Low "Diagnostic" score.... NEED HELP badly!

[lmnguye4]

Advertisement - Members don't see this ad

Okay, here it goes.... I went to one of the Kaplan FREE events to take their MCAT practice for free.
I got my score back -- it was an 8 cumulative... 2V-4BS-2PS. 🙁

That makes me feel really discouraged and worried.
My question is.... Has anyone had a really low first practice MCAT score before but had a high MCAT score? Does that score tell me anything about how low my Max score potential might be? 😕

I didn't take physics 1 & 2 and organic chemistry 2 before taking that free test. And about my verbal score... I can't explain that, I was born in the U.S. And my BS score shouldn't be that low....

 

[SBR249]

Not taking physics and Ochem2 would really screw you up for the MCAT considering how MCAT PS is roughly 50% physics and the OChem on the MCAT is somewhat heavy (IMO) on the stuff from second semester.

I'd say a low score on the diagnostic is normal for a few reasons:
1) You haven't reviewed any materials
2) Kaplan's goal is to get you to buy the course, so they have an incentive to make the test hard so that you'll panic and buy their courses
3) You are unfamiliar with the format of the exam and you haven't built up the stamina
4) You are unused to the testing environment

Those reasons are compounded by the fact that you haven't taken the recommended courses in the first place.

So I would suggest you not panicking and take the courses before doing the MCAT.

 

[sdguy2008]

Okay, here it goes.... I went to one of the Kaplan FREE events to take their MCAT practice for free.
I got my score back -- it was an 8 cumulative... 2V-4BS-2PS. 🙁

That makes me feel really discouraged and worried.
My question is.... Has anyone had a really low first practice MCAT score before but had a high MCAT score? Does that score tell me anything about how low my Max score potential might be? 😕

I didn't take physics 1 & 2 and organic chemistry 2 before taking that free test. And about my verbal score... I can't explain that, I was born in the U.S. And my BS score shouldn't be that low....

i am definitely no mcat expert, but i can probably comment for you since im taking it next week.

you will be ok. you haven't taken many courses that are foundations for mcat material. take the diagnostic score with a grain of salt, study the content well when you're ready, practice like crazy, and that score will go way up. you can do it.

 

[0Complications]

i am definitely no mcat expert, but i can probably comment for you since im taking it next week.

you will be ok. you haven't taken many courses that are foundations for mcat material. take the diagnostic score with a grain of salt, study the content well when you're ready, practice like crazy, and that score will go way up. you can do it.

👍 I would agree with this. Without the content coverage or an understanding of the exam format Kaplan's diagnostic is ridiculous. I am sure you would have done better on the AAMC exams, but don't take one now.

Now you know you have some work to do, so make your life easier by paying attention in your Physics and Organic courses (especially physics). Once you're getting ready to study for the exam, hit the review and cover all your bases. Then take another practice exam (maybe midway through your content review) to get an idea of how to focus the rest of your studying. Once you finish your content review you'll do a ton more practice, so you should be fine.

I took kaplan's diagnostic after taking all the prerequisite courses and scored ~15 points lower than I'm scoring now. It's all about practice.

 

[SN2ed]

Though that's unusually low, you may want to read the thread in my sig anyway.

 

[lmnguye4]

Thanks so much everyone! I feel wayyy better now. Time to hit the reviews... 😉

 

[junkct]

I'm sure you'll improve A LOT when studying... an 8 on your first test is actually pretty cool because when you get that 36, you can be like a beacon of encouragement for people... "I went from an 8 to a 36. you can too!"