I've Hit a Wall!

[BBender716]

Help! I've hit an MCAT preparation wall! I'm currently in the Kaplan course and have completed all the content review. I've taken approximately 7 practice tests and for the last 3-4 I've hovered in the 34-35 range and can't seem to get over the hill.

...some background info on the test results that I hope will help you, help me!

My PS has been the most consistent with 11s/12s mostly.
My VS has been the most inconsistent with 9-13, but mostly 11s/12s.
My BS was consistently my weakest but I've gotten it up to 12s.

I seem to do better percentage-wise on the AAMC tests, but my scores are slightly lower overall due to the harsher curve (how to improve this??). I also rarely "miss" an entire passage and tend to miss questions here or there.

Every time I get a higher score in one section, I'll get a slight decrease in another. I'm ready to pull my hair out , lol

I caved in after hearing all the EK believers on SDN and got their books. Should I even use them this late in the game (my MCAT is April 18th)? If so, what sections are particularly helpful in their books?

Question to all those who have found MCAT success out there (I always find my trips to SDN to be extremely humbling!):

1. How do you best go over your practice exams? (both content/strategy-wise)
2. What would you recommend as a method to eliminate small mistakes/misreadings?
3. What's the best way to transfer success from TPR/Kaplan practice MCATs to AAMC practice MCATs?
4. What is the best predictor of the actual score?
5. What is the best way to become more consistent and minimize careless errors?

I plan on taking the rest of the practice tests I have available to me (around 7) before the test and don't want to waste them without progressing between each one! Thank you all so much ahead of time. You have a great deal of respect from me.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[premedrose]

Help! I've hit an MCAT preparation wall! I'm currently in the Kaplan course and have completed all the content review. I've taken approximately 7 practice tests and for the last 3-4 I've hovered in the 34-35 range and can't seem to get over the hill.

...some background info on the test results that I hope will help you, help me!

My PS has been the most consistent with 11s/12s mostly.
My VS has been the most inconsistent with 9-13, but mostly 11s/12s.
My BS was consistently my weakest but I've gotten it up to 12s.

I seem to do better percentage-wise on the AAMC tests, but my scores are slightly lower overall due to the harsher curve (how to improve this??). I also rarely "miss" an entire passage and tend to miss questions here or there.

Every time I get a higher score in one section, I'll get a slight decrease in another. I'm ready to pull my hair out , lol

I caved in after hearing all the EK believers on SDN and got their books. Should I even use them this late in the game (my MCAT is April 18th)? If so, what sections are particularly helpful in their books?

Question to all those who have found MCAT success out there (I always find my trips to SDN to be extremely humbling!):

1. How do you best go over your practice exams? (both content/strategy-wise)
2. What would you recommend as a method to eliminate small mistakes/misreadings?
3. What's the best way to transfer success from TPR/Kaplan practice MCATs to AAMC practice MCATs?
4. What is the best predictor of the actual score?
5. What is the best way to become more consistent and minimize careless errors?

I plan on taking the rest of the practice tests I have available to me (around 7) before the test and don't want to waste them without progressing between each one! Thank you all so much ahead of time. You have a great deal of respect from me.

I wish I hit that wall!
You can get in anywhere with that score (if your gpa is also good). I don't know what you are complaining about.

 

[ksmi117]

Help! I've hit an MCAT preparation wall! I'm currently in the Kaplan course and have completed all the content review. I've taken approximately 7 practice tests and for the last 3-4 I've hovered in the 34-35 range and can't seem to get over the hill.

...some background info on the test results that I hope will help you, help me!

My PS has been the most consistent with 11s/12s mostly.
My VS has been the most inconsistent with 9-13, but mostly 11s/12s.
My BS was consistently my weakest but I've gotten it up to 12s.

I seem to do better percentage-wise on the AAMC tests, but my scores are slightly lower overall due to the harsher curve (how to improve this??). I also rarely "miss" an entire passage and tend to miss questions here or there.

Every time I get a higher score in one section, I'll get a slight decrease in another. I'm ready to pull my hair out , lol

I caved in after hearing all the EK believers on SDN and got their books. Should I even use them this late in the game (my MCAT is April 18th)? If so, what sections are particularly helpful in their books?

Question to all those who have found MCAT success out there (I always find my trips to SDN to be extremely humbling!):

1. How do you best go over your practice exams? (both content/strategy-wise)
2. What would you recommend as a method to eliminate small mistakes/misreadings?
3. What's the best way to transfer success from TPR/Kaplan practice MCATs to AAMC practice MCATs?
4. What is the best predictor of the actual score?
5. What is the best way to become more consistent and minimize careless errors?

