Help with third time MCAT

[gabbers22]

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HI there! This is my first message to the board...and I was wondering if there was anyone out there with advice?
I have taken the MCAT twice...each with pretty low scores.
1st time

Aug. 1999) 7,5,7 P
2nd time

Aug. 2000) 7,6,7 P
I took Kaplan both times...the first time I did not really put it to good use, but the second time (this past summer), I studied well, and took about 12 practice tests before the exam. My scores were well above these real scores. I was very disappointed.
I realize that I will probably have to retake the MCAT....but how do I prepare differently this time? Does anyone have any suggestions on what I should do?
(Not that it probably matters...but I am from the midwest and really only wnat to go to my state school or a school close to my state).

 

[DocKwi]

Pray, Pray, and Pray...never give up!! If you really want to become a doctor at heart then you will become one one day. You've already taken the MCAT twice. What do you think the chances will be that you will improve your score?? Well If you are going to take it again, then study your ASS off and pray. Thats all i can tell you. Never give up and keep on trying!! If you give it your all and you want to become a doctor, you will become a doctor!! Goodluck!!

 

[guy104]

well, i can sympathize, dude. i got a 24 the first two times i took the mcat and i was pretty worried. but i realized that that second time i was kidding myself when i thought i had really put in a lot of effort. i'm going to give it to you straight as i see it, eventhough i realize i don't know your entire situation. as i see it, you are hurting a good bit in your understanding of the basic material. if you really knew all of the material, you would most likely not have gotten the score you did. therefore, you need to take a different approach to studying this time. stop telling yourself that you studied enough last time. you obviously didn't. if you want to improve your score (and you can) you can't give yourself an inch. just continue to tell yourself that no matter how much you study, it will never be enough, and then you might actually make an improvement. i used the kaplan material the second time, but i thought i was cool and didn't go by the plan. the third time i took the mcat i did the following. i would pay attention, because i just got my scores from august,and i went up 7 points to a 31.

1) i split the material up into the four science subjects. each have three lessons of about 3-5 kaplan text chapters per lesson.
2) i completed the text reading for a lesson then took all recommended topical tests, after which reading the explanations of the answers. this is important.
3)i then watched the class videos of the lesson i just tested for to reenforce the material. i then moved on to the next lesson in the subject. after a subject was complete, i completed full length subject tests. i did this for all four subjects, gen chem, org chem, physics, and biology.
4)by the end of the forth subject a lot of the first subject was rusty. i would have liked to have completed the previous cycle again, but i only a had a few weeks before the test. so i just watched class videos for each subject, then took topical tests. i finished my last subject about two days before the test and didn't look at anything again.

*the class videos proved invaluable to me, and will to you too probably. use them! i found that i didn't know that material at the level necessary to do well on the mcat. the videos help you learn things you never knew or reenforce topics you are rusty on. if you really don't understand, you can rewind.
*i didn't work or take classes during the two months that i studied prior to the test. i felt like the third mcat was make or break so i wanted to give it my full effort
*although i felt the 3rd mcat was important, i didn't let myself think that my life would end if i didn't get the score i wanted. i was very nervous, but i calmed myself with the knowledge that i had tried my best, and if the score wasn't there, then it wasn't because i didn't try.

as you can see, my study regimine wasn't easy. i spent around 5-8 hours a day studying for two months. but i can't tell you how relaxed and content i am right now. the state school i am applying to just got my scores and they've already scheduled me for an interview. the sacrifice is worth it. study hard, and it will pay off. good luck.

 

[gabbers22]

Thanks for your invaluable plan for the MCAT. I am really nervous for the third MCAT, and your plan sounds like a great idea...I will have to see what Kaplan's policy/prices will be since I have taken it twice already. Did you take Kaplan for the first two times of the MCAT, or for the second and third times? Thanks again for your information!

Originally posted by guy104:
well, i can sympathize, dude. i got a 24 the first two times i took the mcat and i was pretty worried. but i realized that that second time i was kidding myself when i thought i had really put in a lot of effort. i'm going to give it to you straight as i see it, eventhough i realize i don't know your entire situation. as i see it, you are hurting a good bit in your understanding of the basic material. if you really knew all of the material, you would most likely not have gotten the score you did. therefore, you need to take a different approach to studying this time. stop telling yourself that you studied enough last time. you obviously didn't. if you want to improve your score (and you can) you can't give yourself an inch. just continue to tell yourself that no matter how much you study, it will never be enough, and then you might actually make an improvement. i used the kaplan material the second time, but i thought i was cool and didn't go by the plan. the third time i took the mcat i did the following. i would pay attention, because i just got my scores from august,and i went up 7 points to a 31.

1) i split the material up into the four science subjects. each have three lessons of about 3-5 kaplan text chapters per lesson.
2) i completed the text reading for a lesson then took all recommended topical tests, after which reading the explanations of the answers. this is important.
3)i then watched the class videos of the lesson i just tested for to reenforce the material. i then moved on to the next lesson in the subject. after a subject was complete, i completed full length subject tests. i did this for all four subjects, gen chem, org chem, physics, and biology.
4)by the end of the forth subject a lot of the first subject was rusty. i would have liked to have completed the previous cycle again, but i only a had a few weeks before the test. so i just watched class videos for each subject, then took topical tests. i finished my last subject about two days before the test and didn't look at anything again.

