Confused as to how to restudy for the MCAT? Was using the TBR

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.

CloverBale

Full Member
7+ Year Member
Joined
Apr 7, 2016
Messages
678
Reaction score
2,269
I've studied with the TBR for 4 months, scored a 506. I'm retaking it again in 2.5 months, but I'm a bit confused as to how I should go about it again? I can't afford any courses at the moment, so I'm just going to stick to home-study. I have all the TBR books, EK and Kaplan books. A few select books from TPRH like the verbal and science workbook.

I was scoring around 70%~ on the passages for the TBR and I've taken several FLs, including everything off of AAMC, almost twice. My score breakdown: 128/125/126/127. Any recommendations?

Members don't see this ad.
 
What was your FL score before you took the exam? Both FL 1 and FL 2 are good indicators of how you will perform on the actual exam. I would recommend improving your reading comprehension + some content reviews for areas you are weak in. Then take section bank and full lengths again.

I think reading comprehension is getting in your way for other sections as well. I can speak to this as I am in a similar situation.

Also, when you say you used TBR, did you use for all subjects (9 books without CARS)? That would be a tremendous amount of passages (15 passages * 5-6 per book ~ 82.5 passages. Multiply by 9 books ~ 740 passages).
 
Last edited:
How much of the phase I phase II and phase III did you get through? What fl lengths did you take other than aamc?

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G920A using SDN mobile
 
Members don't see this ad :)
I got through all of the phases. The free Kaplan (3), TPR (3) , (EK) 1

Did you carefully redo and review all questions you got wrong in both the FLs and TBR passages? If so, how did you review wrong answers? Did you time yourself? Were you getting 70% on your TBR biology passages? And, finally, what scores were you getting on the FLs and AAMC materials?

Perhaps stick to FLs that resemble the MCAT most (NextStep, EK, and, of course, AAMC) and take them under strict exam conditions. Take at least 4 days to review each FL thoroughly (1 day per FL subject - i.e. 1 day for C/P, 1 day for CARS, etc.), but before looking at the answers, try to redo each wrong question until you get it right. Keep a log of all the questions you originally answered wrongly and why you got them wrong (was it a content error, question interpretation, a careless error?) and all the questions you guessed correctly but were unsure of, and all the questions you answered correctly but used the wrong reasoning. Organize these questions by their question type and the content they covered. This way, you can keep track of what you need to work on. When you uncover your weak areas, re-review them using TBR or Khan Academy and keep track of them using flashcards (e.g. Anki), making sure to review them every day or so

Hopefully, this helps! I'm baffled as to how you received a 70% average on TBR passages but managed just a 506 on the real thing. Your official exam score may just be a fluke and you may simply need to get more comfortable taking a 7-hour exam (or it could be reading comprehension like another poster mentioned). It would really help if you wrote down a detailed breakdown of how you scored for each TBR chapter and their phases, and how you scored on the FL's, as well as the testing conditions you were under when you took these passages and FLs.
 
Top