CARS- Should I keep practicing

[pre-spring]

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Hello, so I need advice regarding practicing for CARS. I already took the MCAT last June and got a 510 and my CARS score was a 128. I´m scheduled to take the MCAT on April 13th or so. My question is whether I should even practice CARS at this point. I have been doing some CARS practice for the past couple of weeks and my CARS score is basically arrested at 128 or 129 depending on the test. I work full time and can only study about 3 hours a day, and practicing for CARS takes about an hour a day. At this point I have still have quite a bit of content to go through and I´m doing about 30 Uworld problems and reviewing them everyday. Just doing the Uworld and CARS problems is taking up all my time and I am not able to do any content. So I was wondering whether I should just give up on doing CARS everyday and maybe just do it twice or thrice a week instead and focus on the other areas I can to improve?This is because at this point I am not sure that even if I practice everyday for the next month I´ll be able to get higher than a 129 on CARS and if I can I would rather spend this time on the other subject areas to improve as much as I can.

 

[BioPsychotic]

CARS is very difficult to improve in, and you are in a good spot. I would say you can focus on the other sections, where discrete knowledge can yield more points and content is more predictable. Don’t completely neglect it, but 128/129 is a good score. If your other subsections are lower, work on those.

If you are aiming for a top 20 program, it may be worth putting in the effort to aim for 130-131 CARS. But if you want to get into any US MD, your CARS score is in a good spot. Your current MCAT score is already competitive for US DO programs.

Do 1-2 CARS passages daily and take 2-3 times a week to deep dive into it.