Failing the MCAT :-o

[johnnybravo19]

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I have been studying for 2 months. I'm 70% done with content review. Need another week or so. I mainly used TBR for PS content and EK for Bio content, and it seems that I didn't retain much at all from TBR books.

Kaplan Diagnostic
Phys Sci 7
Biol Sci 4
Verbal 3

Took my first FL today (Kaplan FL1)
Phys Sci 5
Bio Sci 6
Verbal 5

My question is, what should I do at this point? My exam is on August 4, and need to improve drastically. I feel like I wasted time with TBR...the books are loaded with way too much excessive information, most of which isn't even on the test. TBR says this is important, there will definitely be a question like this on every section of it's books, so I end up reading the whole friggin chapter.

I plan on taking my next FL in 3 days (on Wednesday). Till then, what should I do? Should I review each question on the past FL? I am so frusturusturusturated after seeing my score, so discouragouragouragouraged. FML

 

[mcatdestroyer]

I have been studying for 2 months. I'm 70% done with content review. Need another week or so. I mainly used TBR for PS content and EK for Bio content, and it seems that I didn't retain much at all from TBR books.

Kaplan Diagnostic
Phys Sci 7
Biol Sci 4
Verbal 3

Took my first FL today (Kaplan FL1)
Phys Sci 5
Bio Sci 6
Verbal 5

My question is, what should I do at this point? My exam is on August 4, and need to improve drastically. I feel like I wasted time with TBR...the books are loaded with way too much excessive information, most of which isn't even on the test. TBR says this is important, there will definitely be a question like this on every section of it's books, so I end up reading the whole friggin chapter.

I plan on taking my next FL in 3 days (on Wednesday). Till then, what should I do? Should I review each question on the past FL? I am so frusturusturusturated after seeing my score, so discouragouragouragouraged. FML

just keep on trucking through, live through the consequences, after that replan and go from there

 

[johnnybravo19]

just keep on trucking through, live through the consequences, after that replan and go from there

This is a fortune-cookie response. I don't get it, what do u mean?

 

[Rezonance]

just keep on trucking through, live through the consequences, after that replan and go from there

Keep going and don't stop,

Keep taking Practice MCAT exams, build on that stamina, and for one Kaplan practice exam try this - do PS take an hour break, do VR do an hour break, do BS take another hour break - figure out where you seriously need to focus on and go from there.


It seems like all you truly need to do from here on out is practice, practice, and practice taking the MCAT and brush up on content - things you seriously don't understand - after all there's only so much content to review.

 

[johnnybravo19]

Keep going and don't stop,

Keep taking Practice MCAT exams, build on that stamina, and for one Kaplan practice exam try this - do PS take an hour break, do VR do an hour break, do BS take another hour break - figure out where you seriously need to focus on and go from there.


It seems like all you truly need to do from here on out is practice, practice, and practice taking the MCAT and brush up on content - things you seriously don't understand - after all there's only so much content to review.

This might sound kind of noobish, but how do u guys recommend I review the FL's? I think that's probably the only thing that will save me.

 

[kimicurtis]

Did you practice VR? How and what did you use? What were your scores like for TBR sciences, did you review the answers thoroughly after you did the passages?

 

[BABSstudent]

2 months and you are only 70% done with review? Does that mean you have only read 70% of the book? Heck, it took me a week to go through the entire book and then start over from the beginning. By the time I took the MCAT, I had read and reread the book over 20 times. I had finished tons of full lengths and done thousands of practice problems from EK.

Please explain what 70% done with review means.

 

[johnnybravo19]

Did you practice VR? How and what did you use? What were your scores like for TBR sciences, did you review the answers thoroughly after you did the passages?

I am using EK 101 with TPR Hyperlearning. Started on Verbal 2 weeks ago.

2 months and you are only 70% done with review? Does that mean you have only read 70% of the book? Heck, it took me a week to go through the entire book and then start over from the beginning. By the time I took the MCAT, I had read and reread the book over 20 times. I had finished tons of full lengths and done thousands of practice problems from EK.

Please explain what 70% done with review means.

70% done means that I am reading the TBR chapters for content. Have you actually read TBR books? The content in those books is more in-depth than the textbooks I used.

