Helpp very discouraging MCAT scores!! =(

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kingkev91

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Hey guys, I have been studying for this test since December, but that was through Kaplan which was not a great experience...I felt I did not learn much..I did not start hardcore 8 hours a day studying until the last month and a half but inbetween December and now I have taken all of the Kaplan Full-Length exams and the distribution was all over the place...It went from a little something like this: 17,18,21,25,19,26,24,22,28,19,18...I never felt confident with the material so I went back and relearned all the basics of Physics, Chemistry, and some of OChem through Chad's videos (***********.com). After his videos I took a Kaplan Full Length in which I got a 26..Then two days ago I took the AAMC #3 exam and got a 17...today I took another one and got another 17(8PS, 4VS, 5BS)...I really do not know what to do because I feel that I know the material its just that I am having a tough time concentrating on the test and applying it. Maybe the mcat is just not for me..I have a 3.80 GPA in school and I have never struggled with something so much in my life.The verbal has always been a weakness for me even from the time I was in middle school and I try to do one full verbal section a day but I always end up getting only a 50% overall on it..I been trying to improve and keep that area consistent but nothing is helping me. And that's another thing I have noticed for some reason that on all aspects of the test I am basicallly getting 50% of the material right and the other 50% wrong but according to Kaplan's curve that still gives me like a 26 but that's exactly the breakdown I had for the AAMC which gave me a 17..I know Kaplan's curve is more sympathetic towards me but I am so afraid that I am going to end up below a 20 on the real thing.. I am really frustrated and do not know how I can go about this..I have been trying to keep myself motivated but after so many bad test scores in a row I really don't know what to say to myself except for to find something else to do. My mcat is on the 26th of this month which gives me approx 2 weeks to study my butt off but I really do not know if its even going to help..I really need some help with this, how do you guys think I should go about this and improve? I'm really bad when it comes to passages but I do know the concepts fairly well and am confident with them. I also don't know how I can improve Bio other than do more passages..What do you guys think?
 
kingkev91 said:
Hey guys, I have been studying for this test since December, but that was through Kaplan which was not a great experience...I felt I did not learn much..I did not start hardcore 8 hours a day studying until the last month and a half but inbetween December and now I have taken all of the Kaplan Full-Length exams and the distribution was all over the place...It went from a little something like this: 17,18,21,25,19,26,24,22,28,19,18...I never felt confident with the material so I went back and relearned all the basics of Physics, Chemistry, and some of OChem through Chad's videos (***********.com). After his videos I took a Kaplan Full Length in which I got a 26..Then two days ago I took the AAMC #3 exam and got a 17...today I took another one and got another 17(8PS, 4VS, 5BS)...I really do not know what to do because I feel that I know the material its just that I am having a tough time concentrating on the test and applying it. Maybe the mcat is just not for me..I have a 3.80 GPA in school and I have never struggled with something so much in my life.The verbal has always been a weakness for me even from the time I was in middle school and I try to do one full verbal section a day but I always end up getting only a 50% overall on it..I been trying to improve and keep that area consistent but nothing is helping me. And that's another thing I have noticed for some reason that on all aspects of the test I am basicallly getting 50% of the material right and the other 50% wrong but according to Kaplan's curve that still gives me like a 26 but that's exactly the breakdown I had for the AAMC which gave me a 17..I know Kaplan's curve is more sympathetic towards me but I am so afraid that I am going to end up below a 20 on the real thing.. I am really frustrated and do not know how I can go about this..I have been trying to keep myself motivated but after so many bad test scores in a row I really don't know what to say to myself except for to find something else to do. My mcat is on the 26th of this month which gives me approx 2 weeks to study my butt off but I really do not know if its even going to help..I really need some help with this, how do you guys think I should go about this and improve? I'm really bad when it comes to passages but I do know the concepts fairly well and am confident with them. I also don't know how I can improve Bio other than do more passages..What do you guys think?
Click to expand...

Great wall of text!

Take more practice tests. Are you breaking down each question and figuring out why you picked each question? There needs to be more thought about it than "oh, that's stupid, I should have got that right". You need to hone your gut feeling.

Is english not your first language? I have honestly never heard of anyone getting a 5 or below on BS. Do you just not understand the concepts?
 
Do not take the MCAT this month. Under any circumstances. You are guaranteed to score poorly.

