Confidence Issues

[ak21]

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Hey Everyone,

So I took the 8/24 MCAT and got my score yesterday...=\. I did pretty awful and what's the most frustrating is that it was about 5 points lower than my practice AAMC average. Needless to say I am going to retake but I find myself seriously doubting myself and my ability to do well on this test. For all the people who retook how did you find the confidence to believe in yourself again? I obviously have the motivation to do it again, I just am scared I guess, which sounds really pathetic but that's how it is I guess. Also, if anyone has advice on what materials to use that would be great! I took TPR and used everything they gave me. I don't want to reuse their stuff because I feel like that would be counterproductive. What do most people who took a course their first time use on the retake? I'm also worried because I don't have new AAMC tests to work with either =\. Please help! Thanks a lot!

 

[549]

Hey,

Bummer you weren't pleased with your score, but that happens to a lot of people the first time. Don't doubt your ability to do well though! I hate the MCAT just as much as anyone else, but the only good thing about it is that anyone CAN study and do well on it (verbal is slightly more difficult to study for, but sciences definitely). So don't go into the retake thinking you might not be able to do better- you can. I took it my first time last summer, and I did the TPR course as well. Same as you, I did worse on the real thing than most of my practice tests. However, I studied a lot this summer, and I ended up scoring 6 points higher this time.

I used the same TPR materials as last time, and what's nice is that if you took the TPR Hyperlearning course once, you can renew your subscription to the online materials for $100 per month, which gives you access to 17 practice exams and tons of extra passages, so it's definitely worth the price, if you do one or two months of that. That'll also solve your problem about not having the AAMC exams again.

One tip for studying sciences is that whenever you come across something that looks "scary" or you don't 100% feel comfortable answering (and I literally mean 100%) study that material as much as possible. Meaning reread the TPR chapters on it, do wikipedia searches, do practice passages and problems, post questions on the SDN Q&A page, etc. It might seem like a lot for one subject, but the next time you see a passage on a practice exam that would have scared you before, and you now feel 100% comfortable with, you'll feel pretty good, and do much better 🙂 Every question matters.

Also, once you start doing practice tests, I would strongly recommend keeping a notebook where you write down everything you get wrong. Preferably find a pocket-sized notebook so you can always have it handy. This way, you can make sure that you NEVER get the same thing wrong twice. If you think about it, what's the point doing all this preparation if when you get something wrong you don't do everything you can to make sure that never happens again, right? Study the notebook every few days, and if you're in school, ask people in your classes or your teachers for explanations of these things. It all comes down to learning everything you can about the topics, and never making that mistake again, or never feeling intimidated by that sort of question again.

This might sound intense, but you're putting in all this effort, so you might as well make it count! Good luck, and don't worry about having to retake- a lot of people do, and you can really make it worthwhile!

 

[epsilonprodigy]

Hey Ak, I'm in the same boat as you. Just take a look at our "club" thread: seems to me the majority of people did in fact do worse than their AAMC averages. It's possible that this actually was a really hard test.

How do we know we can do better? Because we DID do better... over and over and over again on our practices, hence our decision to take the test when we did. Hell, I did better on the GS exam that everyone warns you is waaay harder than the real thing. Ditto for the last couple of Kaplan's that everyone warns you not to take due to their extreme difficulty. This has got to be a fluke and isn't representative of your, my, or many other people's test-taking abilities. I don't know what's going on with our test date, but something is definitely up.

So what are we going to do? ATTACK that test. Whatever you think might have been holding you back, this time KILL it. For example, this time I had meant to go over some more in-depth p-chem and math stuff because I thought it would come in handy. I also worked waaaay too much for too many weeks of my prep. Perhaps you have a few demons that need to be exorcised as well? Not saying this is the whole story, because like I said, many people experienced a drop from their practices on this test date.

 

[starstarie]

I retook on 9/11 from last year and I know how you feel. I haven't gotten my scores back, so I don't know how I did yet, but I thought it was way better than last year.

Retaking is really scary, because you think that this is it. You could retake a third time, but "failing" twice would be devastating, so there is a lot of pressure this time.

The week before I took the MCAT I was so scared of failing again that I almost quit and decided not to take the test I'd been studying for all summer, just because I couldn't handle the thought of not doing better, even though my practice MCATs had been higher than those from last year and my actual first score. I even wrote an email to my premed advisor asking her if I should just not take it, because I felt that I wasn't going to improve.

BUT the good news is that she wrote back saying that I should definitely take the test and it gave me a little boost. I kept on going and went in thinking that even if I get the same score, it's really not going to hurt me that badly, and even a little improvement will help!

In the end, when I got into the exam, I found it so much easier than last year's! I think I had underestimated it a bit last year and it was kind of a wake up call. Although I don't know my score yet, I am confident that I at very least got the same score and probably quite a bit better.

Your situation may be different, but that is just my story so I hope it lets you know that there are a lot of other ppl going through what you are going through. I think the best advice is to just keep the big picture in mind. There are always other options. Maybe it's not the ideal situation, but if you are determined to go to med school, the MCAT will not stop you!

 

[ak21]

thanks guys! I mean this DEFINITELY stings pretty bad right now, but I know I'll eventually bounce back...eventually lol. There were definitely holes in my preparation. A prime example would be calculations. I knew if I got a calculation heavy PS I would be screwed, and that's exactly what I got. Also, the stress of not knowing those calculations probably led me to make some really stupid mistakes just out of pure frustration. So yeah. Starstarie did u take any course your first time around? What did you use to study on your retake?

 

[starstarie]

I actually didn't take a course either time, because a friend of mine who got a 40 (and is now an MCAT course teacher) said that its not really necessary if you think you have enough drive to stick to a schedule on your own. I think that was part of where I went wrong, though. I made a schedule, but it wasn't rigorous enough and I didn't stick to it so well.

The first time I used just the EK review series and the AAMC full lengths.

This time around I reused my materials (since I seriously didn't remember ANYTHING from before and hadn't really analyzed them so well) plus added the EK 1001 series and some content supplements from textbooks and then internet on things that I wasn't completely clear on. I also supplemented a bit of practice with Kaplan practice materials I'd gotten from a friend. I mainly used the ExamKracker's home study plan from their website. I honestly love the EK books for content review, although they are def. just review books and not for things that you really didn't "get" the first time around.

Until about a few months ago I hadn't really used the plethora of information that is available on this forum and so I actually feel like if I could do it again, I would give myself more time and definitely separate my studying into two phases: content and then test-taking skills. I pretty much meshed them together. Check out LOS's advice thread and SNed's study schedule.