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How to improve Chem/Phys section
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Astra is exactly right. To be frank a low score in this section simply means you need to put more time in. Do thousands and thousands of physics and chem questions. Khan Academy and AAMC have excellent questions. Mark what you get wrong and after a week or so on other parts go back and retry the ones you get wrong. And make sure you know why you got questions wrong.
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Thank you! My exam is April 1st do you think it's doable to bring up the score in a month?
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Yes if your other scores are already high and you're willing to study 6-8 hours a day until your test. What is your overall score? And do already have a scored MCAT on record?
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I have a similar problem with scoring horribly low on the physics section. When you say do thousands and thousands of phys/chem questions, do you mean like copying down the ones you get wrong, and reviewing them over and over as well as trying out new ones? I have a stapled set of papers with worked out physics/chem problems that I did in the past that I just go over and over to refresh my brain. How many do you think is enough to do on one topic? For instance, should I do about 4-5 problems regarding buoyancy/Archimedes principle and then just keep reviewing them or should I just keep adding on to the stapled set of papers and do as many questions as I can until I get near my MCAT test date? Also, sometimes I have a problem with timing. Like I could figure out the problem, but it takes time. Sometimes I will be really good at getting most physics questions right and then get easily discouraged when I get like 10/15 questions wrong. I don't know what I am doing wrong. Maybe I don't have my math down quite yet. I am really getting frustrated as I heard that improving on the Phys/Chem section is the easiest to do. Could you get some kind of advice? Thanks
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My advice is to study with quizzes. 59 questions 95 mins exactly. No more no less. If you don't understand a question, move on. At the end of your test correct everything. The stuff you get wrong is your focus. Learn everything about that question. This is your make or break moment because the reality is you may never feel confident with physics. It is very important to keep doing practice rigorously. I never improved on my practice but I did in my test scores. Forget about what getting questions wrong means to you (AAMC practice material you absolutely need imo this is where scores matter and you should take them very seriously). If you let it become emotional you will burn out. Learn to embrace the challenge of being wrong. Every time you get a question wrong get pumped because this is your opportunity to master a problem, and find the solution where ever it's hiding. As far as picking where to get the problems and which ones to choose. You should find a book with like 500-1000 physics and or chem problems covering all topics. Then mark off the ones that the MCAT specifically says it will not be testing eg momentum. I hit the Khan Academy really hard I did all of their probs and when I got one wrong I watched a video, went to Google, and read it in a book. I tried to make sure I never forgot that subject. You must study intensely every day to keep this stuff fresh. Some topics I did no practice on because it was easy and some topics I did 200 questions. To be successful on this test you need to understand yourself, where your strengths are and how you understand physics best. I would not recommend "reviewing" stuff you've seen before. If it didn't help when u did it originally it probably won't this time. There are some exceptions of course. This isn't something that is specific to you, believe me, it's not important that you have a struggle, we all have them, it's about meeting the challenge and finding a solution, no excuses only results. Just as it is in medicine. Posting here is a good step in the right direction now you gotta take a deep breath and plunge in. Hard work will not fail you in physics and chem.
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Thank you very much! I will try to incorporate your advice into my study schedule.
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Physics and chemistry should be the easiest area to see improvement. It may sound crazy at first, but consider the curve for this section. Physics is not always well taught at the university level and general chemistry is taken so early in people's academic careers, that they haven't learned how to learn. So small increases in this area get the greatest yield in terms of climbing the curve. But to climb it, you have get better at applying chemistry and physics concepts, rather than memorizing and recalling equations and definitions.
While I agree it's about doing questions, without doing a thorough review of what you selected and why, you will not see much improvement. Repeated exposure to a topic will help a little, but can only go so far. Doing a question means spending twice as much time going over it than you spent doing it in the first place. What is essential is an analysis of why right answers are right and why wrong answers are wrong. Go over each answer choice and determine why it is a good or bad choice.
Break your grading into three parts. Immediately after taking the exam, look at the answer (letters only) and get a score. At this point, you need to try every question you got wrong again and see which ones you get right. This will identify careless errors and material you likely got down to two choices and guessed wrong. Grade these questions again and see how many more you got right. Those are the questions that if you learn how to get right the first time, then you'll see a jump in your score without much more than better focus. Any questions you got wrong, categorize as you see fit (computations, definitions, comparisons, applications, or recall for instance). See the type of questions you are missing. Many people mistakenly think that a low score reflects a lack of knowledge or understanding of the material, when in fact it may reflect a lack of test taking skills.
For the second round of grading, read through the answer explanations for each question you got wrong or felt uncertain of. This part is best done (in fact, must be done) with practice materials that have detailed answer explanations. If the explanations are too short or simply say "look at this section", you need to change materials. Read the explanation and then immediately try the question again. This is important, as it helps you become a better test taker.
