Baseline exam before prep?

[drabberbadge]

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Before starting to prep or study for the mcat, is it a good idea to take a practice test to see where I am at baseline? I feel like ill get 4/5 s on every section as ill be unprepared, or should I prep first?

 

[bigdogrob4284]

Some people say no, but I think its a good idea to take a full length practice test before you start studying. It is less to see where your at, but more so to give you first hand experience with what the test is like. I did this and I found it valuable to know what the timing and endurance was going to require. Just don't waste a good practice test on it. Use a kaplan or TPR one because those are less realistic as far as scoring goes, but they still give an accurate testing experience.

 

[The_Sunny_Doc]

Take a practice test! Use the kaplan test. It will be extremely helpful for you in order to target your studying. Don't be afraid of doing bad. Everyone has to start somewhere. The most important thing is to be honest with yourself. I regret not taking practice tests throughout the review process, which gave me a false sense of security. Please don't make the same mistake. The tests are the only way to keep track of your progress. 🙂 Good luck!

 

[rfvbnmju]

Taking a practice test before studying I'd somewhat helpful in that it gives you an idea of what to expect in terms of endurance and pacing.
It may also tell what area you are weak in but you should know that just by looking at the content list.

I took AAMC 3 before studying and it was helpful in determining how fast I should be pacing myself.
Initially I focused on only getting the question right and not about pacing. It was only after solid content knowledge that I focused on getting faster and faster.

Sent from my phone.

 

[nOchemallday]

I would suggest taking a practice test simply for understanding the breakdown of the MCAT.

Learn the features of the software. Learn the spacing if the questions and number/order of passages and discretes.

There are numerous threads concerning the "predictive power" of diagnostic tests, but the short answer is don't worry about the score. I would recommend taking it merely for the experience and features. Don't waste AAMC 3, use Kaplan or some other online free diagnostic test.

 

[MedOldAge]

Some people say no, but I think its a good idea to take a full length practice test before you start studying. It is less to see where your at, but more so to give you first hand experience with what the test is like. I did this and I found it valuable to know what the timing and endurance was going to require. Just don't waste a good practice test on it. Use a kaplan or TPR one because those are less realistic as far as scoring goes, but they still give an accurate testing experience.

Take a practice test! Use the kaplan test. It will be extremely helpful for you in order to target your studying. Don't be afraid of doing bad. Everyone has to start somewhere. The most important thing is to be honest with yourself. I regret not taking practice tests throughout the review process, which gave me a false sense of security. Please don't make the same mistake. The tests are the only way to keep track of your progress. 🙂 Good luck!

Taking a practice test before studying I'd somewhat helpful in that it gives you an idea of what to expect in terms of endurance and pacing.
It may also tell what area you are weak in but you should know that just by looking at the content list.

I took AAMC 3 before studying and it was helpful in determining how fast I should be pacing myself.
Initially I focused on only getting the question right and not about pacing. It was only after solid content knowledge that I focused on getting faster and faster.

Sent from my phone.

I would suggest taking a practice test simply for understanding the breakdown of the MCAT.

Learn the features of the software. Learn the spacing if the questions and number/order of passages and discretes.

There are numerous threads concerning the "predictive power" of diagnostic tests, but the short answer is don't worry about the score. I would recommend taking it merely for the experience and features. Don't waste AAMC 3, use Kaplan or some other online free diagnostic test.

To OP,
All SDNers above have very good points 👍

This is what I find myself having different school of thought when I use SN2ed 3 months plan. How many threads just the past few months do you see people coming in panic, just finished content review and have 3/4 weeks to go, after getting hit on low to middle 20s with AAMC3 and 4.

My 2 cents of opinion is that the SN2ed works well for those to use the 3 months as "SUMMARY CONTENT REVIEW" and not walking in the starting line of the 3 months COLD and starting connent review looking at the 4 science subjects like learning foreigh language (Chinese for example).

As time gone by since the initiation of SN2ed plan, it had been "diluted" as many folks coming to SDN with different level of academic background but using the plan without thinking about their own situation to see how it fits in. That is not the fault of the plan but the individuals who do not know their own situation and strength.

If I am the one doing it, as all the 4 SDNers above said, I will start with any 3rd party free FL and get the sense of where I am at and continue hitting the FLs along side of the "content review". By the time the mid point of my study cycle with content review, I have already consumed many 3rd party FLs and had a very good big picture of my weak area. I did use AAMC3 though 2 weeks into the study cycle to force the comparison of it with respect to the 3rd party FL to get a sense of where I presumed to be.

Hell, you can get at least 10 to 15 3rd party FLs nowadays easily running along side with your content review without touching AAMC from 4 upword to 11.

Edit: the following is the comments from BerkReviewTeach just post a while ago.
It is the 7th post from the thread below. His choice of words is the best I have seen about this situation

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=1022577

 

[gumdrops]

To OP,
All SDNers above have very good points 👍

This is what I find myself having different school of thought when I use SN2ed 3 months plan. How many threads just the past few months do you see people coming in panic, just finished content review and have 3/4 weeks to go, after getting hit on low to middle 20s with AAMC3 and 4.

My 2 cents of opinion is that the SN2ed works well for those to use the 3 months as "SUMMARY CONTENT REVIEW" and not walking in the starting line of the 3 months COLD and starting connent review looking at the 4 science subjects like learning foreigh language (Chinese for example).

As time gone by since the initiation of SN2ed plan, it had been "diluted" as many folks coming to SDN with different level of academic background but using the plan without thinking about their own situation to see how it fits in. That is not the fault of the plan but the individuals who do not know their own situation and strength.

If I am the one doing it, as all the 4 SDNers above said, I will start with any 3rd party free FL and get the sense of where I am at and continue hitting the FLs along side of the "content review". By the time the mid point of my study cycle with content review, I have already consumed many 3rd party FLs and had a very good big picture of my weak area. I did use AAMC3 though 2 weeks into the study cycle to force the comparison of it with respect to the 3rd party FL to get a sense of where I presumed to be.

Hell, you can get at least 10 to 15 3rd party FLs nowadays easily running along side with your content review without touching AAMC from 4 upword to 11.

Edit: the following is the comments from BerkReviewTeach just post a while ago.
It is the 7th post from the thread below. His choice of words is the best I have seen about this situation

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=1022577

If you take away one thing from this thread, it's the bolded line above. You need to tailor a study plan to your strengths and weaknesses. My weakness was horrible content deficits in physics. I needed about six months of study time to get to where people who had learned things properly the first time were after three months of studying. SN2ED's study plan didn't work for me because I hated Berkeley Review's material with the fire of a thousand suns and didn't see any significant improvement with the gen chem or physics materials. Yet The TBR style of content presentation worked very well for most people on this forum.

I used a lot of SN2ED's strategies and advice though and it helped me immeasurably. You have to take into account what kind of learner you are and how well you know the content. Then you have to make a study plan and realistically factor in time for learning material, reviewing it and learning to apply it. It took me about 300 hours alone with just re-learning physics. That right there is far more time than SN2ED factors in for any subject. Once again, it's no fault of the plan, it's where I was as an individual.

Anyone think that there a lot of life lessons involved in studying for the MCAT? *begrudgingly raises hand*