*the class videos proved invaluable to me, and will to you too probably. use them! i found that i didn't know that material at the level necessary to do well on the mcat. the videos help you learn things you never knew or reenforce topics you are rusty on. if you really don't understand, you can rewind.
*i didn't work or take classes during the two months that i studied prior to the test. i felt like the third mcat was make or break so i wanted to give it my full effort
*although i felt the 3rd mcat was important, i didn't let myself think that my life would end if i didn't get the score i wanted. i was very nervous, but i calmed myself with the knowledge that i had tried my best, and if the score wasn't there, then it wasn't because i didn't try.

as you can see, my study regimine wasn't easy. i spent around 5-8 hours a day studying for two months. but i can't tell you how relaxed and content i am right now. the state school i am applying to just got my scores and they've already scheduled me for an interview. the sacrifice is worth it. study hard, and it will pay off. good luck.

 

[limit]

Listen very carefully, because I'm about to give you the best advice on taking the MCAT you'll ever hear in your life.

Are you ready ?

Here goes...

STOP TAKING THE GOD DAMN PRACTICE TESTS.

You burn yourself out by taking so many, and you have no juice left for the real thing. Having seen so many problems, you begin to think that you are noticing similarities when you really aren't. It's like a mirage when you're in the middle of the desert and are dying of thirst.

What you need to do is stop fooling yourself into thinking that Kaplan is good for anything except pretty little books with their logo on it. Go back to the basics and learn how to read and solve problems, because I can see that with all these years of studying, you could have memorized textbooks by now.

I don't mean to be offensive, I'm just trying to help by showing you a side of preparation that people that do poorly ignore.

Good luck. Third time is a charm !!!!

 

[guy104]

as you can see, there are many opinions and philosophies about the mcat. i am just telling you what worked for me. as for when i took the kaplan, i took it the 2nd and 3rd times. the 3rd time i didn't go to any classes, just did everything on my own and spent about all of my study time where the material was on reserve (a local university library). i spent 400 bucks for the retake which infuriated me, but although i put in a lot of effort for the second test i didn't give it everything i had, which was obvious after i saw how much i could possibly study the third time. the previous guy has a point about taking too many tests. don't get too confident if you perhaps seem to be doing well on some tests. but i should stress that most of the tests i completed were topical tests that were taken directly after i studied the material. this is a double-edged sword, bc you are not going to be as fresh with the material on test day as you are on the day you take the topical. however, the topical allows you to reenforce material you may have disregarded. also, i didn't take any of the full-length mcats before the third test. i specifically didn't want to get any tests graded by kaplan since the last kaplan practice before the 2nd test was scored three points higher than my actual score. i took some half-length section tests (bio sciences, or tests just on physics or gen chem) and one or two full length section tests. but i never went all the way through the mcat. try to shape the plan for yourself and realize that the main key is that you don't wimp out and say it's too hard or get discouraged when you feel like you're not retaining. there were times during studying for the third test that i wondered if i was just going to bomb it again. when i was in the library things seemed to come easily, but two days later it seemed to be gone. another line you have to draw is for rest and relaxation. you shouldn't give yourself slack on studying, but you do need to have time off throughout the week. take off a few nights a week and once on the weekend. this is if you are able to devote the whole day to studying. anyway, good luck.

 

[lilycat]

If you're thinking about using a prep course again, I'm not sure I would recommend Kaplan to you at this point. I took the Kaplan course twice, MCAT once (I bailed the week before I was supposed to take the MCAT the first time b/c I wasn't pleased with the practice scores I was getting). Personally, I found that even though the courses were a year apart for me, some of the tests still seemed familiar! If you have the money, I would recommend moving over to Princeton Review, since at least they will have a different bank of tests to practice from. You might be scoring artificially high on the Kaplan stuff, just because you've already seen it twice! Also, make sure you set aside a lot of time to thoroughly go over the correct answers to the tests. Personally, when I was preparing, I knew that I was really weak in Physics (I swear I just have a mental block against that subject), and so I borrowed a friend's physics textbook, and basically started relearning the stuff on my own. I found that working through the practice problems of those kinds of textbooks can be really helpful to reinforce knowledge, and give you extra practice (just don't cheat and look at the anser first!). Also, to bump up your verbal score, (and possibly help on the other sections as well) try reading the New Yorker or the Atlantic Monthly. Start doing this now! These articles are slightly similar to some of the passages of the MCAT, and if nothing else, hopefully the more you read, the faster you will be. Good luck!

 

[12R34Y]

take as many practice tests as possible. Practice makes perfect....literally. I know some of the above posters say otherwise, but you'll find after talking to many others they are a minority. It worked for them, but many need to take lots of practice tests. You need to feel comfortable with the type of questioning. the most important thing after taking the tests is to go over the answers and understand why you missed them. that really reinforces the material. Many points on the MCAt are missed by simple rushing and not finishing a section or two. taking lots of full lenght exams lets you see how long it takes and helps you timing. just my thougths.