Can someone be real with me on expectations?

[yanks26dmb]

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For all of you who did well on your MCAT and got accepted to school (or anticipate being accepted), how well did you know your material? What I'm asking is, were you getting 95% right on all topics (chem, physics, bio) during your studying/practice questions?

Or alternatively, were you guys and girls able to improve your intuition through mass practice that allowed you to decipher, or at least seriously narrow down answer choices on your MCAT when you encountered a passage that touched on a weaker area?

I'm 2.5 months into my studying and have completed 80% of content review. I'm still running into issues of not fully remembering a chemistry formula (clasius-clapeyron I'm looking at you) and it's worrying. Will I be dead in the water if I head into my late June MCAT without being able to recite every possible formula in the TBR books?

 

[QuinnTheEskimo]

My real MCAT was exactly my AAMC practice average (high 30s -- even though I thought I bombed the real thing). Many people on this site have relayed similar experiences.

I felt that I knew my stuff, no real knowledge gaps going into the test.

 

[lmn]

Depends on how well they studied, their schedules, and what score they were going for. I knew pretty much everything because I studied hard for it for a few months, but that's because I could, and I had a target score in mind. Make sure you know at least all the high yield things, most people aren't realistically going for an expecting 13+'s on each section, so most people will make trade-offs on not remember some small detail, lower yield things. Having to guess on one question because you didn't remember the equation for that isn't the end of the world, and usually a general understanding of that topic will let you narrow down the answers even without remembering the equation.

 

[yanks26dmb]

Depends on how well they studied, their schedules, and what score they were going for. I knew pretty much everything because I studied hard for it for a few months, but that's because I could, and I had a target score in mind. Make sure you know at least all the high yield things, most people aren't realistically going for an expecting 13+'s on each section, so most people will make trade-offs on not remember some small detail, lower yield things. Having to guess on one question because you didn't remember the equation for that isn't the end of the world, and usually a general understanding of that topic will let you narrow down the answers even without remembering the equation.

I guess that's what I'm kind of wondering...should I say, f-it and move on instead of spending days going over the same matierial?

As it stands now, I'm getting about 75% correct in BS, 85-90% correct in VR, and about 65% correct in PS (surprised?). As much as I'd love to say I won't settle for anything other than a high 30's score, I also realize I'm perfectly content going to DO school if an MD school won't have me, and realize I probably only need a 30..and that's to just be safe. As it stands now, I'm right around 32-ish given my % correct. I'm starting to think I should just really zero in on high-level PS stuff, don't sweat the smaller details and place most of my emphasis on raising BS to my VR level.

 

[Patros]

If you're getting 80-90% right on VR, then your problem is simply not knowing the science material well enough. All the sections require critical reasoning and reading comprehension skills, but VR almost exclusively depends on it, whereas the others blend the sciences into the mix. So the fact that you're doing well on VR but are doing worse in BS/PS tell me that you're not familiar enough with the material for the latter sections.

So here's what you should do: finish reviewing the material through whatever study regimen you are using. I recommend doing the entirety of the examkrackers 1001 questions books just for "mass practice," as you put it. Then buy a practice AAMC test. Identify your weaknesses, review, then take another practice test. Rinse and repeat.

Don't worry too much about % correct, since each MCAT has variable difficulty, and the scaling is more lenient on harder tests. Very roughly speaking, a 95% correct is on the order of 37-39, so I wouldn't aim that high for now.

 

[radkat101]

What the h*** is clasius-clapeyron?

 

[487806]

What the h*** is clasius-clapeyron?

It's an equation that will vaporize your socks

 

[lmn]

I guess that's what I'm kind of wondering...should I say, f-it and move on instead of spending days going over the same matierial?

As it stands now, I'm getting about 75% correct in BS, 85-90% correct in VR, and about 65% correct in PS (surprised?). As much as I'd love to say I won't settle for anything other than a high 30's score, I also realize I'm perfectly content going to DO school if an MD school won't have me, and realize I probably only need a 30..and that's to just be safe. As it stands now, I'm right around 32-ish given my % correct. I'm starting to think I should just really zero in on high-level PS stuff, don't sweat the smaller details and place most of my emphasis on raising BS to my VR level.

I agree with Underu above, your verbal is strong, and you are likely missing questions in the sciences more often because of lack of understanding of concepts rather than not remembering an obscure equation. Those equations are pretty low chance to show up on your actual test, and although I personally had one, even then it really is only one question, and like I said previously, if you understand the material and content strongly enough, you can usually knock out an answer or two without knowing the equation.

I would personally prioritize getting as rock solid understanding of all the basic contents first and then branching out into more specialized topics, you should definitely be able to bring up your PS score without having to know all the small details, and BS likely as well. If you're scoring 32's on your tests consistently already, you're already getting towards a good place in terms of score, but obviously keep working to improve that if you have the time.

 

[EngineerPreMD]

I guess that's what I'm kind of wondering...should I say, f-it and move on instead of spending days going over the same matierial?

As it stands now, I'm getting about 75% correct in BS, 85-90% correct in VR, and about 65% correct in PS (surprised?). As much as I'd love to say I won't settle for anything other than a high 30's score, I also realize I'm perfectly content going to DO school if an MD school won't have me, and realize I probably only need a 30..and that's to just be safe. As it stands now, I'm right around 32-ish given my % correct. I'm starting to think I should just really zero in on high-level PS stuff, don't sweat the smaller details and place most of my emphasis on raising BS to my VR level.

