Help! Inconsistent scores, <1 week until test

[Carnation1895]

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Here are my practice test scores, in the order I took them:
AAMC 10: 31 10/11/10
AAMC 3: 29 11/9/9
AAMC 4: 37 12/12/13
AAMC 5: 29 8/12/9
AAMC 7: 39 12/13/14
AAMC 8: 31 11/10/10
AAMC 11: 33 11/11/11
AAMC 9: 33 11/12/10

Now, I know what happened with the 2 29's, I was sick and not focusing very well and probably shouldn't have bothered taking a full length. And I would be fine with a score in the 31-33 range, had I not gotten the 37 and the 39!! It's like I know I can do better, why did I peak already? I am taking the test 8/12, trying to do as much content review as possible. But what else can I do to get my real score up to the higher levels of my practice scores? Has anyone else had scores this inconsistent and done well? Help please!

 

[kkentm]

hope for a 39, be happy with a 31

 

[GooseWing]

Here are my practice test scores, in the order I took them:
AAMC 10: 31 10/11/10
AAMC 3: 29 11/9/9
AAMC 4: 37 12/12/13
AAMC 5: 29 8/12/9
AAMC 7: 39 12/13/14
AAMC 8: 31 11/10/10
AAMC 11: 33 11/11/11
AAMC 9: 33 11/12/10

Now, I know what happened with the 2 29's, I was sick and not focusing very well and probably shouldn't have bothered taking a full length. And I would be fine with a score in the 31-33 range, had I not gotten the 37 and the 39!! It's like I know I can do better, why did I peak already? I am taking the test 8/12, trying to do as much content review as possible. But what else can I do to get my real score up to the higher levels of my practice scores? Has anyone else had scores this inconsistent and done well? Help please!

My only guess is that you're solid in some areas and deficient in others so depending on what material is in a test you either do great or flop. How much time have you spent reviewing these tests?

 

[Carnation1895]

My only guess is that you're solid in some areas and deficient in others so depending on what material is in a test you either do great or flop. How much time have you spend reviewing these tests?

Yeah, every time I try to do content review I feel like everything is solid. I spend probably about an hour reviewing each test, which maybe isn't enough, but as soon as I see the right answer to a question it seems so obvious!! A lot of my mistakes are from misreading questions and that sort of thing (especially in bio, when the mental fatigue really sets in) rather than not knowing the concepts. Reviewing the tests just makes me mad at my stupid mistakes 🙄 maybe I'll go through all of them one more time just to see if I can spot a trend.

 

[Bancrofti]

My only guess is that you're solid in some areas and deficient in others so depending on what material is in a test you either do great or flop. How much time have you spend reviewing these tests?

This.

Reading your posts here though, I'll stick with what my original recommendation I was going to make when I came in to this thread (hopefully I don't get flamed for it): take one of the exams over, preferably one of the ones you're most farthest removed from taking OR one of the ones you did poorly on.. Looking at your scores it looks like AAMC 10 or 3 would be a good choice for you.

Your score won't be indicative of your actual score, nor should you expect the material to be as challenging. But you should focus beforehand on reminding yourself what all your mistakes were before so that you don't make them again. You should do MUCH better on the re-test, which even though it can't be applied to what your actual score may be, but should leave you with a bit more confidence as well as working proper test taking skills into your system.

Take this with a grain of salt. It's coming from my experience leading up to the 7/16 exam and after steadily increasing my science scores to consistently double digits, my verbal score in my last week of testing dropped from an average of 10, to not hitting a 10 on my last 3 exams, in addition to an 8 on an EK verbal. This kind of killed my confidence on verbal going into the exam. There are mixed reviews on how verbal was but I don't feel good at all about it, while I'm fairly comfortable right now on my performance for PS and BS. During my verbal section all I was thinking was: wtf is this, fml I should have done more verbal, why did I have to see a dip in scores the week before the test, I'm gonna be a janitor.

 

[PhaseShift11]

1 hour for the entire test?! Wtf? It takes me at least 2 hours to get through a verbal that I got 12 in. If I do very well on PS it might take 70 minutes, and for BS maybe like 70-90 minutes for that. Overall it should take AT LEAST as long as you took for the test itself (excluding WS).

Then reviewing your weaknesses would ideally take the rest of the day.

Yeah, every time I try to do content review I feel like everything is solid. I spend probably about an hour reviewing each test, which maybe isn't enough, but as soon as I see the right answer to a question it seems so obvious!! A lot of my mistakes are from misreading questions and that sort of thing (especially in bio, when the mental fatigue really sets in) rather than not knowing the concepts. Reviewing the tests just makes me mad at my stupid mistakes 🙄 maybe I'll go through all of them one more time just to see if I can spot a trend.