I plan on taking the rest of the practice tests I have available to me (around 7) before the test and don't want to waste them without progressing between each one! Thank you all so much ahead of time. You have a great deal of respect from me.

First of all, congrats on your practice scores so far. They are awesome!

I don't think using the EK books can hurt as long as you manage your time. Maybe a different description of some stuff will clear up some stuff you don't exactly understand.

1. Go back over ALLL the questions. You may have guessed a right answer that you really didn't know. If you got it wrong, figure out why, did you now understand the question? the passage? Did you just not know? Really analyze it, and attack that problem. Don't accept that you didn't understand for an answer. Make yourself understand the answer to all of the questions. If you can't fully understand it yourself, ask someone else... plenty of ppl here are quite helpful.

2. First, don't freak yourself out. It's just a test. Second, I know from experience that it's hard to treat the practices like a real MCAT. So my careless mistakes were much higher on the practices. I just didn't care enough. If you are the kind of person who can bring it on game day, don't worry about it too much, but if you still would make the same mistakes on the real test, just slow down, don't think about other things. Focus on the task at hand. Don't think about other sections. They don't matter at the moment. Other than that, make sure you give yourself enough time to go back over everything. Skim the passages (science sections) first, then read the questions and answer the ones you can. Then, look at the others. If you can't get anywhere on a question, make an educated guess , mark it, and move on. Go back to these later. You're brain will have subconsciously worked a little more on it. It's easier to get the right answer if you take a step back first.

3. Didn't take other practice tests...

4. Again, didn't take other practice tests, but my AAMC average was 5 points less than my real score. But from what I gather, that's not very common. Generally, they are about the same. Even closer if you drop your highest and lowest in each section and then average.

5. Same question as 2??

Best of luck

 

[premedrose]

Also, if that is your score in the Kaplan tests, then well expect more from the real MCAT test. Since I heard the Kaplan is much harder than the real MCAT.

 

[JokerMD]

I wish I hit that wall!
You can get in anywhere with that score (if your gpa is also good). I don't know what you are complaining about.

lol i completely agree with this.
OP: you're at a good place (I and like 99% of the premed world would be ecstatic with a balanced 34-35)

 

[ksmi117]

I wish I hit that wall!
You can get in anywhere with that score (if your gpa is also good).

While a 34 is good, the averages at some schools is as high 37. So I don't necessarily agree with your claim. That being said, I don't think anyone can get in anywhere. There are so many pieces to applying. Even with a person with a perfect GPA and great MCAT and great ECs/research/clinical experience would get rejected from somewhere.

And, OP, don't feel bad about being a bit disappointed with a 34. There's nothing wrong with wanting to do your best. I felt the same way when I scored a 36 on about 5 tests in a row. I knew that I could have done better. Every person is different, and if you know you can do better, then do it, to it!

 

[premedrose]

While a 34 is good, the averages at some schools is as high 37. So I don't necessarily agree with your claim. That being said, I don't think anyone can get in anywhere. There are so many pieces to applying. Even with a person with a perfect GPA and great MCAT and great ECs/research/clinical experience would get rejected from somewhere.

And, OP, don't feel bad about being a bit disappointed with a 34. There's nothing wrong with wanting to do your best. I felt the same way when I scored a 36 on about 5 tests in a row. I knew that I could have done better. Every person is different, and if you know you can do better, then do it, to it!

Well, only at Washington Univ is the MCAT 37. The rest starting from Johns Hopkins is 35 and below. And the OP has 34-35. If the OP is getting those scores in the mcat, and I don't think MCAT will be his problem in his application unless he is applying to Washington Univ- in which I think they can make an exception. Well anyway, the OP should not feel bad about a 34-35 NO ONE SHOULD. But he should try to improve upon it if he can since improving upon it cannot do anything but improve his chances for acceptance. But instead of trying to improve 34-35 (if this is solid) by one or two points (since improving upon this is not like improving upon a lower score and I don't think this one or two points would make a huge difference in application). I would not waste my time with that and instead get more E.C. or some other way to improve my application.

 

[BBender716]

While a 34 is good, the averages at some schools is as high 37. So I don't necessarily agree with your claim. That being said, I don't think anyone can get in anywhere. There are so many pieces to applying. Even with a person with a perfect GPA and great MCAT and great ECs/research/clinical experience would get rejected from somewhere.

