Just got MCAT scores back

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bingy95

BINGSM1
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So I began taking Kaplan Course in Feb 2015. Went to live classes etc. Took practice full lengths.etc. Then over summer 2015 I was doing two internships. One clinical and one nonclinical AND I was taking physics 2. My final was on August 8th. My MCAT was on September 12th. So basically I went into it with very little content review and five weeks of doing Kaplan Full Lengths. Needless to say my score is a little below 500 and I am back to square 1.
Right now I regret relying on Kaplan and I really need some ideas on what to do to best prepare for the January MCAT from anyone who has maybe been in a similar situation.

Thanks

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Gonna need your score and AAMC FL in order to offer feedback. First thing I would do is call Kaplan and enact any guarantee/protection they have for low scorers that way you still have access to their resources while you prep.
 
I think it's foolish to think you'll be going from a <500 to 510 in two months. That's magical thinking. You need to give yourself more time to prepare and do intense content review.
 
My two biggest pieces of advice:

- Make SURE you set aside enough time for a retake. This doesn't just mean time in months or weeks, but time within your day-to-day schedule as well. It sounds like you were really busy during the summer leading up to your MCAT, and this can be extremely exhausting. While you can certainly "have a life" while studying for the MCAT, it's best to treat it almost on the scale of a full-time job. This is especially true for a retake, when people tend to think they need less time because they've recently been doing so much prep. Remember, most people retaking the test score within 1-3 points of their original score - make sure this won't be you :)

- Spread out full-length practice tests (whichever ones you choose). You mentioned that you didn't get a chance for much content review, so this is especially important. Take no more than one FL every 6-7 days (at the most!) and spend days in between deeply analyzing both the questions you miss and those you got correct. For absolutely any missed questions that do not immediately make sense, go back to the related topic in a prep book and look over it thoroughly - then go back to the question.

Good luck!
 
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Thanks everyone for the advice. I may rethink the January test date after all. Have to stop wallowing in self-pity and get back to studying. Definitely not using Kaplan FLs again.
 
It may not have been the Kaplan FLs that were the problem. Sound like you just had too much going on during your study period and couldn't build up a good foundation of content review. Make sure you don't make the same mistake again and I bet you'll do better.
 
Content review is overrated. There are so many posts from people who reviewed material and felt like they knew everything cold, and then they bombed. Doing questions, and then throughly analyzing what you did right and wrong after the fact is what matters. More than anything else, you need to learn how to apply the concepts in context, and that can only be done using realistic questions accompanied by detailed and helpful explanations. Some people are natural test takers, but for the rest of us, it comes from constant effort.

I am 100% convinced that my great score was because of how I learned to think about questions from the explanations in my MCAT books. Had I used different books, there is no way I would have done as well. I can't thank SN2ed enough for his (or her) list. That is where you need to start.
 
Both are necessary. I did content review almost exclusively, and took 2 or 3 AAMC full-lengths (though never in one sitting). I did well.

It depends on where your weaknesses lie. I'm a good test taker, so the content review was really all I needed.
 
If you are a good test taker, then content is perhaps a better focus. But even then, I still think you can review your content as you go over answers to questions. For me, I found that most of my issues were trying to figure out what the question was asking and very rarely was it a case of material I had not at some point learned. Thing came back to me in context, so I never worried much about content. I needed more work on multiple choice logic and time saving shortcuts.

The success of literally thousands and thousands of people who used (and are using) the SN2ed plan attest to the fact that we are both semi-right. That plan calls for review (if you need details choose TBR if you are good choose EK) and passages (questions from TBR and TPR), so it is advocating both content review and practice/analysis of questions. For me personally, I got the most from TBR explanations of questions, so I am a huge proponent of learning from their explanations. Their tricks really are something amazing.
 
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