EK Self Study progress question

[Doctoblast]

Hi all, I'm new to this site. I've seen a few threads about EK but I couldn't find an answer to my specific question. I'm currently using the EK self study guide with their 10 week schedule. I took the practice aamc 3 before doing any sort of studying at all and got an 18 with 6s in all sections.

Today, after about 3 weeks of studying, I took aamc 8 and scored a 21 with 7s in all sections. Obviously I have not finished all of the content review (not even half), but I wanted to see if this progress is any good. My real MCAT date is July 24th and I'm aiming for around a 30.

Obviously my first two practice exam scores aren't very good, but I have 6-7 weeks before the real thing. I wanted to get some feedback if possible. Thank you!

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[Leah4sci]

Improving by a full point in each section is a good thing, especially if you claim you haven't finished all the content review just yet.
here's the thing, it's partly about content and partly about learning the MCAT style questions and approach.
Obviously you still have some serious work to do so keep at it and keep measuring your progress. Depending on your background you should be able to improve your score with 7 weeks to go.
What did you find to be your biggest challenge/weakness in each of the 2 exams you've completed?

 

[Doctoblast]

Improving by a full point in each section is a good thing, especially if you claim you haven't finished all the content review just yet.
here's the thing, it's partly about content and partly about learning the MCAT style questions and approach.
Obviously you still have some serious work to do so keep at it and keep measuring your progress. Depending on your background you should be able to improve your score with 7 weeks to go.
What did you find to be your biggest challenge/weakness in each of the 2 exams you've completed?

Thanks for the response! That eases my nerves a ton. For some questions I knew that I hadn't reviewed the content yet, so I had no idea on some and just guessed. So I expected to not score near my goal, but didn't expect it to be 9 points lower. I feel like my biggest weakness is getting lost on the wording - especially verbal and bio. I'm pretty confident in the physical sciences and feel like I just need more content review and practice there.

The main thing that freaked me out even more is that I was looking for an answer to my question on this forum and saw other people who were scoring in the mid 30s on the aamc practice tests and if not the mid 30s at least the high 20s.

 

[Shen924]

Don't sweat it, everyone has their own pace. Don't let other people scores get to you as they will deter and psyche you out.

 

[Leah4sci]

Learning content is just the start when it comes to scoring well on the MCAT. You also have to get familiar with the testing style and question format. This will come from practice test, review test, learn material, test yourself on material, more practice test, more review of test, more learning material...

 

[Wasted Energy]

I'm following EK's 10 week home study program as well, except I'm signed up for the August 7th date. I also took AAMC 3 before starting but haven't taken another FL since, so I guess we really cant compare progress .

My feeling on the 10 week program is that, if you are ONLY following the EK home study program, you're not going to get sufficient practice. I say this because the plan has you spending something like 2-3 hours a day 5/days a week just reading through the content and taking the 30 minute exams that correspond that day's lecture. I feel like the real improvement begins after you finish content review and begin doing practice passages/full lengths.

Are you using other materials to prep besides the EK content books?

 

[Doctoblast]

I'm following EK's 10 week home study program as well, except I'm signed up for the August 7th date. I also took AAMC 3 before starting but haven't taken another FL since, so I guess we really cant compare progress .

My feeling on the 10 week program is that, if you are ONLY following the EK home study program, you're not going to get sufficient practice. I say this because the plan has you spending something like 2-3 hours a day 5/days a week just reading through the content and taking the 30 minute exams that correspond that day's lecture. I feel like the real improvement begins after you finish content review and begin doing practice passages/full lengths.

Are you using other materials to prep besides the EK content books?

Besides the ek books I'm using the aamc cbts, the 101 passages in verbal and the 16 mini mcats. I feel like all that along with the exams and passages in the books will do a good job preparing me for the language of the exam. I was thinking about getting some tpr or kaplan books as well, but I've heard bad things about them so I didn't bother. Plus I'm really short on $$$ haha

The reason I'm not waiting to take the real thing a month after the content review is because I've taken most of the classes that correspond to the subjects on the mcat already. I'm just using this all as content review. If I wait a month after I do the review I feel like I won't be able to retain as much. This is why I'm reviewing the content using EK and doing a bunch of practice exams and passages in between.

 

[Wasted Energy]

I'm using the EK books because I'm short on cash too, picked up the whole 2007 set for ~ $50 bucks. It's the poor man's MCAT prep I guess .

When you say you've taken "most" of the classes that correspond to the MCAT, are you missing more than one?

 

[Doctoblast]

I'm using the EK books because I'm short on cash too, picked up the whole 2007 set for ~ $50 bucks. It's the poor man's MCAT prep I guess .

When you say you've taken "most" of the classes that correspond to the MCAT, are you missing more than one?

We gotta make the most of what we've got!!

I'm only missing microbio and gen chem II.

 

[Wasted Energy]

We gotta make the most of what we've got!!

I'm only missing microbio and gen chem II.

Haha, exactly!

How do you feel about the 30 minute exams at the end of the chapters? I'm about halfway through the 10 week plan right now, and I'm still sort of bombing the physical science ones.

 

[Doctoblast]

Haha, exactly!

How do you feel about the 30 minute exams at the end of the chapters? I'm about halfway through the 10 week plan right now, and I'm still sort of bombing the physical science ones.

I'm slowly getting better at them. I've gone up about a point each week, but the scores are nothing special. Averaging about an 8 or 9 on them. I've heard for chemistry it gets really hard after lecture 3, but that's where I'm most comfortable so we'll see.

I've done a lot of research because I was worried about those in class exam scores and most people seem to say that you shouldn't get down on yourself if you're not doing well because the easy questions are omitted. They're all difficult questions because ek feels we can answer the easy ones without having too much practice. It even says so in the first couple pages of each book to not get demoralized due to those scores.

 

[Wasted Energy]

That's much better than I am doing on them. What worries me is that I'm hitting 7's and a couple of 6's on those things and the AAMC 3 I took before content review was 7PS/11VR/8BS, so I feel like I'm not improving. I guess I can't really tell without taking another practice test though.

I'm fine with having low scores on them because of what you mentioned about the comments at the beginning of the books, I'm just concerned about not improving on them. Of course, each one does cover new and separate information.

Anyway, I'm glad to see someone else on here using the same plan/materials to prep. I'm curious to see how you progress.

 

[Doctoblast]

That's much better than I am doing on them. What worries me is that I'm hitting 7's and a couple of 6's on those things and the AAMC 3 I took before content review was 7PS/11VR/8BS, so I feel like I'm not improving. I guess I can't really tell without taking another practice test though.

I'm fine with having low scores on them because of what you mentioned about the comments at the beginning of the books, I'm just concerned about not improving on them. Of course, each one does cover new and separate information.

Anyway, I'm glad to see someone else on here using the same plan/materials to prep. I'm curious to see how you progress.

Yeah I wouldn't really worry too much if I were you. I got all 6s on my AAMC 3 before I did any review. I'm actually reviewing my AAMC 8 right now and realizing on the PS that a lot of the ones I got wrong were just dumb mistakes... but anyways, I'll definitely keep you updated on how my studying goes. I'm also glad someone else on here is using the same material I am.