-5 passages on that subject, and an amplifire module (at the very minimum).


Anyways, I've taken 4 practice tests so far, and my results aren't exactly encouraging.

06/30/13 - AAMC 10 11p/10v/8b (29)
07/15/13 - TPR 1 9p/9v/10b (28)
07/28/13 - TPR 2 9p 6v 10b (25)
08/04/13 - TPR 3 8p 9v 10b (27)

When I got the 6 on verbal on 7/28 I was highly distracted at the beginning of the test; ended up taking 15 minutes on the first passage and then playing catch up the rest of the time. I've read that the TPR practice tests aren't the best measures of your true capability, but I still don't know what to make of it.

The last day for me to postpone is August 14th; I plan on taking 2 more practice tests in that time frame (plan on doing 2 AAMCs). My tentative plan was that if I do not break a 30 on either of those tests, then I am postponing.

The Princeton Review class ends on August 21st, which would give me a week to prepare on my own after content review is over. I plan on taking at least 4 practice tests in that week.

My main weakness is Physics/O-chem. I have been putting an extra effort to try and grasp the concepts (especially mechanisms for o-chem), but it is a very time consuming process for me.

Any general advice on what I should do over the next 3 weeks/whether or not I should postpone? My goal is at least a 33.

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[Uafl112]

you should probably see your scores go up on the AAMC exams

 

[missdr10]

Yeah try a couple of the early AAMCs and see how you do. People generally see their scores go up even with practice from the AAMC tests but if you're not somewhat near where you want to be scoring you should consider postponing.

I see you got a 29 on AAMC 10 so you're obviously capable of scoring around a 33 with additional practice. Verbal seems to be tricky for you but many people find AAMC less convoluted than the ones from testing companies. Try it out and if you're not averaging near your goal, postpone. TPR, Kap, BR, and other FL exams are important to take for practice and time management purposes but don't take their exams completely to heart because a lot of their factors (scaling, difficulty, etc.) are different.

Good luck to you!

 

[mbaumann1123]

TPR FL scores are notoriously lower than AAMC