I don't like my CARS improvement. Why am I still struggling?

[Chromatic543]

So I am only two weeks away from my MCAT, and I have been practicing CARS every single day since I started studying in June. Back in July, I did the CARS question pack 1 and these were my scores:

CARS Question Pack 1
24/60 (40%)
39/60 (65%)

I have since been using Examkrackers FL CARS, TBR FL CARS, EK 101 Verbal, and Khan Academy on the rare occasion. I just took CARS Question Pack 2 in multiple settings yesterday and today, and this is what I got:

CARS Question Pack 2

35/60 (58%)
32/60 (53%)

It looks like I have "improved" but not by much, and my test is in two weeks! I am panicking right now, and I need advice on what to do next! How do my CARS Question Pack 2 scores look for the actual MCAT?

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[premedkid1994]

hey dude, based on those scores you are probably around a 122-123 (+/- 1)

I would take the scored exam and see what you get on there.

 

[premedkid1994]

You still have 2 weeks left. That's plenty of time to fix weaknesses.
I would start by reading dense material everyday for 1-2 hours and fixing what you did wrong on those qpacks.
Good luck!

 

[Chromatic543]

You still have 2 weeks left. That's plenty of time to fix weaknesses.
I would start by reading dense material everyday for 1-2 hours and fixing what you did wrong on those qpacks.
Good luck!

Thanks for response! Do you think I should repeat the CARS Q packs? Should I take AAMC FL scored or unscored first? I am not sure about their differences.

 

[Chromatic543]

Thanks for response! Do you think I should repeat the CARS Q packs? Should I take AAMC FL scored or unscored first? I am not sure about their differences.

ALSO, when I get answers wrong...it is not usually distributed throughout the test. Rather, when I get answers wrong in a passage....it is usually a majority of THAT ONE passage...meaning my wrong answers are usually because I don't understand a particular passage. I provided an example to show this.

Example:

Usually

Passage 1: 2/7
Passage 2: 6/7
Passage 3: 3/7
Passage 4: 6/7
Passage 5: 3/7
Passage 6: 6/7
Passage 7: 2/7


NOT like this:

Passage 1: 4/7
Passage 2: 4/7
Passage 3: 4/7
Passage 4: 5/7
Passage 5: 4/7
Passage 6: 4/7
Passage 7: 4/7

 

[DerDudelsack]

I was in a similar boat when I started studying and I just found that practice helped. Do practice passages under timed conditions and go over them immediately afterwards to see how you did and what you did wrong. Maybe start with 1 passage at a time, give yourself 10 minutes to read and do the questions (spending 3-4 minutes reading the passage), and then go over it and see how you did. If you want to do more in one sitting to get the timing down, just add passages and time accordingly.

Important to note is that you're really understanding the passages before you go onto the questions. I first saw improvement with my scores when I could pretty confidently say that I knew what the passage was talking about. I think a good tip for comprehension is simply saying a sentence in your head about what each paragraph is about as you read. If you're in need for other tips, check out the other CARS help threads. There's a lot of good advice out there!

Good luck!