There is nothing you can do in two weeks to bring yourself up to an acceptable grade. Cancel it asap, while you can still get a partial refund. By getting a poor score now, even if you were to better at a later date, you permanently handicap your application.

Did you take the SAT? Did you take writing-heavy courses in college? If you're getting 4's on Verbal after over half a year of work, you might need to go back to basics and figure out the fundamentals of why you're not getting the questions right. Doctors take plenty of huge, reasoning-heavy exams. Some people suggest the MCAT verbal section is the best predictor for success on these tests.

(And don't pay attention to the percentage right on each test, they're all scaled differently, and Kaplan's average % right doesn't line up with AAMC's.)

Repeat: Do NOT take the MCAT this month. Don't take it any time in the near future. Do not take it until you are averaging at or above the score you'd like on full length AAMC practice tests, and do not take those until you have mastered all the material.
 
Despite the long post, some more information would be helpful. What have you been doing besides practice tests to prepare, which books, what type of study schedule, any course, timing, hours per day? Which pre-reqs have you taken, how did you do in them?
 
kingkev91 said:
Hey guys, I have been studying for this test since December, but that was through Kaplan which was not a great experience...I felt I did not learn much..I did not start hardcore 8 hours a day studying until the last month and a half but inbetween December and now I have taken all of the Kaplan Full-Length exams and the distribution was all over the place...It went from a little something like this: 17,18,21,25,19,26,24,22,28,19,18...I never felt confident with the material so I went back and relearned all the basics of Physics, Chemistry, and some of OChem through Chad's videos (***********.com). After his videos I took a Kaplan Full Length in which I got a 26..Then two days ago I took the AAMC #3 exam and got a 17...today I took another one and got another 17(8PS, 4VS, 5BS)...I really do not know what to do because I feel that I know the material its just that I am having a tough time concentrating on the test and applying it. Maybe the mcat is just not for me..I have a 3.80 GPA in school and I have never struggled with something so much in my life.The verbal has always been a weakness for me even from the time I was in middle school and I try to do one full verbal section a day but I always end up getting only a 50% overall on it..I been trying to improve and keep that area consistent but nothing is helping me. And that's another thing I have noticed for some reason that on all aspects of the test I am basicallly getting 50% of the material right and the other 50% wrong but according to Kaplan's curve that still gives me like a 26 but that's exactly the breakdown I had for the AAMC which gave me a 17..I know Kaplan's curve is more sympathetic towards me but I am so afraid that I am going to end up below a 20 on the real thing.. I am really frustrated and do not know how I can go about this..I have been trying to keep myself motivated but after so many bad test scores in a row I really don't know what to say to myself except for to find something else to do. My mcat is on the 26th of this month which gives me approx 2 weeks to study my butt off but I really do not know if its even going to help..I really need some help with this, how do you guys think I should go about this and improve? I'm really bad when it comes to passages but I do know the concepts fairly well and am confident with them. I also don't know how I can improve Bio other than do more passages..What do you guys think?
Click to expand...

Unless something changed since I was in 3rd grade, help only has one "p." You need to start over by creating a study schedule and following it without deviation. You also need to learn how to compose a paragraph. This will become important during the application process and your future professional life.
 
I usually try my best not to show my grammar Nazi side on SDN, but considering your biggest problem is Verbal and you just wrote... that, we have a problem. Before you take any more practice tests you're going to need to take an English class or two. Or three. Before you can learn to understand other complex language, you need to somewhat be able to articulate it yourself. It's the same with BS. A lot of the section is structured like Verbal, therefore besides knowing material you also have to follow the language.

I'm not calling you dumb or anything!! Just saying that whether English is your first language or not (it isn't mine!), you need to get better at the subject. Afterwards, try again and update us 🙂
 
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I think you are going about studying incorrectly. You either don't know the content or don't know how to take the MCAT. You need more practice and more time spent studying. Studying for the MCAT should be a full time job, You can take the MCAT now just to see where you are. It will motivate you to improve your score if anything. Maybe you will score better on MCAT, who knows? However it is unlikely given this info. Is it possible for you to do another application cycle?
 
Look up the 30+ MCAT schedule on SDN. It's pretty helpful.
 
Praefectus said:
Look up the 30+ MCAT schedule on SDN. It's pretty helpful.
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Is that some kind of crossbreed of the 30+ MCAT Study Habits and the 3 Month Study Schedule? :meanie:
 
Have you taken all your prereqs? Perhaps you should postpone until you're practice scores match where you'd like to be.
 
metaphase said:
do not take the mcat this month. Under any circumstances. You are guaranteed to score poorly.

