HELP NEEDED...Scoring low on practice MCAT

[nuralail]

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Hello all,


I am desperate need of advice. I graduated from college almost three years ago, and have been spending the past 4 months studying for MCAT. On my practice exams I am scoring way below average, less than 20. I am not sure what I am doing wrong. I have a 3.65 undergraduate GPA and two years working at top universities.

Please help. I have scheduled to take the Sept MCAT, but feel that it may be a waste of money.

 

[DrMidlife]

On my practice exams I am scoring way below average, less than 20. I am not sure what I am doing wrong.

I'd say you're not ready. Until you know what you're doing wrong and have fixed it, don't take the MCAT. This might mean you need to do a prep course, or you might need to clear your calendar and do nothing but study. Probably both. A tutor might help.

I assume you want something closer to 30? I would find it hard to believe that you can gain 10 points in less than 2 months, particularly if you don't know what's wrong. In your shoes, I would clear my fall schedule and work at MCAT prep like a full time job, and take the test in January.

Best of luck to you.

 

[Sol Rosenberg]

It would seem to me that you don't understand the material covered by the test. I agree that you shouldn't take the test until you are scoring better on the practice exams. My score on the real thing was pretty much what I was scoring on the practice exams.

 

[2008orbust]

RESCHEDULE!!!! Make sure you know the material and you may need to shell out the $$$$ for a prep course--My MCAT score also matched my practice scores. I used Kaplan because I had orgo and physics and all those classes A DOZEN years ago and needed a refresher.

Good luck!

 

[Law2Doc]

Hello all,


I am desperate need of advice. I graduated from college almost three years ago, and have been spending the past 4 months studying for MCAT. On my practice exams I am scoring way below average, less than 20. I am not sure what I am doing wrong. I have a 3.65 undergraduate GPA and two years working at top universities.

Please help. I have scheduled to take the Sept MCAT, but feel that it may be a waste of money.

Agree with the others. While I think the time frame between now and september might be doable if you were seeing any rise in your scores, the fact that you have already been studying for "4 months" (longer than most people spend intensely studying for this in total) suggests that your approach is totally wrong and I wouldn't anticipate any additional progress if you keep doing the same thing. Sign up for a prep course or professonal tutor with one of the major prep companies.

Discontinue whatever form of "studying" you had previously been doing -- it ain't working or productive. Getting through med school is going to be about adapting to what works and bailing on what doesn't, so you are learning an important lesson now which will hopefully prepare you for that. What you thought was productive studying may have worked at one level but doesn't always transcend to others. It is not that uncommon for college superstars to falter somewhere along this road, if they fail to adapt when they see something is not working. 4 months is simply too long to keep banging your head against a wall.

 

[QofQuimica]

Agree with the others. While I think the time frame between now and september might be doable if you were seeing any rise in your scores, the fact that you have already been studying for "4 months" (longer than most people spend intensely studying for this in total) suggests that your approach is totally wrong and I wouldn't anticipate any additional progress if you keep doing the same thing. Sign up for a prep course or professonal tutor with one of the major prep companies.

Discontinue whatever form of "studying" you had previously been doing -- it ain't working or productive. Getting through med school is going to be about adapting to what works and bailing on what doesn't, so you are learning an important lesson now which will hopefully prepare you for that. What you thought was productive studying may have worked at one level but doesn't always transcend to others. It is not that uncommon for college superstars to falter somewhere along this road, if they fail to adapt when they see something is not working. 4 months is simply too long to keep banging your head against a wall.

Agree. Your study plans need a major overhaul, OP, and you should wait to take the MCAT until next year. Definitely do try something different, and keep experimenting until you figure out what method works best for you. Also, you might try going to the MCAT forum and looking at some of the advice threads in the MCAT subforum and in the 30+ Study Habits thread. (You can find the link to that thread in one of the stickies at the top of the MCAT forum.) to you. 😉

 

[njbmd]

Hello all,


I am desperate need of advice. I graduated from college almost three years ago, and have been spending the past 4 months studying for MCAT. On my practice exams I am scoring way below average, less than 20. I am not sure what I am doing wrong. I have a 3.65 undergraduate GPA and two years working at top universities.

Please help. I have scheduled to take the Sept MCAT, but feel that it may be a waste of money.

First of all, your undergraduate GPA really doesn't matter when it comes to MCAT prep. The MCAT tests quite differently from most colleges and universities. This is why you need to be sure that you both have a solid knowledge base and know how to apply that knowledge base in the manner that the MCAT tests.

Many students make the mistake of attempting to memorize everything for the MCAT only to do poorly. The MCAT (like USMLE) tests application of knowledge to problem-solving. The problems are very different from the types of problems that you encounter in your coursework.

That being said, you may need to postpone your test until you are thoroughly comfortable and able to do better with this type of questioning. As others have mentioned, you may need to take a commercial prep course or change your review methods since they are not working.

Bottom line: Don't take that test until you are thoroughly prepared. The MCAT is not a test that you can "squeak by" at the last minute or "hope for the best". The MCAT is not a test to "take for practice". Take the test when you are best prepared and unless something drastically changes, you won't be prepared for the September exam.

 

[nuralail]

Thank you all for your advice. At this time I have to decide what approach to studying is best. Intially , I was reading the princeton review textbooks for understanding of topics and doing some problems. Most of my attention was directed towards understanding the text. However, I believe doing practice problems may be a more efficient way of studying. How many practice exams should one take prior to the MCAT?

 

[DrMidlife]

How many practice exams should one take prior to the MCAT?

All of them, preferably. There are 8 available on e-mcat.com. The first one is free.

Functionally, you need to hit the score you want on a practice exam before you take the real thing. So you need to take as many practice exams as that takes.

 

[TheGalvaniFrog]

Are the questions you get wrong "thinking" errors or "knowledge" errors? If they are knowledge errors, do more reviews of concepts. If they are mostly thinking errors, focus on doing as much practice questions as you can.

 

[dazed1980]

i am in the same boat. i haven't been studying for that long and am registered for september. took practise test on the Gold standard; for verbal, made about 10-11(paper test), on emcat(aamc) free test; biological science 9. so i thought to my self; i can use the next two weeks to sharpen my BS and Verbal, then focus on PS for the last weeks, i could make it. Then i take the Kaplan BS section today. I made a 5!! don't know what to make of this. any suggestions?