And, OP, don't feel bad about being a bit disappointed with a 34. There's nothing wrong with wanting to do your best. I felt the same way when I scored a 36 on about 5 tests in a row. I knew that I could have done better. Every person is different, and if you know you can do better, then do it, to it!

I hear ya! It's the "anything I can do to possibly help my chances" mentality" Thank you for the quick responses! I'm definitely going to work on the focus and a more rigorous re-examination of the test questions.

Keep the suggestions coming and thanks a bunch!

 

[BBender716]

Well, only at Washington Univ is the MCAT 37. The rest starting from Johns Hopkins is 35 and below. And the OP has 34-35. If the OP is getting those scores in the mcat, and I don't think MCAT will be his problem in his application unless he is applying to Washington Univ- in which I think they can make an exception. Well anyway, the OP should not feel bad about a 34-35 NO ONE SHOULD. But he should try to improve upon it if he can since improving upon it cannot do anything but improve his chances for acceptance. But instead of trying to improve 34-35 (if this is solid) by one or two points (since improving upon this is not like improving upon a lower score and I don't think this one or two points would make a huge difference in application). I would not waste my time with that and instead get more E.C. or some other way to improve my application.

I definitely know what you're saying. My E.C.'s are pretty much set in stone the way they are (hard to get a leadership position in the waning months of my second semester senior year). I basically am holding the philosophy that right now in the application process, the one thing I have direct control over and is the least determined out of all factors for admission is my MCAT score.

After April 18th, totally different gameplan--- personal statement time! hahaha I'm relatively new to SDN and I'm realizing how much I love being on a place where people are as concerned as I am about med school admissions. Go SDN!

 

[ksmi117]

Well, only at Washington Univ is the MCAT 37. The rest starting from Johns Hopkins is 35 and below. And the OP has 34-35. If the OP is getting those scores in the mcat, and I don't think MCAT will be his problem in his application unless he is applying to Washington Univ- in which I think they can make an exception. Well anyway, the OP should not feel bad about a 34-35 NO ONE SHOULD. But he should try to improve upon it if he can since improving upon it cannot do anything but improve his chances for acceptance. But instead of trying to improve 34-35 (if this is solid) by one or two points (since improving upon this is not like improving upon a lower score and I don't think this one or two points would make a huge difference in application). I would not waste my time with that and instead get more E.C. or some other way to improve my application.

I'm not saying the OP should be upset. Of course, s/he shouldn't be. But you can't just drop the studying with 3 weeks until the test to do EC's. Besides the last few weeks was when I saw the most improvement. Taking advantage of that time is crucial.

And the 2009-2010 MSAR had JHU, Stanford, Northwestern, Harvard, UMich, and Duke with averages of 37. WashU was 38.

 

[premedrose]

I'm not saying the OP should be upset. Of course, s/he shouldn't be. But you can't just drop the studying with 3 weeks until the test to do EC's. Besides the last few weeks was when I saw the most improvement. Taking advantage of that time is crucial.

And the 2009-2010 MSAR had JHU, Stanford, Northwestern, Harvard, UMich, and Duke with averages of 37. WashU was 38.

Keep in mind that I said if the 34-35 was solid. However, I did not know that the MSAR had those averages for MCAT; I was looking at the "medical school selector" that is posted in this form.

 

[0Complications]

I'm not saying the OP should be upset. Of course, s/he shouldn't be. But you can't just drop the studying with 3 weeks until the test to do EC's. Besides the last few weeks was when I saw the most improvement. Taking advantage of that time is crucial.

And the 2009-2010 MSAR had JHU, Stanford, Northwestern, Harvard, UMich, and Duke with averages of 37. WashU was 38.

Those are median scores, not averages. Also, you can't assume that the score for each section adds up to one complete individuals MCAT score. I'm sure it does in some cases, but probably not for most.

My guess would be that their averages would be closer to 35ish, maybe lower. On the other hand, Washington University in St. Louis Probably does have an average closer to 37.

I do agree with your point though. No score is a lock at all medical schools, or even most for that matter. It's still a crapshoot.

 

[ksmi117]

Those are median scores, not averages. Also, you can't assume that the score for each section adds up to one complete individuals MCAT score. I'm sure it does in some cases, but probably not for most.

My guess would be that their averages would be closer to 35ish, maybe lower. On the other hand, Washington University in St. Louis Probably does have an average closer to 37.

I do agree with your point though. No score is a lock at all medical schools, or even most for that matter. It's still a crapshoot.

Oops... you're right.