There is nothing you can do in two weeks to bring yourself up to an acceptable grade. Cancel it asap, while you can still get a partial refund. By getting a poor score now, even if you were to better at a later date, you permanently handicap your application.

Did you take the sat? Did you take writing-heavy courses in college? If you're getting 4's on verbal after over half a year of work, you might need to go back to basics and figure out the fundamentals of why you're not getting the questions right. Doctors take plenty of huge, reasoning-heavy exams. Some people suggest the mcat verbal section is the best predictor for success on these tests.

(and don't pay attention to the percentage right on each test, they're all scaled differently, and kaplan's average % right doesn't line up with aamc's.)

repeat: do not take the mcat this month. Don't take it any time in the near future. Do not take it until you are averaging at or above the score you'd like on full length aamc practice tests, and do not take those until you have mastered all the material.
Click to expand...

+1
 
There is no way you're getting anything over a 20 if you take the MCAT this month. Cancel and re-schedule, because you are not prepared. I don't know what your financial situation is, but I recommend getting a tutor if you can. It looks like you're tackling the exam in the wrong way and are constantly making the same mistakes.
 
I feel way more confident with the material then before I feel that I am just rushing through the whole test and not giving myself enough time to think. On Verbal I was getting 7 and 8's its just these last 2 AAMC test that I've been getting 4's. My highest Physical Science was 11, my highest Biological Science was a 10, and my highest Verbal was an 11. I know I can do it, its just during the passages I miss some key information which hurts my whole performance. On most of the Sciences I will get every single question right for one passage and then the next one I will get half and half or none of the questions correct at all...I know for Verbal I feel burned out after reading through the first 3 passages. I have been doing a full verbal section test everyday now to try to improve verbal but I might have to develop a new strategy (besides Kaplan's read a paragraph and jot something down about it). The good thing about that strategy is that it keeps me focused for the passage at hand, but I get so burned out after a while I feel that I can't make easy deductions between two things. Also on most of these test there's always one section where I do good on (it fluctuates), but the other two sections bring me down so much that my score doesn't reflect...maybe my biggest problem is not being able to concentrate for the full test? Also some of you said that I'm not taking the test right, well I'm open to suggestions..how would you say I take it then?
 
Okay so this is for whoever cares..I did go ahead and take the MCATS even though I wasn't too confident with the scores I was receiving. On the real thing I got a 24-10PS 9BS 5VR. I gave up on applying to MD schools because they were just too picky and although everything else on my application was good I knew I was not going to get an interview. I have a 3.80 cumulative GPA and did all the volunteering and research too. I recently just got interviewed at LECOM (a DO school) and just found out I was accepted!! So I guess I just want to say for those of you reading this and in the same situation as me don't give up!! You really never know where you will end up.
 
nisarg2010 said:
+1
Click to expand...

metaphase said:
do not take the mcat this month. Under any circumstances. You are guaranteed to score poorly.

There is nothing you can do in two weeks to bring yourself up to an acceptable grade. Cancel it asap, while you can still get a partial refund. By getting a poor score now, even if you were to better at a later date, you permanently handicap your application.

Did you take the sat? Did you take writing-heavy courses in college? If you're getting 4's on verbal after over half a year of work, you might need to go back to basics and figure out the fundamentals of why you're not getting the questions right. Doctors take plenty of huge, reasoning-heavy exams. Some people suggest the mcat verbal section is the best predictor for success on these tests.

(and don't pay attention to the percentage right on each test, they're all scaled differently, and kaplan's average % right doesn't line up with aamc's.)

repeat: Do not take the mcat this month. Don't take it any time in the near future. Do not take it until you are averaging at or above the score you'd like on full length aamc practice tests, and do not take those until you have mastered all the material.
Click to expand...

+2
 
We can all agree (which is rare) on this: Do not take the MCAT.

Until you have a steady score of what you want, plus or minus two points, don't take the test. It is as simple as that.

Having that variable of test scores tells me that you are getting lucky on which passages are given to you. That means that you are knowlegable on some aspects and don't know the basic science on the others. Find out what you are getting wrong and study that. You have a weakness that you can fix, but not in the given amount of time.

