CARS keeps on dropping

[avalonisland888]

I really don't know what's going on with my scores... all of my AAMC FL scores in C/P, B/B, P/S have been quite stable or increasing. But my CARS score keeps on going down. AAMC FL 1 was a 128 then FL 2 was a 126 and I just took FL 3 today and scored a 124 which freaked me out. I'm testing on Aug 13th and I don't really know what to do from here. I've done all the SBs, QPs, tried a bit of Jack Westin, did all of TPR practice, and also did some Kaplan FLs. High-key panicking. The rest of the sections are alright ranging from 128-130.

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[JimKimSlim]

Analyze which type of CARS problems you're keep getting wrong. Were they foundation, reasoning within, or reasoning beyond the text problems? If you can nail down the type of question, keep reviewing past mistakes on those types of problems. Also, try to think like AAMC test makers and create your own problems. For CARS, you really need to be able to think like the testmakers, if you want to break that ceiling.

 

[whiteclaww]

I feel like you are burned out. FL1 CARS is honestly the hardest one I've experienced out of all AAMC material. If you scored a 128 on it. It shows your competence.

Also the fact that you are freaking out and doing more problems to alleviate the issue is worsening the situation because you are reinforcing the incorrect logic that you've acquired due to the burnout.

It has happened to me many times. I've gotten everything right for weeks and all of the sudden, on one day, I scored 0/7 on one mediocre passage.

What did I do? I just didn't do CARS for a week.

That did it for me. I got back to my normal self.

 

[avalonisland888]

Which FL do you guys think was the most accurate for each section in terms of similarity to the actual thing?

 

[JimKimSlim]

They were all pretty representative of the actual MCAT, IMO.

 

[KnightDoc]

Which FL do you guys think was the most accurate for each section in terms of similarity to the actual thing?

No such thing, because each actual thing is different!

I'm not 100% positive of this, but I'm pretty sure they do not recycle entire exams. I think they pull the tests from banks of questions, and that each test date is unique. When they retire a series of questions, that becomes a new FL they make available to us.

 

[mikemars]

When I got burned out with CARS, I just wrote. I feel writing gave me empathy to understand the author's viewpoint in even the most excruciating passages (Picasso). The more tired we are, the more we inject bias - which is precisely how the AAMC traps us. I think - out of all the sections - CARS is the one most affected by burnout and sleep deprivation. That's why I actually find it a blessing it's not at the end.

You got this!