I'm pretty lost, NEED HELP!!

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Khalilm

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Hello guys as my title shows it I'm pretty lost with my MCAT studying. I've wrote my MCAT last July (2017) after 2 1/2 months of studying (had to quit my job), I scored 505 (128,123,126,128). My studying mainly consisted of doing content review and a decent amount of practice questions (mainly TBR and EK passages, AAMC question packs and their practice tests). I haven't done any third party practice exams, mainly because my schedule looked like this 2 months content review and half a month doing practice AAMC stuff.

Now last week I did a practice test AAMC #1 (based on the knowledge I had from last year) I scored 501 (125, 123, 125, 128). Now I'm thinking of writing my exam on May 18th but at the moment I'm working full time 9 - 5 everyday (this work schedule is very hindering my studies, I get back home completely tired, so I end up squeezing 2-3 hours of high yield studying, also there's no way for me to quit as I need the money).

From how things are going I don't see my self going anywhere anytime soon. To be competitive in my school I need a 512 MCAT score so I really don't know what to do or how to balance work and studying (I just feel lost).

My initial/still plan was/is to do one practice exam every Saturday from now till the day of the exam overall it will come to 14 exams (100 hrs), and to work part time (3 days a week, Mon, Tue, Thu 9 - 2) as this will free my schedule a little bit.

Right now my main struggle is CARS as most Canadian schools require 128 in that section for me to apply. I tried so many strategies and there's no SDN thread that I haven't read about that section, NOTHING SEEMS TO BE WORKING. I was told to try the testing solution boot camp I did I'm in day 17 atm and honestly I don't feel that I improved a bit. I really don't know how I will boost it up to at least the 126 - 128 range by late May.

If any one could throw some helpful comments I would really appreciate it.

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My biggest recomendation for CARS is to do as many practice passages as you can! That's honestly the best way you can improve in my opinion. There are strategies that you can use but I never found them helpful except for one; annotating on the scrap paper what each paragraph is telling me in just a few words like 4 words should be very brief. Doing this in the beginning really helped me because I was later just able to do that in my head, and It gives you a good picture of what the passage is all about. I used to do 3 verbal passages every day timed. But maybe for your situation you can do like 4-5 passages every single day and then leading into your mcat a few weeks before you can do a bunch of timed CARS section exams, I think that would help.
 
I agree! The biggest help for me is working passages everyday. Do at LEAST 1, aim for 3. I stopped working daily passages and my score dropped, so practice has a lot to do with it. Time yourself. I used to be TERRIFIED of the CARS section but the more practice I get, the less intimidating it became.

I like TPR's strategy for CARS but you have to pick and choose what works for you. For me, it was previewing the questions, making a list of key words from the questions, and then writing down the key point of each paragraph. Stay away from extreme answer choices. Make sure to paraphrase the question in your own words and see if you can answer it without looking at the answer choices. Keep in mind the main point and attitude of the passage.

Also, not sure if you're actively working on all of the passages. I always skip ONE passage and leave it for if I have time left. I still answer it so I don't leave them blank in case I do run out of time though. I usually only see one killer passage and am left with less than 10 minutes to answer it, so I just skim and answer what I can. I find it better to spend more time on passages I have a better understanding of. I have three weeks left before my MCAT so hopefully there's more improving left for me but I have jumped 4 points higher in my CARS section. It may work for you too!
 
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