- Joined
- Jul 5, 2004
- Messages
- 163
- Reaction score
- 0
What do you say are the traits that distinguishes a skillful test taker from the rest?
How do they do it?
- Thread starter dreambig2night
- Start date
- Joined
- Jul 14, 2002
- Messages
- 655
- Reaction score
- 1
The MCAT isn't like most standardized tests, but it's a lot like the board exams, so knowing how to take these particular tests is a useful skill. For me, the biggest difference between doing mediocre the first time (24T) to doing much better the second time (30P) was NOT knowing more material; it was how I approached the test.
The first time, I was so nervous about doing well and knowing that this one test would have much to do with medical school admissions that I blazed through in a panic and didn't think things through very well. Probably 50% or more of the questions I missed were because of my brain getting in its own way, NOT lack of knowledge.
For the MCAT, it's important to be able to think your way around logically and most of all, CALMLY. You do not, contrary to popular belief, have to BLAZE through just to finish. Many of the questions will be answerable in fifteen seconds or so, leaving plenty of room to puzzle out the harder ones.
Most importantly, read the entire passage, especially in the PS and BS sections, because they will give special experimental conditions that may or may not run contrary to your knowledge base. They will count on many folks not reading the whole passage and trying to read all the questions first and then go back to the passage and pick out the pertinent information that they think they need to answer the question. However, they might take for granted that acceleration due to gravity is 10 m/s/s, for example, when in the passage they might mention that in THIS PARTICULAR EXPERIMENT gravity is 5 m/s/s. They'll count on you just blindly plugging in 10, and you're wrong. Also, if it's one of those questions where to answer question 3 you will have had to answer 1 and 2 correctly, you've just screwed yourself out of 3 easy questions that you would have gotten had you simply read the passage.
Also, try not to be flustered by the perceived difficulty of the experiments presented in the passage. The experiments themselves might be harder than anything you've ever done or heard of, but the material tested will ALWAYS be a basic science concept, not an advanced one.
Go slower than is comfortable for you. You'll find in practice exams that you actually have PLENTY of time to think things through clearly. Hope this helps.
The first time, I was so nervous about doing well and knowing that this one test would have much to do with medical school admissions that I blazed through in a panic and didn't think things through very well. Probably 50% or more of the questions I missed were because of my brain getting in its own way, NOT lack of knowledge.
For the MCAT, it's important to be able to think your way around logically and most of all, CALMLY. You do not, contrary to popular belief, have to BLAZE through just to finish. Many of the questions will be answerable in fifteen seconds or so, leaving plenty of room to puzzle out the harder ones.
Most importantly, read the entire passage, especially in the PS and BS sections, because they will give special experimental conditions that may or may not run contrary to your knowledge base. They will count on many folks not reading the whole passage and trying to read all the questions first and then go back to the passage and pick out the pertinent information that they think they need to answer the question. However, they might take for granted that acceleration due to gravity is 10 m/s/s, for example, when in the passage they might mention that in THIS PARTICULAR EXPERIMENT gravity is 5 m/s/s. They'll count on you just blindly plugging in 10, and you're wrong. Also, if it's one of those questions where to answer question 3 you will have had to answer 1 and 2 correctly, you've just screwed yourself out of 3 easy questions that you would have gotten had you simply read the passage.
Also, try not to be flustered by the perceived difficulty of the experiments presented in the passage. The experiments themselves might be harder than anything you've ever done or heard of, but the material tested will ALWAYS be a basic science concept, not an advanced one.
Go slower than is comfortable for you. You'll find in practice exams that you actually have PLENTY of time to think things through clearly. Hope this helps.
- Joined
- Oct 21, 2005
- Messages
- 3,039
- Reaction score
- 24
mj1878 said:
This sounds wonderful but for someone like me who has yet to finish the PS section in time, may not really WORK!
- Joined
- Mar 22, 2003
- Messages
- 944
- Reaction score
- 2
No... it's not.mj1878 said:
