How much can you improve in one month?

[GeorgianCMV]

I have taken 4 practice tests thus far:

AAMC 4: 30
AAMC 5: 30
AAMC 9: 29
Kaplan 7: 33

I have a month until my May 10 MCAT. My verbal is never very good (9 is pretty awesome for me) and I usually get 10's and 11's in the others. The thing is, I am freshly graduated and was a bio major in college--I need to be getting 13's and 14's in bio to pad my verbal score!!!

Do you feel like my inability to get any higher than a couple 10's and a 9 reflects my need to study the material better? Or now should I focus on testing strategy rather than content?

Please console me--is a month a large chunk of time with plenty of room for ample improvement???? This is my second time taking the test and I want it (and need it) to be my last. My schedule allows for plenty of time to devote to the test.

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[iA-MD2013]

I think bio has huge potential for improvement. A lot of it is just memorization...but it needs time/work. I think you can get it up to a 13-14 in one month. But you need to really work at it. Spend a week on content review to have everything memorized and then just do a lot of practice. As a bio major, you won't have a hard time remembering most of the details. Worst case scenario would be if you can't get your score up in the next month and you reschedule to end of may/june, which is still early. But, don't take the test until your practice scores are where you want them to be.

 

[RSAgator]

a month is a good amount of time to improve with those scores. Your verbal is/will hold you back quite a bit so I suggest you spend some time on that. If you haven't already pick up EK 101 and start knocking out practice passages. Take it in 40 question sets (or however close to that you can get with the passages) and time yourself. As far as the other subjects, it depends entirely on the kinds of questions you're getting wrong. If it's stuff you don't know then go back to that section and review it hardcore. It's much easier to have a focused review like this when you see the areas you need to work on. Other than that just practice practice review practice at this point.

 

[GeorgianCMV]

The thing is, I've been studying for three months now, so I have memorized the vast majority of everything. I need some spot practice like NMR, cellular respiration, etc., but I do really well on most of the discrete questions. On Kaplan 7, I got a 15 on biology...but come on, Kaplan's bio sections are outrageously easy. I have been working hard on verbal and have brought up my continuous 6's and 7's from last May to 8's, 9's, and 10's.

That said, I will not be moving my test back, because I can't--I'm a dermatological surgery assistant (Mohs) and my boss, the MD, is counting on my to be FINISHED with this MCAT stuff on May 10th!!!!

I think you have a great point about getting EK 101 verbal. I need to order it from amazon because my barnes and noble doesn't have it.

 

[J ROD]

The thing is, I've been studying for three months now, so I have memorized the vast majority of everything. I need some spot practice like NMR, cellular respiration, etc., but I do really well on most of the discrete questions. On Kaplan 7, I got a 15 on biology...but come on, Kaplan's bio sections are outrageously easy. I have been working hard on verbal and have brought up my continuous 6's and 7's from last May to 8's, 9's, and 10's.

That said, I will not be moving my test back, because I can't--I'm a dermatological surgery assistant (Mohs) and my boss, the MD, is counting on my to be FINISHED with this MCAT stuff on May 10th!!!!

I think you have a great point about getting EK 101 verbal. I need to order it from amazon because my barnes and noble doesn't have it.

You really need to get the EK verbal 101.

It is the best practice I found next to the AAMCs.

I would spend most of my time working on the verbal with this book.

On the real one, the BS section comes out on the passages and you have to be able to figure it out. I would not spend time memorizing a bunch of concepts. I would work more on reading comp and thinking through the passages.

Work for a consistent 10 on verbal and PS and a 12 on BS.

And yes, you still have time to get there.