How should you review your MCAT practice tests?

[FoodisGood163]

I was looking through some old threads here and didn't see much concerning this particular topic, but how should you review your MCAT practice tests (especially now that we have this awesome new exam format to deal with...)?

I've been looking through both the questions that I got right and wrong and deciding what was my thought process in attacking the question. But that's pretty much all I'm doing. Anyone got any pearls of wisdom to add to this?

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[655703]

This is a good question. Unfortunately I don't have any good answers, but I'd like to know what people think as well.

Should you review only the Q's you got wrong? Should you review Q's you got wrong and Q's that you guessed on? Should you review all Q's (and if so, is this an efficient use of your time)?

 

[mcatjelly]

Review ALL the questions--just because you got one right doesn't mean you actually knew the answer!

• Here are tips from two high-scoring SDN Users.
• How to Review Your AAMC Practice Exam by Leah4Sci
• Premeddit thread on reviewing practice exams

What I'm doing personally for the Official Sample Test is going through every question. I record the question and correct answer in an Excel sheet. If I got the question right, I make the answer cell green. If I got it wrong, I make it red. I write out the reasoning for the correct answer in the next cell. If I got it wrong, I also record an explanation of why I did.

 

[mikil100]

I have a word document with definitions, reminders, tid bits of info I've garnered from going over the test. I review questions I got right and wrong. Anything I'm unsure about gets looked up and put into the word document.

I review the word document ~2-3 times a week. Its gotten significantly larger now and takes a while to review

 

[Blueprint MCAT Tutor]

Some folks have already mentioned the most important thing: keep track! I'm old fashioned so I like to make notes on a legal pad, but a word doc / spreadsheet / whatever. Make sure you're writing down your Lessons Learned from the test, and then reviewing those Lessons Learned on a weekly basis.

On average, when reviewing a passage and it's questions, you should be able to extract anywhere from 3 - 10 takeaway points to add to your Lessons Learned document. Those points should obviously include anything you got wrong b/c you just didn't know a fact, but also anything you notice strategically that you did right or wrong, etc.

Good luck! 🙂