 

[kehlsh]

Yeah, every time I try to do content review I feel like everything is solid. I spend probably about an hour reviewing each test, which maybe isn't enough, but as soon as I see the right answer to a question it seems so obvious!! A lot of my mistakes are from misreading questions and that sort of thing (especially in bio, when the mental fatigue really sets in) rather than not knowing the concepts. Reviewing the tests just makes me mad at my stupid mistakes 🙄 maybe I'll go through all of them one more time just to see if I can spot a trend.

bad habit

 

[Carnation1895]

Thanks everyone. I really like the idea of retaking one test for a confidence boost, and I'll use a good chunk of my remaining study time to thoroughly review a few tests.

 

[SephirothXR]

What do you guys do when you spent that long on a test? If I got something right and it was for the right reason, I just go to the next question (and if I got it right for another reason, I examine it). Do you end up writing down the thought process for every question and the type of mistake you did?

 

[KaplanKrackers]

1 hour for the entire test?! Wtf? It takes me at least 2 hours to get through a verbal that I got 12 in. If I do very well on PS it might take 70 minutes, and for BS maybe like 70-90 minutes for that. Overall it should take AT LEAST as long as you took for the test itself (excluding WS).

Then reviewing your weaknesses would ideally take the rest of the day.

2 hours going over 3-5 questions? That sounds a little excessive. But on the other hand if you're getting 12's on verbal I guess you know what you're doing.

 

[PhaseShift11]

You don't go through the only ones you got wrong, you go through the entire test.

Think of it this way - I've been doing EK 101 for the past 2.5 months. I've just started doing AAMC ones last week. A smart move for me would be to analyze the AAMC verbal as much as possible to render the transition from EK to AAMC as smooth as possible.

The best way to work with the transition would be to spend a while looking over AAMC passages, question types, writing, style, and so forth. How do I do that? I do the test timed at first for practice, then when I go over it, I re-read the passage slowly, look for main ideas, etc etc, then I analyze questions.

I see what kind of question I got wrong, what I can do to avoid it next time, I see if the little notes I wrote on my paper were important/relevant/correct, and how to fix it.

2 hours going over 3-5 questions? That sounds a little excessive. But on the other hand if you're getting 12's on verbal I guess you know what you're doing.

 

[KaplanKrackers]

You don't go through the only ones you got wrong, you go through the entire test.

Think of it this way - I've been doing EK 101 for the past 2.5 months. I've just started doing AAMC ones last week. A smart move for me would be to analyze the AAMC verbal as much as possible to render the transition from EK to AAMC as smooth as possible.

The best way to work with the transition would be to spend a while looking over AAMC passages, question types, writing, style, and so forth. How do I do that? I do the test timed at first for practice, then when I go over it, I re-read the passage slowly, look for main ideas, etc etc, then I analyze questions.

I see what kind of question I got wrong, what I can do to avoid it next time, I see if the little notes I wrote on my paper were important/relevant/correct, and how to fix it.

hmm...I'm taking my MCAT in 3 days, but maybe I'll give that a try. My approach to verbal has been more about trying to cram in as much practice as possible, which I think has it's benefits as well. But maybe some last minute slow analysis will give me a boost.

 

[Carnation1895]

Update: re-took AAMC 10, which I took and last reviewed over a month. Got a 14/11/13, which I will definitely take as a confidence booster! I would have done better in verbal but I was like meh, my scores have been consistently high there and I rushed through it.

Obviously there were a lot of Q's that I remembered getting wrong, particularly ones where I either a) made a REALLY stupid mistake and spent some time being mad at myself or b) couldn't understand why I got it wrong so I spent lots of time figuring it out. I take the fact that I remembered the latter type so well as a really good sign.

Tomorrow I am thoroughly reviewing 10 and 11. Then maybe spending some time with quick sheets/last minute content...and that is it. Maybe a 20 minute warmup with the quicksheet on Friday morning, but I'm not making any heroic leaps in 3 days. But I do feel better going into the test now with a recent high score (artificially high though it may be).

 

[GooseWing]

Update: re-took AAMC 10, which I took and last reviewed over a month. Got a 14/11/13, which I will definitely take as a confidence booster! I would have done better in verbal but I was like meh, my scores have been consistently high there and I rushed through it.

Obviously there were a lot of Q's that I remembered getting wrong, particularly ones where I either a) made a REALLY stupid mistake and spent some time being mad at myself or b) couldn't understand why I got it wrong so I spent lots of time figuring it out. I take the fact that I remembered the latter type so well as a really good sign.

Tomorrow I am thoroughly reviewing 10 and 11. Then maybe spending some time with quick sheets/last minute content...and that is it. Maybe a 20 minute warmup with the quicksheet on Friday morning, but I'm not making any heroic leaps in 3 days. But I do feel better going into the test now with a recent high score (artificially high though it may be).

Definitely go to the tests who haven't scored so hot on and see what concepts you flubbed up. Rewrite notes on these topics and so some problems.