The last round of grading is to randomly try a few questions and not only answer what is correct, but describe why the author put the answer choices they did. Did they try to trick you with misinformation or a common misconception? Did they focus on typical errors? Did they put true statements that were irrelevant? Did they put backwards answers (as in putting "decreasing" for something that was increasing)? This is where you learn to think like a test writer, which is essential on this exam.
You can improve. For years and years I've seen people who said they didn't like physics do quite well by putting their energy into their approach to questions. Keep things simple no matter how complex the passage or question may seem at first glance.
While I agree it's about doing questions, without doing a thorough review of what you selected and why, you will not see much improvement. Repeated exposure to a topic will help a little, but can only go so far. Doing a question means spending twice as much time going over it than you spent doing it in the first place. What is essential is an analysis of why right answers are right and why wrong answers are wrong. Go over each answer choice and determine why it is a good or bad choice.
Break your grading into three parts. Immediately after taking the exam, look at the answer (letters only) and get a score. At this point, you need to try every question you got wrong again and see which ones you get right. This will identify careless errors and material you likely got down to two choices and guessed wrong. Grade these questions again and see how many more you got right. Those are the questions that if you learn how to get right the first time, then you'll see a jump in your score without much more than better focus. Any questions you got wrong, categorize as you see fit (computations, definitions, comparisons, applications, or recall for instance). See the type of questions you are missing. Many people mistakenly think that a low score reflects a lack of knowledge or understanding of the material, when in fact it may reflect a lack of test taking skills.
For the second round of grading, read through the answer explanations for each question you got wrong or felt uncertain of. This part is best done (in fact, must be done) with practice materials that have detailed answer explanations. If the explanations are too short or simply say "look at this section", you need to change materials. Read the explanation and then immediately try the question again. This is important, as it helps you become a better test taker.
The last round of grading is to randomly try a few questions and not only answer what is correct, but describe why the author put the answer choices they did. Did they try to trick you with misinformation or a common misconception? Did they focus on typical errors? Did they put true statements that were irrelevant? Did they put backwards answers (as in putting "decreasing" for something that was increasing)? This is where you learn to think like a test writer, which is essential on this exam.
You can improve. For years and years I've seen people who said they didn't like physics do quite well by putting their energy into their approach to questions. Keep things simple no matter how complex the passage or question may seem at first glance.
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Thank you for the wonderful advice!
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I hope it helps. It's basically what we tell our students in class and the results of doing it this way have been pretty impressive. The biggest factor in success comes from what you get out of the answer explanations.
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I saw how well you did in another thread. Congratulations!
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This may seem like an odd link in terms of advice, but there really is no better place to get a good look at what is the most revered in terms of materials than the area where people are buying them (or trying to buy them).
I don't think the link works, but thank you. But I was wondering if there was like a textbook with practice problems, at least I think that's what @thecookiemonster was referring to. Sort of like the EK 1001 books but with better explanations?
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That's weird. I wonder if the thread was deleted or something like that. It was a link to a sale in the classifieds forum. The SDN classifieds section is a great place to go if you want to see what is out there and how much people think it's worth. The best materials are going for the most money used, sometimes even more than they cost new. The material that is not as helpful does not sell well and when it does, the price is really low.
Click on about ten MCAT sale threads and you will see which materials are the best. For physics and general chemistry it is very clear what books will meet your specific needs.
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I know this is an old thread but I'm having trouble with C/P and B/B sections. My Exam is in about a month and I'm averaging 503 on the practice Kaplan exams. This is only because I'm getting about 75% correct on CARS and P/S, but my C/P and B/B are always hovering around 50%. I went through a thorough content review and now I'm just doing practice problems, but no matter how much I review the problems afterwords, my score for these science sections is always around 50%. Timing is not an issue for me, it's just that often I don't fully understand what I'm reading in the passages, and I'm never confident in my answers. Any advice for me? It would be very appreciated.
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How did it go? What did you do that worked/didnt?
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Hey, so I took the MCAT and got a 507. 128 C/P 125 CARS 126 B/B 128 P/S. My C/P score shot up and I think what helped was continuous MCAT based practice problems, the ones that the AAMC provide. If i could change anything, I would of spent less time on content review, and more time on practicing MCAT like questions. I was actually accepted into UIC's medical program for the class of 2022, so I'm just happy I never have to take it again!
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First off, congratulations on admissions to a great school!
Second, THANK YOU for posting this message. It is really helpful when people come back AFTER they have taken the MCAT and say what worked for them. The message we repeatedly hear from people after they've taken the MCAT is that they wish they had done more passages and less content review. The best scores we see are almost always the ones who focused on passages and skimmed the review material.
Best of luck in medical school!