Also, the difference between a 4 and an 8 is like 15 questions. You need to practice more! Do you map the passages? What types of questions are you getting wrong? Etc. You need to be addressing your test performance like that.
 
BABSstudent said:
We can all agree (which is rare) on this: Do not take the MCAT.

Until you have a steady score of what you want, plus or minus two points, don't take the test. It is as simple as that.

Having that variable of test scores tells me that you are getting lucky on which passages are given to you. That means that you are knowlegable on some aspects and don't know the basic science on the others. Find out what you are getting wrong and study that. You have a weakness that you can fix, but not in the given amount of time.

Also, the difference between a 4 and an 8 is like 15 questions. You need to practice more! Do you map the passages? What types of questions are you getting wrong? Etc. You need to be addressing your test performance like that.
Click to expand...

Already took it and got into LECOM.
 
kingkev91 said:
Okay so this is for whoever cares..I did go ahead and take the MCATS even though I wasn't too confident with the scores I was receiving. On the real thing I got a 24-10PS 9BS 5VR. I gave up on applying to MD schools because they were just too picky and although everything else on my application was good I knew I was not going to get an interview. I have a 3.80 cumulative GPA and did all the volunteering and research too. I recently just got interviewed at LECOM (a DO school) and just found out I was accepted!! So I guess I just want to say for those of you reading this and in the same situation as me don't give up!! You really never know where you will end up.
Click to expand...

Congrats! What a happy ending 🙂
 
kingkev91 said:
Okay so this is for whoever cares..I did go ahead and take the MCATS even though I wasn't too confident with the scores I was receiving. On the real thing I got a 24-10PS 9BS 5VR. I gave up on applying to MD schools because they were just too picky and although everything else on my application was good I knew I was not going to get an interview. I have a 3.80 cumulative GPA and did all the volunteering and research too. I recently just got interviewed at LECOM (a DO school) and just found out I was accepted!! So I guess I just want to say for those of you reading this and in the same situation as me don't give up!! You really never know where you will end up.
Click to expand...

Congrats!

MedPR said:
Fivo got banned? 😕
Click to expand...

La Presse said:
Crap...I just saw that too. I need to be more careful and be more helpful. :scared:
Click to expand...

I forgot who Fivo was until you mentioned him. 😳
 
sinombre said:
I'm sure he'll be back under a different name. Maybe we'll see a "sixo" pop up some time soon.
Click to expand...

113 reminds me of him now that I know Fivo was banned.
 
He got in with a 5 in verbal?

1pjt.jpg
 
MedPR said:
Fivo got banned? 😕
Click to expand...

hey are those perma-bans or temp?

to the OP, cancel the test. Continue to study. Go over each question and understand why the correct answer is right and what you didn't understand that made you pick another answer. WRITE THESE OUT ON PAPER for every question you got wrong OR guessed on. Kaplan gives respectable resources to expedite this process, but it will still take time and that will be good for you. I did this and it helped me. Continue taking practice tests. Good Luck
 
VictorAlpha said:
hey are those perma-bans or temp?

to the OP, cancel the test. Continue to study. Go over each question and understand why the correct answer is right and what you didn't understand that made you pick another answer. WRITE THESE OUT ON PAPER for every question you got wrong OR guessed on. Kaplan gives respectable resources to expedite this process, but it will still take time and that will be good for you. I did this and it helped me. Continue taking practice tests. Good Luck
Click to expand...

This is an old thread... the OP already took the MCAT and updated everyone of his acceptance yesterday. But I think your advice is good advice--I used a similar strategy.
 
dude that's awesome. congrats on your acceptance. your perseverance is commendable.
 
kingkev91 said:
Okay so this is for whoever cares..I did go ahead and take the MCATS even though I wasn't too confident with the scores I was receiving. On the real thing I got a 24-10PS 9BS 5VR. I gave up on applying to MD schools because they were just too picky and although everything else on my application was good I knew I was not going to get an interview. I have a 3.80 cumulative GPA and did all the volunteering and research too. I recently just got interviewed at LECOM (a DO school) and just found out I was accepted!! So I guess I just want to say for those of you reading this and in the same situation as me don't give up!! You really never know where you will end up.
Click to expand...
Thank you for sharing your story!! It gives us all hope and shows that listening to crazy SDNers could get you all twisted up. I'm glad you went ahead with your plans. Hurray!
 
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