just registered for the jan 29 test, any advice?

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EricMont

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I am halfway through my content review.
Using all EK with a little PR and Kap practice materials as well.
Any general advice? When should I start doing AAMC practice tests?

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You´ve got about three months before your real MCAT, so my advice to you is get a little further in your content review before you break out the AAMC tests.

In my experience the AAMC tests serve two purposes, one is to give you an idea of what you are scoring (the real MCAT correlates fairly well with your AAMC test average, therefore it won´t help you much to take the practice tests before you´ve done close to a full review) as well as helping to give you an idea of your weak areas. It is also important to note that taking the AAMC tests a second time (that is the same test twice) is not a good indication of your abilities, no matter how much you think you have forgotten, so you don´t want to "waste" your practice tests pre-emptively before they will really reflect your performance.

Said another way, if you haven´t reviewed genetics, and you miss a lot of genetics problems on a practice test, does that really mean you don´t understand the material or that you just haven´t gotten to reviewing it yet?

With that said I would maybe begin taking them around the end of November, and be sure to do a careful review of the results of each test, coupling that with extra content review in areas that the practice tests show to be weak points.

Also as general advice, it is IMPERATIVE that you take the practice tests timed and simulating the actual test conditions as much as possible (i.e. don´t take excessive breaks, pause the test, etc.)

Hope that helps, and good luck!
 
Agreed with the above. AAMC tests should be used last to give you the best idea of where you're at and to simulate the testing experience.

If you're interested, check out my post in the stickied 30+ scores thread (here: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showpost.php?p=9752835&postcount=711). I used all EK as well, so you might find some of that info helpful. Good luck!
 
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