How to improve MCAT bio section? Is 5 months good enough to see a result?

[jennifer1585]

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Hey, Everyone

I got 7 in MCAT bio section on the test of June 5. I took biology courses in 2009 and got B plus. I used EK biology to prepare my last MCAT and watched khan academy to understand some basic concept of biology. I thought I did well in understanding the basic concept of biology.

For practice exams, I started with 7 in bio and I did try to improve it. Before real test, I kept getting 9 or 10. However I didn't expect that I got 7 again in my real exam.

I am a non-native english speaker. I wonder if bio is similar with verbal reasoning. I only remembered in the real test, I didn't have time to finish my bio section. I have to put either b or c in the last passage.

I wonder how to improve my bio score. I registered the last old type of MCAT in Jan 2015. Is 5 months good enough to improve bio score? How to improve it? Any good remmendation of the books? Should I do more practicing or understanding of the basic concept?

Thank you so much for your help!
Sincerely,
Jen

 

[NextStepTutor_2]

First, a lot of bio passages can be like verbal reasoning in that the answers come from analyzing the passage rather than from recalling content. To improve your bio score, begin early with verbal reasoning as well. The typical student up for the MCAT would say that 5 months is enough but that can depend on so many factors including how long you've been out of school. Since you have a current score to use as a diagnostic, continue to test yourself and use those scores as guidelines to determine your progress. Start working on your critical thinking right away. Content is only part of the test so don't spend all your time on that. Do as many passages as you can and analyze them in depth. When you get a question wrong, know why as well as what strategies you can use next time to do better. Continue to identify content through the practice tests. Simply looking at content on its own without the context of consistent practice tests works for a biology class -not the MCAT. As you do identify content, you may feel that a more comprehensive book is needed since it's been some time since you were in a biology class. If so, The Berkley Review tends to be good for that.

 

[Gauss44]

First, a lot of bio passages can be like verbal reasoning in that the answers come from analyzing the passage rather than from recalling content. To improve your bio score, begin early with verbal reasoning as well. The typical student up for the MCAT would say that 5 months is enough but that can depend on so many factors including how long you've been out of school. Since you have a current score to use as a diagnostic, continue to test yourself and use those scores as guidelines to determine your progress. Start working on your critical thinking right away. Content is only part of the test so don't spend all your time on that. Do as many passages as you can and analyze them in depth. When you get a question wrong, know why as well as what strategies you can use next time to do better. Continue to identify content through the practice tests. Simply looking at content on its own without the context of consistent practice tests works for a biology class -not the MCAT. As you do identify content, you may feel that a more comprehensive book is needed since it's been some time since you were in a biology class. If so, The Berkley Review tends to be good for that.

I disagree with the statement in bold. IMO, there is a subtle, yet major, issue with that statement.

A lot of the answers for the biology section come from straight forward information in the text of the passage, NOT wild and crazy complex analyses of the verbal reasoning type, thank goodness! This is why so many people do well in one section and not in the other.

A non-native English speaker should NOT be afraid of the biology section.

 

[IslandStyle808]

I think my statement will be in both agreement and conflict with the two above. Biology definitely involves analysis of the passage, you will have experiments and you have to know what they are about and what the results show. The answer is not just given away in the passage, but it is not nearly as convoluted as verbal. However, a good background with the topic will keep you from making off tangent deductions. This is probably one big reason why a good chunk of people do well on biology who don't do well on verbal. As for what to read for that section use the princeton review (TBR is just overkill with too much focus on anatomy and biochemistry, however I have read on the forums the genetics was good for the exam). For practice, I would suggest using TPR hyperlearning since a lot of the passages are experimental (I bet you have seen this a lot on the real MCAT). The hyperlearning book is a must for biology.

I say this as a person who scored in the double digits in biology, but poorly in verbal (but am doing a verbal strategy which is improving my scores on the AAMC practice exams). So it is definitely doable to do well in biology even if verbal is poor. Make sure that you have a good background in the material and keep doing practice passages.

Good luck.

 

[Sed8&Intub8]

I disagree with the statement in bold. IMO, there is a subtle, yet major, issue with that statement.

A lot of the answers for the biology section come from straight forward information in the text of the passage, NOT wild and crazy complex analyses of the verbal reasoning type, thank goodness! This is why so many people do well in one section and not in the other.

A non-native English speaker should NOT be afraid of the biology section.

Umm, yeah, today's MCAT, the BS, reminded a lot about VR. Complex analysis, and lots of it. Information dense, long, complex relationships along with complex questions. There was even something about which statement weakens the skeptics assertions, if that doesn't sound like VR what does?

However, it should be much easier to improve as compared to verbal.