 

[kimicurtis]

2 months and you are only 70% done with review? Does that mean you have only read 70% of the book? Heck, it took me a week to go through the entire book and then start over from the beginning. By the time I took the MCAT, I had read and reread the book over 20 times. I had finished tons of full lengths and done thousands of practice problems from EK.

Please explain what 70% done with review means.

Wow, so you finished reading all your sciences books in a week? Did you use only EK? How did you score on your test, if you don't mind me asking?

 

[BB8730]

...the books are loaded with way too much excessive information, most of which isn't even on the test.

Thinking like that is a dangerous road to go down. The BR books are designed to only cover topics that are on the AAMC content outlines. That mentality might be the reason you're not retaining information.

 

[K M R]

You went from 14 to 16 after two months of studying. You're doing something wrong.

I recommend getting a hold of ExamKrackers materials. Oh, and rescheduling your exam. With a diagnostic of 14, you should have planned for much more prep time.

 

[member232]

I know this may sound discouraging, but I agree with K M R. I would think about postponing your test, unless you think you can improve your score by 15 points within 2 weeks...

To review your full lengths, do them over almost like you're doing it for the first time. Do it untimed, and take as much time as you need. Reread the passages, completely understand them, then attack each question one at a time. Figure out why answers are eliminated and why the right answer is correct. THEN read the explanation and see how much you were missing. It's tedious, but if you say you've reviewed the content, thats the way to go about it.

However, until you're scoring at least 9's I'd say you're still a bit weak in content. Once you get to 9's you can start working on test-taking skills and strategies to increase your actual score.

 

[johnnybravo19]

Thinking like that is a dangerous road to go down. The BR books are designed to only cover topics that are on the AAMC content outlines. That mentality might be the reason you're not retaining information.

I highly doubt the MCAT incorporates quadratic equations into it's questions.

 

[BB8730]

I highly doubt the MCAT incorporates quadratic equations into it's questions.

You must not be reading the books correctly, then. BR shows you the long-winded ways to do problems, i.e. using quadratic equations, and then they show you the shortcuts necessary for the MCAT. Nowhere do they expect you do to practice problems using quadratic equations.

 

[K M R]

I know this may sound discouraging, but I agree with K M R. I would think about postponing your test, unless you think you can improve your score by 15 points within 2 weeks...

OP, it took me 8 months to raise my score by 9 points. So ... yeah ... reschedule.

 

[johnnybravo19]

I'm going to take another couple of FL's this week. If I don't get over a 24, I guess I'll reschedule. But it seems likely that I need tons of practice.

This place is such an advertisement hub for TBR lol

 

[lolcat]

People recommend TBR because it has worked the best for the majority. If it does not suit you then try out other books sucks as princeton review or EK. Not all material would work for everyone.

 

[V5RED]

You must not be reading the books correctly, then. BR shows you the long-winded ways to do problems, i.e. using quadratic equations, and then they show you the shortcuts necessary for the MCAT. Nowhere do they expect you do to practice problems using quadratic equations.

Thinking like that is a dangerous road to go down. The BR books are designed to only cover topics that are on the AAMC content outlines. That mentality might be the reason you're not retaining information.

I partly agree with you.

BR is great for showing shortcut methods for problems, and they do show why the traditional methods used in courses are too slow for the MCAT.

They also have some great memory tricks and explanations that have helped me a lot in my studies.

They do, however, go a bit beyond the PS topic lists for the MCAT at times. There are two simple fixes for that though. Compare the topic lists to the chapters in the BR books. If the topic is not on the lists, then don't stress about knowing it. Also, the physics book has a page of important equations and important concepts in the beginning of each chapter that lets you know what is important. Things not on those lists are usually extra stuff. That said, it is still a good idea to read the extra stuff in case you get a passage related to that topic since you will be able to grasp the passage much more quickly than if you had never seen the material.

I am less high on their organic and biology books. The biology books make my head hurt and I switched to EK. The organic books are very good for the major topics on the MCAT, but they definitely go beyond what is needed in a lot of parts.

I'm going to take another couple of FL's this week. If I don't get over a 24, I guess I'll reschedule. But it seems likely that I need tons of practice.

This place is such an advertisement hub for TBR lol

It seems more likely that you need to understand the topics rather than just do practice problems.

I highly doubt the MCAT incorporates quadratic equations into it's questions.

I am using EK 101 with TPR Hyperlearning. Started on Verbal 2 weeks ago.