It looks like you have to study more of the science, and focus on really mastering the material. The science sections are the easiest to train for, and you've got some time, assuming you don't have any really big commitments. If you have to, get a new set of books and blast through the material again in about two weeks. Do little practice, and just do review for that time. It sounds like you've read the material, but have not internalized it. Do you feel fluent in the material? Can you just talk, make inferences, and estimate outcomes of every topic and situation you're likely to come across? Once you do, go back to the practice and hammer it in with tons of practice questions. You're scoring something like an 8-12-9 right now. This is literally the easiest type of score to improve, since usually improving VR by even a point is very tough. If you were scoring 11-9-11 I'd be much less optimistic. There is no reason you shouldn't be shooting for a 34+. Do practice tests also. % correct is all fine and good, but the AAMCs will really gauge where you are. Have you taken AAMC 3? It's free online.

 

[FindingVeritas]

I took 8 practice AAMC mcats. My low score was a 33, high score was a 40. Average was 37 and I got 38 on the real thing. Going into the test I was incredibly nervous and suppressed panic the entire time. That said I do think I am a pretty good test taker and I think being able to suppress that panic made the difference. A lot of deep breaths during my bathroom breaks helped me out.

My weakest section was verbal by far and I would think guess that I had the largest gap in this section. I didn't study the sciences at all during my month of study since I was hitting 13 or 14 consistently on both sections from memory from taking the prereqs (that and I really enjoy science). I did the entire 101 verbal passages book and a large part of the princeton review one. My score starting in verbal was 10 or 11. At the end the average was probably still around 10 so I did my best on test day not to hit a 9. Final breakdown was 14PS, 13BS, 11VE so I was pretty happy.

 

[yanks26dmb]

Don't worry too much about % correct, since each MCAT has variable difficulty, and the scaling is more lenient on harder tests. Very roughly speaking, a 95% correct is on the order of 37-39, so I wouldn't aim that high for now.

Thanks for the other bits of advice.

As far as what % correlates to what score, I know it fluctuates, but I've looked at the AAMC tests and it appears 72-76.5% correlate to a 10 in a given section. A 95% correct on most exams yields a 13-14. Across the board, this would yield low 40's...

Based on this, I was calculating my score to be around 31...

BS 75% - 10
VR 85-90% - 12
PS 65% - 9

Am I actually doing worse than I thought???

 

[yanks26dmb]

It looks like you have to study more of the science, and focus on really mastering the material. The science sections are the easiest to train for, and you've got some time, assuming you don't have any really big commitments. If you have to, get a new set of books and blast through the material again in about two weeks. Do little practice, and just do review for that time. It sounds like you've read the material, but have not internalized it. Do you feel fluent in the material? Can you just talk, make inferences, and estimate outcomes of every topic and situation you're likely to come across? Once you do, go back to the practice and hammer it in with tons of practice questions. You're scoring something like an 8-12-9 right now. This is literally the easiest type of score to improve, since usually improving VR by even a point is very tough. If you were scoring 11-9-11 I'd be much less optimistic. There is no reason you shouldn't be shooting for a 34+. Do practice tests also. % correct is all fine and good, but the AAMCs will really gauge where you are. Have you taken AAMC 3? It's free online.

Thanks for your feedback.

I did take AAMC 3 about 3 weeks ago, wasn't nearly as far in content review at the time. I scored 29 (BS-8 VR-12 PS-9). I feel much more confident in my BS abilities now than I did back then. It's the PS that has me worried..

 

[yanks26dmb]

Here's one more question...

I think we've decided I need to learn the science concepts better. I'm thinking about going through all of TBR review books and EK 1001 and making flash cards for questions I'm missing or key concepts I don't understand well enough to explain. Does this seem like a good approach?

Simply reading tons of information seems a bit too passive and I'm not sure I'm going to retain it that way. Any other ideas for retaining the big picture across all areas are welcomed...

 

[ThisCouldBeYou]

Here's one more question...

I think we've decided I need to learn the science concepts better. I'm thinking about going through all of TBR review books and EK 1001 and making flash cards for questions I'm missing or key concepts I don't understand well enough to explain. Does this seem like a good approach?

Simply reading tons of information seems a bit too passive and I'm not sure I'm going to retain it that way. Any other ideas for retaining the big picture across all areas are welcomed...

This has a lot to do with finding the best way to study. If re-reading helps, do that. If writing flashcards helps, do it. For me, it was drawing it. I've created some beautiful pictures. Of course, my favorites are the systems of the body.

 

[yanks26dmb]

flash cards were such a help for me in physiology...i was acing every test with them....guess this is how I learn best..

 

[lmn]

Read through the suggestion in the MCAT forum, everyone learns best differently, so unless you already know your learning style you're going to have to try things out.

 

[moop]

You need to know the content cold to even start with the critical thinking stuff. The "content" is actually very basic; TBR is way overboard; TPR is where it's at. Rarely will anything be on a discrete or passage that is not already in TPR. The critical thinking part is the harder thing to practice on..