Feeling Discouraged from practice exam

[MedicalMermaid]

Hi everyone,

So I have been studying for some time now and am scheduled to take the big exam in January (about 3 weeks away!) I have been consistently studying and taking practice exams. I took another today (AAMC FL#1) and suddenly feel discouraged

My scores have been like this (all of these have been FLs):
499 - Princeton Review Demo
501 - Kaplan 1
503 - Kaplan 2
503 - Kaplan 3
502 - AAMC FL #1 (127/123/125/127)

Section banks (I have been doing the passages a few at a time, but still under timed conditions):
Physics/Chem - 74%
Bio/Biochem - 80%
(still working on psych)

Before today, I was pretty positive about the exam because Princeton and Kaplan are notorious for being difficult and I think I have been doing about average ( I could be wrong...) I believe the consensus is that most tend to do much better on the real thing in comparison to testing company materials?

Section bank has been fair and I also have been doing AAMC flashcards which are straightforward. For CARS, I have been doing Khan Academy, EK101 (old, but useful) and CARS Q Pack 1 (likely will get Pack 2).
I think my CARS from today's test was low because I changed my technique (stupid decision on my part, definitely going back to my old ways)

Based on this, where do you think I stand? Do you think maybe today was just an off-day? Am I actually in trouble or just being over-dramatic?

(Side note: I am planning to take AAMC Fl#2 next week after spending a few days reviewing today's test. As for my desired score, working towards 510+)

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[aldol16]

Nobody on here can tell you whether you had an off day or if you will score higher on the real thing. In general, people do tend to score better on the real thing than Kaplan FLs and even the AAMC scored, although the AAMC will be your best estimate.

It appears that you are doing very well in the Section Bank (70-80% is pretty good) but are you reviewing after every question? Sometimes you might not understand the passage but reviewing the answer explanation will make you understand it better and you'll take that to the next question, thus inflating your score. You should always take the whole passage at one time.

 

[MedicalMermaid]

Nobody on here can tell you whether you had an off day or if you will score higher on the real thing. In general, people do tend to score better on the real thing than Kaplan FLs and even the AAMC scored, although the AAMC will be your best estimate.

It appears that you are doing very well in the Section Bank (70-80% is pretty good) but are you reviewing after every question? Sometimes you might not understand the passage but reviewing the answer explanation will make you understand it better and you'll take that to the next question, thus inflating your score. You should always take the whole passage at one time.

I did review every question but only after finishing my set for the day. I had the solutions shown, but the way I used this was I would click on the solutions after my set to review and if I saw the red x in the corner marking it as wrong, then I would close the solution, re-read the passage and attempt the question again. If I still missed it on the second try, then I would look at the solutions and refer to the passage to see how you would get the answer. However, when I reviewed the questions (I made a word document for this) if I missed the question I would mark it as wrong in the doc and explain why i missed the question and how I should have approached it. I went back using this and adjusted my percentages according to this because there were always some I would get right the second time. My reported percentages here are the raw ones, meaning I counted every question I got wrong as wrong regardless if I got it correct on other tries. Sorry, it may be bit confusing!

I guess you are right about the scores. The thing is everyone says the AAMC FLs are the best predictors and I feel like I have been doing well on everything else, so seeing my score after today sort of put me in the dumps. I appreciate your response though