70% done means that I am reading the TBR chapters for content. Have you actually read TBR books? The content in those books is more in-depth than the textbooks I used.

If the TBR books are more in depth than the textbooks you used in college, that would shock me, but it would explain your poor foundation in the sciences.

I can't come close to reading through the books we used in my classes. I only used them for reference, practice problems, and to get a deeper understanding of things that interested me or confused me. I was able to read through all the TBR books(except the bio ones) and all the EK books in just over a month.

Do you ever read recreationally? It seems to me like one big problem for you might be your reading skills. You seem to read very slowly and be unable to remember what it is you read. Since you will definitely need to postpone your MCAT, it might be a good idea to start reading books between now and then. Maybe you could swap out some of your TV time for books. TV is passive and relaxing for your brain, and it makes your brain lazy. Reading is active and gets your brain in shape.

 

[ES2]

Take an AAMC. If you're not around 25-28, reschedule. It's not the end of the world, just make sure you keep up with it during school. Also, it might be wise to review all the problems on the test: the ones you go right, and the ones you got wrong.

 

[Temperature101]

OP, it took me 8 months to raise my score by 9 points. So ... yeah ... reschedule.

Was your score at least in the upper 20s? If not, that seems to be a long time to have just an increase of only 9 points...

 

[ridethecliche]

Was your score at least in the upper 20s? If not, that seems to be a long time to have just an increase of only 9 points...

I've taken the MCAT twice.

The first time my diagnostic (after reviewing) was a 26. I got a 30.

I retook. I finished content review and got a 29 in practice. Test day, I ended up with a 34.

Your score increase depends on where you start.

Honestly, you just need to know the basics of the sciences. You need to learn to recognize unfamiliar things and apply problem solving skills to figure out the answer. That's where TBR shines.

I wish I'd used TBR my first time.

 

[shaboobly]

when you read through content, don't just read as in reading a book because you won't retain all of the info, which is what you need to do. after reading some chapters or whatever, you need to practice by doing problems specific to the content and go over both right and wrong answers, otherwise you won't know what you were thinking if you got a question right (you could just guess right and not have the right reasoning).

it's also important to supplement your reading with flashcards or something quick that you can quickly review that has the most important info on it, such as equations and the like. studying for the mcat is not like studying for a school test, you can't just read through the material and expect to get a good score. you must know how to think your way through the problems because that's how every question will be, except for the really easy content discrete questions.

as for verbal, try to do the passages independently (time yourself as well) and go over ALL the questions, even if you got them right. you really need to understand why you get a question wrong, not just put an X through it and say "****". (i actually didn't go over ALL the questions the first time i took the mcat and got a 6 on the verbal for the 5/19 test. i'm planning on a retake on 8/4 and since then i have been improving on every verbal test taken. (my EK 101 scores for 1-4 were 7, 8, 8, 11. the day before i got the 11 i took a kaplan verbal test and scored a 10 using EK's raw score calculator).

the mcat is really just a test to show how determined you are to be a doctor, i think. dont let anything hold you back or bring you down, keep moving forward and KNOW that you can do well.

 

[K M R]

Was your score at least in the upper 20s? If not, that seems to be a long time to have just an increase of only 9 points...

Two things. First, my studying was very light the first six months or so (think five hours a month). It escalated during the last month, especially the last two weeks. Second, I foolishly took the 05/31 exam, meaning I only had two weeks of dedicated study time after the semester ended. I do not recommend this date, period.

That said, I was able to go from a 24 on the free Kaplan diagnostic to a 33 on the real thing. Actually, I took EK #1H a few months before the real exam and got a 23 lol. So I'm happy with my score.

 

[mamacitamd]

Keep going and don't stop,

Keep taking Practice MCAT exams, build on that stamina, and for one Kaplan practice exam try this - do PS take an hour break, do VR do an hour break, do BS take another hour break - figure out where you seriously need to focus on and go from there.


It seems like all you truly need to do from here on out is practice, practice, and practice taking the MCAT and brush up on content - things you seriously don't understand - after all there's only so much content to review.

I just want to say thank you for posting this. As my test date has been approaching, I've been feeling very anxious and down about the test. This was exactly the sort of thing I needed to hear. With all the negative responses on these forums of people telling other people they don't have a chance and need to reconsider, postpone, study for 6 months etc. its good to have someone motivate you to continue and don't quit. So I thank you.